Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Pink Ribbons Aren't Helping Breast Cancer; New Moms Deserve Better Lactation Supports
Stat: Enough Pink: Let's Do Breast Cancer Awareness Month Right
October is upon us, which means the world is about get a whole lot more pink. It’s as predictable as the return of pumpkin spice lattes and decorative gourds: ‘Tis the season for plastering a pink ribbon on everything from socks to skincare products, all in the name of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But a lot has changed since the monthlong event was dreamed up in the 1980s. With 1 in 8 women diagnosed with breast cancer, almost everyone knows someone affected by the disease. I was diagnosed with it at the end of September when I was 28, meaning that my first rounds of chemotherapy were punctuated with pink ribbon sightings: at the pharmacy, on the street, in store windows. (Hil Moss, 10/3)
USA Today: Support For Breastfeeding Moms Is Abysmal. COVID-19 Makes It Worse
After giving birth in Brooklyn in 2015, before I had even eaten, I phoned the hospital lactation consultant to beg for help feeding my daughter. She never called back or came, so I attended her weekly class. It consisted of bedraggled women wheeling their infants into a converted closet to watch a video. In it, a woman stroked her breast a couple of times and milk gushed out like Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, the only fluids exiting my body were the tears drenching my face. I left the hospital knowing zilch about breastfeeding, feeling defeated before I began. (Allison Yarrow, 10/1)
Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Need A Community Investment Approach To Improve Health
If you deliver healthcare, you know that children who live in disinvested neighborhoods too often land in emergency departments with conditions like asthma, uncontrolled diabetes and bacterial pneumonia that could be effectively prevented with better access to routine medical care, as well as other factors that influence health, like safe and affordable housing and healthier foods. As the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed, these barriers to health disproportionately impact people of color and those with low incomes. (Dr. Don Schwarz and Tim Robinson, 10/1)
Los Angeles Times: Why We Need A Global Institution For An Aging World
The COVID-19 pandemic has made global aging impossible to ignore. This pandemic is the first to occur since the world’s population of those older than 65 exceeded the population of children under 5 — and COVID-related mortality rises sharply with age. In the United States, for example, more than half of COVID deaths are among those aged 75 and older. Based purely on these demographic factors and mortality rates, the loss of life worldwide (4.7 million as of late September) has been greater than if the pandemic had occurred in previous eras. (John E. Ataguba, David E. Bloom and Andrew J. Scott, 10/3)
Houston Chronicle: Texas Veterans, "I Want YOU!" To Protect Your Brain Health
Along with the inherent health and safety risks faced during service in the armed forces, veterans may face a higher risk of developing dementia based on their military experiences. Studies by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that older veterans diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury had a 60 percent greater risk of developing dementia as compared with veterans of the same age who had not suffered a TBI. Prisoners of war had about a 50 percent greater risk of developing dementia later in life, and POWs affected by post-traumatic stress disorderhad more than double the risk. (Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., 10/2)
Stat: FDA's Naming Rule On Biosimilars Has Undermined Competition
I recently tried to order white blood cell growth factor (pegfilgrastim) biosimilar for one of my patients. This is a drug that helps prevent fever and infection associated with low white blood cell counts. For years, prescribing it has been simple, since the only option was the brand-name drug, Neulasta brand pegfilgrastim. But the patent on Neulasta expired in October 2015, and there are now several FDA-approved biosimilars on the market: Fulphila (pegfilgrastim-jmdb), Nyvepria (pegfilgrastim-apgf), Udenyca (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) and Ziextenzo (pegfilgrastim-bmez). (Howard S. Hochster, 10/4)
The Charlotte Observer: When Your Doctor Leaves A Practice, You Shouldn’t Have To Play Hide And Seek
A few friends recently received letters informing them that their doctors were leaving their practices. The letters were perfunctory .... In no case did the letters discuss the departing doctors’ plans — notably that they will still be practicing in Charlotte — nor tell the patients how they could continue care with their primary physicians. I am both shocked and not surprised. This is one more example of the encroachment of business decisions on the practice of medicine, of the primacy of institutional profit over the doctor-patient relationship. (Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe, 9/30)
