good morning. There was a lot of snow this winter, so I gave up riding my bike to work for a while. I’m glad to be back on track today. Spring is officially here and spring weather is here!
Epic announces discovery of patient data fraud
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In the United States, the infrastructure for healthcare providers to share patient health information operates on trust. This is also incorporated into the name of the network used for this purpose (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Notice (TEFCA)). Under the terms of the TFCA, health care providers are required to transmit patient records, free of charge, to authorized health care providers who request them to support patient care.
But whether someone is a legitimate health care provider has become a controversial issue, STAT’s Brittany Tran reports. A recent court filing by electronic medical records giant Epic Systems alleges that the company is posing as a provider and accessing people’s records. Read more about Brittany’s claim and how it could force governments to act.
Alcohol-related liver disease in the United States may be nearly three times as high as previously reported, according to a study published yesterday in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Recent studies estimate that about 1% to 2% of adults experience alcohol-related liver disease, but a new paper finds that the rate may actually be about 4.6%.
The researchers analyzed more than 30 years of national survey and testing data and adjusted for underreporting of alcohol consumption based on countries’ per capita alcohol consumption. Binge drinking (defined as drinking five or more drinks at one time) was responsible for the most liver disease deaths, and people who binge drank while having type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure were at highest risk.
Public health strategies to reduce drinking, better assessment tools, and more accurate reporting of alcohol consumption are urgently needed, the authors write.
57.9
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this is the average percentage of NIH grants that were terminated by women in the past year. Men, on the other hand, lost an average of 48.2% of their grants. As STAT’s Anil Oza writes, gender disparities in NIH funding predate the Trump administration. Still, the data suggests that last year’s funding cuts further damaged an already leaky pipeline that is prone to an exodus of women, young researchers, and people of color. read more.
When influencers promote prescription drugs
When a friend recently told me that she started taking Nultec for migraines, I immediately recognized the name – “Lady Gaga’s drug”! Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly partnering with celebrities and social media influencers to sell medicines. However, a systematic review of 12 academic papers published yesterday in JAMA Network Open identified several themes of concern when influencers promote prescription drugs.
Drug promotion by influencers was consistently associated with misinformation (based on the limited expertise of both posters and their viewers), parasocial relationships that make it difficult to distinguish between personal testimonials and paid promotion, and weak oversight of online promotion overall.
The findings show that better regulatory guidance and standardized disclosure requirements are urgently needed, the study authors wrote. For an overview of the top influencers who are shaping health information more broadly, for better or for worse, why not revisit Alexa Lee’s comprehensive story from earlier this year?
How coronavirus memory loss and attacks on science collide
A new first-opinion essay by two public health and policy experts says all pandemic stories follow a similar pattern through several basic steps. Broadly speaking, those steps are:
- ignorance and denial
- panic
- Fatigue and repulsion
- Anger and looking for a scapegoat
- amnesia
The coronavirus pandemic started exactly like a script. But around stages 4 and 5, we began to see unprecedented changes to science. The impact can be significant. “Experts agree that more pandemics are on the way,” the authors write. Read more about their analysis of how societal and government responses to the coronavirus pandemic could undermine preparedness for the next deadly pathogen.
what we are reading
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My Ativan season, New Yorker
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Eating disorder hospitalizations among youth return to pre-pandemic levels, MedPage Today
- Trump’s plan to make other countries pay more for drugs has potential flaws, STAT
- How the term “neurodivergent” went from activist to pop culture to politics, Part 19
- What a science communicator raised in an end-time church teaches about dispelling misinformation, STAT
What word? Test your knowledge with today’s STAT Mini crossword.
