View this email in your browser<http://mailchi.mp/statnews/789iikxonq?e=4aad33fd68> [STAT]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f4910384b9&e=4aad33fd68> Thursday, May 11, 2017 [Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking] Follow STAT on Facebook<http://statnews.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0972e2417c&e=4aad33fd68> and Twitter<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=25318a8100&e=4aad33fd68>, and visit us at statnews.com<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=38b03e0293&e=4aad33fd68> Good morning, folks! Here's what you need to know about the worlds of health and medicine today. If you like this newsletter, tell a friend to sign up<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=a5e84197ae&e=4aad33fd68>. An hours-long, hostile town hall for GOP lawmaker New Jersey Representative Tom MacArthur — one of the leading figures behind the new repeal and replace plan — faced five straight hours of criticism from his constituents at a town hall last night. Protesters lay in the parking lot outside the event holding fake tombstones as some of the 250 people in the audience tore into the congressman, who is also a wealthy insurance executive. One man whose wife had breast cancer shouted at MacArthur for 12 minutes. POLITICO reports <http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0cab03bf4c&e=4aad33fd68> that the crowd booed when MacArthur said no one with a pre-existing condition would be declined coverage or priced out of purchasing coverage. One audience member's response: "You’re a liar. Have you read your own bill?” The new roster for the president's opioid commission There's a new roster<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3effedaca5&e=4aad33fd68> for the White House's commission set up to tackle the opioid crisis. Two governors, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, were appointed to the team, led by fellow Governor Chris Christie. They'll be joined by Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman who is in recovery and Bertha Madras, a Harvard researcher who studies psychiatry and addiction. Inside STAT<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=347c37c0e1&e=4aad33fd68>: Is surgical smoke a real threat? [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/f8609630ae206654824f897b6/images/c83b3721-07d5-480c-92d9-47058b759e87.gif]<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=6eb91a9b84&e=4aad33fd68> where some smell smoke, others smell money. (dom smith / stat) The hot surgical tools used to cut and cauterize tissue in an operating room emit caustic smoke that contains carcinogens. Activists often claim breathing that air is the equivalent of smoking up to 30 unfiltered cigarettes a day. Nurses who are regularly exposed to the smoke report being more likely to suffer from congestion, coughing, and asthma. That’s led health care workers to launch national campaigns to mandate that hospitals use devices that capture the smoke as it’s being produced. But a STAT analysis has found that the terrifying claims about surgical smoke are mostly drawn from small, dubiously designed studies and scattered anecdotes. The public campaigns around the issue are largely sponsored by medical device makers. STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling has the story here<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=e3231d05ed&e=4aad33fd68>. Nerve pain coverage under 9/11 health program denied Federal health officials have turned down<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=949b594c8a&e=4aad33fd68> a petition to add nerve pain to the list of conditions covered under the World Trade Center Health Program. The program provides medical monitoring and treatment coverage for first responders, cleanup workers, and anyone exposed to dust in a disaster area after the 9/11 attacks. There have been reports of neuropathy — numbness and pain due to nerve damage — from some individuals on the ground. But the CDC has just ruled that that evidence doesn’t cut it; the agency took issue with the animal model used in one study and design flaws in other research. Drug makers debate what makes for a fair price The World Health Organization is tackling the thorny issue of drug pricing and access to medicines in a global forum today. The agency is bringing together the pharma industry, patient groups, insurers, and government officials to talk about how they can collaborate to improve access to costly drugs. WHO officials want to use today’s meeting to raise all the options that might create fairer drug prices, and then get those groups talking. The goal: Help countries take steps toward universal health coverage that includes access to essential medicines. An advisory group within the WHO says<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3c6702c72b&e=4aad33fd68> “the time is ripe to rethink how medicines are priced.” A new library of stem cells to study disease Researchers have created an impressive new library of hundreds of stem cell lines from healthy individuals for scientists to use in their studies. The library, a collaboration between universities in the UK, began with skin biopsies from 301 volunteers. Researchers turned those cells into different lines of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, complete with information on the genomes and cell biology of each line. Scientists in any lab can coax those stem cells to grow into something more specific, such as cardiac muscle cells, and then use them to build a model for studying disease. The library will also give researchers a new way to study how stem cells can differ from one healthy person to the next to get a better idea of what a standard iPS cell looks like. Read more about the new resource in Nature<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4f9c106198&e=4aad33fd68>. A positive sign for a health agency under threat The Trump administration has named<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9ffa43e982&e=4aad33fd68> a new director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — which some in the field are taking as a sign that the agency won’t be cut or consolidated into the NIH like they worried it might. Gopal Khanna, who has worked on an innovation initiative in the Illinois HHS department for the past two years, was nominated to run the agency. The AHRQ has a budget of $470 million per year to support research on improving health care quality. Republicans have tried to significantly slash the office’s funding in recent years. And Trump proposed merging the agency with the NIH in his budget blueprint, alongside cutting the NIH’s budget by 20 percent. Congress went on to raise the NIH’s budget by $2 billion. Scott Gottlieb's real first day An apology to Scott Gottlieb — I jumped the gun in yesterday’s newsletter by saying he was already on the hook to start work. The soon-to-be FDA chief was confirmed Tuesday, but he’s not being sworn in until today. What to read around the web today § Designing for all abilities. New York Times<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=18ff7feea5&e=4aad33fd68> § Health system to pay $2.4 million after sharing patient name in press release. Houston Chronicle <http://statnews.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=2f3afe66a1&e=4aad33fd68> More reads from STAT § How much do you know about diseases of the Oregon Trail<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=625df3f39f&e=4aad33fd68>? § Trump’s pick to run mental health <http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=3d2391474a&e=4aad33fd68> is poised to shake things up. Even some liberals can’t wait. § FDA proposes that doctors learn about acupuncture for pain management<http://statnews.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=f09524744a&e=4aad33fd68>. The latest from STAT Plus § Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong rails against ‘false reporting’<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d7fd843ea5&e=4aad33fd68> as he announces lackluster sales. § Can importing drugs bring down prescription prices<http://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=673af206c6&e=4aad33fd68> for Americans? Yes and no. Thanks so much for reading! Back tomorrow morning to round out the week, [Megan]