Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Many Donated Organs Never Make It To A Recipient
In the U.S., thousands of donated organs never reach the patients who need them. CBS News found that last year, one in three kidneys recovered from deceased donors were never transplanted. Specialized organ recovery teams made more than 26 million attempts to place these kidneys with transplant centers, offering them again and again in search of a suitable match--before they were ultimately discarded as medical waste. And it's not just kidneys. Nearly 12,000 potentially life-saving organs were discarded last year in the United States. (Moniuszko, 4/14)
Several factors may decrease a child's chances of receiving a living-donor kidney transplant, a mixed-methods study found. ... Being a race other than white, preference for speaking a language other than English at home, needing an interpreter at appointments, and child welfare involvement all trended toward a lower chance of children receiving a living kidney donor, Stephanie Kerkvliet, MD, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), said at the National Kidney Foundation's Spring Clinical Meeting. (Monaco, 4/14)
On the last day of March, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital began an operation that they hoped might lead to a permanent change in how kidneys are transplanted in people. That morning’s patient was not a person. It was a pig, lying anesthetized on a table. The pig was missing one kidney and needed an implant. ... Never before had anyone transplanted a frozen organ into a large animal. There was so much that could go wrong. (Kolata)
On aging —
Middle-aged and older adults who sought hospital or emergency room care because of cannabis use were almost twice as likely to develop dementia over the next five years, compared with similar people in the general population, a large Canadian study reported on Monday. When compared with adults who sought care for other reasons, the risk of developing dementia was still 23 percent higher among users of cannabis, the study also found. (Caryn Rabin, 4/14)
Older adults who frequently use digital technology may experience slower rates of cognitive decline, according to a sweeping new analysis that challenges long-standing concerns about so-called "digital dementia." The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, reviewed 57 studies involving more than 411,000 adults across the globe, with an average participant age of nearly 69. (Notarantonio, 4/14)
