Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

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This is Josh Sharfstein.

Today, an example of why clinical research matters.

I speak to Dr. Robert O'Toole, professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. We discuss a

new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine about the best way to prevent blood clots

after serious fractures. An expensive shot you have to give yourself twice a day or a little pill you might

already have somewhere in your house. Let's listen. Dr. Robert O'Toole, thank you so much for joining

me in public health on call to talk about blood thinning medication for people who have had fractures.

How are you doing today? Great. Thank you so much for

having me on to talk about it. Now, most people probably don't think about blood thinning medications

for people who have had fractures, but it turns out to be a pretty important part of the care for

someone with a major fracture. You are an orthopedic surgeon. Why is it so important?

Yeah, that's a good point. So people, when they fracture their bones and getting other

injuries in car accidents and traumas, that event puts them an increased risk for getting a blood clot.

There's a couple of reasons for that. One is that just that general injury releases factors into your blood.

They can make you more or less likely to clot.

The other reason is when you break a bone and kind of twist your skeleton around

and your veins and arteries are in funny positions and that can damage them or make the

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