October 15, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 391, no. 12, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Disability Ethics
October 3, 2024
Do not support legalizing physician-assisted suicide
(The Times Weekly) – Since our health care system does not treat everyone equally, the practice of physician – assisted suicide raises the risk for those who often do not get the same access and treatment as others. This includes … Read More
September 27, 2024
Adam Pearson is ready to roll the dice
(Associated Press) – For Pearson, that means something a little different than most. Since he was a young boy, Pearson has had neurofibromatosis, a condition that covers much of his face with benign skin tumors. But far from allowing that … Read More
September 25, 2024
Woman, 79, fell while hiking. A stranger carried her for hours on his back.
(Washington Post via MSN) – Bannister cried out for help, and before long, a stranger approached and called 911. They were told a search and rescue team would arrive in five hours. “It wasn’t very encouraging,” Bannister said. “I asked … Read More
September 18, 2024
The Body She Had
(Plough) – If only her parents had been spared the terrible freedom of having to choose whether to have a child with a disability. “My husband and I decided that it was a loving decision not to bring her into … Read More
September 13, 2024
FDA Approves Apple AirPods Pro 2 to Be Used as Hearing Aids
(CBS News) – Apple AirPods Pro 2 can soon be used as hearing aids, after they received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance, in what experts call a game changer for the hearing aid market. The FDA on Thursday authorized a piece … Read More
September 9, 2024
The AirPods Pro 2 Will Soon Double as Hearing Aids
(The Verge) – Apple has announced a batch of hearing health updates coming to the AirPods Pro 2, including a new “clinical grade” hearing aid feature for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. The iPhone maker says the hearing … Read More
August 29, 2024
A Prosthetic Leg That Feels Like a Real Body Part
(MIT Technology Review) – When someone loses part of a leg, a prosthetic can make it easier to get around. But most prosthetics are static, cumbersome, and hard to move. Now a new neural interface developed by MIT researchers and … Read More
August 23, 2024
Opinion: The Deeper Issue With Expanding Assisted Dying to Mental Illness
(Undark) – Debate over Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying law shows the need to rethink the biological model of mental illness. I was horrified by the news of the law’s latest expansion — a reaction that surprised me. Having grown … Read More
August 23, 2024
AI Could Be a Game Changer for People with Disabilities
(MIT Technology Review) – There are plenty of reasons to be wary of AI, but let’s not dismiss the possibilities it offers for improving accessibility. While the New York Times sues OpenAI over ChatGPT’s scraping of its content and everyone … Read More
August 19, 2024
Interview: The Emerging Ethics of Innovative Brain Research
(Undark) – In a June essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hendriks and a co-author, Christine Grady, outlined some of the thorny ethical questions related to brain research: What is the best way to protect the long-term interests … Read More
August 15, 2024
A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask For
(The Atlantic) – As artificial limbs become more advanced, branding is becoming almost inescapable. Bionic (or myoelectric) limbs, which are operated by muscle and nerve impulses to more closely mimic the movements and operation of a real limb, have evolved … Read More
August 15, 2024
Text-to-Speech Brain Implant Restores ALS Patient’s Voice
(Reuters) – A man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who had lost his ability to speak has been able to communicate with a Blackrock Neurotech text-to-speech brain implant, researchers said in one of two new studies showing the promise of … Read More
August 14, 2024
ALS Patient Lived with a Brain-Computer Interface for 7 Years. Here’s What Researchers Learned
(STAT News) – STAT spoke with Mariska Vansteensel, a neuroscientist at University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands and president of the international BCI Society, about the field and about a new study that she and her colleagues just published … Read More
August 14, 2024
People with ADHD Are Turning to AI Apps to Help with Tasks. Experts Say Try It Cautiously
(Associated Press) – Experts say generative AI tools can help people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — who experience difficulties with focusing, organizing and controlling impulses — to get through tasks quicker. But they also caution that it shouldn’t replace … Read More
August 9, 2024
‘Scared to Death’: Nurses and Residents Confront Rampant Violence in Dementia Care Facilities
(KFF Health News) – Violent altercations between residents in long-term care facilities are alarmingly common. Across the country, residents in nursing homes or assisted living centers have been killed by other residents who weaponized a bedrail, shoved pillow stuffing into … Read More
August 7, 2024
Empowering Patient Research
(Aeon) – When providers and researchers are able-bodied while patients are disabled, the chasm in lived experience, motivation and immersion in every last nuance of a condition can often be vast. In medicine, the traditional model for researching disabilities repeats … Read More
July 9, 2024
Millions Without Power in Sweltering Heat After Beryl Pummels Texas
(Wall Street Journal) – The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday before being downgraded. It flattened homes and caused widespread power outages in Texas, mainly in the Houston area. At least seven people were killed, including … Read More
July 4, 2024
Japan’s Top Court Orders Government to Compensate Disabled People Who Were Forcibly Sterilized
(ABC News) – In a landmark decision, Japan’s Supreme Court ordered the government Wednesday to pay suitable compensation to about a dozen victims who were forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law that was designed to eliminate offspring of … Read More
July 3, 2024
Autism and ADHD Might Be Diagnosable in Babies via ‘Intelligent Onesies’
(Newsweek) – Scientists may soon be using “intelligent onesies” to identify autism, ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions in babies by analyzing their movements. As part of an ongoing study, researchers from the University of Sussex, England, are using outfits equipped … Read More
July 1, 2024
People Can Move This Bionic Leg Just By Thinking About It
(MIT Technology Review) – When someone loses part of a leg, a prosthetic can make it easier to get around. But most prosthetics are static, cumbersome, and hard to move. A new neural interface connects a bionic limb to nerve … Read More
May 24, 2024
Splashy Breakthroughs Are Exciting, But People with Spinal Cord Injuries Need More
(MIT Technology Review) – This week, I wrote about an external stimulator that delivers electrical pulses to the spine to help improve hand and arm function in people who are paralyzed. This isn’t a cure. In many cases the gains … Read More
May 21, 2024
Single Brain Implant Restores Bilingual Communication to Paralyzed Man
(Ars Technica) – One of those clinical trials, based at the University of California, San Francisco, has now inadvertently revealed something about how the brain handles language, because one of the patients enrolled in the trial was bilingual, using English … Read More
May 20, 2024
A Device That Zaps the Spinal Cord Gave Paralyzed People Better Control of Their Hands
(MIT Technology Review) – Reid received the device, called ARCex, as part of a 60-person clinical trial. She and the other participants completed two months of physical therapy, followed by two months of physical therapy combined with stimulation. The results, … Read More
May 20, 2024
‘How Do You Get Hypothermia in a Prison?’ Records Show Hospitalizations Among Virginia Inmates
(Associated Press) – The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: “unbearable” conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia. “How do you get … Read More
