Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: A Molecule That Could Heal Aging Brain; A $1 Microscope
Stat: Curious Molecule That Makes Mice Smart Sets Off A Whirlwind
The mice were decidedly smart. Normal mice put inside a watery maze took more than a minute to locate the submerged platform that would let them escape. But these mice — which had been injected with a curious new molecule — found it in an average of just 16 seconds. That news startled Peter Walter. A 61-year-old biochemist, he’d spent his life, and built a sterling reputation, uncovering the workings of a critical quality control mechanism in cells. (Usha Lee McFarling, 9/28)
Vox: How To Change The World With A $1 Microscope
When Manu Prakash was growing up in India, he was obsessed with skeletons. Upon finding a dead rabbit, he would clean and painstakingly reassemble its 200-plus bones. "It physically told me how intricate every object actually is," Prakash tells me. "The more you see, the more you want to see." (Brian Resnick, 9/28)
The Atlantic: Remedy Offers Help Fighting Medical Bills
If you’re the special kind of person who’s interested in medical billing, I’ve had an exciting past few months. One day this spring, I was frantically chopping carrots after work when I noticed that my left hand was covered in lukewarm blood. When I washed it off, I saw my skin splaying open to reveal my pale-blue thumb joint. That necessitated not one, but two trips to an urgent-care center, a strange hybrid of an emergency room and doctor’s office where payment can be similarly muddled. (Olga Khazan, 9/28)
Stat: Analysis Identifies Anthrax Used As A Soviet Bioweapon
On the first Monday in April 1979, a wind blew south through a Siberian city called Sverdlovsk. A few days later, people and sheep began to die.Government officials said the victims had eaten meat contaminated with anthrax or come into contact with animals sickened by the deadly bacteria. Or perhaps, officials hinted, it was a plot by the American government. (Karen Weintraub, 9/27)
Vox: Some States Have Great Health Care For Infants — And Terrible Health Care For Pregnant Women
Iowa, by some measures, seems like a great place to have a baby. It ranks eighth for overall care in United Health Foundation’s new study of women and children’s health care, which looks at things like birth weight and a mother and child’s neighborhood to assign scores. (Frostenson, 9/28)
Slate Magazine: Top Peer Reviewers Are Motivated By Their Dedication To Science.
The goal of peer review is to ensure that only the most scientifically sound research papers make it into scientific journals—a tall order for a system that operates almost entirely on scientists’ goodwill and dedication. By Publons’ count, the average reviewer referees just 4.4 papers per year—though even that number might be high, as it only includes the people enthusiastic enough to register for the account that helps them track this work. So what motivates the super peer reviewers to do it? (Shannon Palus, 9/23)
The Atlantic: Most Of The World Doesn't Have Access To X-Rays
Irene Githinji, a radiologist in Nairobi, Kenya, didn’t know if the 5-year-old boy had a deadly lesion in his brain. She needed a CT scan to be sure, but her hospital didn’t have one. Kenya’s private facilities have them for $60 to $200, but Mbagathi Hospital, where Githinji treats families, sits at the edge of the Kibera slum, the largest in Africa. “I don't know what happened to the patient after that,” she says, “but I doubt that they ever did the CT scan.” (Jason Silverstein, 9/27)
The Economist: The Other Global Drugs Problem
All around the world, drug-resistant infections are on the rise. They now kill more than 700,000 people a year. In 2014 nearly 60% of samples of Escherichia coli, a common gut bacterium, collected from patients in hospital were strains that could not be treated with penicillins. About 25% were resistant to one or both of two other commonly used sorts of antibiotics. (9/24)
