Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Maryland's Debate Over Drug War; Ohio Pediatricians Face Tough Choice; GW's 'Tomb Of Unknown Cadavers'
Maryland Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) on Friday proposed four bills that would radically change the state鈥檚 approach to dealing with drug problems, in part by removing criminal penalties for low-level possession and adding emphasis on addiction treatment. One measure would create 鈥渟afe spaces鈥 for drug use, with facilities that provide sterile injection equipment, medical care and connections to social services. (Hicks, 2/5)
During the past decade, doctors in Ohio and across the country have left independent practice in droves in favor of the dependability of employment, often with hospitals. (Sutherly, 2/7)
George Washington University has stopped accepting donated bodies at its medical school because it lost track of the identities of as many as 50 cadavers, making it impossible to return remains to families as promised. The university had operated a 鈥渨illed body donor program鈥 for people who opted to donate their bodies to the medical school. The school uses between 30 and 40 cadavers for classroom instruction each year, and the university maintains a list of hundreds who have arranged to donate their bodies. (Zauzmer and Layton, 2/6)
A Pennsylvania man, who sued the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center over a deadly, mold-linked infection he and other organ transplant patients contracted at the facility, has died. UPMC on Sunday confirmed the death of Che DuVall, 70, and extended its sympathies to his family. DuVall, who had a lung transplant, is the fourth transplant patient at the hospital system who contracted infection and died. (2/7)
Asthma strikes Connecticut residents at higher rates than residents of the nation overall, affecting 11.3 percent of children and 9.2 percent of adults in the state. It led to nearly 1,000 hospitalizations among children and more than 3,100 among adults last fiscal year. And, although experts don鈥檛 know why, it鈥檚 becoming more common. Can Connecticut make headway in changing the course of the disease, making it something that patients can routinely control in the community rather than something that often brings people to the hospital in crisis? (Levin Becker, 2/8)
