April 10, 2025
(New York Times) – Medicare spending on “skin substitutes” made of dried placenta has soared as doctors pocket lucrative discounts from sellers. Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars … Read More
April 10, 2025
(TechCrunch) – Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of Global Public Policy for Facebook and author of the recently released tell-all book “Careless People,” told U.S. senators during her testimony on Wednesday that Meta actively targeted teens with advertisements … Read More
April 9, 2025
(The Conversation) – And 23andMe collected more than just genetic data generated from consumers’ spit. Eighty-five percent of customers consented to 23andMe research, allowing their individual-level data to be used for studies. The company then collected information from survey questions … Read More
April 9, 2025
(Undark) – More children are taking the hormone in the form of nightly gummies or drops. The long-term effects are unclear. On social media, parenting influencers film themselves dancing with bottles of melatonin gummies or cut to shots of their … Read More
April 9, 2025
(Axios) – Idaho will enforce a first-in-the-nation ban on vaccine mandates in businesses and schools this summer after legislators on the last day of their session passed a revised “medical freedom” bill. Why it matters: The ban reflects a growing … Read More
April 8, 2025
(New York Times) – If the current legal landscape when it comes to embryos seems messy, it’s a result, in no small part, of the unsettled nature of what preceded it. For over a century, courts generally did not grant … Read More
April 8, 2025
(Axios) – The upheaval at the Food and Drug Administration is threatening to cripple the user fee system that funds reviews of new drugs, devices and diagnostic tests, with the most immediate threat to look-alike biological drugs, according to four … Read More
April 8, 2025
(The Guardian) – Meta is expanding its safety measures for teenagers on Instagram with a block on livestreaming, as the social media company extends its under-18 safeguards to the Facebook and Messenger platforms. Under-16s will be barred from using Instagram’s … Read More
April 7, 2025
(The Independent) – A quote from James after the publication of his caffeine study neatly underlines how Oster’s attitude diverges from the attitude of the medical establishment: “Certainly, there is no evidence to suggest that caffeine benefits either mother or … Read More
April 4, 2025
(Texas Monthly) – An Austin-based health-optimization chain plans a national rollout as interest in the industry—still trying to define itself—booms. Humanaut Health, which opened its first location last fall, in Austin, hopes to build a chain of concierge medical clinics … Read More
April 3, 2025
(ABC News) – A unanimous Supreme Court on Wednesday backed the Food and Drug Administration’s refusal to authorize the sale of kid-friendly flavored e-cigarettes and vapes, including the flavors “Killer Kustard Blueberry,” “Rainbow Road,” and “Pineapple Express.” Justice Samuel Alito, … Read More
April 3, 2025
(CBS News) – Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders are planning for cutbacks to the number of routine food and drug inspections conducted by the agency, multiple officials say, due to steep layoffs this week in support staff. Around 170 … Read More
April 1, 2025
(Bloomberg via MSN) – Aaron is one of at least seven people who have died in the US from symptoms linked to the drug Leqembi over the past two years, according to a Bloomberg review of federal records obtained through … Read More
March 31, 2025
(KFF Health News) – The insurance industry provides little information about how often prior authorization is used. Transparency requirements established by the federal government to shed light on the use of prior authorization by private insurers haven’t been broadly enforced, … Read More
March 31, 2025
(New York Times) – Ivermectin, a drug proven to treat certain parasitic diseases, exploded in popularity during the pandemic amid false claims that it could treat or prevent Covid-19. Now — despite a persistent message from federal health officials that … Read More
March 28, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A tech company accumulates a ton of user data, hoping to figure out a business model later. That business model never arrives, the company goes under, and the … Read More
March 26, 2025
(New York Times) – After college, as her friends soared, her life became an endless round of psychiatrists, institutionalizations and outpatient programs. An incomplete list of the drugs she has been prescribed: Depakote, Prozac, Ambien, Abilify, Klonopin, Lamictal, Provigil, Lithium. … Read More
March 26, 2025
(New York Times) – The agency OK’d an artificial vessel to restore blood flow in patients, even though its own scientists flagged questionable study results and potentially fatal ruptures of the product. When the biotech company Humacyte designed a study … Read More
March 26, 2025
(BBC) – Many fertility patients in the UK are being offered unnecessary add-on treatments that have little or no proof of improving the likelihood of pregnancy, a report suggests.Add-ons are optional, non-essential treatments some private clinics offer in addition to … Read More
March 26, 2025
Medico-Legal Journal (vol. 93, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
March 25, 2025
(Axios) – The demise of 23andMe illustrates the vulnerable state of Americans’ health data, as med tech companies vacuum up more personal information with little regulatory oversight. Why it matters: Fitness trackers, wellness apps, genetic tests and other direct-to-consumer tools … Read More
March 24, 2025
(The Atlantic) – Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here. When employees at Meta started developing their flagship AI model, Llama 3, they faced a simple ethical question. The program would need to be … Read More
March 24, 2025
(NPR) – Fewer than half of the claims in the top videos accurately match the scientific criteria that form an ADHD diagnosis. Many oversimplified or overstated the symptoms of ADHD and weren’t backed up by reliable sources. Many content creators … Read More
March 21, 2025
(ProPublica) – The Montana hospital that fired Dr. Thomas C. Weiner turned over thousands of pages of documents, but members of the board say they were unaware of them. Since at least April 2021, the Montana medical licensing board has … Read More
March 21, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – The goal of an autopsy is to discover the cause of a person’s death. Autopsy reports, especially those resulting from detailed investigations, often reveal health conditions—conditions that might have been kept private while the person was … Read More
