Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Organoids Grown In Labs Can Now Generate Brain Waves, But Scientists Warn They're Not Scaled-Down Baby Brains
Stat: Cerebral Organoids Produce Brain Waves Similar To Newborns'
The Lilliputian versions of human brains that scientists have grown in lab dishes have developed distinct structures such as the hippocampus, grown glia and other cells like those in actual brains, and produced a diverse menagerie of neurons that connect with each other and carry electrical signals. Now scientists have grown hundreds of cerebral organoids with the most complex, human-like activity yet: Though only one-fifth of an inch across, or about the size of a pea, the organoids have developed functional neural networks that generate brain waves resembling those of newborns. (Begley, 8/29)
The New York Times: Organoids Are Not Brains. How Are They Making Brain Waves?
Two hundred and fifty miles over Alysson Muotri’s head, a thousand tiny spheres of brain cells were sailing through space. The clusters, called brain organoids, had been grown a few weeks earlier in the biologist’s lab here at the University of California, San Diego. He and his colleagues altered human skin cells into stem cells, then coaxed them to develop as brain cells do in an embryo. (Zimmer, 8/29)
The New York Times: Hospitals Should Replace Infection-Prone Scopes With Safer Models, F.D.A. Says
Companies that make reusable, snakelike cameras to examine patients internally should begin making disposable versions, because the current models cannot be properly sterilized and have spread infections from one patient to another, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. In the meantime, hospitals that use the instruments, called duodenoscopes, should start to transition to models with disposable components to reduce the risk of infection to patients, the agency said. (Rabin, 8/29)
The Advocate: Family Questions How Woman Died From Ketamine Use At Baton Rouge Psychiatric Hospital
Joy Waguespack was receiving treatment at a Baton Rouge psychiatric hospital when she was found unresponsive in her room and later died from the effects of ketamine — a sedative most often used in medical settings for administering anesthesia. Officials don't know how she obtained and ingested the drug that killed her. ...Waguespack had been admitted to Seaside just three days before she was found unresponsive. Relatives said she was sent to the facility immediately upon her release from jail and involuntarily committed for mental health treatment — a familiar experience for the woman, who had spent decades bouncing from one treatment center or group home to another, struggling to find some stability within Louisiana's notoriously underfunded mental health system. (Skene, 8/29)
Stat: Study: Hormone Therapy For Menopause Raises Breast Cancer Risk For Years
A sweeping new analysis adds to the evidence that many women who take hormone therapy during menopause are more likely to develop breast cancer — and remain at higher risk of cancer for more than a decade after they stop taking the drugs. The study, published Thursday in the Lancet, looked at data from dozens of studies, including long-term data on more than 100,000 women who developed breast cancer after menopause. Half of those women had used what’s known as menopausal hormone therapy, or MHT. (Thielking, 8/29)
North Carolina Health News: Rural Hospital Closures Lead To Higher Mortality Rates
When a hospital closes in an urban area, mortality rates don’t change. But when a rural hospital shuts its doors, according to a new study, mortality rates increase nearly six percent. The new study helps clear up a question about the impact of hospital closures on health. Earlier studies at times have shown that a closed hospital didn’t seem to have much impact on health. (Bishop, 8/30)
The New York Times: Babies Display ‘Werewolf Syndrome’ After Getting Anti-Baldness Drug By Mistake
At least 17 children in Spain developed a form of “werewolf syndrome” after they were given medication intended to treat heartburn that was actually used to stop hair loss. The children who took the mislabeled medicine, some of them babies, began growing hair all over their bodies, a rare condition known as hypertrichosis, Spain’s health minister said on Wednesday. The minister, María Luisa Carcedo, said that a Spanish laboratory, Farmaquimica Sur, had erroneously distributed to pharmacists minoxidil, a drug that helps fight baldness, that was labeled omeprazole, a drug that treats acid reflux. (Minder, 8/29)
