Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
AI Finds Possible New Antibiotic To Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria
CIDRAP: Artificial Intelligence Discovers New Antibiotic Candidate
A team of researchers from McMaster University in Toronto and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have discovered, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), a new antibiotic with the potential to fight a multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogen. (Dall, 5/26)
USA Today: Scientists Use AI To Discover Antibiotic To Fight Deadly Hospital Bug
Scientists have used artificial intelligence to identify a new antibiotic that might be useful to fight a deadly drug-resistant bacteria commonly found in hospitals and medical offices. Researchers report they used an AI algorithm to predict molecules that would neutralize the drug-resistant bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii. Researchers discovered a potential antibiotic, named abaucin, "can effectively suppress" the growth of the stubborn bacteria on the skin of mice, according to a study this week in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. (Alltucker, 5/27)
In other research, innovation news —
Stat: Musk's Neuralink Can Now Study Its Brain Implant In Humans
Neuralink can now study its brain implant in humans after securing a go-ahead from the Food and Drug Administration. It’s a critical turning point for the Elon Musk-led company — but the startup, however closely watched, is playing catch-up compared to its peers in the neurotechnology field. “In terms of first in human, Neuralink is almost two decades behind,” said JoJo Platt, a neurotech strategist. (Lawrence, 5/26)
NPR: Sperm Or Egg From Any Cell? It's Called IVG And It Holds Huge Promise And Peril
It's a Wednesday morning at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in downtown Washington, D.C., and Dr. Eli Adashi is opening an unprecedented gathering: It's titled "In-Vitro Derived Human Gametes as a Reproductive Technology." It's the academy's first workshop to explore in-vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, which involves custom-making human eggs and sperm in the laboratory from any cell in a person's body. (Stein, 5/27)
The Washington Post: More Exercise Appeared To Lower Women's Parkinson's Risk, Study Says
Getting regular exercise may reduce a woman’s chances of developing Parkinson’s disease by as much as 25 percent, according to research published in the journal Neurology. It involved 95,354 women, who were an average of age 49 and did not have Parkinson’s when the study began. The researchers compared the women’s physical exercise levels over nearly three decades, including such activities as walking, cycling, gardening, stair climbing, house cleaning and sports participation. (Searing, 5/28)
The New York Times: Ketamine Shows Promise For Hard-To-Treat Depression In New Study
A new study suggests that, for some patients, the anesthetic ketamine is a promising alternative to electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, currently one of the quickest and most effective therapies for patients with difficult-to-treat depression. The study is the largest head-to-head comparison of the two treatments. (Caron, 5/26)
Axios: Coming To A Hospital Near You: 5G
Artificial intelligence may be grabbing headlines, but another technology revolution is finally starting to take place within the walls of hospitals: the switch to 5G. While most consumers still think about cellphone speeds when it comes to fifth-generation wireless networks, they could be game changers in enabling "smart" hospitals, along with intelligent grids and transportation systems. (Reed, 5/30)
On research into heart health —
Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Medicine Doctors Are Testing Whether This New Technology Can Diagnose Heart Failure Faster
Anthony Scalies was in cardiac arrest. He’d been admitted to Chester County Hospital 10 days earlier with COVID, and his health had rapidly declined. Cardiac arrest is common among patients when they become critically ill with COVID, but it was unclear to doctors what underlying problem had caused the Collegeville resident’s heart to suddenly stop beating that day in April 2021. (Akman, 5/30)
The New York Times: To Prevent Heart Attacks, Doctors Try A New Genetic Test
Cardiologists hope to use such tests, which cost about $150 and are not typically covered by health insurance, to identify people most likely to have heart attacks long before they have them. Some doctors envision testing children as part of routine pediatric care. “There’s a real unmet need to identify high-risk people very early in life,” said Dr. Nicholas Marston, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has studied polygenic risk scores and has also been involved in trials for pharmaceutical companies that make cholesterol medicines. “We know the solution to preventing heart disease is getting your bad cholesterol as low as possible for as long as possible.” (Kolata, 5/30)
Also —
The Washington Post: Military Members Half As Likely As Civilians To Receive HPV Vaccine
Active-duty military and veterans are twice as likely as civilians to develop cancers associated with human papillomavirus, or HPV. Now, research shows they are also half as likely to be vaccinated as those civilians — a disparity experts say will lead to preventable cancer deaths. To estimate HPV vaccination among veterans, researchers analyzed Veterans Health Administration data on more than 128,000 veterans ages 18 to 26 who had at least one primary care visit between 2018 and 2020, then compared it with federal data on civilians. (Blakemore, 5/28)
CIDRAP: COVID-Related Cancer Screening Delays Will Lead To Later Diagnoses, Experts Note
Delayed diagnoses of lung, breast, and colorectal cancers will likely be on the rise as a direct consequence of missed cancer screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic, write researchers in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Researchers at Boston University created a predictive statistical model to quantify missed diagnoses of lung, breast, and colorectal cancers by comparing observed cancer rates in 2020 with pre-pandemic cancer rates in the previous decade (2010-2019). (Soucheray, 5/26)
CIDRAP: Bivalent COVID Vaccine Efficacy At 6 Months: 24% Against Hospitalization, Strong Against Death
Estimated bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 mRNA vaccine effectiveness (VE) against hospitalization dropped from 62% 1 week after receipt to 24% at 4 to 6 months in adults with healthy immune systems, but protection against severe outcomes was sustained, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. (Van Beusekom, 5/26)
