Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Study May Have Found Cause Of SIDS; How Concerned Should We Be About Monkeypox?
Bloomberg: SIDS Remains A Heartbreaking, Under-Investigated Mystery
A visceral memory from my first months as a parent is the sensation of waking in a panic. I’d slept too soundly; the baby monitor was too quiet. I’d rush to the crib to listen for my daughter’s soft breath and feel the gentle rise of her belly, then stumble back to bed. Those moments were brought on, of course, by anxiety over sudden infant death syndrome, which in 2019 caused nearly 1,250 deaths in the US. (Lisa Jarvis, 5/19)
Bloomberg: What Is Monkeypox, Why Is It Spreading And Should We Worry?
While we no longer worry as much about the severity of Covid, there are questions about whether the pandemic has left us more exposed to other serious illnesses. Massachusetts officials reported a rare case of a virus related to smallpox, called monkeypox, on Wednesday. A small number of cases has also been reported in the UK, Canada, Spain and Portugal. Bloomberg Intelligence senior pharmaceutical analyst Sam Fazeli spoke to Therese Raphael about what we know so far. (Sam Fazeli, 5/19)
The Boston Globe: Can We Prevent Childhood Cancer?
On Sept. 24, 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a massive heart attack that required him to be hospitalized for months. This was the first time in US history when a health threat to a sitting president was publicly reported. It was also a pivotal turning point in medicine. President Eisenhower recruited Dr. Paul Dudley White from Massachusetts General Hospital to guide his care as he recovered, and White used the resulting publicity to advocate for the importance of preventive measures to avoid heart attacks. In the ensuing decades, cardiology shifted from a largely reactive discipline to one primarily focused on prevention. We think something similar can happen with childhood cancer. (Vijay G. Sankaran and Melissa A. Burns, 5/20)
USA Today: Doctors And Patients Are Being Hurt By A Broken System
Social media and news sites are filled with headlines expressing discontent about the health care system, particularly a sense that doctors don't listen and don't care. Reading these articles hurts my heart because, as a physician, I know doctors do care deeply. But a broken health care system has turned us into assembly-line "providers" and data-entry clerks without time to show the empathy that we feel and that our patients need. (Dr. Rebekah Bernard, 5/20)
Stat: To Improve Safety, Hospitals Should Make 'Radical Transparency' Real
Covid-19 may be receding, but it’s leaving a quiet menace lurking in hospitals in its wake. In a Perspective essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, four senior physicians with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of a “severe” post-Covid decline in patient safety. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology reached a similar conclusion, warning of a rise in “common, often-deadly” infections. To help reverse this troubling trend, the federal physician leaders called for “promoting radical transparency.” Though they didn’t detail what that should entail, our years working in safety and quality strongly suggest that “radical transparency” must be radically different from current efforts in both form and content in order to successfully catalyze genuine change. (Michael L. Millenson and J. Matthew Austin, 5/20)
