Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Much Attention Is Focused On Gun Buying Restrictions, But Improving Storage Techniques Could Save Many Lives
The New York Times: The Potentially Lifesaving Difference In How A Gun Is Stored
Legislators and gun safety advocates often focus on how guns are purchased. But many lives could be saved, especially among children, if they looked more at how they are stored. In the last decade, guns killed more than 14,000 American children. A startling number of those deaths — more than a third — were classified as suicides, and around 6 percent as accidents. Many more children were injured. Nearly everyone agrees that children should not be able to buy guns, and no state lets them do so on their own. When children die by suicide in this way, it’s a result of being able to get hold of a gun that someone else already obtained — often legally. (Carroll, 5/13)
The New York Times: Stem Cell Treatments Flourish With Little Evidence That They Work
A surgeon recommended a hip replacement, but Kenneth Cevoli said no thanks. “They’re really quick to try to give you fake joints and make a bunch of money off you,” he said. At 71, Mr. Cevoli, a high-school guidance counselor in Teterboro, N.J., coaches cross country, teaches mogul skiing, surfs and works summers as a lifeguard on Cape Cod. Despite pain in his left hip and knee, he questioned the need for major surgery, worrying it would sideline him for too long. (Grady and Abelson, 5/13)
The New York Times: Firing Up The Neural Symphony
The research on brain stimulation is advancing so quickly, and the findings are so puzzling, that a reader might feel tempted to simply pre-order a genius cap from Amazon, to make sense of it all later. In just the past month, scientists reported enhancing the working memory of older people, using electric current passed through a skullcap, and restoring some cognitive function in a brain-damaged woman, using implanted electrodes. Most recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved a smartphone-size stimulator intended to alleviate attention-deficit problems by delivering electric current through a patch placed on the forehead. (Carey, 5/14)
The New York Times: An Antibiotic Shot May Prevent Some Infections Of Pregnancy
A single injection of antibiotics significantly reduces the risk of infections when women who are giving birth require the aid of forceps or vacuum extraction, a new study concludes. The routine use of the prophylactic shot actually reduces antibiotic use in the long run, the study found. British researchers randomly assigned 3,420 women who had operative vaginal births to one of two groups: The first received a single shot of Augmentin (amoxicillin and clavulanic acid) within six hours of giving birth, and the second a placebo saline shot. (Bakalar, 5/13)
CNN: Moms Proudly Show Off Their Postpartum Bodies
Meg Boggs is on a mission to redefine the public perception of a woman's postpartum body. If she could tell moms two things to start them on a self-love journey it would be to "look in the mirror" and "get in the photo with your kids." The mother and blogger says she refused to be in photos the first couple of months of her daughter's life, "I regret so much that I wasn't in the photos with her. It's so important and you have to think about your kids and they are going to want you in the photos with them." (Brinkley, 5/12)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: America Needs More Mental Health Providers. Nurses Want To Help, If States Let Them.
Psychiatric mental health (PMH) nurses include both registered nurses and advanced practice nurses. Nationally certified PMH registered nurses have been in the field at least two years and have completed 2,000 hours of mental-health clinical practice and 30 hours of continuing education. (Pattani, 5/13)
