Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Implant That Delivers Anti-Opioid Drug Straight To Stomach Could Be Crucial Tool To Combat Users' Ambivalence
The New York Times: An Australian Doctor’s Dream: Curing America’s Opioid Curse
The hazy-eyed sheep shearer was shifting in his seat in a clinic in Western Australia, unsure if he could do what the doctor said would save his life. A heroin user for 20 years, he was now in the depths of a detoxification treatment. “I’m all alone,” he said. In a soft voice, the doctor, George O’Neil, pleaded with the man to continue to the next stage: an implant of the drug naltrexone, a device that the physician himself had invented and that is an emerging facet of an impassioned debate over the best way to treat addiction. “I don’t win with everybody,” the doctor said after the man had left. “But I try.” (Kwai, 6/6)
The Associated Press: Doctor Killed 25 Patients, Officials Say. Can They Prove It?
Prosecutors face a legal hurdle as they pursue 25 murder charges against an Ohio doctor accused of essentially using his colleagues as weapons by ordering fatal painkiller doses for hospital patients but not directly administering them himself, legal experts say. Critical care doctor William Husel has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Richard Blake, said Husel was trying to provide "comfort care" for dying patients and didn't intend to hasten their deaths, as prosecutors allege. (Franko, 6/6)
