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Thursday, December 14, 2017





[Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking]





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Good morning, folks! Welcome to Morning Rounds.





Here's how the new tax bill could impact health care



GOP leaders in the House and Senate have come up with a compromise on the party's massive tax overhaul, which Republicans say they're confident they'll get to the president's desk next week. Here's how it could change health care:

§  The bill would get rid of the penalty that people who don't have health insurance currently have to pay. That'll likely leave far fewer people insured in the long run — the Congressional Budget Office estimates that without the mandate, 13 million more people won't have health care coverage by 2027.

§  It would continue to allow people to deduct costly out-of-pocket medical expenses from their taxes.

§  The corporate tax rate will drop to 21 percent next year, which is good news for the biopharma industry.

§  It doesn't include any tax on the tuition waivers that many graduate students currently get, a proposal which would've made it much more expensive for students to pursue advanced science degrees.



Kellyanne Conway's growing role in White House drug policy



Kellyanne Conway has been leading weekly White House meetings with top administration officials to craft a response to the opioid crisis, according to Conway and other administration officials. In an interview with STAT, Conway said she and others in the White House are pushing Congress to appropriate more money for addiction treatment and prevention and to put at least some of the recommendations from the president’s opioid commission into action. She’s assuming a more active policy role at a time when the positions of health secretary, drug czar, and DEA leader are all vacant. STAT’s Lev Facher has more here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=181576eed2&e=4aad33fd68>.





These were the most talked-about studies this year



It’s been a big year for health and medicine research. The metrics site Altmetric has nailed down the most talked-about studies<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2c9725f2e4&e=4aad33fd68> this year, based on social media posts and press coverage. Here’s a look at the top five:



1.       Fats, carbs, and heart disease: This massive study<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=94a3304344&e=4aad33fd68> — which found that carbs, not fat, are tied to increased mortality risk — cast doubt on conventional diet wisdom.



2.      Male vs. female doctors: Public health researchers found<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2a9bc6513b&e=4aad33fd68> that elderly patients treated by female docs were less likely to die or be readmitted to the hospital than those treated by men.



3.      Global trends in obesity and malnutrition: This study found that childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed in recent decades, but an estimated 192 million kids are underweight.



4.      Ebola vaccine efficacy: Researchers found<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=42531b7468&e=4aad33fd68> that an Ebola vaccine tested during the West African outbreak worked well. It was the first Ebola vaccine proven to be highly effective.



5.      Brain damage in football players: Research on 202 former NFL, college, and even high school football players found evidence<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=a3ba4215a6&e=4aad33fd68> of the brain disease CTE in nearly 90 percent of them.











Sponsor content by STAT Plus



Come for a respite from the festivities. Stay for the biotech analysis.



This holiday season treat yourself to our best-in-class life sciences coverage and analysis for 50% off your first three months<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4ae5732195&e=4aad33fd68>. Keep a pulse on the trends and disruptions shaping the industry — from M&A and earnings readouts, to FDA decisions and clinical trial results. Get the stories you need to know, as they unfold — subscribe today<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0ef76805cd&e=4aad33fd68>.













Here's how often teens are using drugs



[87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png]



(megan thielking / stat)



Nearly 28 percent of high school seniors have used a vaping device in the past year, according to a new national survey<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0d2081908b&e=4aad33fd68> of teens. Of those teens, 33 percent said they vaped nicotine, 11 percent vaped marijuana, and 52 percent vaped just flavoring. That’s troubling, experts say, because research suggests some teens who vape nicotine will go on to use traditional tobacco products. The good news: Use of hookahs and regular cigarettes is falling, as is misuse of prescription opioids. Just 4 percent of high school seniors said they misused pain meds in 2017, down from a peak of more than 9 percent in 2004.





The flu takes a major toll worldwide each year



Between 291,000 and 646,000 people worldwide die from respiratory conditions tied to the seasonal flu every year — not including deaths during pandemics — researchers report in the Lancet<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=fca6762819&e=4aad33fd68>. The researchers were working with death data from 33 countries, which made it difficult to come up with a precise count. The study’s authors say the figures might underestimate the toll that seasonal flu takes, because the analysis didn’t look at deaths caused by other conditions that can be exacerbated by the flu, like cardiovascular disease or diabetes.





Doctors urge Congress to act on DACA



The nation’s leading medical groups are urging Congress to make sure that health care workers and students who were protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program can keep working, studying, and researching in the U.S. President Trump rescinded DACA in September and told Congress to come up with a permanent fix before current recipients lose their status in March. In a letter<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=51f44acf58&e=4aad33fd68> to Congressional leaders, American Medical Association and other groups say a legal path to permanent residency would “help our country produce a diverse and culturally responsive health care workforce to meet the needs of underserved populations, promote health equity, and avoid unnecessary disruption in our education and training systems.”





What to read around the web today

§  Consumers shopping for health insurance find high prices — and some great deals. NPR<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=010143986d&e=4aad33fd68>

§  These annual checkups help seniors not only survive, but thrive. Kaiser Health News<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2b199eb017&e=4aad33fd68>

§  Baby born with heart outside her body is saved by U.K. surgeons. New York Times<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=8597475f7e&e=4aad33fd68>





More reads from STAT

§  When death is imminent, end-of-life care decisions<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=72a93c39b2&e=4aad33fd68> sometimes go out the window.

§  A health care paradox: measuring and reporting quality<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=c9ca3af19f&e=4aad33fd68> has become a barrier to improving it.





The latest from STAT Plus

§  Hospital and pharma lobbyists spar over drug-discount program<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2c1f104682&e=4aad33fd68> before time runs out.

§  Interfaith investor coalition pushes shareholder proposals targeting drug prices and executive pay<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=47acd3de55&e=4aad33fd68>.









Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,

[Megan]















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