Viewpoints: Jails Don’t Provide Any Addiction Assistance; Emotional Abuse Is Also Domestic Violence

The New York Times: Arrest Isn't A Good Path To Addiction Treatment
After Cody Bohanan, 24, was locked up on a charge related to possession of drug paraphernalia in 2021, he told the staff at Butler County Jail in Ohio that he was withdrawing from opioids. His cellmates saw him vomiting blood. They implored guards to intervene. (Maia Szalavitz, 8/29)

Chicago Tribune: We Must Expand The Definition Of Violence To Include Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is underrecognized as abuse even though psychological violence — more than physical violence or sexual violence — is the strongest predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder in abused women and often precedes physical abuse. (So'Phelia Morrow, 8/28)

The Washington Post: How Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Global Health Care 
To fully appreciate the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in health care, one must think globally. When applied to people in extreme poverty, its impact could be as great as the discovery of penicillin. (Leana S. Wen, 8/29)

The Star Tribune: Where Your Broken Arm Gets A Cast Shouldn't Affect What You Pay
In my career as a physician, I've seen medical services and procedures, including many routine ones, shift from offices to hospital outpatient settings. This migration of services has also come with higher costs for patients. And at a time when Americans are struggling to make ends meet and even forgoing care because they simply can't afford to see a doctor, these extraneous and medically unnecessary additional fees are another barrier to care that puts people's health at risk. (Raina Young, 8/28)

Stat: Climate Change And Bad Public Housing: A Dangerous Combo 
Climate change is an existential problem for human health. As climate change intensifies, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cold fronts, and floods will increase. Undoubtedly, this will result in devastating effects for human health and wellbeing, contributing to increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, an already growing mental health crisis, and, most directly, heat-related mortality. (Arya Rao and Shira Hornstein, 8/29)

The CT Mirror: We Studied Telehealth In CT. Here's What We Found
Telehealth use expanded greatly with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Until now, however, little has been known about the results for patients who used telehealth during the pandemic as compared to those who received medical services without telehealth. A new study by FAIR Health sheds light on this issue in Connecticut, with particular attention to differences in treatment in areas with greater minority populations. (Robin Gelburd, 8/29)

Stat: Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, And When Senators Should Resign
Advance directives were born in the Senate. Now they can help preserve the dignity of its aging members. In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the parents of Nancy Cruzan, a young woman who had been left in a permanent vegetative state after a car accident, wanted the right to remove her life support. In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of her parents, affirming the constitutional right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. (Joseph J. Fins, 8/29)

Chicago Tribune: Letby Murder Case Carries Lessons For US Hospital Systems
The case of Lucy Letby, a serial killer masquerading as a nice neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital in Northern England, is so horrific as to beggar belief. On Aug. 18, the 33-year-old Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others between June 2015 and June 2016. Over the past few days, the British media has also reported on other mysterious infant deaths when Letby was present, suggesting that the total number of murders from a woman who has become known as the worst serial killer of children in British history was not fully accounted for in a country already wracked with anguish. (8/29)