Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Withholding Your Opinions Is Harmful To Your Health; Where Are All The Infectious Disease Doctors?
The New York Times: Speak Up At Thanksgiving. Your Health Depends On It
Continually suppressing our opinions and emotions, especially if they arise from genuine concern or moral standpoints, can have profound consequences. Psychologically, emotional suppression can lead to an increased risk of depression. Physiologically, holding back our feelings is linked to a variety of health problems, such as immune dysfunction, hypertension and cancer. (Sunita Sah, 11/21)
Stat: Infectious Disease Doctor Shortage Threatens Future Health
In 2009, I was practicing in the emergency department when the H1N1 pandemic emerged. Then, I saw firsthand the vital role infectious disease physicians played in not only facilitating a coordinated public health response, but also helping patients, providers, and the public navigate the uncertainty that comes with confronting a novel virus. While on the frontlines of that pandemic, I depended on our community’s infectious disease specialists as I worked in real-time to provide patients with the answers and care they needed. (Raul Ruiz, 11/22)
The Washington Post: We Can Bring Gun Violence Under Control. Here's One Way How
Over the past decade, excluding accidents and suicides, more than 300,000 Americans have been shot, and nearly half of them have died. Millions more have suffered trauma, either as witnesses to shootings or as friends and family members of victims. By every measure, the physical, financial and emotional toll of gun violence in our society is staggering. (Andrew V. Papachristos, 11/22)
New England Journal of Medicine: Improving Trauma-Informed Care In The Face Of Firearm Violence
In this Double Take video from the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. Franklin Cosey-Gay, Sonya Mathies Dinizulu, Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., and Bradley Stolbach (University of Chicago) meet with members of REACT (Recovery Empowerment after Community Trauma) to discuss continuous traumatic stress from community violence in terms of its effects on health, its root causes, and how medical providers can better support survivors of violence. They also discuss ways in which the medical community can work toward prevention of community violence and strengthen patient advocacy outside the hospital. (Lynquell Biggs, et al, 11/16)
Newsweek: Want Better Health Care? Vote Democrat
Health care does not look to be as central to the 2024 campaign as it was in 2020, when the issue thoroughly dominated the Democratic primary before COVID upended the political world, or in 2016, when the long Republican plot to overturn the Affordable Care Act was centerstage right next to the world-historic issue of Hillary Clinton's private emails. But one thing is for certain—Democrats still have total issue ownership of health care, and the idea that it is going to be a strength next year for former President Donald Trump and the Republicans is so impossible that not even the most delusional person on Earth could believe it before breakfast. (David Faris, 11/21)
Stat: Why Rosalynn Carter Fought For Mental Health Reform
Few people leave the world with as much grace or influence as Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 96. While she called her autobiography “The First Lady of Plains,” to many she was also the first lady of mental health reform. Decades ago, she took bold stances on mental health topics that, today, have become conventional wisdom: Mental health is health, stigma is deadly, and people with mental illness deserve to be part of society instead of hidden away in overcrowded, dangerous facilities. (Phyllis Vine, 11/21)
New England Journal of Medicine: Opening The Door Wider To International Medical Graduates — The Significance Of A New Tennessee Law
International medical graduates (IMGs), defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) as people who graduated from a medical school located outside the United States and Canada, account for one in four physicians in the United States. Despite their important role in boosting physician supply and mitigating physician shortages in underserved areas,1 many IMGs face substantially higher barriers to licensing than graduates of U.S. or Canadian medical schools, which hinders their ability to practice medicine in the United States. (Tarun Ramesh, B.S., Marcela Horvitz-Lennon, M.D., M.P.H., and Hao Yu, Ph.D., 11/18)
