Longer Looks: Medical Records; Blackout Drinking; And Fentanyl Test Strips
Undark:
Paper Trails: Living And Dying With Fragmented Medical Records
It was a cool April day in 2016 when Michael Champion’s wife, Leah, noticed that her husband’s forehead was drenched in sweat. She took his temperature and couldn’t believe the number: 102.4 degrees Fahrenheit. (Ilana Yurkiewicz , 9/24)
The New Yorker:
The Comforting Fictions Of Dementia Care
he large central room of the memory-care unit was designed to look like an old-fashioned American town square. There was a small fountain, surrounded by plants and a low stone wall; there were a couple of lampposts, and benches, tables, and chairs set about. (Larissa MacFarquhar, 10/1)
Vox:
Blackout Drinking, Explained For Brett Kavanaugh
Though not ordinarily a theme in a Supreme Court nominee hearing, the question of what kind of drinker Kavanaugh was — and what he may have done under the influence of alcohol — emerged as one important, and disturbing, focus. (Julia Belluz, 10/3)
The Atlantic:
Study Shows Fentanyl Test Strips Keep Addicts Safe
Fentanyl, which is 50 times as potent as heroin, laces many batches of heroin and cocaine, and it is now involved in at least half of all opioid overdose deaths. More than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses last year—the equivalent of about three 747 plane crashes each week.However, there’s evidence that a two-inch fentanyl test strip can help drug users avoid overdosing. (Olga Khazan, 10/3)
The Outline:
If Men Had To Get IUDs, They’d Get Epidurals And A Hospital Stay
You hear that IUDs hurt, though accounts vary in a way that is extreme and will lead you, falsely, to hope for the best. Some people tell you you can go right back to work after. Some say you feel essentially nothing, maybe a pinch. (Casey Johnston, 10/2)
The New York Times:
Apple Used To Know Exactly What People Wanted — Then It Made A Watch
Apple opened a routine product-launch event last month with a gag. An establishing aerial shot of Apple’s new circular headquarters set up a “Mission: Impossible”-inspired video sketch: The keynote speech is about to start, and it’s an emergency. A young woman is summoned into action, clutching a metallic briefcase while running, jumping, tripping and sliding her way out of the sparsely inhabited mile-round structure where she works. This rush across Apple’s depopulated futurescape is interrupted by an Apple Watch notifying our hero that she had completed her activity goal for the day; she runs into a colleague who uses his to teleport. The real punch line arrives when she delivers her package to Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook — and it’s not a new product, but the remote control he needs for his presentation. (John Herrman, 10/3)
