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Friday, March 30, 2018
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
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Happy Friday, folks! Here's what you need to know about science and medicine this morning. Be sure to cast your vote <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6ea8dd6ca0&e=4aad33fd68> in the final round of our STAT Madness bracket — voting closes today!
FDA doubles down on healthy eating
The FDA is moving full steam ahead with plans to help Americans eat healthier. "I feel strongly that FDA can do more to assist the American public with creating healthier diets for themselves and their families," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=a21f254051&e=4aad33fd68> in a speech yesterday. What to watch for:
* A salty update: Gottlieb says next year the FDA will update its voluntary targets for reducing sodium levels in a slew of foods, from frozen pizza to canned goods.
* A new dictionary entry: Gottlieb also doubled down on the agency’s plans to define what “healthy” means when it’s tacked on a food label. In 2016, FDA asked the public to weigh in on the question and more than 870 people did — including a grammarian who urged the FDA <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6172b6ce6d&e=4aad33fd68> to ask people to eat healthfully, instead of healthy.
* Food packaging plans: The agency is also considering how to display the idea that a food is "healthy" on packaging, so it's easy for consumers to spot. The FDA is also moving ahead with some Obama-era plans, including an update to nutrition labels.
The new figure tasked with tackling high drug prices
There's a new face on Capitol Hill working to combat high prescription drug prices. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has officially appointed Daniel Best as the first-ever Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Drug Pricing Reform. The job description is just like it sounds — he'll head up the health department's work to bring down high drug prices. Best comes from CVS Health, where he led industry relations for the company's Medicare Part D business.
A blueprint for battling physician burnout
There's a new blueprint out in JAMA <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=618db79f4e&e=4aad33fd68> that aims to help the medical community combat physician burnout. Burnout is a big issue for doctors, who face high rates of depression, job dissatisfaction, and other work-related issues. The charter — which targets hospitals, medical schools, and policymakers, among other groups — lays out a list of ways to prevent and deal with burnout among doctors, from overhauling work schedules to offering counseling and wellness programs for physicians.
Sponsor content by The Readout Loud
Join the STAT biotech team for “The Readout LOUD” podcast
STAT invites you to tune into “The Readout LOUD,” a new, weekly biotech podcast featuring STAT reporters Adam Feuerstein, Rebecca Robbins, and Damian Garde. Each week they’ll react to the latest news, predict what will happen next, and go behind the headlines with special guests. It’s now available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Listen today.<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=c19a3f1a5a&e=4aad33fd68>
Inside STAT<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=5d36247446&e=4aad33fd68>: Why students are pushing for affordable drugs
UCLA students are making a coordinated push to get their university to allow patients access to a drug developed on their own campus. The drug, a prostate cancer medicine called Xtandi, is at the center of a legal battle in India over whether generic competitors can enter the market. But students say the university is on the wrong side of that fight — and they're urging administrators to make sure that medicines created at UCLA are accessible and affordable to people in low- and middle-income countries. STAT's Elizabeth Cooney has more here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7ba41a1cf2&e=4aad33fd68>.
How chameleons could help build better biomaterials
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the material turns red when it is condensed, and shifts to blue when elongated. (M. VATANKHAH-VARNOSFADERANI ET AL., SCIENCE 2018)
Taking a cue from chameleons, scientists have created<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=e1d2ee5a4d&e=4aad33fd68> a new material that mimics skin as it stiffens — with the added effect of changing colors as its mechanical properties change. The polymer-based material is modeled after the skin's scaffold of stiff collagen fibers, which keep the skin structured, and elastin, which makes the skin more flexible. Chemist Sergei Sheiko, who helped create the new material, tells me the technique could one day be useful in materials with specific mechanical properties for biomedical implants.
“Our body [is] an aging car that constantly needs replacement parts, [and] these materials [must] closely mimic the mechanics of living tissue,” he explains. “We can make materials as soft as brain tissue and as stiff as skin.”
Here's how prevalent type 2 diabetes is in the U.S.
New research shows 21 million adults in the U.S. are living with type 2 diabetes, which shakes out to nearly 9 percent of the adult population. The number of adults with type 2 diabetes has risen in recent years as obesity rates continue to climb. Another 1.3 million adults are living with type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin. And another 800,000 people are living with other forms of the condition, like gestational diabetes, according to the new estimates <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=aea7b6d5d3&e=4aad33fd68> out from the CDC.
Is care getting more affordable for cancer survivors?
Cancer survivors still have more trouble accessing and paying for health care than adults who haven’t had cancer, despite higher insurance rates after the ACA. In a new paper<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0e03959aa0&e=4aad33fd68>, researchers combed through data from national health surveys between 2010 and 2016 to compare the experiences of adult cancer survivors and adults who haven’t had cancer. Each year, the proportion of survivors who said they delayed medical care or couldn’t afford their medications fell. But despite those declines, cancer survivors were still more likely than adults who didn’t have cancer to report issues paying for their health care. The takeaway: There’s been progress, but it’s been incremental.
What to read around the web today
* 'Aggressive' new advance directive would let dementia patients refuse food. Kaiser Health News<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=ab3e0bc182&e=4aad33fd68>
* How New York allowed a sexual predator to practice medicine for decades. Village Voice<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=fe90aa4339&e=4aad33fd68>
* Walmart in early acquisition talks with Humana. Wall Street Journal<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=185b12d564&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
* New CDC director predicts U.S. can end AIDS epidemic<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9c3198e516&e=4aad33fd68> within seven years.
* Millions have been traumatized by female genital mutilation. The practice must end<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=48b3798916&e=4aad33fd68>.
The latest from STAT Plus
* FDA charts path forward <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0ca6ca38ab&e=4aad33fd68> for biosimilars — but drug makers aren’t all on board.
* Houston aspires to become the ‘third coast’ of biotech<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2dc25c48c3&e=4aad33fd68>. Can it pull it off?
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend,
[Megan]
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