Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Is It Time To Retire 'The Match'?; Female Veterans Struggle To Receive Care
Stat: Make Residency More Equitable By Scrapping The Match
At the stroke of noon on Friday, March 19, more than 30,000 doctors-to-be across the country and around the world will learn their professional fates in residency programs for the next three to seven years. At that moment, graduating medical students receive their results in The Match, officially known as the National Resident Matching Program, which uses a much-feted computer algorithm to pair medical students with the next part of their training — residency programs in hospitals and health systems. (Clifford M. Marks, 3/18)
Dallas Morning News: Lack Of Data On Female Veterans Makes Seeking Care Challenging
Even before the pandemic, female veterans — the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population — were two times more likely to die by suicide than their civilian counterparts, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Throw the pandemic into the mix, and the challenges facing those veterans become even more worrying. Women overall are projected to face worse mental health outcomes from COVID-19 than physical. We know that women are dropping out of the workforce at alarming rates and single mothers in particular are at risk from isolation. Women have already reported facing harassment and discomfort when they try to tap into veterans’ resources, making them less likely to ask for help. (Kacie Kelly, 3/18)
Houston Chronicle: Most Folks Over 50 Would Be Dead Without Vaccines
In the time of the Roman Empire, over 2,000 years ago, worldwide longevity for humans was about 35 years of age. That did not change until the 1850s. Since 1850, the increase in longevity of humans has been at a rate of about three years each decade. So what happened? Science entered medical practice. (Paul Klotman, 3/17)
