Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fertility Industry Is Booming As Families Wait Longer To Have Children
Stat: The Fertility Business Is Growing, And So Is Investor Interest
The field of fertility medicine is booming right now. Women are waiting longer and longer to have children. Same-sex couples looking to start families are increasingly turning to in vitro fertilization. And investors are pouring money into startups pitching egg freezing and genetic testing and other services to young women. There are few observers more qualified to weigh in on this business than Dr. David Sable. Sable previously spent years as an IVF doctor and now he invests in biotech on Wall Street, as a portfolio manager for the firm Special Situations. (Robbins, Feuerstein and Garde, 10/12)
The Wall Street Journal: How Fathers Should Talk With Their Sons About Sex In The #MeToo Era
When Michael Kawula was 14 years old and dating his first girlfriend, his dad brought up the topic of sex for the first—and last—time: He rolled up a copy of a Playboy magazine and stuffed it in his son’s Christmas stocking. “That was the end of my sexual education from my dad,” says Mr. Kawula, a 45-year-old entrepreneur from Trinity, Fla. With his own son, now 16, Mr. Kawula says he tries to be much more open. Talking about sex with our boys “is a conversation that needs to be had,” he says, “even more so today than in the past.” (Bernstein, 10/13)
NPR: The Flu Nearly Killed Him. Now He Says 'Get The Vaccine'
Charlie Hinderliter wasn't opposed to the flu shot. He didn't have a problem with vaccinations. He was one of about 53 percent of Americans who just don't get one. "I figured [the flu] was something that's dangerous to the elderly and the young, not somebody who is healthy and in their 30s," says Hinderliter, who is 39 and the director of government affairs at the St. Louis Realtors association. "Turns out, I was wrong," he says. (Sable-Smith, 10/14)
The New York Times: How An Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations
On Halloween night in 1996, a man in a skeleton mask knocked on the door of a house in Martinez, Calif., handcuffed the woman who greeted him and raped her. Two weeks later, he called the dental office where she worked. Investigators tried to track him down through phone records, but got nowhere. They obtained traces of his semen, but there was no match for his DNA in any criminal database. (Murphy, 10/15)
The New York Times: Tiny Nanoparticles To Treat A Huge Problem: Snakebites
An Epi-Pen to treat a snakebite? It’s still a distant dream, but a Californian chemist and Costa Rican venom expert are reporting progress in a novel effort to make injectable nanoparticles that can neutralize snake venom and can be carried in backpacks. (McNeil, 10/12)
NPR: Shared Scooters May Be Fun, But Are Riders Safe?
Over the past year, companies have been rolling out electric scooters by the thousands in cities across the country — from Washington, D.C. to Milwaukee, to Lubbock, Texas. People download the app, find a nearby scooter and then just unlock and ride. But as these shared scooters have spread, so have concerns about safety. (Prichep, 10/15)
The Washington Post: Autism And The Risk Of Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy
Among the many things a woman is supposed to avoid when pregnant are antidepressants, particularly a subtype of the drugs that some studies have linked to an increased risk of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Yet the evidence linking antidepressants to autism is thin. And untreated depression is dangerous for a mother and her child. (Wright, 10/14)
KCUR: Hitting The Open Road: Travel Nursing Catches On With Millennials
A little noticed sub-niche of the healthcare industry, travel nursing seems to be catching on with millennials and younger baby boomers who, like the Crafts, want a change of scenery and a chance to make more money. It’s just another way the gig economy has become at least a partial solution to a workforce problem – in this case, the demand for nurses exceeding the supply.Travel nurses typically sign on with agencies that place them in short-term assignments. The usual posting is for 13 weeks, but employers can ask for a second stint if they still need the help. If that doesn’t happen, the nurse will start looking for a new assignment toward the end of the contract. (Hammill, 10/15)
The Washington Post: Why Do Women Suffer More Migraines Than Men?
Migraine can afflict men, women and children. But it is not an equal opportunity disorder. Of those who suffer chronic crippling migraine attacks, the vast majority are women. They are as many as85 percent, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. “A researcher once said that ‘the femaleness of migraine is inescapable,’ ” says Elizabeth Loder, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and chief of the division of headache and pain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s true. Migraine disproportionately affects women.” (Cimons, 10/13)
The Washington Post: Eugenics Movement History Is Examined
What if you could engineer the perfect baby? Would you, if you could? A century ago, a group of American scientists and reformers thought it was possible — and desirable. Their perfect baby was white, able-bodied, Christian. And the cause they embraced, eugenics, was used to justify incarceration, sterilization and even murder. (Blakemore, 10/14)
Kaiser Health News: As U.S. Suicides Rates Rise, Hispanics Show Relative Immunity
The young man held the medication in his hand — and considered using it to end his life. But then he “put it down and said, ‘No. I need help,’” before heading to a Laredo, Texas, emergency room, said Kimberly Gallegos, who at the time earlier this year was a mobile crisis worker for a local mental health center. (Huff, 10/15)
Stat: Ebola Experts From CDC Were Pulled From Outbreak Zone Amid Security Concern
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was forced to withdraw its Ebola experts from an outbreak zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo several weeks ago amid heightened security concerns, a decision that is fueling worry over the impact on efforts to contain the epidemic, according to U.S. officials and public health experts familiar with the matter. The Ebola experts — among the most experienced on the planet — and other U.S. government employees have been told by the State Department that they cannot travel to eastern DRC to help with the on-the-ground response. (Branswell, 10/14)
Boston Globe: Study: Veterinarians Struggle As They Balance The Needs Of Pets And Owners
The study, the first to investigate moral distress among veterinarians in North America, is being published by the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine this month. The survey of 889 veterinarians found that those who responded reported widespread ethical conflict and moral distress, which might be “an important source of stress and poor well-being,” the study states. (Phillips, 10/15)
