Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Clairity Breast Is The New AI Tool Helping Women Assess Breast Cancer Risk
The New York Times: Women Can Now Assess Their Breast Cancer Risk With The Help Of A.I.
Starting Thursday, women across the United States will be able to find out their risk of developing breast cancer in the near future with the help of an A.I. tool that examines a single recent mammogram. Everlywell, a digital health company, announced it would now offer patients nationwide access to Clairity Breast, an A.I. tool approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year to predict a woman’s five-year risk of breast cancer based on imaging. The test, which was previously available only at select locations in Massachusetts and Colorado, will cost $249. It is not covered by insurance. (Rabin, 10/1)
In other reproductive health news —
AP: GOP-Led States Attack Blue State Laws Protecting Abortion Providers
Three Republican states went to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to challenge abortion “shield laws” protecting providers in three Democratic states, escalating the legal conflict over pills that account for a majority of abortions. The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana contend that the laws in California, Massachusetts and New York undermine their abortion bans and their states’ sovereignty. Federal regulations allow prescriptions for abortion pills to be made by telehealth and filled by mail, and the three GOP states want to keep the pills out and punish out-of-state providers for sending them. (Mulvihill and Hanna, 10/1)
Newsweek: Midwife Patients Struggle With Postpartum Mental Health: Survey
Women who use a midwife to give birth instead of a traditional OBGYN are more likely to experience mental health issues after having a baby, according to a new survey, but the care they receive afterward may be better than that of OB patients. About 20 percent of women who give birth in the United States experience a postpartum mental health issue. Women largely report having a lack of resources to help deal with postpartum problems, and surveys show that both men and women have a lack of understanding about the symptoms of postpartum mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. (Fink, 9/30)
CIDRAP: Maternal Depression Tied To Higher Risk Of Special Educational Needs In Kids
Children whose mothers had depression during pregnancy are at higher risk of having special educational needs that can’t be attributed solely to antidepressant exposure, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Glasgow and published yesterday in PLOS Medicine. (Bergeson, 9/30)
CIDRAP: In 2020, US Maternal Tdap Vaccination Rates Began Dropping After Years Of Steady Increases
Hearing an infant gasp and whoop when sick with pertussis (whooping cough) can make any parent feel helpless. Yet such distress can be avoided when pregnant women receive the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine from 27 to 36 weeks of pregnancy. This protects their babies until they’re old enough to undergo immunization. But rates of US maternal Tdap vaccination slumped from 2020 to 2023, declining from 88.5% to 83.9%, a drop of almost 5 percentage points, a paper published last week in Vaccine noted. (Holohan, 9/29)
MedPage Today: Sepsis In Pregnancy Is A Deadly Combo: Here's Who's At Risk
While rare, sepsis in pregnancy was nevertheless involved in nearly a third of maternal deaths in Mississippi, a state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates, and women with certain characteristics were particularly vulnerable. (Rudd, 9/30)
MedPage Today: No Clear Risks With GLP-1s Around Pregnancy, But Caution Urged
Use of GLP-1 receptor agonists around pregnancy did not appear to increase adverse maternal or perinatal outcomes, according to two studies. (Monaco, 9/30)
