Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
With Novel Artificial Heart Implant, Texas Institute Eyes Long-Term Use
A new chapter in artificial heart development unfolded Thursday in Houston, where officials at the Texas Heart Institute announced they had successfully implanted a novel device that they hope can become the first long-term solution for patients with advanced heart failure. The device — a rotary-powered, hand-sized artificial heart — whirred inside a 58-year-old man’s chest for eight days, helping him maintain normal vital signs and organ function until he received a lifesaving heart transplant on July 17. (Gill, 7/25)
A new ultra-rapid, phenotype-based antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) method eliminates the need for conventional blood culture in patients with suspected sepsis, potentially speeding antibiotic prescription by upwards of 40 to 60 hours, scientists reported yesterday in Nature. (Van Beusekom, 7/25)
On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown was born in the United Kingdom and her birth quickly caught the media's attention, as she was the world's first "test tube baby." In other words, Brown was the first baby born through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Her mother Leslie and father Peter suffered from infertility due to Leslie's blocked fallopian tubes, according to History.com. (Messier, 7/25)
For years, the surgery has left a three to eight-inch vertical scar on the patient's upper thighs. But Dr. Charles Lawrie is known for his "bikini approach," meaning patients can hide their incision scars right under their bathing suits. It's a technique plastic surgeons have mastered, cutting along skin lines that run parallel to underlying muscle fibers. (Pastrana, 7/25)
Breast cancer surgeons have tended not to push patients towards bilateral mastectomy, since data have long shown that the complete removal of both breasts doesn’t improve survival. New data from a large epidemiological study affirmed that, but an accompanying finding is puzzling. Breast cancer survivors who ended up developing a second breast cancer in the opposite or contralateral breast had a higher risk of death, even though preventing that cancer with surgery didn’t change outcomes. (Chen, 7/25)
