First Edition: May 24, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Now More Of Us Can Count On More Time Dodging The Dementia Bullet
You’ve turned 65 and exited middle age. What are the chances you’ll develop cognitive impairment or dementia in the years ahead? New research about “cognitive life expectancy” — how long older adults live with good versus declining brain health — shows that after age 65 men and women spend more than a dozen years in good cognitive health, on average. And, over the past decade, that time span has been expanding. (Graham, 5/24)

California Healthline: ‘Time’s Up’: Covered California To Enforce Quality And Safety Targets
Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, has devised what could be a powerful new way to hold hospitals accountable for the quality of their care. Starting in less than two years, if the hospitals haven’t met targets for safety and quality, they’ll risk being excluded from the “in-network” designation of health plans sold on the state’s insurance exchange. (Dembosky, 5/24)

California Healthline: Sutter Health Strikes Back At California Attorney General’s Antitrust Suit
In a high-stakes legal battle over medical market power, Sutter Health has accused California Attorney General Xavier Becerra of overstepping his powers and acting like a “health-care policy czar.” Becerra filed an antitrust lawsuit against the large Sacramento-based health system in March. The complaint accuses Sutter of illegally quashing competition and for years overcharging consumers and employers. The case has attracted widespread attention amid growing concerns nationally about consolidation among hospitals, insurers and other industry players. (5/23)

Kaiser Health News: Watch: What’s In The White House Plan To Lower Drug Prices
President Donald Trump began talking about the high cost of prescription drugs long before he took office. He often spoke about how drug companies “got away with murder” on the campaign trail. He has continued these attacks, and in April the Trump administration unveiled a 44-page blueprint. But what’s in it? (5/23)

The New York Times: Senate Sends Major Overhaul Of Veterans Health Care To Trump
The Senate gave final passage on Wednesday to a multibillion-dollar revamp of the veterans health care system, consolidating seven Veterans Affairs Department health programs into one and making it far easier for veterans to take their benefits to private doctors for care. The legislation, which passed 92 to 5, also expands popular stipends to family caregivers of veterans who served during the Vietnam War era or after. And it establishes a nine-member commission to study the department’s current infrastructure to determine where its health system should expand and contract. (Fandos, 5/23)

The Associated Press: Bill Expanding Private Care For Veterans Goes To Trump
The sweeping measure would allow veterans to see private doctors when they do not receive the treatment they expected, with the approval of a Department of Veterans Affairs health provider. Veterans could access private care when they have endured lengthy wait times or VA medical centers do not offer the services they need. The bill's approval comes despite concerns from some Democrats that the effort would prove costly and be used too broadly by veterans in search of top-notch care even when the VA is able to provide treatment deemed sufficient for their needs. (Yen, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Congress Sends Massive Veterans Bill To Trump, Opening Door To More Private Health Care
About one-third of veterans in the system now see outside doctors through a program called “Choice,” which Congress hastily approved as a temporary remedy in response to the scandal. But the program — designed to serve the overflow at VA facilities both of aging Vietnam-era veterans and younger service members returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — is fragmented and unwieldy. Doctors have complained of slow or nonexistent payments, and veterans say there’s insurmountable red tape. (Rein, 5/23)

The Hill: CBO: ObamaCare Premiums To Rise 15 Percent In 2019 
ObamaCare premiums are expected to rise an average of 15 percent next year, an increase largely due to the GOP’s repeal of the law's individual mandate, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis released Wednesday. The CBO estimates that gutting the requirement that Americans have health insurance or face a tax penalty will contribute to about a 10 percent rise in premiums for 2019, with insurers expected to see healthier people dropping out of the marketplaces, leaving sicker enrollees on the plans. (Roubein, 5/23)

CQ: CBO Projects Three Million More Uninsured People In 2019
An additional three million people will be uninsured next year largely because the requirement for most Americans to have health insurance coverage was effectively repealed, the Congressional Budget Office projected. A new report released Wednesday by the nonpartisan analysts estimates that premiums for benchmark plans sold on the marketplaces set up by the 2010 health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) will increase an average of 15 percent next year. Still, the analysts expect the individual insurance market to be stable in most parts of the country in 2019. (McIntire, 5/23)

Bloomberg: It Costs $685 Billion A Year To Subsidize U.S. Health Insurance
It will cost the U.S. government almost $700 billion in subsidies this year help provide Americans under age 65 with health insurance through their jobs or in government-sponsored health programs, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The subsidies come from four main categories. About $296 billion is federal spending on programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which help insure low-income people. Almost as big are the tax write-offs that employers take for providing coverage to their workers. Medicare-eligible people, such as the disabled, account for $82 billion. Subsidies for Obamacare and for other individual coverage are the smallest segment, at $55 billion. (Ockerman, 5/23)

The Hill: House Dems Urge Mulvaney To Reject Proposed Rollback Of Transgender Health Protections
A group of 127 House Democrats is calling on White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney to reject a proposal that would roll back ObamaCare’s anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients. The proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), currently being reviewed by OMB, is expected to be released later this summer. (Weixel, 5/23)

The Hill: Senators Introduce Bill To Measure Progress In Opioid Fight 
Three senators are introducing a bill to measure the federal government’s progress in ending the opioid epidemic, as the White House and Congress are grappling with how to solve a crisis contributing to thousands of deaths per year. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said it’s important to create national indicators to determine what efforts to solve the opioid crisis have worked, and what hasn’t. (Roubein, 5/23)

The Hill: Senate Panel To Consider Ban On Prescription Drug 'Gag Clauses'
The Senate health committee plans to vote on a bill next month banning "gag clauses" that can hide potential savings on prescriptions from consumers at the pharmacy counter. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday he hopes the panel will vote on the bill, authored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), June 20. (Hellmann, 5/23)

Los Angeles Times: Researchers Tally The Physical And Financial Costs Of Opioid Painkillers' Side Effects
The opioid crisis has shown us that prescription painkillers and their illicit counterparts can wreak havoc in American communities. Now researchers have quantified the damage they can do inside hospitals when administered to patients following surgeries and other invasive medical procedures. More than 10% of hospitalized patients who took one or more opioid painkillers experienced a side effect tied to the drug, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Surgery. Fully 93% of these patients suffered at least one episode that was deemed moderate or severe. (Kaplan, 5/23)

NPR: Physical Therapy As First Treatment For Low Back Pain Curbs Opioid Use
Though Americans spend an estimated $80 billion to $100 billion each year in hopes of easing their aching backs, the evidence is mounting that many pricey standard treatments — including surgery and spinal injections — are often ineffective and can even worsen and prolong the problem. A study published Wednesday in the journal Health Services Research suggests trying physical therapy first may at least ease the strain on the patient's wallet in the long term — and also curb reliance on opioid painkillers, which carry their own risks. (Neighmond, 5/23)

The New York Times: First Cuba, Now China? An American Falls Ill After ‘Abnormal’ Sounds
An American government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain injury after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said on Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck American diplomats in Cuba. The State Department warning, issued through the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised American citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. But it said that no other cases had been reported. (Buckley and Harris, 5/23)

The New York Times: Pompeo Says Mysterious Sickness Among Diplomats In Cuba Has Spread To China
“The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba,” Mr. Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said medical teams were heading to Guangzhou to address what he described as one incident. “We are working to figure out what took place, both in Havana and now in China as well,” Mr. Pompeo said. (Harris, 5/23)

Reuters: China Says Finds No Clues To Explain U.S. Sonic Incident
The U.S. embassy, which issued a health alert on Wednesday to Americans living in China, said it could not link the case to health problems suffered by U.S. government staff in Cuba dating back to late 2016. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China has always safeguarded the security of foreign organizations and personnel of foreign countries, including the United States, according to the Vienna convention. "China has already conducted an earnest investigation and we have also given initial feedback to the U.S. side," Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing. (Martina, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Aide In China Taken Ill In A Case Echoing Cuba Acoustic Attacks
More than 20 American diplomats and family members in Cuba suffered, starting in late 2016, from dizziness, concussions, hearing loss and other symptoms that U.S. officials attributed to what they called “targeted attacks.” In January, a State Department official told a Senate hearing that U.S. investigators haven’t been able to identify the perpetrator or means of the apparent attacks. The U.S. hasn’t blamed Cuba for the illnesses but took steps last year to hold its leaders responsible for not having prevented them, including by expelling Cuban diplomats from Washington and recalling some staff from the U.S. Embassy in Havana. (Wong, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Is It A Gag Rule? What The New Title X Family Planning Funding Rule Says.
The Trump administration has released the language of a proposed rule on federal family planning funding, and abortion rights activists are raising alarm about it. When health officials revealed Friday that they would be filing a change to which clinics would be eligible for funding, they emphasized that it was not a “gag rule.” Instead, they said they were proposing to strip away a current mandate. It requires organizations that receive Title X funding to counsel women about abortion and provide them with referrals to abortion services. Under the new rules, a provider wouldn't have to talk about abortion at all. (Cha, 5/23)

WBUR: Why The Abortion Fight Is Becoming A Battle Over Health Information
As the White House moves to block federal funding for family planning clinics unless they stop providing abortions or referring women for abortions, supporters and opponents of abortion rights are gearing up for a familiar and likely protracted fight. ...Yet abortion access is fundamentally different than it was 30 years ago, in at least one significant way: Women today have access to safe, private, do-it-yourself abortion -- if they know where to look. (Conaboy, 5/22)

Stat: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plants Are Sending Lots Of Medicine Into The Water Supply 
Wastewater treatment plants that accept discharges from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities send “substantially” higher concentrations of medicines into rivers and streams than treatment plants that do not take these discharges, according to the first study to examine the issue across the U.S. In reaching their conclusion, the study authors compared effluent — which is wastewater that is sent into rivers and other natural bodies of water — from 13 treatment plants that took pharmaceutical discharges and six plants that did not. They examined plants scattered among rural and urban locations around the country in order to compare plant sizes, varying climates, and technology used for treating wastewater. (Silverman, 5/23)

Stat: Effort To Encourage Development Of New Antibiotics Falls Short In Senate
An effort to use congressional legislation to incentivize the development of new antibiotics fell short Wednesday, despite lobbying pressure from pharmaceutical companies and medical societies. Antibiotics are rarely moneymakers for drug makers, and yet there’s wide agreement that there’s a need for more given that some bacteria are increasingly resistant to the therapies currently on the market. (Swetlitz, 5/23)

Stat: Solicitor General Urges Supreme Court To Review Merck Case About Warnings
In a boost to Merck (MRK), the U.S. solicitor general is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case that has broad ramifications for lawsuits filed by consumers against drug makers over product warnings. At issue are hundreds of lawsuits that were filed more than seven years ago by women who claim they suffered bone fractures after taking Fosamax, a Merck drug used to combat osteoporosis. Last year, a federal appeals court overturned a lower court and decided the lawsuits should proceed. (Silverman, 5/23)

Stat: A Career In Biotech Brought Success. Then The Birds Came Calling
For Neil Hayward, the days of travel and nights of seasickness were worth it, because of the birds. They were what field guides call vagrants or accidentals: species that turn up far outside their normal range, unexpected emissaries from another part of the world. ...A few years before, he’d been a director and board chair at Abcam, a British company selling antibodies and proteins and other ingredients for biomedical labs. He’d opened offices in Tokyo and San Francisco. He’d managed a team in the Massachusetts biotechnopolis of Kendall Square. He’d watched the firm go public, watched its stock price grow. Now, he had no salary, no real job, and in exchange for free passage to this godforsaken place, he was helping to lead a tour promoted as “particularly good for those who haven’t seen whiskered auklet yet.” (Boodman, 5/24)

Reuters: Texas Considers 'Red Flag' Law In Wake Of School Shooting: Governor
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sought consensus on firearms in a second round of talks on preventing gun violence on campus on Wednesday and may look at "red flag laws" to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed by a judge to be danger to themselves or others. After last week's fatal shooting of 10 people in a Houston-area high school, Abbott invited the Texas State Rifle Association, affiliated with the National Rifle Association, and Texas Gun Sense, which favors tighter gun laws, to join him in Austin, the state capital. (Herskovitz, 5/23)

The Associated Press: After Mass Shootings, NRA Pins Blame On Familiar List
In the aftermath of recent school shootings, a familiar pattern has played out in the debate over guns. Gun-control advocates push for tougher laws, including universal background checks to prohibiting the sale and possession of AR-style long guns. The National Rifle Association and many Republican leaders insist the root of the problem is not guns but a range of issues such as mental health, school security, video games and excessive prescriptions of attention-deficit disorder drugs such as Ritalin. (Pane, 5/23)

The Associated Press: FDA Warns Teething Medicines Unsafe, Wants Them Off Shelves
Federal health officials warned parents Wednesday about the dangers of teething remedies that contain a popular numbing ingredient and asked manufacturers to stop selling their products intended for babies and toddlers. The Food and Drug Administration said that various gels and creams containing the drug benzocaine can cause rare but deadly side effects in children, especially those 2 years and younger. (5/23)

Bloomberg: FDA Demands Orajel To Soothe Teething Babies Be Taken Off Market
More than 400 cases of benzocaine-associated methemoglobinemia have been reported to the FDA or in medical literature since 1971, according to a drug-safety communication the agency posted. The FDA analyzed 119 of the episodes from February 2009 to October 2017, including 11 linked to patients younger than 2 years old. In one of those cases, the patient died. The FDA warned about the potential dangers of benzocaine in 2006 and 2011, and has said parents shouldn’t use the products in children younger than 2. Signs of methemoglobinemia include shortness of breath, fatigue, and pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips and nail beds. (Edney, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Lung Cancer Rates In Younger White And Hispanic Women Surpass Those Of Men
Reversing a historic trend, rates of lung cancer among younger white and Hispanic women have surpassed those of men — and the change cannot be fully explained by gender differences in smoking behavior, researchers said Wednesday. Previous research pointed to shifts in the incidence of lung cancer, with rates creeping up among some groups of women. The new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the largest and most definitive on the topic and one that incorporates smoking patterns and tumor characteristics in its analysis, according to its authors. (McGinley, 5/23)

Los Angeles Times: Weight-Loss Surgery Is Associated With A Reduced Risk Of Melanoma, Researchers Say
In addition to rapid and lasting weight loss and a passel of other health benefits, bariatric surgery has now been linked to a 61% reduction in the risk of developing malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer most closely associated with excessive sun exposure. The new research, to be presented Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna, Austria, also found that people who underwent weight-loss surgery saw their risk of skin cancer in general decline by 42%. (Healy, 5/23)

Los Angeles Times: Obesity May Make Women More Vulnerable To A Host Of Cancers, Especially If They Gain Weight Quickly
Compared to women of normal weight, those with obesity are 24% more likely to develop one of a handful of cancers linked to the condition, and their chances of developing cancers of the kidney or endometrium were around twice as high as those of normal-weight women, new research has found. In a Norwegian study that tracked 137,205 women between 30 and 70 years old, researchers also found that those who gained more than 22 pounds over a period of five to eight years were nearly twice as likely as those who maintained a stable weight to develop pancreatic cancer. (Healy, 5/23)

Los Angeles Times: To Get Smokers To Quit, Money Works Better Than Electronic Cigarettes
When it comes to helping smokers quit, financial rewards are much more effective than electronic cigarettes. But the sad truth is that nothing works all that well, according to the results of a large clinical trial that tested five smoking-cessation strategies in real-world conditions. Out of 6,006 smokers who enrolled in the trial, only 80 could provide biochemical evidence that they were smoke-free six months after their quit dates. That's a success rate of just 1.3%. (Kaplan, 5/23)

The Associated Press: E-Cigarettes Disappoint In A Workplace Quit-Smoking Study
In a large study of company wellness programs, free electronic cigarettes did not help smokers quit more than usual methods such as nicotine patches. The only thing that really worked was offering them money to kick the habit. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that vaporize nicotine. It's not known whether they can help smokers quit. (5/23)

The Associated Press: With Death Rate Up, US Life Expectancy Is Likely Down Again
The U.S. death rate rose last year, and 2017 likely will mark the third straight year of decline in American life expectancy, according to preliminary data. Death rates rose for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia, and three other leading causes of death, according to numbers posted online Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Full-year data is not yet available for drug overdoses, suicides or firearm deaths. But partial-year statistics in those categories showed continuing increases. (5/23)

Stat: National Cancer Institute Head Sees Potential In AI, Personalized Medicine
Ned Sharpless has been in cancer research for decades, most recently as the director of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Cancer Center. But when he took the helm of the National Cancer Institute in October, he realized it would take time to get to know the $5.5 billion federal agency. So he embarked on a listening tour that ended up lasting six months, talking to investigators, patients, research advocates, and agency administrators. Nearly a year into his tenure at NCI, Sharpless sat down with STAT on Wednesday to talk about his new role, using artificial intelligence in cancer care, and how the NIH’s “All of Us” precision medicine project could play into the NCI’s big data aspirations. (Facher, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Colleges Bend The Rules For More Students, Give Them Extra Help
As many as 1 in 4 students at some elite U.S. colleges are now classified as disabled, largely because of mental-health issues, entitling them to a widening array of special accommodations like longer time to take exams. Under federal law, students can be considered disabled if they have a note from a doctor. That label requires schools to offer accommodations depending on the student’s needs. A blind student, for example, would have access to specialized software or a reader for an exam. (Belkin, 5/24)

Los Angeles Times: Can Simulating Evolution On A Computer Explain Our Enormous Brains?
Compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, the human brain is way out of whack.Our brains are roughly six times larger than what you would expect for a placental mammal of our stature, scientists say. And no other animal has a brain as large as ours relative to body size.So why did humans evolve to have such large brains when other animals did not? (Netburn, 5/23)

NPR: Resilience Training Helps Kids With Trauma
Sometimes 11-year-old B. comes home from school in tears. Maybe she was taunted about her weight that day, called "ugly." Or her so-called friends blocked her on their phones. Some nights she is too anxious to sleep alone and climbs into her mother's bed. It's just the two of them at home, ever since her father was deported back to West Africa when she was a toddler. B.'s mood has improved lately, though, thanks to a new set of skills she is learning at school. (We're using only first initials to protect students' privacy.) Cresthaven Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md., is one of growing number of schools offering kids training in how to manage emotions, handle stress and improve interpersonal relationships. (Simmons-Duffin, 5/23)

NPR: Diverse, Bike-Friendly Cities Have Happier Residents
Every year, Gallup ranks U.S. cities for well-being, based on how residents feel about living in their communities, and their health, finances, social ties and sense of purpose. Perhaps unsurprisingly, places like Naples, Fla., and Boulder, Col., tend to top the list, while Southern and Midwestern towns including Canton, Ohio, and Fort Smith, Ark., often come in last. But what hard data underpin the differences between these communities? (Bate, 5/23)

The New York Times: The Boundary Between Abuse And B.D.S.M.
“You want to make sure that you narrate what is going to be happening,” a blond woman in a skintight nurse’s costume said. She had just demonstrated how to safely, and consensually, stick a willing partner with hypodermic needles. The subject of her class was “medical play” and the crowd was standing-room-only. The event was hosted by the Eulenspiegel Society in Manhattan, which describes itself as the “oldest and largest B.D.S.M. support and education group” in the country. (Safronova and Van Syckle, 5/23)

The Associated Press: US Health Chief Pledges More Action If Ebola Spreads
President Donald Trump's top health official said Wednesday that the U.S. and global partners will "take the steps necessary" to try to contain a new Ebola outbreak, asserting that the fight against infectious diseases is one of the administration's top priorities for the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency taking the lead. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar stopped short of predicting whether the outbreak in Congo that's believed to have killed at least 27 people will be contained, but he praised WHO's early response and vowed: "If it spreads, we will take further actions." (5/23)

The Associated Press: Congo Says Ebola Cases Have Reached 30, Warns Against Rumors
Congo's Ministry of Health says the number of confirmed Ebola cases has reached 30, including 8 deaths in the 3 affected health zones in the country's Equateur province. The ministry on Thursday gave the toll after surveillance teams in the capital, Kinshasa, were deployed along the Congo River to monitor people coming in there. (Mwanamilongo, 5/24)

Reuters: Ebola Patients Slip Out Of Congo Hospital As Medics Try To Curb Outbreak
Three patients infected with the Ebola virus slipped out of an isolation ward at a hospital in Democratic Republic of Congo, health officials said, as medics raced to stop the deadly disease from spreading in the busy river port of Mbandaka. The cases represent a setback to costly efforts to contain the virus, including the use of an experimental vaccine, and show efforts to stem its spread can be hampered by age-old customs or scepticism about the threat it poses. (Ligodi, 5/23)

The Associated Press: No Stay Of Ruling That Tossed California Assisted-Death Law
An appeals court on Wednesday refused to block a court decision that said a California law allowing the terminally ill to end their lives was passed illegally. California's 4th District Court of Appeal refused to grant an immediate stay requested by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. However, the court gave Becerra and other parties time to "show cause" — that is, provide more arguments as to why the court should grant the stay and suspend the lower court ruling. There was no immediate comment from Becerra's office. (5/23)

Los Angeles Times: Students Warned USC About Gynecologist Early In His Career: ‘They Missed An Opportunity To Save A Lot Of Other Women’
After an appointment with Dr. George Tyndall in 1995, USC undergraduate Alexis Rodriguez wrote a letter of complaint on a typewriter in the English department. The gynecologist, she recalled writing, had a Playboy magazine on his desk, used a scalpel on a vaginal abscess without anesthetic and, when she objected, marked her chart with the word "difficult." A student health clinic administrator sent back a letter, apologizing and pledging to remove the notation from her chart, Rodriguez said. It would be 21 years before the university forced Tyndall out of the clinic. (Ryan and Hamilton, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Pressure Mounts On USC President To Resign After Scandals
On Wednesday, the executive committee of the board of trustees announced it was appointing a special committee that would hire outside counsel to investigate the misconduct and reporting failures at USC. “The behavior exhibited by the former physician was reprehensible,” the trustees wrote, “and we will hold people accountable if we find they failed to report or take action to ensure the well-being and safety of patients and students. To those affected, we are deeply sorry.” The chairman of the board expressed strong support for the school’s president Tuesday. The trustees’ executive committee has full confidence in the “leadership, ethics and values” of USC President C.L. Max Nikias, the board’s chairman John Mork said in a statement, “and is certain that he will successfully guide our community forward.” (Svrluga, 5/23)

Reuters: China Seeks Investigation Into University Of Southern California Abuse Accusations
The Chinese government has expressed "deep concern" over published reports that a University of Southern California gynecologist was allowed for years to treat students, many of them from China, despite accusations of sexual abuse and harassment. The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Dr. George Tyndall, 71, resigned from USC last year after an internal investigation at the university found he performed unnecessary or unprofessional physical exams and made inappropriate comments to some of the young women in his care. (Whitcomb, 5/23)

The Associated Press: Nurse Who Sued Hospital For Retaliation Awarded $28 Million
A jury has ruled that a Boston hospital retaliated against a Haitian-American nurse who stood up for a black colleague and has awarded her $28 million. Gessy Toussaint’s attorney described Wednesday’s verdict against Brigham and Women’s Hospital as “monumental.” The Boston Globe reports that Toussaint also had accused the hospital of racial discrimination, but the jury didn’t find proof of that claim. (5/23)