Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Wearables Using AI To Predict Future Health Events
Bloomberg: Fitbit, Oura, Whoop See Predicting Health Outcomes As New Aim For Trackers
Haley Billey bought an Oura Ring to track her fertility. It arrived the day after she learned she was pregnant. She slipped the $450 titanium band on anyway. Months of worrisome readings on measures of energy and stress, levels she initially attributed to pregnancy, persuaded her to seek a professional opinion. The ultimate cause: Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder. (Thornton, 5/11)
MedPage Today: Medicaid Expansion Tied To Lower Mortality Among Young Adults With Kidney Failure
Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was linked to lower 1-year mortality among young adults with kidney failure who were starting dialysis, a cohort study suggested. (Henderson, 5/11)
NPR: Pancreatic Cancer Breakthroughs Are Giving Patients New Hope
It took six months of doctors probing and repeatedly scanning her abdomen to find the cause of Vicky Stinson's jaundice. By the time a doctor uttered the words "pancreatic cancer," Stinson's disease was at Stage III. A doctor warned her she had "months – not years – to live." "That was really hard," Stinson, a self-proclaimed optimist, admits. "And I decided not to take that prognosis," she says with a laugh. (Noguchi, 5/12)
CIDRAP: Many Older Adults Who Died Of COVID Weren’t Close To Death Before Infection, Study Suggests
About 28% of older people in England who died of COVID-19 in the first 2.5 years of the pandemic would likely, if uninfected, have lived at least another five years, a new model-based analysis estimates. Researchers from the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in London led the study, which was published late last week in PLOS One. The team used linked health data from March 2020 to September 2022 to estimate the survival of nearly 16 million English people aged 65 years and older had they not contracted COVID-19. (Van Beusekom, 5/11)
MedPage Today: More Evidence That GLP-1s May Reduce Risk Of Vision-Robbing Eye Diseases
Patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) had a lower likelihood of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared with patients using other glucose-lowering medications or lipid-lowering drugs, a large retrospective cohort study showed. (Bankhead, 5/11)
NPR: Marketers Say NAD+ Pills And Infusions Can Boost Longevity. What’s The Evidence?
Scientists carrying out research on the compound nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide — or simply NAD+ — are running into an unusual problem these days: A little too much publicity around their subject of study. Enthusiasm for NAD+ boosting supplements, injectables and IV infusions has overtaken the wellness and longevity world, attracting A-list celebrities and biohackers — and sparking all manner of claims about its ability to boost energy, combat aging and enhance recovery. (Stone, 5/11)
MedPage Today: Drug Targeting TLRs In Cutaneous Lupus Looks Good In Mid-Stage Studies
Enpatoran, an investigational oral drug that inhibits Toll-like receptors (TLR) 7 and 8, was superior to placebo in relieving lupus skin manifestations in a dose-finding phase II trial. (Gever, 5/11)
