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IBM's Watson falls short of expectations

(eros dervishi for stat)

It was an ambitious undertaking, even for one of the most storied American companies: With a single machine named Watson, IBM would tackle deadly diseases and revolutionize medicine. But three years after IBM started selling Watson to recommend the best cancer treatments to doctors around the world, the supercomputer still isn’t living up to the lofty expectations set for it, a STAT investigation has found. STAT’s Casey Ross and Ike Swetlitz interviewed dozens of doctors, IBM executives, and artificial intelligence experts about the system's technology and its rollout in hospitals — read their report here.

Planned Parenthood, HPV vaccine pioneers awarded

This morning, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the winners of this year's prestigious Lasker Awards, which come with a $250,000 prize. Here's a look at the three recipients:

§ Planned Parenthood, which treated 2.4 million women and men in its health care centers across the country in 2015. The foundation awarded Planned Parenthood the public service prize, saying its work "underscores how vital public and private support is to continuing Planned Parenthood’s mission."

§ Douglas Lowy and John Schiller, whose work played a critical part in the development of the HPV vaccine. The National Cancer Institute scientists conducted the first clinical trial of an HPV-16 vaccine in humans.

§ Michael Hall, who discovered nutrient-activated TOR protein controls cell growth. The University of Basel researcher was awarded the basic medical research prize for his work; disruption of TOR protein networks has been implicated in a slew of diseases.

Kentucky's last abortion clinic goes to federal court

A closely-watched case in the abortion debate heads to federal court in Kentucky today. Kentucky officials notified EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville — the state’s last abortion clinic — in March that they'd be revoking the center’s license after determining its agreements with a nearby hospital and ambulance service were deficient. The clinic and the ACLU sued, and in April, a judge ruled that the clinic could stay open while the legal case plays out.

The ACLU and the clinic have also filed a separate lawsuit contesting new abortion restrictions signed by Governor Matt Bevin earlier this year, which require doctors to show and describe ultrasound images and provide an audio recording of the fetal heartbeat to pregnant women seeking abortions.

Revealing the true burden of migraine in the U.S.

Most people in the U.S. either know someone with migraine, or live with migraine themselves — and are all too familiar with the stigma associated with the disease. Often thought of as "just" experiencing a bad headache, the migraine community has been historically under-recognized and underserved — often cast off as "unable to cope" or, even worse, "drug seeking." Read more about the burden of this disease.

Senate kicks off talks on stabilizing insurance markets

Today is the first in a series of Senate hearings on how to stabilize the states’ individual insurance markets. First up to bat: State insurance commissioners, who will testify at the hearing today. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate health committee, said both Democrats and Republicans can agree that the shaky insurance markets are in desperate need of a fix. "If your house is on fire, you want to put out the fire, and the fire in this case is the individual health insurance market," Alexander said in a statement announcing the hearings last month. The clock is ticking to find a solution — insurers are set to sign contracts with the government at the end of the month that’ll detail which insurance plans they’ll sell on the exchanges next year.

Your new cheat sheets for all things health and medicine

We're launching a new feature for STAT Plus subscribers called Cheat Sheets today. It's a quick resource for terms that are sometimes tricky to understand in biopharma and health policy, from acronyms like CRISPR and MACRA to lingo like p value and technologies like optogenetics. Look through the list here and let us know here what you think we should add.

Jerome Adams sworn in as Surgeon General

The U.S. has a new surgeon general. Dr. Jerome Adams was sworn in Tuesday by Vice President Mike Pence, who as governor of Indiana tapped Adams to be the state's health commissioner. Adams said he was eager to get started and to contribute to the ongoing Harvey recovery efforts. He also said he planned to work not just with other health officials, but groups including the business community and law enforcement to address public health issues around the country. His new slogan: "Better health through better partnerships."

Tackling inequity in the Healthy People 2030 goals

Health leaders are gathering today to discuss the government’s new big-picture goals for public health in America. Every 10 years, the health department revamps its “Healthy People” initiative, and Healthy People 2030 is now on the table. Today's meeting will include a discussion on how to weave insights into health inequities — preventable differences between populations when it comes to disease, injuries, violence, and opportunities to be healthy — into the broader goals, along with looking at how to narrow the disparities that drive health inequity.