Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Public Health Roundup: Helping Police Cope With Trauma; The National Shortage Of OB-GYN Docs
Stateline: Cops Get Help To Cope With Trauma
For decades, police have kept silent about the toll trauma takes on them, their families and their careers. One result, according to researchers, is that they have higher suicide rates than the general population. To change that, police departments across the country are turning to nonprofit or state-funded programs that help cops cope by connecting them to their peers and to mental health professionals. (Mindy Fetterman, 7/20)
Stat: These Cities Are On The Front Lines Of A National OB-GYN Shortage
Nearly half of all U.S. counties already lack a practicing OB-GYN. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists projects a shortage of up to 8,800 OB-GYNs by 2020. And Pew Trusts predicts the nation could be 22,000 practitioners short in the decades that follow...The Doximity report, which looked data from more than 30,000 OB-GYNs practicing in the nation’s 50 largest metro regions, found the cities with the highest risk of a shortage had a confluence of doctors retiring early and few younger doctors replacing them. (Blau, 7/20)
Bloomberg: This App Tells You — And Maybe Other People — When You’re Depressed
A Facebook message pops up on my phone screen. “What’s going on in your world?” It’s from a robot named Woebot, the brainchild of Stanford University psychologist Alison Darcy. Woebot seems to care about me. The app asks me for a list of my strengths, and remembers my response so it can encourage me later. It helps me set a goal for the week -- being more productive at work. It asks me about my moods and my energy levels and makes charts of them. (Chen 7/20)
Denver Post: Obesity, Overdose The Key Factors In Killing White Americans
Despair over economic and social status is likely not to blame for a startling rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado. After years of decline, mortality rates across the country have begun to increase, and life expectancy in some parts of the country is falling. The new study, though, pushes back on the popular narrative that this trend is the result of a loss of hope among middle-class whites. That narrative suggests despair has led to health problems, self-destructive behavior and earlier deaths. (Ingold, 7/19)
The Star Tribune: Overweight Minnesotans Are Among Those Who Are Ditching The Diet
Fewer Americans are trying to lose weight compared with three decades ago, according to a surprising study published recently in the Journal of American Medical Association. This comes at a time when obesity rates nationwide are still climbing, along with chronic diseases linked to obesity. (Shah, 7/20)
The Associated Press: AIDS Epidemic: For 1st Time, Over Half Taking HIV Drugs
The United Nations says that for the first time in the AIDS epidemic, more than half of all people with HIV are on drugs to treat the virus. AIDS deaths are also now close to half of what they were in 2005, according to the U.N. AIDS agency, although those figures are based on estimates and not actual counts from countries. (7/20)
The Washington Post: Zion, The World’s Youngest Double Hand Transplant Recipient, Can Swing A Baseball Bat
In 2015, Zion Harvey became known to the public as the youngest person in the world to go through a successful bilateral hand transplant. Zion, who was 8 at the time, captured hearts with his upbeat attitude toward life and his wise-beyond-his-years expositions — on everything from losing both of his hands to an infection at age 2 to why he wanted to adopt a dog — in a widely shared video by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The film documented Zion's life before the surgery and the complicated, high-risk procedure he underwent to gain a pair of new hands. (Wang, 7/19)
