Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Will Your Next Therapist Be AI?; We Should Look To Serbia's Example To Curb Gun Violence
Los Angeles Times: Can App-Based AI 'Therapists' Actually Help Your Mental Health?
In the last few years, 10,000 to 20,000 apps have stampeded into the mental health space, offering to “disrupt” traditional therapy. With the frenzy around AI innovations like ChatGPT, the claim that chatbots can provide mental health care is on the horizon. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 5/11)
The Guardian: Serbia Acted After Two Mass Shootings – The US Has Done Nothing Despite 200 This Year
Last week, Serbia experienced two separate mass shootings that killed more than a dozen people, including children. Serbia, a nation tied for the third highest rate of gun ownership in the world, was shaken by this violence. Unlike here at home, mass shootings are not a daily occurrence. It did not take long for the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, to take swift action. (Kris Brown, 5/10)
The Atlantic: An ICU Nurse Reflects On Futile Care
Americans openly discuss many problems in health care, such as out-of-control costs, greedy insurance companies, and understaffing. But not so much futile care, which is generally defined as an intervention that does not benefit the patient. (Kristin McConnell, 5/10)
Mankato Free Press: A Little More Muscle On Mental Health Parity
The good news on the mental health front is that the state of Minnesota appears to have for the first time in recent memory actually enforced the state's mental health parity law against an insurance company that appeared to be violating it. (5/10)
Stat: Fear-Based Messaging About Xylazine Is Destructive
It “rots” flesh. It “tears” bone. It will turn you into a “zombie.” According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues, these are some of the reasons we should fear and criminalize xylazine, a veterinary sedative and painkiller that is increasingly found in drugs purchased on the U.S. illicit market. (Stacey McKenna, 5/11)
