DDx

A 62-year-old falls and fractures her wrist. This simple fracture reveals underlying osteoporosis, requiring lifelong (and expensive) medication. But this is where biosimilars come in. Biosimilars are extremely similar to the original drug they're designed to imitate, but much cheaper. This makes them more accessible to more people, meaning fewer fractures … better health … a b

A 5-year-old child and his parents boarded a plane heading for a new life. They were Syrian refugees, who fled conflict in their country and then lived a difficult life in a refugee camp. Now they were heading to Canada. But soon after arriving, there’s a problem. The child has hemophilia and due to hemophilia complications, a minor injury while traveling became a major concern.

It was supposed to be a simple, low-risk procedure, but for this 61-year-old patient with undiagnosed hemophilia, undergoing a lithotripsy for kidney stones proved to be anything but. The patient was born in the 1950s in Taiwan, when many people in the country had never heard of the disease. So, despite signs throughout his life, the patient’s hemophilia diagnosis evaded him for

A young child living with severe hemophilia is adopted by a family in the United States. Prior to his adoption, due to a lack of resources and other challenges, his hemophilia was not properly managed. Dr. Meera Chitlur, a pediatric hematologist and the director of the Hemophilia Treatment Center at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, has treated this patient since he f

About 40 years ago a mother brought her 6-month-old child into the hospital. He was covered in bruises. Dr. Victor Blanchette, a pediatric hematologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, met the patient that day and, following a severe hemophilia diagnosis, has treated the patient ever since. Dr. Blanchette recounts how during the patient’s childhood in the 80s

A 30-year-old was in labor with her first child. Everything was going to plan … until it wasn’t. Dr. Azusa Nagao, a hematologist at Ogikubo Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, shares a case that illustrates how historically it was thought that women and people assigned female at birth could only be carriers of the disease, not have the disease themselves. This misunderstanding of hemophi

A patient was experiencing severe knee pain. Unfortunately, this wasn't anything new. For decades, he’d been suffering from joint disease, caused by severe bleeding in his knees from a rare blood disorder — hemophilia A. The patient was born in the 1960s, a time when the life expectancy for patients with hemophilia was only 10 years. But as Dr. Annette Von Drygalski, a board ce

Go inside the minds of doctors who specialize in hemophilia — a rare, inherited bleeding disorder that once meant possibly not surviving past the age of 20. This season, we’ll explore the medical milestones that enable patients today to live longer, richer lives and examine the challenges yet to be tackled.

What can you do when your attending physician is a bully? We talk with two nurses, Melissa and Laura, about their experiences being bullied by a physician. Connie spoke with Carolyn Smith, an associate professor and associate dean of research, and author of "Standing Up Against Workplace Bullying Behavior: Recommendations From Newly Licensed Nurses" for insight. All three weigh in

When is it okay to admit that you don’t know how to do something? Hear the story of Tamara Kuhn, a bedside telemetry nurse, who in a moment of crisis, used her problem-solving skills to keep her patient and herself safe. Connie spoke with Jill Clemmons, an acute care nurse practitioner, for insight. Jill discusses how taking care of yourself, preparation, and finding your why are