Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Reports Shed Light On How Daylight Savings Time Creates Problems At Hospitals, In Our Brains
Kaiser Health News: Like Clockwork: How Daylight Saving Time Stumps Hospital Record Keeping
Modern technology has helped medical professionals do robot-assisted surgeries and sequence whole genomes, but hospital software still can’t handle daylight saving time. One of the most popular electronic health records software systems used by hospitals, Epic Systems, can delete records or require cumbersome workarounds when clocks are set back for an hour, prompting many hospitals to opt for paper records for part of the night shift. And it happens every year. (Lupkin, 11/3)
USA Today: Daylight Saving Time: How 'Fall Back' Could Be Bad For Your Health
Daylight Saving Time ends and clocks will "fall back" an hour this weekend, giving Americans the feeling of an extra hour in the morning, which could negatively affect their health. "Ever since the institution of Daylight Saving Time, there has been controversy regarding whether it accomplishes its goals or not, and if so — at what cost," Timothy Morgenthaler, Mayo Clinic's co-director of the Center for Sleep Medicine, said in an email. Morgenthaler has reviewed about 100 medical papers related to how the time change could affect health. (May, 11/2)
NPR: We Just 'Fell Back' An Hour. Here Are Tips To Stay Healthy During Dark Days Ahead
When it comes to turning back the clocks on our devices, technology has us covered. Our smartphones automatically adjust. But our internal clocks aren't as easy to re-program. And this means that the time shift in the fall and again in the spring can influence our health in unexpected ways. "You might not think that a one hour change is a lot," says Fred Turek, who directs the Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology at Northwestern University. "But it turns out that the master clock in our brain is pretty hard-wired, " Turek explains. It's synchronized to the 24 hour light/dark cycle. (Aubrey, 11/3)
