Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Using AI To Make Health Care More Equitable; Money-Saving Drug Rebate Rule At Risk
Stat: Leveraging Responsible AI To Counteract Bias In Health Care
Left unchecked, algorithmic approaches can perpetuate bias in health care. Implementing responsible AI can help reverse that. Many health systems have diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in place, but these rarely address the algorithms they routinely use for millions of patients. Health care leaders are often unaware about algorithmic bias or, if they are aware of it, don’t have a way to address the issue. While a model might look like it performs well overall, when broken down by race it may not perform well for certain groups. (Chris Hemphill, 8/6)
Newsweek: The Drug Rebate Rule Deserves To Stand—Even If It Came From Trump
Congressional Democrats are on the verge of passing a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. They're also moving forward with a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. Both will transform America for the better. The proposals would invest in everything from public transit to green energy to child care. Combined, they're arguably the boldest legislation since the New Deal, and lawmakers—as well as the Biden administration—deserve immense credit. (Howard Dean, Former Governor, Vermont, 8/5)
Modern Healthcare: Intensifying Healthcare Corporatization Demands Checks And Balances
President Joe Biden's recent executive order promoting competition in the American economy acknowledges a long-known fact: Excessive healthcare consolidation has not and will not benefit our nation's patients. In fact, unchecked consolidation is drastically transforming healthcare delivery in this country and putting profit-driven corporate entities in the driver seat with regard to patient care. As consumers continue to grapple with higher prices and fewer choices, there are good reasons for policymakers to start paying closer attention. (Kelly Kenney, 8/5)
Stat: Using Human-Centered Design To Boost Clinical Trial Participation
By disrupting the clinical trials process, the Covid-19 pandemic has served as a tipping point to advance decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) and other innovations in managing these essential studies. To date, but primarily during the pandemic, most of the decentralized-related innovation has centered around infrastructure and process, mainly addressing the patient burdens and geographic barriers related to time, travel, and logistics. There’s been far less innovation on another key part of trial management: patient recruitment and retention, linchpins of clinical research. (Sam Brown, 8/5)
Dallas Morning News: Improving Your Brain Health
This year more than ever, finding ways to keep healthy, both mentally and physically, has been heavy on our minds. But how do we take care of our minds when we are so busy focusing on our bodies? The University of Texas at Dallas BrainHealth Project has a different take on this issue, with a recently published study aiming to track and strengthen cognitive function. (8/6)
Stat: Cheaper Hearing Aids Aren't Enough. Older Adults Also Need Hearing Care
When Anne Madison noticed her hearing was declining at age 66, she struggled. She had always prided herself on being a savvy health care consumer, but when it came to hearing loss, what were her options? Ads for hearing aids seemed predatory, visits to an audiologist for objective professional advice about how to address hearing loss weren’t covered by Medicare, and since Medicare also didn’t cover hearing aids, the price tag was far out of her reach. (Frank Lin, Charlotte Yeh and Christine Cassel, 8/6)
Modern Healthcare: What Will Await The Next Generations Of Healthcare CEOs?
What will healthcare look like 30+ years from now? Although it may seem too far off to even think about today, many of 2050’s healthcare CEOs are today’s graduate students and early careerists. In my work with these groups, my hope always is that they can spend their careers pursuing an ever-healthier future for the communities they serve, rather than slowing their decline. (Andrew Garman, 8/3)
