Dr. Damon Tojjar - Insights Rigorously cited evidence-appraisal essays across medicine https://readingtheevidence.org/ 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z Dr. Damon Tojjar Carbon Monoxide Rebreathing: Diagnostic Tool or Doping Method? https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/carbon-monoxide-rebreathing-diagnostic-vs-doping/ 2026-02-11T00:00:00Z 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z How WADA's 2026 List handles method M1.4, barring carbon monoxide use outside diagnostics while permitting rebreathing that measures hemoglobin mass. The EU AI Act Digital Omnibus: Why the High-Risk Deadlines Moved https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/eu-ai-act-digital-omnibus-timeline-2026/ 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z The 2026 Digital Omnibus reset EU AI Act deadlines to December 2027 for Annex III systems and August 2028 for AI embedded in regulated products. Why How Your Blood Pressure Is Measured Changes the Diagnosis https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-blood-pressure-should-be-measured/ 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z Why office technique and home and ambulatory monitoring can decide a hypertension diagnosis, and why the 2025 guideline centers readings from home. How to Talk About Uncertainty With Patients https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-to-talk-about-uncertainty-with-patients/ 2025-04-15T00:00:00Z 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z Practical, honest ways to communicate medical uncertainty without undermining trust, for clinicians and the patients they serve. The Gut-Liver Axis Explained https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/the-gut-liver-axis-explained/ 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z 2026-07-10T00:00:00Z How the intestinal barrier, portal blood, and bile acids link the gut to liver disease, and how to weigh mechanism against evidence. When the Shortage Ends, So Does the Copy: The GLP-1 Compounding Wind-Down Explained https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/compounded-glp1-wind-down-shortage-lesson/ 2026-06-15T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z How FDA shortage status made compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide legal, then ended the copies on fixed 2025 deadlines. How Each Year's Flu Vaccine Strains Are Chosen and Why the Match Varies https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-flu-vaccine-strains-are-chosen/ 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z How the WHO chooses each year's flu vaccine strains months ahead, why antigenic drift causes mismatch, and how to read a low effectiveness season. How Much Evidence Proves a Drug Works? Two Trials, One Trial, or One Plus Confirmatory Evidence https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-much-evidence-proves-a-drug-works/ 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z How the FDA substantial-evidence standard works, from the two-trial default and FDAMA 115 to the 2026 one-trial-plus-confirmatory-evidence shift The Incretin System: How Gut Hormones Tell Your Body a Meal Has Arrived https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/incretin-biology-explained/ 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z How incretin hormones like GLP-1 signal after eating to shape insulin release, stomach emptying, and appetite, explained in plain language. What the LoDoCo2 Trial Says About Low-Dose Colchicine for Residual Cardiovascular Risk https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/lodoco2-colchicine-for-cardiovascular-risk/ 2025-06-21T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z A methodologist appraises LoDoCo2, the trial testing daily 0.5 mg colchicine for residual cardiovascular risk in chronic coronary disease. Confounding by Indication: Why the Reason for Treatment Distorts Drug Studies https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/understanding-confounding-by-indication/ 2026-03-29T00:00:00Z 2026-07-09T00:00:00Z Confounding by indication happens when the reason a treatment was given is tied to the outcome. How it fools studies, and how careful ones fix it. How a Biotech Idea Moves From the Lab to the Clinic https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-biotech-moves-from-lab-to-clinic/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z A physician-scientist walks the translational path from discovery to first-in-human, and the failure points that stop most ideas. HPV Self-Collection: How Its Accuracy Compares to Clinician Sampling https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/hpv-self-collection-how-the-evidence-compares/ 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z What the FDA clearance and ACS guideline update establish about the accuracy of self-collected HPV samples versus clinician sampling. Verification Bias: When the Reference Standard Depends on the Test https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/verification-bias-in-diagnostic-accuracy-studies/ 2026-02-12T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z When only some patients get the reference standard, or different ones do, diagnostic accuracy inflates. How verification bias distorts a test study. What Health Economics Actually Asks https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/what-health-economics-asks/ 2024-12-06T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z A clear introduction to health economics: how it weighs the cost and benefit of treatments, and why those questions are unavoidable. Who Counts as an Author? The ICMJE Criteria and the CRediT Taxonomy https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/who-counts-as-an-author-icmje-and-credit/ 2026-07-02T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z How the four ICMJE criteria decide who is listed as an author, and how the CRediT taxonomy records who actually did each part of a study. Why Debunking Often Fails: The Continued Influence Effect https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/why-debunking-often-fails-continued-influence/ 2025-11-22T00:00:00Z 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z How corrected misinformation keeps shaping health beliefs, and what the evidence shows actually works when you debunk a false claim. Why Daily Baby Moisturizer Did Not Prevent Eczema in Large Trials https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/emollients-eczema-prevention-negative-trials/ 2023-06-07T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z Two large randomized trials, BEEP and PreventADALL, found daily infant moisturizer did not prevent eczema and may raise skin infection risk. How Accountable Care Organizations Try to Pay for Health, Not Volume https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-accountable-care-organizations-work/ 2026-06-05T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z How ACOs use total-cost-of-care benchmarks, shared savings, and two-sided risk, and how CMMI's shift from ACO REACH to LEAD reshapes incentives. How Clinicians Reason: Dual-Process Thinking and Illness Scripts https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-clinicians-reason-dual-process-thinking-and-illness-scripts/ 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z Clinicians reason with fast pattern recognition and slow analysis. Illness scripts and dual process theory explain how, and where each one fails. How the USPSTF Built Its Adult Depression Screening Recommendation https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-uspstf-built-adult-depression-screening-recommendation/ 2026-01-05T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z How the USPSTF built its Grade B adult depression screening recommendation: the evidence chain and why follow-up systems are part of it. The Pharmacology of Coming Off an Antidepressant Slowly https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/hyperbolic-tapering-pharmacology/ 2025-12-09T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z How receptor occupancy math explains unequal effects from equal antidepressant dose cuts, and the limits of current tapering evidence. Reading a Network Meta-Analysis and the Transitivity Assumption https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/reading-a-network-meta-analysis-and-transitivity/ 2026-06-11T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z How a network meta-analysis combines direct and indirect evidence, why the transitivity assumption matters, and how to read treatment rankings. Relative Risk Versus Odds Ratio, and Why They Stop Agreeing When an Outcome Is Common https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/relative-risk-vs-odds-ratio/ 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z Relative risk compares chances; an odds ratio compares odds. They track closely for rare outcomes and pull apart for common ones. What Peer Review Can and Cannot Catch https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/what-peer-review-can-and-cannot-catch/ 2024-04-23T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z Peer review reliably catches clarity, logic, and missing analyses, but rarely catches fraud or whether a result will replicate. Here is the real line. What the Trials Actually Show About Intensive Behavioral Weight Loss Programs https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/what-the-evidence-says-about-behavioral-weight-loss-programs/ 2026-07-02T00:00:00Z 2026-07-07T00:00:00Z How the USPSTF grade B for behavioral weight loss rests on about 80 trials, a modest weight effect, and a real diabetes prevention signal. How to Read ARISTOTLE: Apixaban Versus Warfarin in Atrial Fibrillation https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/apixaban-vs-warfarin-aristotle-appraisal/ 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z An appraisal of the ARISTOTLE trial and how its plan to show apixaban was not worse than warfarin ended in a superiority result. How Celiac Disease Is Diagnosed Without Guesswork https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-celiac-disease-is-diagnosed/ 2026-03-09T00:00:00Z 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z Why tTG-IgA with a total IgA comes first, why testing needs gluten in the diet, and when guidelines allow a diagnosis without a biopsy. Metabolic Syndrome Explained: A Cluster, Not a Diagnosis https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/metabolic-syndrome-explained/ 2025-04-21T00:00:00Z 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z Metabolic syndrome names a cluster of risk factors that travel together. Here is what it describes and why it works as an early warning. The Evidence Behind Giving Less Blood, Not More https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/the-evidence-behind-restrictive-blood-transfusion/ 2026-02-12T00:00:00Z 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z How trials from TRICC to MINT built the case for restrictive hemoglobin thresholds, and how the 2023 AABB guideline synthesizes them. What Health Technology Assessment Actually Does https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/what-health-technology-assessment-does/ 2026-03-14T00:00:00Z 2026-07-06T00:00:00Z A neutral guide to how health technology assessment weighs effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and value before a system adopts a new technology. Bioequivalence for Narrow Therapeutic Index Drugs: How Tight Is Tight Enough https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/bioequivalence-for-narrow-therapeutic-index-drugs/ 2026-07-02T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z How reference-scaled average bioequivalence tightens limits for narrow therapeutic index drugs and widens them for highly variable ones. Circadian Rhythm and Metabolism: Why Your Body Handles Food Differently by Time of Day https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/circadian-rhythm-and-metabolism/ 2026-05-16T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z How the body clock shapes appetite, blood sugar, and how you handle food across the day, and why timing belongs in any honest picture of metabolism. Beyond the Statin: What IMPROVE-IT and FOURIER Prove About Lowering LDL Further https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/ezetimibe-and-pcsk9-add-on-evidence/ 2025-09-03T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z A cited look at whether adding ezetimibe or a PCSK9 inhibitor to a statin cuts cardiovascular events, and how large the benefit really is. How Severity Weighting Changes What a Health System Will Pay https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-severity-weighting-changes-hta-decisions/ 2026-05-06T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z How severity modifiers and QALY shortfall (absolute vs proportional) reset the effective price a health system pays for treatments Prescribing Cascades: When a Side Effect Is Treated as a New Disease https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/prescribing-cascades-side-effect-treated-as-new-disease/ 2026-03-21T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z A prescribing cascade begins when a drug side effect is mistaken for a new condition and a second drug is added. Here is how clinicians spot it. Research Peptides Sold Online: What the Regulation Actually Says https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/research-peptides-online-regulation-and-evidence/ 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z Why online research peptides are unapproved, why the 2026 Category 2 change is not FDA approval, and how 503A compounding review works. Time Is Brain: What the Stroke Treatment Evidence Actually Shows https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/time-is-brain-what-the-stroke-evidence-actually-shows/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z How tPA and thrombectomy time-window trials were designed, and how the 2026 AHA/ASA guideline weighs speed against benefit in stroke care What Makes Science Communication Trustworthy https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/what-makes-science-communication-trustworthy/ 2025-08-26T00:00:00Z 2026-07-05T00:00:00Z Trustworthy science communication shows its uncertainty, its sources, and its conflicts. Here is how to tell honest explanation from hype. Data Quality for Clinical AI: Why the Model Is Only as Good as Its Data https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/data-quality-for-clinical-ai/ 2025-12-07T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z A clinical AI is only as good as its data. What good clinical data looks like, and why quality problems stay hidden until deployment. GRADE Imprecision and the Optimal Information Size https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/grade-imprecision-and-the-optimal-information-size/ 2025-07-30T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z How GRADE rates down for imprecision using the confidence interval and the optimal information size, and why a significant result can still be imprecise. How a Clinical Trial Protocol Is Designed, Section by Section https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/how-a-clinical-trial-protocol-is-designed/ 2026-06-15T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z A trialist walks through what a clinical trial protocol contains, section by section, and why prespecification keeps the answer honest. The First Randomized Trial of AI in Mammography: Reading the MASAI Results https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/masai-first-randomized-trial-ai-mammography/ 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z How MASAI's non-inferiority design, interval-cancer endpoint, and workload data support and bound the claim that AI-assisted screening helps PCOS as a Cardiometabolic Condition: What the 2023 International Guideline Recommends Testing https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/pcos-and-cardiometabolic-risk-2023-guideline/ 2026-05-15T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z Why the 2023 PCOS guideline flags cardiometabolic risk but recommends OGTT, HbA1c and lipids over routine fasting insulin testing. The Dawn Phenomenon: Why Blood Sugar Rises Before Breakfast https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/the-dawn-phenomenon-explained/ 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z Your blood sugar can climb in the early morning before you eat because of a normal overnight hormone surge that prepares you to wake. Non-Hormonal Hot Flash Drugs: What the Trials Actually Showed https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/nonhormonal-hot-flash-drugs-trial-evidence/ 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 2026-07-03T00:00:00Z How the SKYLIGHT phase 3 trials and FDA approval of fezolinetant weigh a modest hot flash benefit against a strengthened liver warning. Orforglipron: What Does the Oral GLP-1 Evidence in ATTAIN-1 Actually Show? https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/orforglipron-oral-glp1-what-attain-1-evidence-shows/ 2026-06-10T00:00:00Z 2026-07-03T00:00:00Z A cited appraisal of the ATTAIN-1 phase 3 trial of oral orforglipron, reading its weight and cardiometabolic changes against injectable benchmarks. How Accurate Is Teledermatology Compared With an In-Person Visit https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/teledermatology-diagnostic-accuracy-evidence/ 2026-06-28T00:00:00Z 2026-07-03T00:00:00Z How closely store-and-forward and live teledermatology match an in-person exam, and what the concordance and kappa figures mean for triage. The 2025 Testosterone Label Change, Explained: A Boxed Warning Dropped, a New One Added https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/testosterone-label-change-2025-explained/ 2025-12-28T00:00:00Z 2026-07-03T00:00:00Z In February 2025 the FDA dropped testosterone's cardiovascular boxed warning and added a blood-pressure warning. Here is what the label now says. Treat to Target in Gout: How Strong Is the Evidence for a Urate Number? https://readingtheevidence.org/articles/treat-to-target-urate-lowering-what-the-evidence-supports/ 2026-03-23T00:00:00Z 2026-07-03T00:00:00Z A physician-scientist reads the ACR 2020 gout guideline: which urate-lowering recommendations are strong, which conditional, and why experts differ.