Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Scientists Acknowledge Genetic Research Needs To Be Presented With 'Great Care' In Racially Charged Landscape
The New York Times: Why White Supremacists Are Chugging Milk (And Why Geneticists Are Alarmed)
Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name of white supremacy. “Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult,” said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the group’s social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction. But the specter of the field’s ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large for many geneticists in light of today’s white identity politics. (Harmon, 10/17)
NPR: Microsoft Pioneer's Legacy: Allen Institute For Brain Science
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who died Monday, made his fortune from software that ran computer brains. But Allen's own passion was for the human brain. "The human brain works in, so far, mysterious and wondrous ways that are completely different than the ways that computers calculate," he told NPR during an interview in 2003. "Things like appetite or emotion, how do those function in the brain?" (Hamilton, 10/16)
The New York Times: A Device That Makes Running Faster And Easier
A newly invented wearable device could provide support, succor and an unexpected boost in speed to runners who might otherwise not be able to keep up with their training partners or former selves, as well as people who might like to try running but fear it is just too hard. The device, a kind of lightweight harness worn around the midsection and legs, can increase someone’s running efficiency by about 8 percent or more, according to a new study, making running feel much easier and also raising interesting questions about whether and how we should augment natural human abilities. (Reynolds, 10/17)
The Associated Press: Obesity Surgery May Lower Heart Attack Danger In Diabetics
Obesity surgery may dramatically lower the danger of heart attacks and strokes in patients with diabetes, new research suggests, reinforcing evidence that benefits extend beyond weight loss. The study tracked about 20,000 severely obese patients with Type 2 diabetes. Those who had weight loss surgery had a 40 percent lower chance of developing a heart attack or stroke in the five years following surgery compared to those who got usual care with diabetes medicines or insulin. (Johnson, 10/16)
The Washington Post: Concussions Were Down 13 Percent During The NFL Preseason, League Says
The number of concussions suffered by NFL players during the preseason dropped 13 percent this year, the league announced Tuesday. The decrease came after the league enacted a plan to reduce concussions, following a 2017 season in which concussions were up. There were 79 concussions suffered by players during preseason practices and games this year, NFL officials said during the owners’ fall meeting. That was down from 91 concussions suffered by players during the same time frame last year. (Maske, 10/16)
NPR: Veterinarians Asked To Euthanize Animals Improperly Feel 'Moral Distress'
In some ways, it can be harder to be a doctor of animals than a doctor of humans. "We are in the really unenviable, and really difficult, position of caring for patients maybe for their entire lives, developing our own relationships with those animals — and then being asked to kill them," says Dr. Lisa Moses, a veterinarian at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center and a bioethicist at Harvard Medical School. (Goldberg, 10/17)
Kaiser Health News: FDA Allows Food Makers To Fortify Corn Masa To Halt Birth Defects, But Few Do
Two years after the Food and Drug Administration allowed manufacturers to add folic acid, a crucial B vitamin that prevents terrible birth defects, to their corn flour, very few have done so. A new research report found that only 10 percent of corn masa flour and no soft corn tortillas contained folic acid, which can help prevent devastating neural tube birth defects, including spina bifida and anencephaly. The grain is a staple food in the diet of Hispanics, who have higher rates of the disabling and sometimes fatal defects. (Aleccia, 10/16)
Modern Healthcare: Outpatient Surgery Clinics Will Get Quality Grades From Leapfrog
Leapfrog Group will start publishing safety and quality performance of hospital outpatient surgery departments and ambulatory care centers in 2020, the group said Tuesday. Like its hospital safety grades, the outpatient data will be available to the public. Leapfrog will ask the centers to voluntarily submit performance data. The group has asked centers for input on which questions it should ask on the surveys. (Castellucci, 10/16)
Kaiser Health News: States Act To Safeguard Young Cancer Patients’ Chances To Have Children
When Katherine Frega was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma eight years ago at age 17, she was so sick that all she could focus on was starting chemotherapy to treat her aggressive blood cancer. It was her dad who thought to ask the oncologist, “How is this treatment going to affect her ability to have children?” The oncologist discussed the risks but stressed that Frega needed to start treatment right away. (Andrews, 10/17)
