Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Incentive To Game Organ Donation System, Worsen Patient's Condition Tempts Doctors
WBUR: Ethical Dilemma: Do I Game The System To Get My Patient A Heart?
This is the system we have to navigate: The United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, has established criteria to make sure that donor hearts go to the patients with the most severe disease. The criteria are based on which treatments a doctor has seen fit to prescribe, on the assumption that they’re a good indication of how critical your illness is. Generally, that's a good assumption. Except that the system itself creates a perverse incentive. (Movsesian, 7/15)
NPR: Wellness Programs Take Aim At Workplace Stress
Stress has long been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and a number of mental health problems. And a recent poll finds that a substantial number of working adults say stress is a critical health issue they face at work. The poll was conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. So what are employers doing about it? Fifty-one percent of the people in our poll said their workplace has a formal wellness or health improvement program. (Neighmond, 7/18)
Wyoming Public Radio: Using Horse Traditions To Reduce Teen Suicide On Wind River Reservation
It’s called the Horse Culture Program because the reservation’s two tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho, have a long history with horses. After Europeans brought them to the Americas, many tribes adopted them to a new, more nomadic way of life, pursuing herds of bison and other big game. Now the Horse Culture Program is using that history to combat the modern day problem of teen suicide. “It started as a suicide prevention initiative to help them understand and express their feeling,” Sage says, “because sometimes when we’re hurting or feeling sad, we don’t know how to say that.” (Edwards, 7/15)
