Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New National Liver Transplant Policy Will Cause Viable Organs To Go To Waste, Hospitals Claim In Lawsuit
The Associated Press: Hospitals Sue Over New National Liver Transplant Policy
Hospitals and patients have sued to block a new nationwide liver transplant policy that they say will waste viable livers, lead to fewer transplants and likely cause deaths. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing hastily adopted the new policy and based it on faulty assumptions, according to the suit filed Monday in Atlanta federal court. (4/23)
KCUR: KU And Saint Luke’s Hospitals' Suit Says Liver Allocation Policy Will Cause Hundreds To Die
Two Kansas City area hospitals joined 12 other transplant centers this week in a lawsuit over a new liver allocation policy that they say will result in “hundreds of liver transplant candidates needlessly dying.” The University of Kansas Hospital and Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed in Atlanta against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, the private organization that contracts with the government to manage the nation’s organ transplant system. (Margolies, 4/23)
The New York Times: Is Sex By Deception A Form Of Rape?
Abigail Finney was in her freshman year at Purdue University in Indiana in February 2017 when she fell asleep in her boyfriend’s dorm room. During the night he snuggled up to her in bed in the pitch black, his hand grazing her breast, and they began having sex. She soon stopped to go to the bathroom and, when she returned, discovered, to her horror, that it wasn’t her boyfriend who was in bed with her. Was it rape? (Ellin, 4/23)
Stat: More Than 8,500 Women Have Joined The 500 Women Scientists Database
In a new paper published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology, the researchers behind 500 Women Scientists report that their platform has been accessed more than 100,000 times. And among 1,200 participants surveyed about their experience, 11 percent said they had been contacted as a result of the database for media interviews, peer review, panels, and other opportunities. The group has ambitious plans to keep expanding its reach. They’re raising money to start a fellowship for women of color working to make science more open and accessible and they have already launched an affiliate group, 500 Women in Medicine. (Thielking, 4/23)
The Associated Press: Americans Getting More Inactive, Computers Partly To Blame
Americans are becoming increasingly sedentary, spending almost a third of their waking hours sitting down, and computer use is partly to blame, a new study found. Over almost a decade, average daily sitting time increased by roughly an hour, to about eight hours for U.S. teens and almost 6 1/2 hours for adults, according to the researchers. That includes school and work hours, but leisure-time computer use among all ages increased too. (4/23)
The New York Times: Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer
If you’re like many people, you may have decided that you want to spend less time staring at your phone. It’s a good idea: an increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. (Price, 4/24)
