Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Doctors' Offices Are Overbooking Multiple Patients; What Needs To Happen With Kids' Social Media?
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Suffers From A Convenience Problem
When I arrive for a medical appointment, I’m not sure whether other patients are scheduled to see the doctor at the same time as me, but my suspicions mount with every 15 extra minutes spent in a waiting room. (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 6/5)
The Washington Post: Does Social Media Harm Kids? Answers Are Needed
The U.S. surgeon general released an advisory this past month warning that the country’s children “have become unknowing participants in a decades-long experiment” of social media use. The trouble is, the results aren’t in yet. (6/5)
The Washington Post: What Happened When I Took Ozempic
Ozempic is just part of a new arsenal of medications being used to treat obesity. In June 2021, the Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead to an identical formulation, at higher doses and a higher price, under the brand name Wegovy. (Ruth Marcus, 6/6)
Stat: Why We Need To Separate Burnout From Moral Injury In Health Care
Deployed in the desert Middle East, confined to a military base ringed by Hesco barriers and razor wire, Dr. Rita Gallardo’s only escape from the horrors of the combat-shattered bodies of young service members was dreaming of the life she might build later. But in the span of five years, Rita left two jobs when she struggled to get her patients the care they deserved, with the specialists she thought were best for their situation, all in the interests of corporate profits. (Wendy Dean, 6/7)
Kansas City Star: Kansas Requires No Investigation After Death In Nursing Home
“No one gets out of life alive.” That’s certainly not what I expected to hear from the hospice nurse upon hearing that a doctor who treated my father suspected foul play in his death. (Valerie Rouviere Harper, 6/7)
Stat: Donate To A Biobank To Help Medical Discoveries
Right now, it’s possible that cells from my body are growing in a lab somewhere and are being used to test new cancer drugs. After I was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumors, a rare type of cancer, I went through surgery to remove the tumors and chose to donate them to a biobank. I gave consent for the cells from my tumors to be used to create cell lines and organoids (three-dimensional tissue cultures) as models to study neuroendocrine tumors, since it is a poorly understood, under-investigated disease with limited treatment options. (Kimberly M. Baker, 6/7)
