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good morning. Today is the deadline for the White House to appoint a CDC director. Failure to do so would preclude NIH Director Jay Bhattacharyya from continuing in his acting role at another institution. STAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Burke and Washington reporter Daniel Payne got the inside scoop on the progress of the investigation last week. we are waiting for news.
Oz announces new CMS program at STAT
adobe
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching a new pilot program to help integrate and coordinate care for children with complex conditions. The pilot will provide $125 million to up to five states to test approaches that link physical and behavioral health care with community supports.
The announcement comes about a year after CMS announced it was considering options to reduce the size or make other changes to the program’s predecessor, the Integrated Care for Kids Model.
“The current administration has been particularly active in pushing for experimental models to see if they can incentivize higher-quality care at lower costs,” said STAT’s Mario Aguilar, who along with his medical technology colleagues has also covered other new initiatives. But with every new model, he says, “the devil is in the details: qualifications, payments, and ratings.” Read the announcement in STAT’s First Opinion section for what we know so far.
Robert Malone retires from ACIP
Robert Malone, an outspoken physician and ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is stepping down from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after a federal judge blocked the committee’s work. Since President Kennedy appointed Malone to the group last year, he has played a major role in reshaping the Trump administration’s vaccine policy, including voting to delay birth doses of hepatitis B to infants.
Since the judge’s ruling, Mr. Malone has made confusing statements about the status of the panel. He told STAT’s Chelsea Siluzzo that he didn’t want to talk when she called him last night, but said in a text message to Roll Call that “suffice it to say I don’t like drama and I have better things to do.” Read more about this drama from Chelsea.
one third
That’s the percentage of U.S. adults who say they have used an AI chatbot to get health information in the past year, according to a new KFF poll. The survey was conducted in late February and early March, mostly online, with occasional phone calls. The survey included responses from just over 1,000 people. There are some other interesting discoveries.
- Most people turned to AI because they wanted immediate advice. But one in five said concerns about health insurance affordability and access were a contributing factor.
- 41% of people who used AI said they uploaded personal medical information, such as test results or doctor’s notes, for personalized advice. Proportionally, this equates to 13% of the population. (To be clear, the majority of these people are concerned about their privacy, but they uploaded their information anyway.)
- Many people did not follow up with their doctor after receiving AI advice, including 58% who asked about their mental health and 42% who asked about their physical health.
Would you know it if you saw an AI X-ray?
Michael Tordjman
Introducing more AI-related news! Before we get into it, there is no evidence that deepfake X-rays are causing havoc in the medical system. Still, “everyone can be faced with a fake X-ray at some point, and they should be able to tell the real from the fake,” researcher Michael Tordjman told STAT’s Katie Palmer.
In a new study of 17 radiologists, Professor Tordjman found that less than half realized something was wrong when asked to diagnose a patient based on fake images. Even when doctors were warned to be wary of deepfakes, they were only able to accurately distinguish between them 75% of the time.
Read Katie’s conversation with Tordjman about how deepfakes can pose a risk to healthcare, who is responsible for minimizing them, and how well Katie identified deepfakes compared to the doctors who participated in the study.
“A patient with dementia should not be taken to the emergency room unless they are blue in the face.”
That’s what a neurologist told Gabriela Kazanov after taking her mother with dementia to the emergency room. Studies have shown that people with dementia are at increased risk of problematic and preventable emergency medical outcomes, including prolonged hospital stays, emergency department readmissions, and increased mortality. Kazanov’s own experience (and that of Jay Baruch, who wrote a similar essay last week) reflects that risk. Read her first opinion essay on how relatively small changes can significantly improve the emergency room experience for dementia patients.
what we are reading
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U.S. abortion numbers remain flat despite state bans and restrictions, NPR
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‘They tricked me’: Father who went to ICE to reunite with children ends up in chains, KFF Health News
- US needs to worry about Iranian biological material, STAT
- ‘It felt like a life-or-death choice’: There are many unknowns about pregnancy with long-term COVID-19 infection, Sick Times
- The FTC struck the proposed deal with CVS over the PBM’s insulin price manipulation, access obstruction, and STAT charges.
What word? Test your knowledge with today’s STAT Mini crossword.
