Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: How To Improve Technology In Health Care; Ways To Rebuild Doctor-Patient Trust
Stat: Health Care Needs A Strong Doctor/Technology Relationship
For the past few decades, technology has been gradually revolutionizing health care for patients. It may be having less-positive effects for physicians, some of whom eye it as a threat to doctoring. As the world simultaneously looks to technology to help us navigate the pandemic and the medical community to get us out of it, the need for both to work together and amplify grows clearer with each day. (Hilary Gentile and Sarah Cockle-Hearne, 5/17)
Newsweek: How To Win Back Americans Turning Away From Doctors For Medical Guidance
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, government and health officials have raised alarms about people getting false information. Despite all the warnings, the problem continues. "Fearmongering vaccine stories go viral online," NPR warned in March. "Americans are super-spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation," Canada's McGill University reported in April, citing a new study. (Karen Strauss, 5/14)
The Baltimore Sun: Is It Too Hard To Become A Doctor Today?
Across the nation this spring, thousands of aspiring physicians are receiving acceptance letters to medical schools. I remember the arrival of mine nearly two decades ago, especially as there was only one, (a relief after being wait-listed elsewhere). Unfortunately, this spring will also witness a greater number of applicants to American medical schools — many of them extraordinarily talented — rejected from every institution to which they apply. As more college students are inspired to pursue medical careers, by Anthony Fauci and the ordinary heroism of my colleagues during the pandemic, fewer and fewer of them will succeed. That is not just a tragedy for these would-be physicians, but for our society as a whole. (Jacob M. Appel, 5/14)
Los Angeles Times: How Doctor Culture Sinks U.S. Healthcare
Over the last pandemic year, we’ve seen doctors work heroically to save lives. Their dedication, expertise and work ethic represent the best of medical culture. But as we return to normality, we need to acknowledge that the same culture that turns doctors into heroes is also contributing to a healthcare crisis of rising costs and decaying standards. Physicians, policy experts and academics all insist that American healthcare suffers from systemic issues. By “systemic,” they mean bureaucratic. Clinicians, they say, are bogged down by administrative burdens, pesky prior-authorization requirements and cumbersome computers that (literally) sit between doctors and patients. (Robert Pearl, 5/16)
The Atlantic: The War On Trans Kids Is Totally Unconstitutional
Laws that prohibit physicians from providing treatments such as puberty blockers and cross-hormone therapy to minors are bad public policy. Their advocates claim that these are efforts to protect kids, who they argue may later change their mind, from medical treatments they characterize as irreversible. But these arguments don’t hold up to scrutiny: The laws—such as the one Arkansas just passed and those that more than a dozen other states, including Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, are actively considering—will certainly harm transgender children, denying them medical care that they need and causing them psychological pain. That should be reason enough to oppose these laws. (Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr., 5/16)
Scientific American: Autism And The Social Mind
Since the modern era of research on autism began in the 1980s, questions about social cognition and social brain development have been of central interest to researchers. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), and it is evident in this year’s meeting that the growth of social cognitive neuroscience over the past two decades has significantly enriched autism science. For those unfamiliar with the term, social cognitive neuroscience is the study of the brain systems that are involved in the causes and effects of social behaviors and social interaction. Some of these involve brain systems involved in thinking about other people’s thoughts or intentions, empathizing, social motivation and the impact of social attention on an individual’s thinking and emotions. (Peter Mundy, 5/15)
Stat: Nix The Bald Cancer Patient Motif For Cancer Marketing
Every time I see a pharmaceutical or health care ad or other marketing material that features a bald cancer patient, I get mad. As a marketer in the cancer technology and clinical research space, I’ve grown tired of the imagery used to promote cancer therapies not keeping pace with the remarkable innovations in this area. (Dorit Baxter, 5/17)
