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Tuesday, January 2, 2018
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
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Good morning, folks, and happy new year! Here's what you need to know to get ahead of the day's health news.
Dr. Phil airs new addiction episode, days after investigation into show's practices
Today’s new episode of the “Dr. Phil” show centers around a mom who became dependent on prescription painkillers and is now addicted to heroin. The billing: “From PTA mom to addicted and homeless in her luxury SUV.” The episode airs just days after a STAT-Boston Globe investigation<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3e32f546b4&e=4aad33fd68> found that in its pursuit of ratings, the show has risked the health of some of its guests battling addiction, according to people who have been on the show and addiction experts. The show denied the allegations.
The investigation also found that carefully placed promotions on the show are a financial opportunity for a new venture involving the show’s host, Phillip McGraw<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2694f4c487&e=4aad33fd68>, and his son, Jay. An addiction recovery program<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=62e56f3d4a&e=4aad33fd68> the McGraws launched this year comes with an enticing offer: Buy their self-help video product and you could land a valuable spot on the top-rated “Dr. Phil” show. More on that here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=1a19351200&e=4aad33fd68>.
What's coming in health and medicine this year?
I asked you to send in your predictions for what 2018 will mean for health and medicine. Here’s a look at what you shared:
§ “2018 will bring uncertainty at a time of unprecedented scientific progress. The legislative and budgetary uncertainties will slow the implementation of powerful technologies into healthcare. This is balanced by a hope for reduced regulatory burdens to speed the delivery of health products to the market.” —Dr. Edison Liu, president, the Jackson Laboratory
§ “I think death with dignity will gain a greater audience. Because of the high cost of end-of-life care and the rising abuse claims in nursing homes, death with dignity will gain traction especially among the aging and infirm populations.” —Linda Lamback
§ “In 2018, we're going to face the rise of the 13 cancers of obesity and the disparities in cancer mortality that result from them. The CDC has been sounding this alarm — that the cancers of obesity [are] rising, while 'non-obesity' cancers have been declining.” — Karen Knudsen, director, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson
Aid groups push for medical evacuations in Syrian city
Aid groups are urging governments to push for the evacuation of more than 650 patients in need of immediate medical care — including children with chronic illnesses and cancer — in the besieged Syrian city of Ghouta. Officials estimate there are at least 370,000 people in the city, many of whom are suffering from malnutrition and a lack of medical care. Last week, aid groups evacuated 29 critical patients. They’re now calling on leaders in the region to allow the rest of the patients to be evacuated and to open safe humanitarian corridors to get food and medicine into the city.
Inside STAT<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=8b99d39ba6&e=4aad33fd68>: What tadpoles with eyes on their tails could teach us about disease
[87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png]
a peek at a tadpole's eye. (VAIBHAV P. PAI/TUFTS UNIVERSITY)
Michael Levin’s tinkering with bioelectrical circuits has created some Frankensteins: frog embryos with organs growing in the wrong places, tadpoles that can detect light through eyes on their tails<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7fb5833479&e=4aad33fd68>, flatworms with “cat-like” heads. That’s shown that cellular voltage patterns play a role in tumor growth, brain development, and more. It’s still far from the clinic, but Levin says that understanding how cells and tissues cooperate to make every body part sit in the right place — and figuring out how to intervene when something goes wrong — is a step toward solving degenerative diseases, birth defects, and cancer. He even imagines harnessing bioelectric circuits so that you could regrow a limb after a traumatic injury. STAT’s Eric Boodman has the story — read here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=edf95b3545&e=4aad33fd68>.
E. coli outbreak sweeps through 13 states
The CDC is investigating an E. coli outbreak that’s swept through 13 states. More than a dozen people have been sickened by the bacteria, which can cause severe digestive problems. Public health officials in Canada are investigating a similar outbreak that’s been blamed on romaine lettuce. Health officials in the U.S. are still trying to pinpoint whether there’s a common denominator between the people sickened in the U.S.
Online tobacco ads are particularly persuasive for teens
Doctors are warning <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4aa561065d&e=4aad33fd68> that online tobacco ads might persuade teens to try tobacco more than other types of marketing do. In a new paper published in Pediatrics<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2e46fa73bf&e=4aad33fd68>, researchers analyzed data from 12,000 teens to see whether they’d been exposed to online tobacco ads between 2013 and 2014. Then, they followed up with that group a year later to see whether they’d been using tobacco products. The teens who’d viewed online tobacco ads were more likely to try tobacco, use it more often, and progress to using multiple tobacco products than those who hadn’t seen online ads. They were also less likely to quit using tobacco products. The authors argue that social media sites should work to limit teens’ engagement with tobacco ads to prevent that from happening.
What to read around the web today
§ My father's body, at rest and in motion. The New Yorker<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=5d441ac3d2&e=4aad33fd68>
§ Brains, hearts, and heroin addiction: medicine in VR. New York Times<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=b2d32710e6&e=4aad33fd68>
§ Can home health visits help keep people out of the ER? NPR<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=bdec4a1bd1&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
§ Too much screening has misled us about real cancer risk factors<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7470f7d8a7&e=4aad33fd68>, experts say.
§ Preliminary study hints that genetically modified T cells <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=abcbfb3088&e=4aad33fd68> might fight HIV.
The latest from STAT Plus
§ Price hikes on these top-selling drugs<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=277d1c917a&e=4aad33fd68> were a lot smaller this year, STAT analysis finds.
§ Medical device tax comes back Jan. 1, but opponents trying to ease its effects<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=ca2945f57c&e=4aad33fd68>.
Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
[Megan]
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