Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Could Drones Revolutionize The Way We Deliver Organs? Some Turn Hopeful Eyes To The Sky To Fix 'Broken' System
The New York Times: Like ‘Uber For Organs’: Drone Delivers Kidney To Maryland Woman
A custom-made drone delivered a kidney this month to a Maryland woman who had waited eight years for a lifesaving transplant. While it was only a short test flight — less than three miles in total — the team that created the drone at the University of Maryland says it was a worldwide first and a crucial step in its quest to speed up the delicate and time-sensitive task of delivering donated organs. (Zraick, 4/30)
The Associated Press: It Seems Like Alzheimer's But Peek Into Brain Shows A Mimic
Some people told they have Alzheimer's may instead have a newly identified mimic of the disease — and scientists say even though neither is yet curable, it's critical to get better at telling different kinds of dementia apart. Too often, the word dementia is used interchangeably with Alzheimer's when there are multiple types of brain degeneration that can harm people's memory and thinking skills. (Neergaard, 4/30)
Stat: Experts Emphasize Multiple Gaps Facing The Health Care Workforce
The evidence is clear: Having a diverse health care workforce can have an impact on patient care. Research suggests that some patients treated by female physicians have lower mortality and hospital readmission rates and that black men who are treated by black doctors are more likely to receive more preventive services than their peers treated by doctors who aren’t black. But there are still big challenges to recruiting and retaining a diverse health care workforce, a panel of experts said Tuesday at the Atlantic Pulse Summit on Health Care. (Thielking, 4/30)
The Washington Post: Suicide Attempts Using Poison Have Surged Among Young People, Particularly Girls
More young people than ever are trying to kill themselves using poison. The rate of attempted suicide by poison has more than doubled among people under 19 in the past decade in the United States and more than tripled for girls and young women 10 to 24. The new numbers, published Wednesday in the Journal of Pediatrics, come amid an overall rise in suicides nationwide across age groups and gender. But the sudden and sharp rise in poison-related suicide attempts by children and teens has left researchers and health advocates searching for answers. (Wan, 5/1)
The New York Times: His Symptoms Pointed To M.S. Then He Had A Strange Personality Shift.
“I don’t know where I am,” said a terrified voice on the phone. It was the woman’s husband, and he was scared. “I’m lost,” he said in a panicked tone. It’s O.K., she told him, sounding as calm and reassuring as she could. Her husband, a former high school English teacher in his 60s, left his mother-in-law’s that morning to return to their home several hours away in Pinon Hills, just north of San Bernardino, Calif. It was a route he drove often enough to know well. (Sanders, 5/1)
Kaiser Health News: Diabetic Amputations A ‘Shameful Metric’ Of Inadequate Care
On his regular rounds at the University of Southern California’s Keck Hospital, Dr. David Armstrong lives a brutal injustice of American health care. Each week, dozens of patients with diabetes come to him with deep wounds, severe infections and poor circulation — debilitating complications of a disease that has spiraled out of control. He works to save their limbs, but sometimes Armstrong and his team must resort to amputation to save the patient, a painful and life-altering measure he knows is nearly always preventable. (Gorman, 5/1)
The New York Times: How Exercise Affects Our Memory
A single, moderate workout may immediately change how our brains function and how well we recognize common names and similar information, according to a promising new study of exercise, memory and aging. The study adds to growing evidence that exercise can have rapid effects on brain function and also that these effects could accumulate and lead to long-term improvements in how our brains operate and we remember. (Reynolds, 5/1)
