Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Apathy, Lack Of Quality Care Fuel High Maternal Morality Rate; ER Doctors Require Training To Fight Opioid Epidemic
WBUR: We Know How To Reduce The Number Of Women Who Die In Childbirth. Do We Have The Will?
The United States’ maternal mortality rate places us behind countries including Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — despite our possession of the world’s most advanced and expensive health care system. The reason why some women die in childbirth and others don’t has nothing to do with biology or culture, and everything to do with apathy. (Ophelia Dahl, 6/5)
USA Today: Opioid Addiction Fight Demands Training And Resources
I am an emergency room doctor who is also board-certified in addiction medicine. I work at many different hospitals, in different states, with different population densities and cultures. I drop in, work a shift or two and go home. One thing that allows me to seamlessly join an ER staff is that the general approach to any medical problem or injury is well understood. The one major exception is in my area of specialization. (R. Corey Waller, 6/4)
The Hill: Restricting Access To Medication Abortions Undermines Women’s Health Care
Arkansas became the first state to ban medication abortion, with the Supreme Court rejecting a challenge to a state law restricting the procedure.By allowing the law to stand, people seeking abortion in Arkansas will be denied access to health care. This law, like the numerous other medically unnecessary regulations on abortion in the state, are simply political ploys to cut off access to care and are not rooted in medicine or science. (Mary Fjerstad, 6/4)
Stat: Compassionate Use's 'Cruel Joke': Pharma Companies Don't Have To Comply
From my days in medical school, I vaguely remember learning about lysosomal storage disorders. They occupied at most part of a lecture or two in my second-year pathophysiology course. I memorized a few details about these rare diseases in preparation for my board exam, and then never gave them another thought. These diseases were treated by pediatric specialists and wouldn’t be part of my life as a cardiologist.That changed a few weeks ago when my 28-month-old daughter, Radha, was diagnosed with a lysosomal storage disorder. Now I know far more about these diseases than I did in medical school. I’ve also learned a frustrating fact that no medical school teaches its students: While the FDA has a compassionate use program to allow people access to experimental drugs, it can’t compel a company to provide those drugs. The newly signed “right-to-try” law doesn’t either. (Vibhav Rangarajan, 6/5)
The Hill: Biology Doesn’t Explain Disparities In Cancer Treatment — Racial Bias Does
The story was all too familiar. A patient is diagnosed with locally aggressive prostate cancer. A few days before the surgery, the patient does not show up for his preoperative visit. We call the patient. “We noticed you didn’t show up for the pre-op, is everything okay?” “I am sorry, doc. Had to cancel — something came up,” he sighed. “No problem. Should we reschedule the procedure?” “To be honest, Doc, I am not sure if I can afford to miss work right now. The surgery is going to have to wait.” In this story, our patient is black. (Junaid Nabi and Quoc-Dien Trinh, 6/4)
Los Angeles Times: A New Report Affirms What We Already Know: Easier Access To Guns Means More Violent Deaths
Studies have proved what common sense has already told us: Places that have more and easier access to guns tend to have more gun deaths. Now a new report by the Violence Policy Center reaffirms a similar link between looser gun-control laws and gun-suicide rates.It stands to reason that suicidal people with easy access to firearms will find it easier to kill themselves on the spur of the moment, and studies also have found that connection between access to firearms and gun homicides. The link is there, too, in lethal acts of domestic violence including murder-suicides — a woman is five times more likely to be killed if she lives in a house with a gun, according to one study. It’s the guns that increase the lethality of a moment, whether it be a self-destructive impulse or a lover’s rage. (6/4)
The Wall Street Journal: Profile Of A School Shooter
Charles Andrew Williams hid in a bathroom stall at Santana High School on a March day in 2001, staring at his father’s .22 revolver. The 15-year-old opened the door once, shut it in fear, and waited a few moments. Then he came out shooting—exhausting nearly 40 bullets, killing two people and injuring 13 others. Over the next 17 years, he has grasped for possible explanations: incessant bullying, being forced to move twice in two years, his small stature at the time. He still can’t square his actions. (6/3)
