Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
6-Year-Old Undergoes Hemispherotomy In Rare Brain Surgery
USA Today: Life-Changing Surgery: Doctor Disconnects Brain Of 6-Year-Old With Rare Disease
A 6-year-old girl with a rare neurological disease recently underwent a 10-hour surgery in California where half of her brain was disconnected in an effort to help cure her. ... The surgery was performed by Dr. Aaron Robison at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. Robison told ABC 7 that "just disconnecting it [the brain] is enough to stop the disease completely and essentially, potentially cure it." (Hauari, 10/10)
More health and wellness news —
Stat: Stroke Deaths Set To Near 10 Million Globally By 2050
The number of stroke deaths worldwide is set to climb 50% to nearly 10 million by 2050, with most cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new wide-ranging report from the World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission. (Chen, 10/9)
Fox News: Drinking An Extra Cup Of Coffee Per Day Could Help With Weight Management, Study Finds
Adding an extra cup of unsweetened coffee each day was associated with a reduced risk of gaining weight over a four-year period, according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Oct. 1. The benefit, however, was canceled if a person added a teaspoon of sugar to the hot beverage. Adding "cream or non-dairy coffee whitener" did not have an effect on weight, the published report said. (McGorry, 10/10)
Stat: How Clinical AI Models' Predictive Power Can Degrade Over Time
A growing number of AI tools are being used to predict everything from sepsis to strokes, with the hope of accelerating the delivery of life-saving care. But over time, new research suggests, these predictive models can become a victim of their own success — sending their performance into a nosedive and generating inaccurate, potentially harmful results. (Palmer, 10/10)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: What happens in a small town when the only practicing physicians are ready to retire. Plus, the Biden administration wants to stop medical debt from dragging down your credit score. (10/10)
Also —
Los Angeles Times: Mary Lou Retton Is Hospitalized With Pneumonia, Unable To Breathe On Her Own, Daughter Says
United States gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton has been hospitalized for more than a week after contracting “a very rare form of pneumonia,” her daughter said Tuesday. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, has launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for her mother’s medical expenses. In the description for the campaign, Kelley explains that her “amazing mom” is in the intensive care unit “fighting for her life” with no medical insurance. “We ask that if you could help in any way, that 1) you PRAY! and 2) if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill. ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y’all so very much!” (Carras, 10/10)
The New York Times: Florence Fisher, Advocate For Opening Adoption Records, Dies At 95
Florence Fisher, an adoptee who spent decades searching for her birth parents and then spent another half century fighting to open adoption records for millions of others, died on Oct. 1 in Brooklyn. She was 95. (Risen, 10/10)
The New York Times: Dorothy Hoffner, Chicago Woman Who Skydived At 104, Dies
Dorothy Hoffner, the centenarian who gained international adoration for skydiving at age 104 earlier this month, all while exhibiting an air of blasé disregard for the attention the feat brought her, died in her sleep overnight Sunday into Monday at her home in Chicago. (Medina, 10/10)
On bird flu —
USA Today: Bird Flu Detected In Poultry Flocks In South Dakota And Utah
The U.S. Department of Agriculture detected traces of highly pathogenic bird flu in commercial poultry flocks in South Dakota and Utah on Friday, raising concerns about possible future outbreaks across the country. So far, virus detections in 328 commercial flocks and 516 backyard flocks in the U.S. have affected 58.97 million birds nationwide. Backyard flocks are residences that keep 1,000 or fewer birds, whereas commercial flocks exceed that amount, according to the USDA. (Dausch and Arredondo, 10/11)
USA Today: CRISPR Gene Editing Used To Make Chickens Resistant To Bird Flu: Study
The chicken may be getting an upgrade. In a scientific first, U.K. researchers have used gene editing technology to create poultry that's partially resistant to bird flu infection, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications. It’s no bionic chicken. But study authors say growing disease-resistant chickens in the lab is an important first step to giving farmers a tool to combat bird flu, which wiped out tens of millions of chickens amid an H5N1 outbreak over the past two years. (Rodriguez, 10/10)
