View this email in your browser<http://mailchi.mp/statnews/du3mbosn21?e=4aad33fd68>
[STAT]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2eaaef3b94&e=4aad33fd68>
Thursday, June 22, 2017
[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]
Sponsored by
[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/f8609630ae206654824f897b6/images/d00b427e-7e2a-4a54-858c-12f122a411e3.png]
Happy Thursday, folks! Welcome to Morning Rounds, where I get you ahead of the day's health news.
A sneak peek at the Senate health bill coming today
The Senate health bill is finally here. GOP leaders have polished off a draft version of the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. They're set to share it with their Republican colleagues in the Senate this morning, who have been anxiously — and warily — waiting to see what it'll look like. Congressional aides and lobbyists say the bill would eliminate the fine for not having insurance, get rid of tax hikes that helped to pay for expanded coverage, and make deeper cuts to Medicaid than the AHCA. But sources have told<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f645b71e1f&e=4aad33fd68> the AP there might be some wiggle room in how long the measure would take to phase out federal funding for states that expanded Medicaid.
The way teens use contraception is changing
As the teen birth rate<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=822119abdb&e=4aad33fd68> continues to tumble, the way teens choose to use contraception has changed, according to a new report<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9b7dccb3f1&e=4aad33fd68> out this morning from the CDC. Here’s what the survey of teens between 2011 and 2015 found<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=120a64f1f3&e=4aad33fd68>:
§ More teenage girls are using contraception the first time they have sex. Between 2011 and 2015, 81 percent of teen girls used contraception the first time they had sex, up from 75 percent in 2002.
§ Condoms are the most popular form of contraception. And more teenage boys are using them the first time they have sex. Nearly 80 percent used a condom the first time they had sex, up from 71 percent in 2002.
§ Emergency contraception use is on the rise. In 2002, just 8 percent of sexually active teen girls had used emergency contraception. Now, 23 percent have used it to prevent pregnancy after sex.
§ IUDs and other long-acting, reversible contraceptives are becoming more common. The new report finds that nearly 6 percent of teens have used LARCs. Half received intrauterine devices, and the other half used hormonal implants.
The showdown at Mylan's shareholder meeting
The controversy that’s plagued EpiPen maker Mylan could lead to a heated debate — and potentially a shakeup — at its annual shareholder meeting<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=00a257b420&e=4aad33fd68> today. Mylan, which has raised the price for an EpiPen two-pack by 500 percent over the past decade, has come under fire as a symbol of corporate greed in the pharma industry. Just this morning, STAT reported <http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=39e63789fd&e=4aad33fd68> that the company offered rebates to some state Medicaid programs on the condition that they'd make it harder for Medicaid patients to get rival products. Ahead of the shareholder meeting, several large pension funds have been pushing to oust Mylan CEO Heather Bresch and the company’s controversial chairman, Robert Coury.
Sponsor content by Shire
Shire Announces ADHD Treatment News
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may affect people beyond work into daily tasks, at home and in social settings. Shire recently announced news regarding a treatment option<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=b6a2ddbb77&e=4aad33fd68> for appropriate patients with ADHD. Intended for U.S. audiences.
Inside STAT<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=54e800a57e&e=4aad33fd68>: A day working at Planned Parenthood
There's a continued, fierce debate in Washington about federal funding for Planned Parenthood. STAT's Dom Smith traveled to a Planned Parenthood health center in Wilmington, N.C., to take a close-up look at the inside world of the highly contested clinics. Suzanne Wertman, a certified nurse midwife who works at the center, has found the political controversy difficult to take in. "Every day I take care of women," she said. "Sometimes it’s putting an implant in and sometimes it’s holding somebody’s hand after they’ve just found out they have herpes, and sometimes it’s abortion care.” Watch the video here<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=c17d1a583b&e=4aad33fd68>.
Reversing the scars that form after a heart attack
[87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png]
heart scarring is shown in blue. on the left, a cardiac valve after wisper was depleted. (r. micheletti et. al, science translational medicine)
The aftermath of a heart attack can cause scar tissue can build up to the point that it causes heart failure. There aren’t any treatments right now to reverse that scarring; most treatments for heart failure target muscle cells, not the fibroblasts of scar tissue. But in a new study<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=578d0350f2&e=4aad33fd68> on heart cells in culture, researchers have found a long noncoding RNA, dubbed WISPER, that seems to play a part in the scarring process. In heart biopsy samples from patients with cardiac scarring, they saw that higher WISPER levels correlated with more severe scarring, and vice versa. And deleting WISPER's counterpart RNA in a mouse model helped to undo some of the scarring. It still needs to be studied more, but the researchers say the molecule might be a potential target for therapies to reverse heart scarring.
Scary-sounding virus names make people more worried
The scarier the name of a virus, the more likely the public is to fret about contracting it and get a vaccination, a new study<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2d83ff3313&e=4aad33fd68> to be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases finds. Researchers had 16,500 people in 11 countries read an article about a pandemic flu spreading in their country, then filled out a survey about their concern about contracting the flu and their thoughts on getting vaccinated.
But the mock stories used different disease names: H11N3 influenza, horse flu, and Yarraman flu, which is named for an Aboriginal word for horse. Participants who read about “horse flu” were much less concerned and motivated to get a vaccine than those who read about Yarraman flu or H11N3 influenza. The researchers say that that discrepancy drives home the importance of effective communication when it comes to public health.
Francis Collins defends NIH funding amid talk of cuts
Next up on the budget hearing circuit: the NIH. The agency’s director, Dr. Francis Collins, is scheduled to go before a Senate committee this morning to talk about the funding needed to keep the NIH up and running next year. He’ll be joined by the leaders of the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Collins will have to defend the NIH’s budget, which President Trump has proposed cutting<http://statnews.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=587dec2ceb&e=4aad33fd68> by 18 percent next year. Expect him to get some support from Sen. Roy Blunt, the Missouri Republican who chairs the appropriations committee. He's expected to take a sharp stance against the proposal to cut research funding. Watch here<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=b9df9ff724&e=4aad33fd68> starting at 10 a.m. ET.
What to read around the web today
§ A pioneer in flat-fee primary care had to close its doors. What went wrong? Kaiser Health News<http://statnews.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=c6d918821f&e=4aad33fd68>
§ In defectors from the north, doctors in South Korea find hope — and data. Undark<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d4faf8566a&e=4aad33fd68>
More reads from STAT
§ Does breastfeeding prevent <http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=67cc5f33fb&e=4aad33fd68> heart disease and strokes?
§ With a rapper’s death, harsh spotlight falls on slow progress<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3ee68befa6&e=4aad33fd68> against sickle cell.
The latest from STAT Plus
§ Robert Califf: ‘The clinical trials enterprise has gone awry<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=001ff582d9&e=4aad33fd68>.'
§ Two winners and one loser in influential vaccine reviews<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=5df5679743&e=4aad33fd68>.
Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
[Megan]
[Facebook]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=86be71f0ea&e=4aad33fd68>
[Twitter]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2d1ed5d08e&e=4aad33fd68>
[STAT]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=5f139c3bf5&e=4aad33fd68>
|
