Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Told To Watch For MERS After South Korean Outbreak
The Associated Press: Health Officials Tell US Doctors To Watch For MERS
Health officials are advising U.S. doctors to be on the lookout for people sickened by Middle East respiratory syndrome, also called MERS, following an outbreak in South Korea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday reminded doctors to ask patients with severe respiratory illness if they recently traveled. (Stobbe, 6/11)
NPR: Should Tanning Bed Warnings Take A Cue From Graphic Cigarette Labels?
Young white women like indoor tanning a lot. Nearly a quarter of them hit a tanning bed in the past year. (The beds are even found on many college campuses.) That habit is particularly concerning to public health officials because melanoma rates in young women are on the rise owing to UV exposure from the sun and from tanning beds. The Food and Drug Administration requires indoor tanning machines to bear a label saying that these aren't intended for people under 18, and it requires that consumers get other cautionary messages, too. But they're not particularly attention-grabbing. (Hobson, 6/11)
USA Today: High-Tech Monitors, Cool Gadgets Help Spark A Health Care Revolution
As the world becomes more digitized, the health care industry is racing to keep up, sparking an explosion of new digital technology geared to improving patient care. Most visible to patients is the move to electronic medical records, or EHRs, by doctors and hospitals in an effort to streamline record-keeping and meet federal guidelines. But that's only one of dozens of new tech advances that are designed to make life better for the ill, elderly and disabled. (Thadani, 6/11)
