January 11, 2024
(STAT News) – The abrupt transition from school-age support to limited adult services is aptly termed “the cliff.” I often wonder: What will happen to my daughter when I am too old to advocate for her? The good news for … Read More
January 9, 2024
(STAT News) – The origin of federal restrictions of anti-obesity medications has nothing to do with these current cost-benefit considerations, however: The Medicare and Medicaid policies are three-decade-old restrictions on weight-loss medication in general — a legislative legacy reflecting a … Read More
January 9, 2024
(Wired) – The therapy for sickle cell disease is projected to cost over $2 million per patient, and only a small number of facilities in the US have the technological capability to provide it. We see a certain cycle over … Read More
January 5, 2024
(The Conversation) – In 15 years as a primary care physician, I have seen the effects of dehumanizing medical care – and the difference it makes when a patient feels they are being respected, not just “treated.” Though “relational medicine” … Read More
January 3, 2024
(New York Magazine) – It was my bad luck, the attending doctor said at my bedside, to be an interesting case. Our meetings had a tone of rueful amusement. Yes, I was in pain and reeking from infrequent showering, but … Read More
December 28, 2023
(STAT News) – In recent months, evidence suggests, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Gaza have led to spikes of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. This is to be expected; conflicts often create conditions that are perfect for drug resistance to emerge … Read More
December 26, 2023
(STAT News) – Food-as-medicine programs that address food insecurity and diet-related chronic diseases have drawn widespread attention from policymakers, payers, and health care providers. But what is the evidence that such programs work as intended? Some research suggests that food … Read More
December 22, 2023
(Washington Post) – As such, Snorble is a reminder that questions such as whether high school students will use ChatGPT to cheat are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to kids and AI. Parents who will soon have … Read More
December 20, 2023
(Axios) – Here’s an early New Year’s resolution for anyone who works with, deals with or writes about artificial intelligence: Stop saying “AI did this” or “AI made that.” Why it matters: AI doesn’t do or make anything on its … Read More
December 18, 2023
(STAT News) – Noma, often labeled “the face of poverty,” is a gangrene of the face and jaw that predominately ravages low-income, malnourished children. While much is still unknown, noma may begin as inflamed gums. If left untreated it can … Read More
December 15, 2023
December 11, 2023
(STAT News) – Though there are 7.4 million Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, physicians are often uncomfortable treating them. In a recent survey of 714 Massachusetts physicians across various specialties, only 40% reported being very confident treating physically or … Read More
December 6, 2023
(The Free Press) – I’ve spent years trying to understand the mental health crisis among teenage girls. But both sexes are suffering. Since 2015, I have been trying to solve a mystery: all of a sudden, around 2013, rates of … Read More
December 4, 2023
(The Conversation) – Our reproductive lives are considerably different from those of our ancestors, thanks in part to health innovations that have taken place over the past few decades. Practices such as IVF, donor eggs and sperm, womb transplants, surrogacy … Read More
December 4, 2023
(STAT News) – For years health experts have argued that criminalizing marijuana use was a mistake, and that rather than handling the drug as a law enforcement problem, with cops, lawyers, and jails, we should manage it as a public … Read More
December 4, 2023
(MIT Technology Review) – On a picturesque fall day a few years ago, I opened the mailbox and took out an envelope as thick as a Bible that would change my life. The package was from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and it … Read More
November 30, 2023
(STAT News) – While a great many [Lab-Developed Tests] are routinely used without incident by doctors and hospitals, stronger FDA oversight is long overdue. Certainly, it should help tamp down the exaggerated claims used to market some LDTs. However, by … Read More
November 28, 2023
(STAT News) – I want to empower my patients and their families to make the most appropriate and evidence-based decisions about their care. It is therefore concerning to me that while the modest benefit of Leqembi in slowing the progression … Read More
November 27, 2023
(STAT News) – Today, our nation faces a meteoric rise in metabolic disease that is showing up in end-of-life care in a devastating way. The increasing prevalence of metabolic disease combined with an aging population and a critical shortage of … Read More
November 27, 2023
(Wall Street Journal) – At healthcare conferences, someone always asks, “What if there was a magic pill?” One that could cure major diseases. What would the healthcare industry look like? Some emergency rooms and hospitals but less doctors and spending? … Read More
November 24, 2023
(Wall Street Journal) – There are two compelling reasons to allow people to sell their organs, while the counterarguments tend to overlook the basic question of economics: What is the alternative? We shouldn’t expect to be trading kidney futures in … Read More
November 21, 2023
(The Guardian) – Patients who refuse curative treatment often do so based on their values while their flummoxed doctors act from a place of rationalism. Could I have met her expectation of some divine benediction with my grounding in science? … Read More
November 17, 2023
(The Atlantic) – So much of being seriously ill has been rebranded in American health care as a kind of adventure. Experts speak of stroke journeys. Hospital systems invite people on kidney-transplant journeys. The language has trickled down into advertising: … Read More
November 16, 2023
(Slate) – When I arrived at the Child Study Center for the first day of preschool in the fall of 1972, I became one of a cohort of over 100 Berkeley children whose parents had enrolled us in a groundbreaking, … Read More
November 7, 2023
(STAT News) – Five years ago, a Pacific Fertility Center clinic in San Francisco suffered a massive storage tank failure that ended my dreams of ever becoming a mother. In all, 4,000 eggs and embryos from 400 people died that … Read More
