Emily McDonald

Exactly

Dr Spellberg commented on X is spot on here
"Agree. The K-M curve is striking and makes me wonder sincerely, would fidaxo actually have been superior in its original RCT if the follow up had been longer. Are we spending all that money for a short term benefit that evaporates over time?"

Congrats to @drtoddlee.bsky.social & @dremilymcd.bsky.social on conducting this and getting it out there for us. Look forward to wading through the details soon!

Initial Vancomycin Taper for the Prevention of Recurrent C difficile Infection This randomized clinical trial tested whether a 4-week pulse and taper vancomycin regimen was superior to a 2-week pulse regimen for preventing recurrence among patients with a first episode or first ...

🔥Just published 🔥
TAPER-V RCT
In this RCT of 256, a 4-week vancomycin pulse and taper regimen *had a probability of 74% to be superior to a standard 2-week pulse regimen in patients a first episode or first recurrence of CDI
Vanco for 10d is obsolete! #IDSky #EMIMCC
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

💰 Researchers at The Institute have secured $15.4M through the CIHR Fall 2025 Project Grants Competition to lead 14 new projects advancing human health. @cusm-muhc.bsky.social @healthsciences.mcgill.ca @sante.quebec
🔗 rimuhc.ca/en/-/fall-20...

Screenshot of Emily McDonald, Virginie Lemiale, Josh Nosanchuk, Nav Narayanan, and Elie Azoulay discussing the Lemiale trial on steroids for PCP in non-HIV patients and how to interpret its results.

CMI Comms will do better teasing next #Communicable episode, but can't help but put this out there now (just listened):
V Lemiale & E Azoulay on their #steroids for #PCP RCT, then @dremilymcd.bsky.social on her Bayesian re-analysis of their data. Such a cool discussion. Hosted by Nav & Josh.
#IDSky

Infographic from JAMA. It presents a study about electronic health record interventions for deprescribing medications to older adults. Population: 799 women, 347 men, mean age 73.6 years. Findings: Precommitment intervention 36.8%, Boostering intervention 34.3%, Usual care 26.8%.

Among older adults receiving care in an academic health system, behavioral science–informed electronic health record interventions increased deprescribing or tapering of potentially inappropriate medications compared with usual care.

ja.ma/4a4IGCT

This was a fun episode to record! Hope everyone enjoys :)

Pretty cool that Robin Patel picks Ouli Xie's @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social paper on SDSE and S pyogenes as one of her top 3 clinical microbiology papers for 2025! As expected, Robin does a great job explaining the paper.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

@onisillos.bsky.social

The beating heart of a broken machine

📣 A peer reviewer used #AI to create a fake review with 6 self-citation prompts. But is s/he the only perpetrator in our system? In the year's first editorial, Angela Huttner explores the depths of the academic-industrial complex.

#IDSky #clinmicro #peerreview

https://ow.ly/juoW50Y05t6

Gotta love that graphical abstract lol

Contextualizing the use of corticosteroids in severe Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia through a Bayesian lens A recent multicenter randomized clinical trial (RCT) of steroids for severe Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) in patients without HIV failed to demonstrate a significant benefit in its primary ou...

📣 Are steroids likely to reduce mortality in non-HIV patients with severe PCP? @drtoddlee.bsky.social, @dremilymcd.bsky.social et al. reexamine the Lemiale RCT with a Bayesian lens to find out.

#IDSky #clinmicro #PCP #immunosky #medsky

www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295...

Get ready for the next International Conference on Deprescribing! #ICOD2026 in Montreal, Canada April 27-29, 2026!!

Register to the next Int'l Deprescribing Journal Club on Nov 27!

Hear practical lessons & analyses from the SPPiRE trial, a cluster RCT assessing the effectiveness of a deprescribing intervention in older patients with high levels of polypharmacy in Irish primary care.
👉 tinyurl.com/39seezfu

📢 Exciting news!

Selected articles from our Antimicrobial Viewpoints series will now be co-published in CMI Communications, @escmid.bsky.social's open-access journal.

This collaboration will expand the reach and amplify the impact of these articles within the antimicrobial R&D community.

Attend our upcoming webinar to learn how taking several meds can affect our health and wellbeing, and how you can reduce your risk of experiencing med-related harms by asking five simple questions.

🔗 Register and share this event with your network! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Welcome to our newest members!!

Submissions close next week, October 15th! Don’t miss your chance to showcase your work on an international stage at ICOD 2026.

Submit your abstracts here: events.decorporate.ca/ICOD2026/abs...

Conference info and submission guidelines available here: www.deprescribingnetwork.ca/icod2026

See you there!!

🎉 Registration is now open for ICOD 2026!

Secure your spot to this unique event, an opportunity to connect with the international deprescribing community, showcase your work and learn from leaders in the field.

Early bird available until Jan 31st 2026: events.myconferencesuite.com/ICOD2026/reg...

Screenshot of Communicable & Breakpoints hosts Erin McCreary & Angela Huttner with guests Rob Fowler and Nick Daneman.

The 2nd #Communicable & #Breakpoints collaboration drops on 19 Sept! Hosts @angelahuttner.bsky.social & @erinmccreary.bsky.social invite BALANCE trial leads Nick Daneman & Robert Fowler to discuss everything from the trial's humble start to its meteoric impact in clinical practice.
#IDSky #clinmicro

📣 Medical editors call for #action against the decisions being taken in the #USA undermining #medicine and #science, and international #coordination to preserve what has been built across borders.

#IDSky #Clinmicro #MedSky #Episky #publichealth #vaccines

www.cmi-comms.com/article/S295...

CMI Comms editors at their Rome meeting

CMI Comms editors at their Rome meeting

Annie Joseph and Emily McDonald at CMI Comms editors’ meeting

CMI Comms editors hard at work 😊

Very excited to be holding our editors’ meeting in Rome. Best editors ever.
@dremilymcd.bsky.social @erinmccreary.bsky.social @anniejoseph.bsky.social @marcbonten.bsky.social @gurujosh.bsky.social @josh-nosanchuk.bsky.social

Want to be an editorial fellow with us at CMI Comms? See below!

Communicable E32: Fluoroquinolones - to heal or harm? Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are valuable given their broad-spectrum activity...

🎙️ Just published a new #Communicable episode: Communicable E32: Fluoroquinolones - to heal ...

Hosted by Emily McDonald @dremilymcd.bsky.social‬
Thomas Tängdén

with invited guests:
Staffan Tevell (Karlstad, Sweden)
Bernadette Young (Oxford, UK)

Listen here:

#IDSky #Clinmicro #MedSky

📣 Next #Communicable drops Mon 28 July!
@dremilymcd.bsky.social & Thomas host Staffan Tevell (SWE) & Bernadette Young (UK) to debate #fluoroquinolones for periprosthetic joint infections #PJIs: to heal or harm? 🎙️

A follow-up on their review: www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295...

#IDSky #clinmicro

Development of machine learning prediction models for systemic inflammatory response following controlled exposure to a live attenuated influenza vaccine in healthy adults using multimodal wearable bi... Systemic inflammatory biomarkers coupled with physiological data from wearable biosensors provided rich and objective data from which to train machine learning algorithms to predict systemic inflammat...

Development of machine learning prediction models for systemic inflammatory response in adults using wearable biosensors in: a prospective controlled trial -

The Lancet Digital Health

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Addressing Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing for Older Primary Care Patients This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the association between interventions to reduce potentially inappropriate prescribing for older primary care patients and changes in the number of me...

Findings from a new SR&MA (N=118 studies):
Interventions to reduce potentially inappropriate prescriptions significantly reduce the number of medications without increasing risk of harm. Hospitalizations and mortality were slightly reduced, though not significantly.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Communicable E30: WHO's first-ever guideline on meningitis Meningitis remains a major global health threat, with an estimated 2.5...

🎙️ Just published a new #Communicable episode: Communicab...

Hosted by Emily McDonald @dremilymcd.bsky.social
Marc Bonten @marcbonten.bsky.social

with invited guests:
Lorenzo Pezzoli & Nicolò Binello (WHO)
Jacob Bodilsen (Aalborg University)

Listen here:

#IDSky #Clinmicro #MedSky

A CADeN-led pilot study has secured funding through the @rimuhc.bsky.social’s 2025 Sustaining Excellence Grants Program!‬‬‬‬

@dremilymcd.bsky.social & team look forward to rolling out the study to compare ed. brochures vs postcards as low-cost, direct-to-patient strategies to reduce sedative use!