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Pleased Friday! Isa right here. As a Floridian, my faculty yr at all times began mid-August, so my inside clock is primed to think about this time as summer time’s finish. It’s an agony I plan to deal with with mango ice cream till the pumpkin spice folks break down my entrance door.
Harris’ ‘new means ahead’ in well being care-laden speech
Vice President Harris took the stage for the ultimate night time of the Democratic Nationwide Conference on Thursday to just accept the occasion’s nomination and rally voters to a “widespread sense” presidency that will defend well being care freedoms.
“We aren’t going again to when Donald Trump tried to chop Social Safety and Medicare. We aren’t going again to when he tried to eliminate the Reasonably priced Care Act, when insurance coverage corporations might deny folks with pre-existing circumstances,” Harris mentioned to cheers from the group. (Trump has mentioned he wouldn’t lower Social Safety and Medicare and wouldn’t search to repeal the ACA “except we are able to do one thing a lot better.”)
However like the opposite nights of the four-day DNC occasion, Harris principally charged voters up about abortion rights and the Mission 2025 blueprint he’s sought to disavow, warning Trump would appoint a nationwide abortion coordinator. “Let’s be clear about how we received right here,” Harris mentioned. “Donald Trump hand picked members of the United States Supreme Court docket to remove reproductive freedom, and now he brags about it.” Learn extra on the well being care battles forward. —Sarah Owermohle
New Covid vaccines coming quickly
The Meals and Drug Administration authorised the newest Covid vaccines yesterday. The extensively anticipated choice comes as Covid surges in lots of components of the nation. The brand new pictures, from Pfizer and Moderna, goal the circulating Omicron variant pressure KP.2 (one of many “FLiRT” variants, and a descendant of the JN.1 pressure that dominated earlier this yr).
The up to date vaccines, Comirnaty and Spikevax, had been authorised for folks 12 and older. Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines for youths proceed to be obtainable underneath emergency use authorizations for kids six months outdated via age 11. Novavax continues to be awaiting an FDA choice on its Covid vaccine. Value noting right here that whereas the probabilities of creating lengthy Covid have gone down since 2020 — vaccination helped — there may be nonetheless a danger, together with to youngsters. Moderna and Pfizer mentioned their up to date vaccines could be obtainable in “coming days.”
One large quantity: $900 million
That’s how a lot a few large donors have given Columbia College since 2010. Yesterday, the college introduced its medical faculty had obtained a $400 million donation to fund a brand new institute for primary biomedical analysis to be named after alumni Roy and Diana Vagelos — on prime of what the pair had beforehand given. It’s the biggest single donation given to the college, STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling experiences.
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Science will help further analysis in areas akin to cell engineering and gene remedy. The institute may also be one more piece of Columbia that bears the Vagelos household title. A former Merck CEO, Roy Vagelos is the kid of Greek immigrants and earned his medical diploma from Columbia in 1954 — with scholarship help. “That is what impressed my profession, and I hope we are able to present these similar alternatives for others,” he mentioned. Learn extra.
Unproven fibromyalgia check will get pulled off market
Again in 2021, STAT’s Eric Boodman instructed us about EpicGenetics, an organization that was utilizing an aborted medical trial at Mass Normal to promote a blood check for fibromyalgia. The FM/a Take a look at might diagnose the famously difficult situation with 99% accuracy, the corporate claimed. (Specialists discovered this doubtful, particularly since there are not any confirmed exams for fibro).
Three years and a lawsuit later, EpicGenetics has agreed to cease advertising and promoting the FM/a Take a look at, together with one other one it mentioned might diagnose “immune deficiency illness.” Fibromyalgia is sort of actual. About 4 million U.S. adults have it. Immune deficiency illness, then again…not a lot, in line with the lawsuit filed by the Heart for Science within the Public Curiosity. EpicGenetics invented the situation to promote its 100Sure Take a look at, the go well with alleges. The corporate and its associates have denied all wrongdoing. However there’s a string of ventures which might be hooked up to EpicGenetics chief Bruce Gillis’ title and that make significantly daring claims. Learn extra right here.
Like clinicaltrials.gov, however for AI in well being care
Use of synthetic intelligence in hospitals is blowing up, however the way it’s monitored (if in any respect) is solely as much as particular person well being techniques. Enter a federal registry, possibly. Some researchers need a platform like clinicaltrials.gov however for AI instruments, STAT’s Casey Ross experiences. The Biden administration additionally proposed one thing comparable in a White Home AI blueprint final yr.
Should you’ve spent any time with my colleagues’ reporting on AI in well being care, you’ll be able to perceive the stakes right here. Suppliers try to automate time-consuming administrative duties, akin to documenting affected person visits and responding to emails. However the subsequent section of AI adoption is predicted to immediately impression remedy choices, an area the place biases might worsen disparities and easy errors might end in bodily and monetary hurt. With out sufficient oversight, such utilization of AI instruments, particularly by insurance coverage corporations trying to improve income, might result in additional restrictions in care and even affected person hurt. So, what wouldn’t it take to construct a registry and improve transparency? Casey tells us.
Simply left chow city
Who amongst us hasn’t ordered a giant bowl of pasta (with the intention of taking a doggy bag dwelling) after which stunned ourselves by slurping down each final noodle? For Sophia Hua, an assistant professor of well being coverage on the College of Pennsylvania, spaghetti overload in a Denny’s sales space led to a realization: Individuals are likely to eat and drink what’s set in entrance of them, even when it’s greater than they supposed. For some, selecting a bigger meal or drink choice is a solution to get extra bang for his or her buck (RIP, endless shrimp).
That overconsumption is a public well being situation, Hua writes in a brand new First Opinion essay. And it may be labored on, possibly even to the advantage of the restaurant trade. “Whereas extra weight acquire is an advanced drawback with myriad causes, decreasing portion sizes is one hurt discount software we’ve got to deal with the issue,” Hua writes.
Pear is again on the menu
Keep in mind Pear Therapeutics? The corporate was a pioneer of FDA-cleared prescription apps for treating psychiatric circumstances, together with substance use dysfunction. However Pear ran out of cash and filed for chapter final yr.
Now, the corporate’s apps are getting one other probability, STAT’s Mario Aguilar experiences. Digital dependancy remedy firm PursueCare purchased Pear’s apps for substance use remedy and is now providing them to its sufferers. Taking a step again, tech-forward approaches like this might be a part of the answer to the nation’s opioid epidemic, Mario says: “There’s a sense that instruments like apps will be supportive of individuals in care.” And tying them extra on to a supplier for remedy may go higher than when the merchandise had been marketed on their very own. It takes a number of the stress off of corporations to make remedy apps into standalone money-makers. Learn extra.
What we’re studying
- Individuals with HIV can’t be categorically barred from becoming a member of navy, decide guidelines, NBC News
- U.Okay. cost-effectiveness company offers unfavorable evaluation of Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, STAT
- 9 hours of coaching, 24-hour shifts: Why Wisconsin struggles to search out and maintain assisted dwelling employees, Journal Sentinel
- Tome Biosciences, as soon as a high-flying gene-editing startup, is floundering, STAT
- Almost 60% of child meals within the U.S. don’t meet dietary tips, examine says, NPR
- Why it’s possible you’ll not want a checkup yearly, STAT
