Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
#MeToo Hasn't Changed Medical Field Where Leniency Against Sexual Assault By Physicians Is Well-Known Issue
The Associated Press: AP Investigation: #MeToo Has Little Impact On Medical World
In recent months, Hollywood moguls, elite journalists and top politicians have been pushed out of their jobs or resigned their posts in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct. In contrast, the world of medicine is often more forgiving, according to an AP investigation. When the doctors are disciplined, the punishment often consists of a short suspension paired with mandatory therapy that treats sexually abusive behavior as a symptom of an illness or addiction, the AP found. (Horwitz and Linderman, 4/16)
Stat: Miniature Human Brains Grow For Months When Implanted In Mice Skulls
The mice behaved just like others of their kind, as far as scientists could tell, and they also looked the same — except for the human mini brain that had been implanted into each rodent’s own cortex, made visible by a little clear cover replacing part of their skull. The report on Monday by scientists at the Salk Institute is the first publication describing the successful implant of human cerebral organoids into the brains of another species, with the host brain supplying the lentil-sized mini cerebrums with enough blood and nutrients to keep them alive and developing for months. It won’t be the last, as scientists use the approach to understand human brain development and test whether the tiny entities might one day serve as cortical repair kits, replacing regions of the brain that have been injured or failed to develop normally. (Begley, 4/16)
The Washington Post: Teenagers And College-Age People Drink Less While This Group Pours Another Round
Experts on alcohol abuse have found one demographic group that’s drinking at an alarming rate. Not teenagers. Not college-age people. It’s baby boomers. For reasons not well understood, teenage and college-age Americans today are consuming alcohol at lower rates than young people 10 years ago, according to the Monitoring the Future study at the University of Michigan. The most widely discussed hypothesis is that young people have changed the way they organize their social lives today, said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University professor of epidemiology who has tracked drinking trends. (Achenbach, 4/16)
CNN: How Dad's Pre-Conception Health Can Affect The Baby, Too
Many moms-to-be know that their health even before they become pregnant -- known as pre-conception health -- can affect the health of their babies. Now, research is continuing to show that the pre-conception health of fathers also can influence a pregnancy and the baby.Three papers published Monday in the journal The Lancet detail how the health of both women and men, before they even conceive a child, can have profound impacts on the health of their offspring -- such as birth weight and brain development. (Howard, 4/16)
