Viewpoints: It’s Time To Stop Body Shaming Our Kids; How Well Is Digital Mental Health Care Working?
Editorial writers tackle these public health topics.
The Washington Post:
Let's Cancel Toxic Diet Culture — If Not For Us, For Our Kids
American diet culture teaches us at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good. Fat is ugly and thin is pretty. Fat is unhealthy and thin is healthy. Fat is irresponsible and thin is virtuous. This cultural bias is so pervasive and insidious that it turns almost everyone into either victim or collaborator. Or, if you’re like me, into both. (Kate Cohen, 4/17)
Stat:
Digital Mental Health Companies Need To Focus On Evidence
Over the past five years, digital mental health has risen from a niche topic to a global health priority. Patients, researchers, regulators, and investors alike are thrilled by the potential of ubiquitous mobile technology like smartphones to help diagnose problems, monitor health, and even deliver evidence-based therapies. Two companies that came to embody this potential were Mindstrong for smartphone monitoring of mental health and Pear Therapeutics for FDA-approved apps and digital interventions. (John Torous, 4/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Patient Outcomes Must Be Prioritized As COVID-19 Pandemic Nears End
As COVID kept patients away from the care they needed, preventive care and diagnostic screenings fell off dramatically. Between 2019 and 2021, about 1 million fewer people were screened for breast cancer, 4.4 million for cervical cancer and about 700,000 for prostate cancer. And adverse patient safety events—which were declining before the onset of the pandemic—began to rise again. (Dr. Tom Sequist, 4/17)
Stat:
Closing Rural Labor And Delivery Services Hurts Babies
A hospital in Idaho recently announced it will shutter its labor and delivery services due to doctors’ unwillingness to practice medicine in the face of the state’s restrictive and punitive laws surrounding reproductive health care. This comes on the heels of a hospital in rural Washington state closing its labor and delivery services due to concerns over the cost of these services. (Rachel Fleishman, 4/18)
Chicago Tribune:
Stress Is A Silent Killer For Pregnant Black Women
As a Black woman older than 40 and as a health disparities researcher, I knew that I met several of the risk factors for maternal morbidity and mortality. Instead of going home and calling the 800 number to speak to a nurse on call as the receptionist suggested, I called a friend, colleague and OB-GYN professor who insisted that I go to the emergency room immediately. (Inger Burnett-Zeigler, 4/17)
USA Today:
I Suffered A Traumatic Injury. Here's How I'm Retraining My Brain
Our brains have 86 billion neurons. Messages that tell us how to be, what to do, who we are. Did you know that the annual incidence of traumatic brain injury is greater than that of multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, HIV/AIDS and breast cancer combined? (Joseph Poduslo, 4/16)
The New York Times:
My Transplanted Heart And I Will Die Soon
Today, I will explain to my healthy transplanted heart why, in what may be a matter of days or weeks at best, she — well, we — will die. (Amy Silverstein, 4/18)
