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Wednesday, August 2, 2017
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Good morning! STAT reporter Rebecca Robbins here, filling in for Megan today. Let's get started on the latest news in health and medicine.
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Next up for Senate: How much FDA gets paid to review
The Senate is moving on from health care and according to three key senators, will
vote this week on a big legislative priority for the FDA and the drug industry: Setting the payments, known as user fees, that drug and device makers must pay the FDA to review their products. A package outlining those fees, which are key to funding
the FDA's work,
cleared the House last month.
Also
announced yesterday: The Senate health committee will hold bipartisan hearings beginning right after Labor Day on what should be done to "stabilize and strengthen" the ACA marketplaces. They'll be on a tight schedule to
act: Insurers must sign contracts by September 27 to sell individual plans for next year.
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3 postdocs win first grants to study health disparities
It's historically been tough to get funding to study health problems and disparities impacting minorities — and it's even tougher if you're an early-career researcher. That's why the NIH's National Institute
on Minority Health and Health Disparities created a new competitive award program to support that work. Yesterday, the institute announced
the program's first-ever winners, each of whom got $15,000 for a year of supplies and services. Here's what the three winners, all postdocs who are themselves minority women, plan to study:
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Why African American men get prostate cancer at disproportionately high rates
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Why certain sickle cell patients get leg ulcers
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How young adult Pacific Islanders engage with mental health care
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CO2's threat: 150 million more people short on protein
Here's the latest alarming projection about the future of the planet: If carbon dioxide levels continue their projected rise, crops like rice and wheat will likely lose some of their nutritional value
— putting an additional 150 million people at risk of not getting enough protein when CO2 levels hit a milestone expected around 2050. All told, 18 countries could see their dietary protein supply dip by more than 5 percent at that milestone. That's
according to researchers at Harvard's Chan School of Public Health, who
published their study today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
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Inside STAT: His brain has appeared in over 800 papers
(JEFF DELVISCIO/stat)
More than two decades ago, a 28-year-old graduate student named Colin Holmes spent hours lying as still as he could while undergoing 27 MRI scans. The end result: a high-quality image of his brain. That
brain image, known as "Colin 27," has been published in over 800 scientific papers and counting. And it's used by more than 1,000 labs studying everything from stroke to HIV to the brain benefits of eating fish. "It still surprises me that every other day
I get an announcement of someone citing that work," said Holmes, now a 52-year-old director of product management. STAT's Jeff DelViscio has the video telling the overlooked story of one of the most famous brains in neuroscience.
Watch here.
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Viewing the eclipse? Don't get bilked by unsafe glasses
If you're among the millions of Americans planning to get a glimpse of the solar eclipse on August 21, the Federal Trade Commission
has a warning for you: Be sure to protect your eyes. And be wary of the products you pick to do it. The FTC recommends that you only use glasses or solar viewers stamped with the the code ISO 12312-2, certifying that they've
met an international standard for safety. There are only five manufacturers that the American Astronomical Society has verified as trustworthy: American Paper Optics, Baader Planetarium, Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17. But that hasn't
stopped a wave of entrepreneurs from flooding Amazon with glasses that may not provide proper protection,
Quartz reports.
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Freezing IVF embryos could up pregnancy chances
For in vitro fertilization, frozen embryos may be better than fresh, according to a new
study. During a typical IVF cycle, embryos are implanted within a few days. However, as technology has improved, doctors increasingly freeze embryos to implant later on — and there’s some evidence that improves likelihood
of pregnancy. In the most extensive study yet, Dr. Ange Wang and colleagues compared pregnancy rates in 1,455 women implanted with frozen embryos to 1,455 women implanted with fresh embryos. They found that frozen embryos were 1.3 times as likely to result
in a pregnancy — and that number rose even greater for women over 35 with elevated progesterone levels. The researchers say this could be because the hormone treatments needed leading up to an egg harvest make for a less conducive environment in the uterus
for the embryo to attach.
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18 states where laws promote breastfeeding in hospitals
IN YELLOW, THE STATES WITH LAWS REQUIRING or ENCOURAGING HOSPITALS TO PROMOTE BREASTFEEDING (LawAtlas.org / The Policy Surveillance Program)
Breastfeeding isn't a panacea, but there's some evidence that it can bring health benefits for both babies and mothers. Hospitals can play a key role with breastfeeding-friendly policies like training
staff members and allowing babies to stay in the same room with their mothers. But which states actually have laws on the books requiring or encouraging hospitals to do so? That's the subject of a new analysis conducted by Temple University's Policy Surveillance
Program and the policy group ChangeLab Solutions. The goal of the project: To help spur further research on whether such state laws impact breastfeeding in hospitals or long-term outcomes, according to Sabrina Adler, the ChangeLab senior attorney who oversaw
the project. You can explore the data
here.
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What to read around the web today
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In Trump era, lobbyists for doctors and their insurers boldly take credit for writing medical malpractice legislation.
Washington Post
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How to stop the deadliest drug overdose crisis in American history.
Vox
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Veterinarians in Brooklyn say that anti-vaccine activism may be fueling refusal by some owners to vaccinate their dogs.
Brooklyn Paper
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Thanks for reading! My colleague Andrew Joseph will be back with more tomorrow,
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