Ruling Against Intersex Champion Runner With High Testosterone Levels ‘Humiliating, Unnecessary,’ Advocates Say

The Washington Post: Caster Semenya Ruling Uses An Unscientific Definition Of Who Is Female, Critics Say
In ruling against Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, the highest court in international sports effectively imposed an exacting definition of who should be considered male or female based on a single factor — testosterone levels. The Wednesday decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport has prompted an outcry from human rights groups and medical researchers who call the idea “unscientific” and say it sets a dangerous precedent for using biological measures to justify discrimination. (Cha, 5/2)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Primary Care Physicians Help Increase Life Expectancy. So Why Is There A Shortage Of PCPs?
It makes sense that being cared for by an internist, family physician, or pediatrician helps keep patients healthy; allows for early diagnosis of diseases that if left undetected, could lead to more serious (and expensive) conditions later; and results in better coordination of care with other specialists. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: per capita PCP supply (the number of PCPs per person in a county) decreased between 2005 and 2015. It’s estimated that there will be a shortage of between 14,800 and 49,300 primary care physicians by 2030. (Doherty, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: Senators Call For Additional Review Of Liver Allocation Policy
The congressional battle over a new national liver allocation policy heated up Thursday as opponents of the change used HHS' brief delay of the new system to put pressure on the Trump administration. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have asked U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro to conduct a thorough review of the new rule. Simultaneously, they are seeking another delay to its implementation from HHS Secretary Alex Azar until the Government Accountability Office's review is complete. (Luthi, 5/2)

The Washington Post: CDC Urges Helmet Use To Prevent Severe Head Injuries While Riding Scooters
Head trauma tops the list of severe injuries involving the use of electric scooters — injuries that in many cases could have been prevented with the use of a helmet, according to an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Austin public health department. Almost half of the riders identified in the study had a severe injury, such as a broken leg, and half reported that a surface condition such as a pothole or crack in the street may have contributed to their injury, according to the report, released Thursday. Fewer than 1 percent of those injured were wearing a helmet. (Lazo, 5/2)

Kaiser Health News: With Head Injuries Mounting, Will Cities Put Their Feet Down On E-Scooters?
Almost half of the injured Austin scooter riders identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its first-ever study of dockless electric scooters suffered a head injury, with 15% experiencing a traumatic brain injury. The report, presented Thursday both in Austin and Atlanta, where the CDC is headquartered, covers 87 days last fall in Austin when almost 200 people were injured in scooter crashes. Just one of the riders wore a helmet and 33% of those riders were hurt on their first scooter ride. (Jayson, 5/2)

Stat: Facebook As ‘The Alternative Clinic Visit’: A Conversation With The Social Media Giant’s Cardiologist
Facebook employs about 38,000 full-time people. Only a few of them are physicians. Just one is a cardiologist. That’s Dr. Freddy Abnousi, the social media giant’s head of health care research. He’s in the role at a time when Facebook’s rivals in Big Tech have been making ambitious pushes into health and medicine. ...So far, Facebook has mostly kept quiet about its health care research. But Abnousi has begun to emerge as a public face for that work. He recently put out an opinion piece in JAMA, co-authored with several academics, calling for social media data to be considered alongside the more traditional data sources that are used to understand the health factors known as social determinants of health. (Robbins, 5/3)

NPR: Editing Genes To Change Human Traits Is A Tall Order
Scientists continue to speak out against the prospect of producing engineered embryos that could lead to "designer babies." Leaders of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy sent a letter on April 24 to Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, adding their voices to the call for a moratorium on experiments that could alter the genes passed down to future generations. This move follows a widely criticized experiment in China last year that apparently produced children with edited genomes. (Harris, 5/2)

The Washington Post: In ‘Lawless’ World Of Service Dogs, Many Families Suffer
All the counseling, therapy and medication did little to ease 9-year-old Sobie Cummings’ crippling anxiety and feelings of isolation. A psychiatrist suggested that a service dog might help. To Glenn and Rachel Cummings, Mark Mathis seemed like a dream come true. His kennel, Ry-Con Service Dogs, was just a couple of hours away, and he, too, had a child with autism. But what clinched the decision were Mathis’ credentials. “In 2013, Mark was certified as a NC state approved service dog trainer with a specialty in autism service dogs for children,” stated an online brochure. (Breed, 5/3)

California Healthline: For Those With Developmental Disabilities, Dental Needs Are Great, Good Care Elusive
When Ava Terranove began feeling oral pain last July, her parents took her to her regular dentist. The dentist determined that Ava, who has an autism-like condition, needed two root canal procedures to treat infected teeth. Because of her developmental disability, Ava, now 15, requires general anesthesia for non-routine dental work. The dentist, like most of his peers, was not equipped to provide it. (Tuller, 5/2)