General internist, health services researcher, skeptic. Opinions subject to change with data.

Cleveland, OH
Joined August 2017
Honored to have my essay about my father featured in the 40th anniversary of A Piece of My Mind in JAMA. I wish he could have seen it. ja.ma/2yzNJ0D
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
Replying to @HamletGasoyan
@HamletGasoyan presenting at #IFSO2026 a target trial emulation study comparing weight-loss outcomes after starting #GLP1s. Patients who transitioned to bariatric surgery achieved substantially greater weight loss at 2 years. – at Toronto, Ontario
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
Thank you, @NBCNews @SimarSBajaj for covering our recent study. Stay tuned for data on comparative effectiveness of obesity treatments after initial therapy with semaglutide or tirzepatide from our group @CCLRI
According to a trio of recent studies that analyzed medical records of patients, following them for six months up to two years, about 45%-70% maintained their weight loss after their last documented GLP-1 prescription or refill. nbcnews.com/health/health-ne…
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
It was a pleasure to write this editorial accompanying a linked network meta-analysis published in @bmj_latest on the comparative benefits and harms of obesity medications. Free access link below. @MRothbergMD bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj…
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
In this @JAMA_current viewpoint, we discuss the key features of @CMSGov BALANCE model for obesity, its feasibility, and implications for patients and clinicians. @ObesitySociety @ObesityAction @WorldObesity @AmDiabetesAssn @MRothbergMD @CCLRI
💬 Viewpoint: Standardized coverage and incentives in the CMS BALANCE model may reduce prior authorization burden and financial barriers for novel #obesity medications, but broad program participation and persistence remain uncertain. ja.ma/4sf2sCJ
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
In a new study of 7938 patients who initiated semaglutide or tirzepatide for obesity or diabetes and discontinued the medication within 3–12 months, we examined what additional obesity treatment patients pursue and weight changes post-discontinuation. doi.org/10.1111/dom.70660
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Mission accomplished!
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
🚨Final Gaza fake “famine” analysis: IPC declared famine on Aug 22. Through ceasefire on Oct 10 there should have been 10,000 starvation deaths. But Hamas/UN counted 192 (most if not all with pre-existing conditions). That's 98% below famine levels. It was always a hoax. 1/
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Sometimes prayers are answered
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
כבר שנתיים, כל לילה אנחנו יוצאות מול הירח ואומרות ״לילה טוב אבא עמרי״, בתקווה שהוא ישמע, שהוא ירגיש. היום בפעם האחרונה. מחר רוני ועלמא יגידו את זה לאבא עצמו🎗️ קרדיט: אופיר ברמן
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These are the names: Hamas will release Elkana Buchbut, a 32 yo party producer and musician, married and father of a 4 yo boy. Israel will release Baher Badar, who in 2004 was responsible for a suicide terror attack which killed 11 Israelis. Hamas will release Bar Koperstein, a 23 yo security guard of the Nova festival, and the manager of his father's falafel restaurant. Israel will release Faras Ganam, who was responsible for at least 5 terror attacks, and at least 4 dead Israelis. Hamas will release Maxim Herkin, a 36 yo who got to Israel from Ukraine with his family, including his 4 yo daughter. Israel will release Jihad Rom, who kidanpped 17 yo Yuri Goshchin in Jerusalem to Ramallah, abused him, murdered him and abused his corpse. Hamas will release Segev Halfon, a 27 yo from Dimona who suffers from PTSD and worked in his family's bakery. Israel will release Maher al-Hashlamun, who stabbed 3 people, killing one of them - Dalia Lemkus, who was a survivor of another terror attack 8 years prior to her murder. Hamas will release Eitan Mor, a 25 yo who lived in Jerusalem and worked at a coffee shop. Israel will release Hussein Sharrif Jauadra, who was 16 yo when stabbing 19 yo Eden Atias to death on a bus. Hamas will release Alon Ahel, a 24 yo talented pianist and musician. Israel will release Nabil Abu Hadir, who murdered his own sister for suspecting she was an Israeli agent. Hamas will release Yosef Chaim Ohana, a 24 yo bartender, who helped others to escape from the party until he was kidnapped himself. Israel will release Eiad Abu-Al-Rub, the head of The Islamic Jihad in Jenin, who's personally responsible for terror attacks, among them a suicide terror attack in Hedera, where 6 were murdered. Hamas will release Avinatan Or, 32 yo from Tel Aviv who was kidnapped alongside his girlfriend @ArgamaniNoa . Avinatan worked at Nvidia. Israel will release Ibrahim alkam, who murdered two of the Tzur family - the mother and her son, and injured the rest - the father and four daughters. Hamas will release Rom Berslevsky, a 21 yo from Jerusalem, who worked as a security guard at the Nova festival. Israel will release Hamza Saleh Ahmad Al-Taqtuq, who in 2006 kidnapped and murdered with gun shots 17 yo Eliyahu Ashuri. Hamas will release Evyatar David, a 24 yo who worked at a coffee shop while studying music. Israel will release Hassin Mustafa Hassan Luh, who in 2002 murdered Israelis and tried to murder more Israelis, during the second intifada. Hamas will release Guy Gilboa Dallal, a 24 yo who just finished studying Computer Science and started working 2 months prior to being kidnapped. Israel will release Taleb M'hamara, who murdered a couple and their 9 yo son, and another 19 yo soldier, during the second intifada. Hamas will release two soldiers: Matan Engerst and Nimrod Cohen, who were taken hostages from their tank. Israel will release Tarrak Khaled Mhammed Tabsh and Raad Sheikh (Sheikh is a palestinian police officer) who in 2000 participated in the Ramallah Lynching. Hamas will release Matan Zengaucker, a 25 yo who worked in medical agritech. Israel will release Tayyun Abdul Hadi Khalil Tayyun, who in 2006, murdered Dr. Daniel Ya'akobi, who took his car to fix it at Tayyun's brother's Workshop. Hamas will release Ziv and Gal Berman, a 27 yo twins, both were working at Sound and Lighting Company. Israel will release Yasser Ebrahim Muhammed Khatab, who participated in the 2000 Ramallah Lynching and Yasser Ayub Abbed Al Fatah Azfur, who killed two palestinians after suspecting them to cooperate with Israel. Israel is fighting to release good and innocent people, and Hamas is fighting to release murderers and rapists. when someone tells you "Israel is also keeping hostages", remind them who those "hostages" really are. (Based on a post by Segev Israel)
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Tomorrow feels like a very long way away
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זמן שמחתינו
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Michael Rothberg retweeted
🚨 Treatment discontinuation is common in patients receiving semaglutide or tirzepatide for obesity. This is the first US study to quantify the specific reasons for discontinuation in clinical practice. doi.org/10.1002/oby.70058
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Why can’t investigative journalists do this? It doesn’t require them to be on the ground in Gaza. You just have to care about the truth.
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Just tried to treat a patient with #asthma. Can someone explain to me why generic Flovent costs $160? How can we have so many generic medications and none are affordable?
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Replying to @GlobalEnchilada
And Greta is a cheerleader for Palestinian nationalism that is almost entirely funded by Big Oil Qatar and Iran. They make her chug back and forth across the Mediterranean in diesel-guzzling boats.
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#Intifada isn't just a word. 2001: Izz al-Masri (Hamas) murdered 17 at Sbarro Pizza, including Hemda, 2 Avraham, 4 Tamara, 8 Not only did Ahlam Tamimi famously grin about the dead children, but An-Najah University (largest in 🇵🇸), staged a popular exhibition to celebrate it.
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I realize I never put my laptop on my lap. It would make more sense to call it a desktop, but I realize that name’s been taken by the machine sitting underneath my desk.
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I'm still stuck on the GOP Congress voluntarily surrendering trade and appropriating powers to the White House. This points to a significant flaw in our Madisonian system. Madison envisioned the 3 branches fighting for power, and designed a power-sharing system where each branch checks each other. Instead, the split is between parties, not branches. Both parties (esp. the GOP) are increasingly uniting across branches to transfer power to their "party leader" in the executive branch. But when the split is over party instead of branch, the checks and balances break down. The system is not set up to ensure the parties check each other (only the branches), and so one party winning a trifecta (plus the courts) essentially gives them nearly unlimited power to redesign the government with no real checks or balances - and with increasingly unchecked exective control. That is, until the next election, when a sweep could transfer all power to the other party. Some may embrace the democratic efficiency of this true "winner take all" system, but I cannot see these thermostatic full-power swings bringing much beyond instability and political total-war. Its time for Congress to show some self-respect and assert itself as more than just an impotent cheering (or booing) section for the president. You are the first branch of government. Act like it.
House Republicans just voted to strip their own authority to override Trump's tariffs. They voluntarily killed their own power. Between this and surrendering spending authority with DOGE, I have no idea what Congress does all day besides tweeting and angling for cable TV hits.
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