Let's keep our fingers crossed that this class of drugs carries the same benefit as warfarin, with far fewer complications and far less monitoring.
Such a breakthrough would have instant impact. Early in my career I struggled with managing hyperlipidemia in my patients until statins appeared. Later, treating depression was a struggle until the SSRIs showed up.
This would be even bigger.
In his book “The Youngest Science,” Dr. Lewis Thomas wrote about promising opportunities in medicine that began developing more than 60 years ago. Those physicians now retired or long passed were astounded when antibiotics first became available and were put into practice.
Perhaps the next generation of practitioners will marvel that so many of us for so long anticoagulated our patients with “rat poison.”
Exciting times are still upon us.
ERIC G. TANGALOS, M.D., is a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He reports no relevant conflicts of interest.
Dr. Tangalos