Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: High Cancer Costs Lead To Delayed Treatments In US; Why Is The UK Losing Its Doctors?
Stat: The Financial Toxicity Of Cancer Costs
In 2023, just under 2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer. Many will endure multiple CT and MRI studies and intensive medical care, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. Fortunately, advances in treatment and novel therapies have steadily improved survival following a cancer diagnosis. Cancer death rates have declined by 27% over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, many American cancer patients also face an unexpected adverse effect: financial toxicity. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 5/23)
Bloomberg: The UK Is A Terrible Place To Be A Doctor -- And Australia Is Taking Advantage
In some ways, the UK’s doctor shortage resembles the worldwide crunch in healthcare. From France and Germany to the US, Spain and the Nordics, aging populations are increasing demand for doctors, nurses and care workers. Yet medical training is expensive, the number of training placements for graduates is limited, and the pandemic has left many doctors spent. (Therese Raphael, 5/22)
Stat: How To Test The Safety Of AI Like GPT-4 For Medicine
“Thrashing.” That’s what old-school computer scientists called it when an operating system is running so many tasks at once that just switching among them basically crashes it. And that’s how I felt last fall when I tested GPT-4, the far more powerful successor to ChatGPT, on medical challenges for the first time. I was caught in a stuttering stasis between two competing, nearly overwhelming realizations. (Isaac S. Kohane, 5/23)
The New York Times: You Cannot Hear These 13 Women’s Stories And Believe The Anti-Abortion Narrative
It’s increasingly clear that it’s not safe to be pregnant in states with total abortion bans. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, there have been a barrage of gutting stories about women in prohibition states denied care for miscarriages or forced to continue nonviable pregnancies. (Michelle Goldberg, 5/22)
Chicago Tribune: Ending Masking Requirements In Hospitals Is A Step Backward
For the last three years, patients have received masked care. While hearing and speech impaired individuals definitely benefit from unmasked communication, the majority of patients have gotten better care because of those masks. (Emily Landon, 5/23)
The Boston Globe: Avoiding Medical Errors Must Become A Priority
Six-month-old Jackson Kekula was brought to Boston Children’s Hospital for what should have been a routine procedure. He died after a series of medical errors. The Globe reported last month that the hospital paid $15 million to his family to settle a lawsuit while agreeing to corrective actions. Jackson’s case was tragic and egregious, but medical errors at hospitals are unfortunately and inexcusably common. (5/23)
Chicago Tribune: Ventilators And The Learning Curve Of COVID-19 Treatment
An axiom in medicine is that good judgment depends on experience, and experience depends on bad judgment. Basically, one way doctors refine their care is through a learning curve resulting from inexperience and lack of judgment. (Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein, 5/23)
The CT Mirror: CT Should Mandate Insurance Coverage For Anesthesia For Reproductive Health Procedures
Uncomfortable or debilitating? A study done by Healthline found that 60 percent of people who have not given birth experience moderate to severe pain during IUD insertion and other contraceptive procedures, and yet insurance companies are able to refuse to cover anesthesia for these procedures. (Sosna Biniam, 5/23)
