July 19, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – If we’re going to protect ourselves from genetic discrimination, we first have to figure out what it is. Unfortunately, no one has a good handle on how widespread it is, says Yann Joly, director of the … Read More
July 18, 2024
(Wired) – This week, we examine the trend among generative AI chatbots to flirt, stammer, and try to make us believe they’re human—a development that some researchers say crosses an ethical line. These voice bots are starting to sound a … Read More
July 16, 2024
(MedPage Today) – Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study, has died. He was 86. Buxtun … Read More
June 26, 2024
(ABC News) – Many states are failing to track how frequently children in foster care facilities are abused, sexually assaulted or improperly restrained, leaving them vulnerable to mistreatment, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said in … Read More
June 18, 2024
(Reuters) – China on Tuesday dismissed European Union calls for it to stop alleged human rights violations and said it opposed “double standards” and interference in its internal affairs. The EU said on Monday after an EU delegation visited Tibet and met … Read More
June 7, 2024
(New York Times) – The American Cancer Society has begun an ambitious, far-reaching study focusing on a population that has long been overlooked, despite high rates of cancer and cancer-related deaths: Black women. The initiative, called VOICES of Black Women, … Read More
June 6, 2024
(The Hill) – Students are quickly learning the ease with which AI can create nefarious content, opening up a new world of bullying that neither schools nor the law are fully prepared for. Educators are watching in horror as deepfake … Read More
June 5, 2024
(Associated Press) — When faced with infertility, Amanda and Jeff Walker had a baby through in vitro fertilization but were left with extra embryos — and questions. Tori and Sam Earle “adopted” an embryo frozen 20 years earlier by another couple. … Read More
May 29, 2024
(ProPublica) – The second time Sydney Jones experienced delusions, in 2023, a family member contacted the local community mental health center for help. Police officers with mental health training came and called an ambulance to take Jones to Baptist Memorial … Read More
May 24, 2024
(KFF Health News) – In much of the developed world, dying while pregnant or delivering a child is practically unknown. In Australia, for example, there were just 3 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2021. But that’s not … Read More
May 22, 2024
(Wired) – AI projects like OpenAI’s ChatGPT get part of their savvy from some of the lowest-paid workers in the tech industry—contractors often in poor countries paid small sums to correct chatbots and label images. On Wednesday, 97 African workers … Read More
May 21, 2024
(New York Times) – The annual gathering of the American Psychiatric Association is a dignified and collegial affair, full of scholarly exchanges, polite laughter and polite applause. So it was a shock, for those who took their seats in Room … Read More
May 20, 2024
(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
May 15, 2024
(New York Times) – An outdated medical term often masks treatable illnesses, health experts contend. The word “failure” is rampant in medicine. Hearts, livers, lungs, and kidneys all “fail,” which simply means they cease to do their job. But the … Read More
May 8, 2024
(Axios) – More than 100,000 Black women are expected to be enrolled in the largest-ever study of cancer risk and outcomes in this high-risk group, the American Cancer Society announced Tuesday. Why it matters: Despite major gains in the past … Read More
May 7, 2024
(Vox) – For decades, gene therapy has been defined by both its enormous therapeutic potential, and by the limitations imposed by our imprecise knowledge of human genetics. Even as gene-editing methods, including CRISPR, have become more sophisticated over the years, … Read More
May 3, 2024
(NPR) – Moore largely credits the Camden Coalition, a team of nurses, social workers and care coordinators for his transformation. The nonprofit organization seeks out health care’s toughest patients — people whose medical and social problems combine to land them … Read More
May 3, 2024
(New York Times Magazine) – Living with a disability, I shielded myself from dance. Then I met him. Pain turns my body rigid, an inconvenient fortress. I was born with sacral agenesis, a congenital disability that restricts my mobility, making … Read More
May 3, 2024
(Beatrice Institute Podcast) – As a bioethicist and Catholic deacon-in-training, Dr. Michael Deem has spent years in the medical trenches as well as in theological and philosophical research. Michael Deem joins Grant in this episode to answer questions such as, … Read More
April 23, 2024
(Scientific American) – If you’ve ever asked a chatbot a question and received nonsensical gibberish in reply, you already know that “artificial intelligence” isn’t always very intelligent. And sometimes it isn’t all that artificial either. That’s one of the lessons … Read More
April 23, 2024
(ABC News) – The U.S. faces a dire kidney organ shortage, meaning patients with kidney failure must meet certain criteria to be considered good candidates for a transplant. One of those considerations is a test called the “eGFR” calculation, which … Read More
April 18, 2024
(Axios) – Even states that made progress narrowing racial and ethnic health disparities have considerable gaps on access, outcomes and quality of care, a new Commonwealth Fund report finds. The big picture: Black and Native Americans are much likelier to … Read More
April 17, 2024
(KFF Health News) – Donald Warne, a physician who is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, can rattle off the most common medical conditions and accidents killing Native Americans. … Read More
April 15, 2024
(Los Angeles Times via MSN) – Obesity — like so many diseases — disproportionately affects people in racial and ethnic groups that have been marginalized by the U.S. healthcare system. A class of drugs that succeeds where so many others … Read More
April 11, 2024
(Axios) – Middle-aged Black and Native Americans have higher death rates from alcoholic liver disease, overdoses and suicide than white Americans, dispelling longstanding narratives about what are collectively referred to as “deaths of despair.” Why it matters: New research in … Read More