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good morning. Do you struggle to find the wonder and awe of the moon mission among all the tasks you have to deal with every day? I do too. I read this and this yesterday and it helped me access it.
New target for aneurysm treatment wins STAT Madness
Abdominal aortic aneurysms occur when part of the lower wall of the body’s main artery weakens, creating a bulging, dilated area within the blood vessel. Most of these aneurysms are asymptomatic, but can be fatal if they rupture. Treatment options are limited and no drugs are available. But researchers at the University of Michigan Frankel Heart and Vascular Center have identified the driving force behind the condition, opening up a potential target for new treatments.
This study is a 2026 STAT Madness award winner. The competition featured 64 teams and featured a month-long bracket-style tournament and celebration of biomedical research.
Read more about the popularity poll winners from STAT contributor Brianna Abbott. And STAT’s Amanda Erickson, who edits this newsletter, shares information about the research our editors selected as the best discoveries of 2025. Hint: It has to do with how the brain eliminates waste.
Capping insulin at $35 a month allows people with type 2 diabetes to stay on treatment
Limiting monthly insulin spending to $35 appears to be a win, win, win, and almost a tie five years after it was first introduced for Medicare patients with type 2 diabetes. A new study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine tracked the records of 4.8 million people before and after the cap was put in place. Researchers found that while insulin use increased, out-of-pocket costs decreased significantly. Average blood sugar levels over 2 to 3 months also decreased, but there was a slight increase in severe hypoglycemia when blood sugar levels fell too low.
These results are clearer than what has happened in some state programs, the study authors noted. And they didn’t look at spending on other drugs like GLP-1.
The impetus for monthly spending limits was the tripling of insulin prices from 2002 to 2013, an editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine reminds us. But that’s not all. Our former colleague Rachel Coles Chan tracked how President Biden and then-former President Trump were at odds over who should get credit for making insulin more affordable. It turns out it was a pharmaceutical giant’s idea. Here’s her origin story for June 2024: — elizabeth cooney
More evidence that abortion pills are safe
Although some Republicans in Congress are pushing to ban the abortion drug mifepristone and investigate pill manufacturers, there is growing evidence that the drug (a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol) is safe to dispense over the counter. After 20 years of mandatory in-person dispensing, since the pandemic began, medications have been available through virtual doctor visits. In a study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers conducted in-person clinic visits to test people’s ability to self-determine whether they were eligible to take abortion pills.
Approximately 170 people at clinics in three states were shown the prototype over-the-counter packaging and drug fact labels. Most (88%) correctly assessed medication eligibility. Among patients who did not, it was common to exclude themselves from eligibility rather than participate inappropriately. Still, large-scale studies will be needed to meet the FDA’s standards for over-the-counter drugs, physician Sonya Borrello argued in an accompanying commentary, adding that the evaluation process could be influenced by the way reproductive medicine has been politicized.
How the quest to combat bias in the biology classroom ended
Less than 10 years after receiving his Ph.D., Brian Donovan has accomplished something remarkable in the field of science education. He set out to develop a new approach to high school genetics education, emphasizing the complexity of human genetic variation and mobilizing a coalition of teachers, researchers, and geneticists to consider it, rather than simply outlining the basics. “What I really wanted was to put a hammer down on bigotry,” he told STAT’s Megan Molteni. “I was naive enough to think that we could teach genetics and actually tackle this problem in earnest.”
One day last April, years of painstaking and thorough work came to a halt. Donovan lost both of his National Science Foundation grants as part of a mass cancellation of awards that the Trump administration determined “no longer impact the administration’s priorities.” Now he is preparing to apply for admission to nursing school. In her latest article, Megan details all that science education would lose without Donovan’s research efforts. read more.
Half of U.S. adults get enough aerobic exercise
Just under half of American adults (47.2% to be exact) met federal guidelines for aerobic exercise in 2024, according to a new data analysis from the National Center for Health Statistics. This includes approximately 52% of men and 42% of women. Some of the other demographic breakdowns seem to highlight structural and social inequalities. People who didn’t have a disability, had more money, were younger, and were white or Asian were more likely to be active than other people.
These numbers are much higher than 2020, which, to be fair, was a special year for all of us when it came to physical movement. That year, only a quarter of adults met the guidelines for doing both aerobic and strength-building activities at the same time. (Wondering how to stack up? Guidelines recommend at least 2.5 hours of moderate aerobic activity or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.)
Insurance system for addiction recovery
As an addiction medicine physician, John Fomesh has seen firsthand that for many patients, financial security is not secondary to treatment, but an important part of treatment itself. In a new first-opinion essay, he recalls speaking with a patient who did everything a clinician would ask of a convalescent patient. But her progress was jeopardized when her insurance premiums tripled, making continued support even more risky.
“This is a part of addiction medicine that we don’t often talk about publicly; relapse is often engineered far upstream from individual choice,” Fomesh wrote. Read more about the real-world impact of opaque changes like premium increases, prescription changes, and prior authorization barriers.
what we are reading
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Clinics around the world are facing shortages and medical supplies are backed up in Dubai, NPR reported.
- Health insurers score big win with Medicare Advantage rate increases in 2027 (STAT)
- These women had their breasts removed to prevent cancer. Then came the pain, KFF Health News
