Viewpoints: Mental Health Effects Of Pandemic Are Varied; Are Biosimilar Therapies The Future Of Medicine?

San Diego Union-Tribune: Research Verifies Pandemic's Effect On Mental Health 
While many people have been out of work during the pandemic, San Diego State Professor Jean Twenge has been working overtime. The psychologist has been uber-busy designing surveys and sifting through statistics to assess the effects of the pandemic on parents and children — with some surprising findings. Last June, she co-published research comparing mental health responses of adults after the onset of the pandemic to a similar survey of adults in 2018. (Diane Bell, 4/9)

Stat: Three Steps Toward Creating A Functioning U.S. Biosimilars Market 
The development of safe, effective, and innovative biologic medicines is one of modern medicine’s far-reaching achievements. From cancer and colitis to rheumatoid arthritis, biologics have transformed many severe diseases into treatable conditions for millions of people. (Pierre Bourdage, 4/12)

Health Affairs: Reversing Hospital Consolidation: The Promise Of Physician-Owned Hospitals
Economic theory holds that competition drives innovation, improves the quality of goods and services, and lowers prices for consumers. Health care delivery is no exception. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting operational challenges in hospital care delivery have stimulated policy makers’ appetite to address longstanding problems in hospital market efficiency and consolidation. In large part because of mergers, the vast majority of US metropolitan residents now live in highly concentrated hospital markets. As policy experts and researchers consider opportunities to engender flexibility, expand capacity, and promote competition in the nation’s hospital industry, a sector plagued by 20 years without labor productivity growth, recent research has reaffirmed the challenges of hospital market consolidation. Hospital and physician consolidation into health systems results in the loss of both price and non-price competition. Well-documented, specific harms of provider consolidation are many, including a lack of quality benefits and decrement in patient experience, physician burnout due to a loss of control over the practice environment, and higher hospital prices driving rising insurance premiums and ultimately rising costs to consumers. (Brian J. Miller, Robert E. Moffit, James Ficke, Joseph Marine and Jesse Ehrenfeld, 4/12)

Newsweek: Biden Infrastructure Plan Misses The Mark On Care For Disabled Americans 
President Joe Biden last week proposed $400 billion in new federal spending on home- and community-based services for seniors and individuals with disabilities as part of a $2 trillion infrastructure package. While these provisions might at first glance seem out of place with a topic normally associated with roads and bridges, the proposal fits with the broader themes of Biden's plan. As with the overall package, Biden's home-based care proposal begins with a good idea but points it in the wrong policy direction, using it as an excuse to expand government rather than tackling important structural reforms. The proposal stems from a longstanding disparity within the state-federal Medicaid program. While states must cover nursing home care for all eligible Medicaid beneficiaries, home- and community-based care remain only optional services for states to cover. As a result, states can, and do, institute waiting lists to access home- and community-based care. Beneficiaries on these lists receive full medical benefits, but have to wait—years, in some cases—to qualify for services like visits from a home aide to help with activities of daily living. (Chris Jacobs and Mary Vought, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Asian Bias Flourishes In The Medical Profession 
The operating room nurse, a trim, muscular white man in his 30s, possessed the brisk and efficient movements of one well-versed in the elaborate ritual of running a surgical suite. My assistant that night, a young male surgeon-in-training, and I had been called to a hospital a hundred miles from ours to help procure organs from a patient declared brain dead. Standing with my assistant, our hands freshly scrubbed, we were ready to be gowned and gloved for the operation. The nurse gathered the first sterile gown in his arms. But instead of walking over to begin dressing me, the surgeon in charge, he walked over to my assistant and draped the material over his shoulders. I saw my young colleague flush under his mask, trying to shake off the gown and motion to me. (Pauline W. Chen, 4/12)

Newsweek: New Mexico's Dangerous, Discriminatory Assisted Suicide Law 
In the midst of a pandemic, the New Mexico state legislature ignored the needs of its constituents—many of whom lack basics like reliable electricity and running water, never mind basic medical care—in favor of passing a dangerous and discriminatory assisted suicide law. This and similar policies in other states have proven the failure of proponents to safeguard the people most susceptible to abuse, mistakes and coercion. Beyond the fact that every supposed "safeguard" in the New Mexico law and others like it is unenforceable and circumventable, legislators in the state have allowed medical professionals with less training to facilitate patients' suicide. Doctors themselves are not always accurate in their prognostications, and patients could throw away good months, years or even decades over a best-guess mistake. Patients like Jeannette Hall, who would have killed herself with assisted suicide but is, thankfully, still alive decades later. (Matt Valliere, 4/13)

Stat: Building The Perfect Wearable For Clinical Trials 
The pace of innovation in wearable technology has never been faster. As often as once a year, major brands debut new devices, offering consumers sleeker and faster hardware and updated software. While consumers may get excited about the latest bells and whistles, these product launches generally leave the clinical care and research communities in the cold. This is unfortunate for two reasons: it’s doesn’t advance health care, and it’s a missed business opportunity for companies that make wearables. The pharmaceutical industry is an increasingly interested buyer for these devices. What was once a novelty for trials and studies is now approaching common practice. (Sam Volchenboum, 4/13)