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Monday, October 2, 2017
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Welcome to Morning Rounds, everyone. My thoughts are with the people of Las Vegas this morning. Here's what you need to know about health and medicine today.
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Nobel Prize in medicine awarded for biological clock research
The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded this morning to three scientists who discovered the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms, the daily cycle of physical and behavioral changes that
are controlled by an internal clock. The prize — which comes with an award of roughly $940,000 — was granted to Jeffrey Hall and Michael Rosbash of Brandeis University and Michael Young of the Rockefeller University. In research on fruit flies, Young isolated
the gene that disrupted the circadian clock. Hall and Rosbash then discovered that levels of the protein the gene makes go up and down over a 24-hour cycle.
"Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions,” said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, who announced the prize in Stockholm.
When Perlmann called Rosbash, the newly-minted laureate said nothing at first — and then said, “You are kidding me.” More
here.
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Complaints against nursing homes are rising
Complaints against nursing homes are on the rise — and some states are falling far short of properly investigating them on time, according to a new
report from the office of the inspector general at HHS. In 2015, there were 62,790 complaints made against nursing homes, compared to 47,279 in 2011, though the number of nursing home residents actually declined slightly.
Half of those complaints were serious enough to warrant a prompt investigation onsite, which most states carried out in an appropriate time frame.
But two states consistently fell short: Tennessee and Georgia. They together received 912 complaints classified as immediate jeopardy — meaning an allegation of serious injury or death of a resident — which are supposed to be investigated within two days. Of
those 912 complaints, 654 were investigated late, which accounted for a whopping 86 percent of the delays nationwide in 2015.
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Who will take Tom Price's place?
In case you missed it, health secretary Tom Price
resigned Friday amid an uproar over his use of taxpayer-funded private flights. Price offered to pay the government just over $50,000 back for his own seats on the flights — a fraction of the reported
$1,000,000 those flights cost. Who will take Price’s place? Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been floated as a possible candidate, as has FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb. In the
meantime, Don J. Wright, a deputy assistant secretary of health, will serve as acting secretary.
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Inside STAT: A fierce fight over liver transplants
Last year, 1,220 people died waiting for a liver transplant in the U.S. More than 14,000 people are currently seeking liver transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. But a new proposal
aims to overhaul how the scarce supply of livers is distributed by changing the geographic lines that determine access to donor livers. Critics say those boundaries don’t take differences in supply and demand into account, and have left extremely sick patients
to die waiting. But opponents of the new proposal say it'll unfairly impact regions that've worked hard to boost organ donations, only to have those organs go elsewhere. STAT’s Casey Ross has more on the sharp disagreements the proposal has generated — read
here.
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Scientists celebrate progress in research
putting a little heart into research. (sarah boyle)
The medical journal
Biomed Central has rounded up the best pictures showing research that’s currently in progress in a new photo competition. The winner: this close-up look at a mouse model of tumor that’s labeled with fluorescent markers,
snapped by a South Australian scientist studying the progression of breast cancer. It’s stained with red to show a protein that’s involved with regulating cell movement, which changes as cancer cells become invasive.
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FDA delays nutrition label changes until 2020
The FDA has proposed pushing back the deadline for new nutrition labels all the way to 2020. Back in 2016, the FDA under the Obama administration rolled out new rules that would require food manufacturers
to list added sugars, along with more visible calorie counts and clearer serving sizes. Those guidelines were set to go into effect in July 2018. The FDA has now proposed extending that deadline to January 2020, with food manufacturers garnering less than
$10 million in annual sales getting an extra year to comply with the rules.
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Check out these events
A quick note for readers in the Boston area: STAT has a series of events next week at Hubweek, including a luncheon celebrating women in science and a panel on the war on cancer. Register
here and
here.
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What to read around the web today
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WHO tells governments to reject Philip Morris-funded smoking foundation.
Reuters
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Despair outruns aid in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Boston Globe
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Maine veterans given substandard care are told it’s too late to sue.
Portland Press Herald
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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
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