Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: New Bill May Finally Help Veterans Exposed To Burn Pits; Abortion Bills Criminalize Parents
The Washington Post: Veterans Exposed To Hazardous Burn Pits May Finally Get The Help They Deserve
When they left their homes to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, they were perfectly healthy young people. Now, they are struggling with debilitating and sometimes life-threatening lung diseases. That’s the reality for thousands of U.S. servicemen and women who were exposed to hazardous pollutants from burn pits the military used to dispose of its waste in the post-9/11 wars. As is often the case with veterans’ issues, their plight has long been dismissed or ignored. (3/16)
The Washington Post: Proposed Abortion Measures In Missouri Would Turn A Parent Like Me Into A Criminal
Imagine being legally forbidden to save your child’s life. That could be the upshot of recent measures in Missouri and Idaho that aim to restrict abortion access and criminalize medical care for transgender kids. State attempts to control the bodies of certain segments of their population are now common, but these measures would add a sinister twist: extending that control beyond state borders. (Kate Cohen, 3/16)
Bloomberg: Congress Needs To Fix The FDA’s ‘Accelerated’ Drug-Approval Process
Congress is targeting a strategy that drug companies have increasingly used to speed up the approval of their medicines. Legislation in the House of Representatives would put more guardrails on the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called accelerated approval pathway. The bill, from Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, offers needed fixes for a system that can allow questionably effective — and often breathtakingly expensive — drugs to linger on the market for years. (Lisa Jarvis, 3/16)
Scientific American: Gun Violence Is An Epidemic; Health Systems Must Step Up
The rate of gun violence continues to rise across America. There was nearly a 30 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020, making it the largest one-year increase in six decades. The number of gun deaths in 2021 climbed even higher and is approaching the previous peaks in gun death rates in the early 1970s and early 1990s. Although the severe disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly played a role, we may not fully understand for years what has caused this increase. In the meantime, health systems must play a larger role in preventing gun violence. (Michael Dowling and Chethan Sathya, 3/16)
Stat: Health-Related AI Needs Rigorous Evaluation And Guardrails
Algorithms can augment human decision-making by integrating and analyzing more data, and more kinds of data, than a human can comprehend. But to realize the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for patients, researchers must foster greater confidence in the accuracy, fairness, and usefulness of clinical AI algorithms. Getting there will require guardrails — along with a commitment from AI developers to use them — that ensure consistency and adherence to the highest standards when creating and using clinical AI tools. Such guardrails would not only improve the quality of clinical AI but would also instill confidence among patients and clinicians that all tools deployed are reliable and trustworthy. (John D. Halamka, Suchi Saria and Nigam H. Shah, 3/17)
Columbus Dispatch: People With Disabilities Need Access To Community, Quality Health Care
After reading the Feb. 6 article, “The pandemic has not been good to me. People with disabilities feel forgotten,” I wanted to reach out and let Cara Pritchett know that she has not been forgotten. Nor have the other 2 million Ohioans with disabilities, their families, educators, healthcare providers, and countless others who support her. I see you. We see all of you. (Shawn Henry, 3/16)
The Tennessean: Organ Donation: How Funeral Directors Have Helped Grieving Families
I have learned many things over a lifetime of helping grieving people mourn and heal. One of them is that the families of organ and tissue donors are forever comforted by their loved ones’ heroic contributions. They should be. Organ donors are literally the gift of life to other people. Tissue donors make possible skin and bone grafts for all kinds of life-altering surgeries, including those that help burn victims, bone and breast cancer patients, and people needing replacement heart valves. (Bob Arrington, 3/16)
Stat: Emergency Responses Mustn't Overlook Those With Substance Use Disorders
When the storm unofficially known as Winter Storm Uri barreled across much of North America last year, unprecedented cold and record-breaking snowfall overwhelmed emergency response systems as well as regional and municipal infrastructure, leaving households and critical public safety services without electricity, heat, or potable water. Health care delivery was substantially disrupted, with devastating consequences for vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases reliant on medications, medical devices, or life-sustaining procedures. Lost in the emergency response effort were people with opioid and other substance use disorders, many of whom found themselves cut off from crucial treatment and harm reduction services as the systems in place to support them faltered. (Emma Biegacki, 3/16)
