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In case you missed the launch of Bob Herman’s incredible “Out of Pocket, Out of Reach” series about the soaring costs of employer-based health insurance, he will be talking about the series during his office hours later this month. Sign up here.
Custom gene editing drugs 4 All
In the last few years, my esteemed colleague Jason Mast has written a lot about a baby boy named KJ Muldoon, who received a gene editing drug crafted by a sprawling team of scientists to fix the unique mutation that caused his life-threatening liver disease. What if that could happen for everyone?
ARPA-H, the “moonshot” agency for health research in the U.S., announced yesterday that it will spend up to $160 million to push forward custom gene editing treatments for a spate of rare diseases. Seven different teams will pursue various conditions affecting different organ systems.
Will it work? Well, it’s tough to say. Saving KJ’s life required new genetic tools, a vast team, and a company willing to write off the immense expense. It wasn’t readily scalable, either.
The feds say it’s worth the shot. Jason has more details about the teams and the program.
Massachusetts’ biggest nursing strike ever, Day 2
The biggest nursing strike in Massachusetts’ history has ended. But the drama hasn’t ended.
Nurses and hospital officials clashed outside Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Thursday in Boston as hundreds gathered at the entrance and demanded to be let in for their shifts, before a security guard informed them that union members could report back Monday, as the hospital had hired temporary nurses to maintain patient care. The hospital said all units operated without issue, while nurses said the emergency department did not respond adequately to a woman suffering a medical emergency outside the hospital.
The clash came after Gov. Maura Healey summoned both sides to the State House on Wednesday for discussions. The sides’ still disagree markedly over pay. Read more.
FDA quietly pushes back deadline on electric shock ban
In May, the Food and Drug Administration missed a self-imposed deadline on a decision whether to ban electrical stimulation devices that have been used for decades on people with intellectual disabilities and autism. It has quietly updated the agenda with a new deadline: November.
Dubbed a form of “torture” by United Nations officials, the devices have mostly fallen out of favor in the U.S. except at one institution: the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts. The FDA even banned the practice in 2020 before a federal judge overturned the agency’s decision.
Read my story from last month for more details about the decades-long push to end this practice and shut down the center.
The cure for the male loneliness epidemic?
If girls just want to have fun, boys just want to have friends.
So much attention is reasonably being turned to the crisis of boys — who struggle at higher rates than before with mental health challenges, academic performance, and their sense of identity — but the secret to their mental well-being might be found in a 150-year-old institution: the Boys Club of New York.
The institution serves 2,500 boys from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and has found that one way to mitigate the “risk factors” of boyhood is to provide a space for kids to connect.
There has been a ton of ink spilled in the media about the ramifications of the male loneliness crisis in the U.S. If you’re looking for solutions, you should check out Annalisa Merelli’s lovely feature about the Boys Club.
The primary care crisis paradox
Primary care is succeeding and has been for years. But there is a pervasive narrative in the U.S. that investing more in primary care will solve the health care crisis. That shows how badly we have misdiagnosed the problem, write two surgeons.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s recent report to Congress on Medicare payment policy found that primary care scored quite well. Nearly all Medicare beneficiaries have a primary care provider; over three-quarters can see these providers within two weeks; and patients in rural environments are able to receive care in a timely manner, too. Primary care physician compensation is rising faster than the rest of the field.
Why, then, is life expectancy falling? Read more from Christopher P. Childers, a surgical oncologist at the University of Washington, and Thomas C. Tsai, a general and gastrointestinal surgeon and medical director for health policy research for the American College of Surgeons.
What we’re reading
- My search for a psychiatric bed in an overburdened health system, KFF Health News
- The White House killed an RFK Jr. ad campaign. He can blame Kristi Noem, NOTUS
- Suspected Ebola patient placed in Equatorial Guinea hotel with deportees from the U.S., lawyers say, AP
- Cancer cases worldwide are expected to soar in the coming decades, a report finds. Here’s why, Washington Post
- More workers take mental health leave, and bosses aren’t happy, Bloomberg