Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Boston Doctors Face Appalling New Threat; Ideas For Repairing The Nursing Shortage
The Boston Globe: The White Nationalist Threat To Antiracist Medicine In Boston
There’s no time in recent memory when social disparities haven’t been reflected in disparities of risk for disease, delayed diagnosis, poor-quality care, and premature death or disability. In the United States, racism remains a ranking driver of such disparities; those disparities widen as new tools to prevent and treat disease are made available to some and not to others. COVID-19 serves as the latest object lesson in this regard, within this nation and across the globe. (Paul Farmer, Sheila Davis and Ophelia Dahl, 2/7)
Stat: Medicare Can Help Fix The Nurse Shortage In Hospitals
There’s no polite way to say this: The U.S. health care system failed the American people during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unless we admit to the failures — like not having enough nurses in hospitals — we are bound to repeat them. The U.S. spends considerably more on health care per capita than any other country in the world, with a total bill exceeding $4 trillion in 2020. U.S hospitals alone spent close to $1.3 trillion in 2020 and still failed to employ enough nurses — even before the pandemic — to provide safe and effective care. (Linda H. Aiken and Claire M. Fagin, 2/8)
The Tennessean: The Decrease Of Independent Medical Practice Impacts Americans
Upon facing declining revenue prospects, physicians are shuttering their private, independent practices to partner up with larger hospitals that have near-monopolies on care in the regions they serve. This trend is depressing news for most Americans. Further concentration of market power in these health systems ultimately results in less personalized care and higher overall costs for patients. (Sally C. Pipes, 2/7)
Stat: Cancer Moonshot 2.0: A Missed Opportunity For Prevention
President Biden’s new initiative to “reignite the cancer moonshot” proposes the laudable goal of cutting the cancer death rate in the United States in half in the next 25 years, but misses the opportunity to advance the strategies that could achieve that target. Noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed nearly 900,000 lives in the last two years while cancer has killed more than 1.2 million Americans in the same period, Biden called for a new sense of urgency in making progress in reducing the burden of cancer. (Nicholas Freudenberg, 2/5)
The New York Times: Getting Rid Of Joe Rogan Won’t Solve The Health Misinformation Problem
Another week, another platform in trouble for allowing its talent to give voice to misinformation. This time, Joe Rogan suggested that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are a type of “gene therapy” and that young people are at a greater risk from the shots than the disease, among other false and dubious health claims featured on his popular, Spotify-hosted podcast. The calls to remove his podcast have only intensified after revelations that he’s also repeatedly used a racist slur on the show, leading Spotify’s chief to apologize to the company’s employees. (Julia Belluz and John Lavis, 2/8)
Stat: Biopharma Manufacturing At The Edge With Localized, Agile Factories
Pharmaceutical manufacturing has had to navigate transformational changes during the pandemic, just like many other industrial sectors. Demand for manufacturing capacity reached levels that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago. Yet although the situation was unprecedented, and the measures taken extraordinary, the pandemic did not actually change the direction of travel for how biopharma companies manufacture drugs. (Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, 2/7)
Stat: Development Of Clinical Practice Guidelines 'Is A Mess'
The world of clinical practice guidelines is a mess. Regardless of what medical field you look at — oncology, cardiology, urology — looking at guidelines recommending treatment developed for different countries might give you vertigo, wondering which way is up. Even something that should be as simple as recommendations for treating uncomplicated high blood pressure can differ greatly, depending on who funded the organization producing the guideline, whether the guideline makers used the best available evidence, and the involvement of financially conflicted authors. (Alan Cassels, Mohamed Ben-Eltriki and James M. Wright, 2/8)
