�鶹Ů��

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that mifepristone, one of two pills used in medication abortions, should not be prescribed past seven weeks of pregnancy or via telemedicine. However, a previous stay by the Supreme Court means this won't go into effect right away. The pills will remain on the market in states where abortion is legal and available by telemedicine and mail for the time being. (Simmons-Duffin and Webber, 8/16)

The showdown at the Supreme Court, which could affect how millions of people end their pregnancies, is likely to come just months before a presidential election in which Democrats plan to make abortion rights a pillar of their campaign. One of the judges on the three-judge panel, Judge James Ho, wanted to go even further than rolling back access to the drug. He agreed with the most extreme position of the challengers that the FDA’s original approval should be stripped altogether, a move that would take the drug off the market entirely. But Ho, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, was overruled by his two colleagues — also Republican appointees — who said it’s too late for anti-abortion groups to challenge the original agency approval declaring the drugs safe and effective more than two decades ago. (Ollstein, 8/16)

If the justices uphold the appeals court ruling, it could also pave the way for all sorts of challenges to the F.D.A.’s approval of medications. Legal experts said medical providers anywhere in the country might be enabled to challenge government policy that might affect a patient. Leaders of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have filed briefs saying that the case could undermine their businesses by destroying their ability to rely on a single national standard for their products. (Belluck and VanSickle, 8/16)

If the ruling is upheld, doctors could still prescribe the abortion pill, but with restrictions. Patients would no longer be able to obtain the medication through a telehealth visit, and it could not be sent by mail. Instead, patients would need to visit a doctor in person to be administered mifepristone, again to be administered misoprostol and a third time for follow-up. The drug would also be approved only for use in the first seven weeks of pregnancy, rather than 10 weeks. (Pierson, 8/16)

Colorado’s Medical Board on Thursday will attempt to decide something no other regulatory body in the country has: whether a controversial treatment to try to “reverse” the effects of an abortion pill is something doctors should be providing. The evidence for the practice is spotty. Federal authorities have not approved it. No clinical trials — the most rigorous type of research — have validated its safety or its efficacy in humans. As a result, the nation’s leading organization for OB-GYN doctors says that the idea of abortion reversal “is not supported by science.” (Ingold, 8/17)

Taking a common arthritis drug together with the morning-after pill Plan B could boost the contraceptive’s effectiveness, according to new research published Wednesday. Levonorgestrel, often called Plan B, is the most widely available type of emergency contraception. It works by preventing or delaying ovulation. Scientists estimate that it is about 95% effective when taken within a day after unprotected sex, dropping to 58% or lower within three days. The new study, published by the medical journal Lancet, suggests levonorgestrel can remain highly effective up to three days after unprotected sex when it is taken with piroxicam, an anti-inflammatory pain medication typically prescribed for arthritis. (Cheng, 8/16)

Meta tweaked its “adult products or services” advertising policy last October to include clearer guidelines about reproductive health, clarifying that it allows the promotion of “reproductive health products or services” if the content is targeted to “people aged 18 or older.” ... However, female reproductive experts tell CNN that the advertising policy is still too restrictive and is creating barriers for how younger people around the world access information about female reproductive health issues, including the menstrual cycle, which can start as early as 8 years old. (Gretener, 8/15)

The New Jersey Supreme Court sided on Monday with a Catholic elementary school that fired an unmarried art teacher who was pregnant, ending a long legal battle that had drawn national attention at a time of fierce debate over religious freedom and the separation of church and state. [The woman's lawyer] noted that the decision would affect not only religious schools, but “all different types of religious entities that employ people,” including hospitals. (Nolan, 8/16)

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday joined advocates to celebrate the state’s push to strengthen abortion access and enact minimum nurse staffing standards for hospitals. At a ceremonial bill signing, Kotek signed two health care bills. The first was House Bill 2002, which shores up abortion rights and access to transgender health care. The bill was central to the six-week walkout of GOP senators in the Oregon Senate this session. The other bill was House Bill 2697, which puts minimum nurse staffing standards in place for hospitals. (Botkin, 8/16)

Members of a Southern California community are grappling with a devastating blow to critical abortion access after a major fire engulfed a Planned Parenthood clinic in the early morning hours of August 15. Located in El Centro, Planned Parenthood’s Imperial Valley Homan Center is the only abortion provider in greater Imperial County. While the facility had been a staple for care in the region since it opened in 2015, it became a safe haven for out-of-state abortion patients following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade. (Mitchell, 8/16)

Once inside the clinic, the woman told a U.S. district court jury Wednesday, a handful of protesters began grabbing her, yelling at her and blocking her from getting farther inside. Security footage played in court showed how she then stood on a chair, lifted her body onto a receptionist’s desk and climbed through an office window so she could get into the back area where abortions are conducted. (Alexander and Silverman, 8/16)

Most cancers in the United States are found in people age 65 and older, but a new study shows a concerning trend: Cancer among younger Americans, particularly women, is on the rise, with gastrointestinal, endocrine and breast cancers climbing at the fastest rates. A study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open showed that while cancers among older adults have declined, cancers among people younger than 50 have increased slightly overall, with the largest increases among those age 30 to 39. (Bever, 8/16)

NBC News spoke to seven hospitals and cancer clinics in the U.S. that said they are being asked to pay five to 10 times more for vital cancer drugs, putting patients at risk of losing access to the lifesaving treatments if the providers are unable to cover the marked-up cost. The culprits behind the price gouging, they say, are so-called gray market vendors who exploit drug shortages by buying desperately needed medications from distributors or pharmacies and then selling them to hospitals or clinics at inflated prices. ( Lovelace Jr., Klingbaum and Kopf, 8/17)

A new study adds to the large body of evidence that being in good physical shape can dramatically reduce cancer risk. The study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that men with high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness in young adulthood had a lower risk of developing nine forms of cancer years later, including in the head and the neck, the lungs, the kidneys and the gastrointestinal system. (Pandey, 8/15)

A breast cancer drug can be used to treat severe hypoglycemia in patients with lung cancer, a team of physicians at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center together with researchers at the Technion in Haifa has found. Until now, one of the only ways to treat a cancer patient’s precipitous drop in blood sugar levels was for them to undergo continuous glucose infusions. Steroids and other medications have rarely worked in treating the rare condition and they can include unpleasant side effects. (Ghert-Zand, 8/17)

A Massachusetts mother has filed a lawsuit blaming widespread PCB pollution by General Electric (GE), Monsanto and its German owner Bayer, and several other companies for causing her nine-year-old son to develop leukemia and suffer repeated debilitating medical treatments. (Gillam, 8/17)

During a recent interview, former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor said his cancer treatment, Lutetium-177, will extend his life by five years. (Segarra, 8/14)

The health care industry didn’t just provide a safe haven for jittery stock investors in 2022, a year defined by inflation and higher interest rates. It also provided a stable stream of wealth for top executives, who collectively pocketed billions of dollars in what was otherwise a rough patch for the economy. (Herman, Parker, Feuerstein, Lawrence and Ravindranath, 8/17)

The Joint Commission has acquired the National Quality Forum, with the goal of consolidating quality measures and integrating more industry voices into the development of standards. Putting the healthcare improvement organization under the umbrella of the commission should reduce the burden on health systems by eliminating unaligned, competing measures and creating more streamlined and consistent clinical performance measurement, according to the groups. (Devereaux, 8/16)

As high temperatures rage outside, certain portions of the Miami VA Healthcare System are reaching uncomfortable levels again due to air-conditioning issues. Problems with the AC aren’t new, but the Department of Veterans Affairs said it’s investing millions to remedy the issues. (Zaragovia, 8/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Doctors Hesitate To Ask About Patients’ Immigration Status Despite New Florida Law

Fearful of risking their jobs, jeopardizing state funding for their institutions, and further politicizing health care, Florida hospital leaders have been reluctant to speak out against a new law that requires them to ask about patients’ immigration status. While Florida joins Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, and a handful of other states in proposing crackdowns on immigrants lacking legal residency, no other state has mandated that hospitals question patients about their citizenship. (Chang, 8/17)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Community With High Medical Debt Questions Its Hospitals’ Charity Spending 

As 41% of American adults face medical debt, residents of this southern Colorado city contend their local nonprofit hospitals aren’t providing enough charity care to justify the millions in tax breaks they receive. The two hospitals in Pueblo, Parkview Medical Center and Centura St. Mary-Corwin, do not pay most federal or state taxes. In exchange for the tax break, they are required to spend money to improve the health of their communities, including providing free care to those who can’t afford their medical bills. Although the hospitals report tens of millions in annual community benefit spending, the vast majority of that is not spent on the types of things advocates and researchers contend actually create community benefits, such as charity care. (Hawryluk, 8/17)

In March, Philips recalled more than 73,000 ventilators that absorbed dust and dirt into breathing tubes. This week, the Food and Drug Administration reported that the issue has been associated with at least one death and two injuries. (Lawrence, 8/16)

U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the first treatment for an ultra-rare disease that causes people to grow bone where it otherwise shouldn’t be, extending an option to patients who have been advocating for access to the medicine. (Joseph and Garde, 8/16)

For only the fifth time, the Food and Drug Administration recently threatened to fine a company or clinical trial investigator for failing to post study results on a federal government database. And transparency advocates say this is the latest proof that the agency needs to step up enforcement. (Silverman, 8/16)

The dispute is unfolding in a lawsuit against the Red Cross, the country's largest supplier of blood, by blood-testing company Verax Biomedical. Verax's Feb. 14 complaint in Boston federal court alleges that the Red Cross is using its dominance in the market for blood platelets to squelch competition for anti-contamination services. The Red Cross has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that it acts as an "instrumentality" of the U.S. government. (Scarcella, 8/16)

The first Alzheimer’s drugs meant to slow the progression of the fatal disease may only be available to a tiny fraction of patients, a study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology suggests. The drugs, Eisai’s Leqembi and Biogen’s Aduhelm, are approved for older adults with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease but, according to the study, less than 1 in 10 patients at this point in the disease may be prescribed them. (Lovelace Jr., 8/16)

Spend enough time searching for Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, and you’ll find dozens of websites selling knock-off versions of the popular drugs without a prescription. These websites are part of a robust online marketplace for what have been called weight-loss miracles, selling raw ingredients that cost far less than the brand-name drugs. They market to customers on social media, emphasizing discounts and “pharmaceutical grade” quality while stating that their products are “for research purposes” only. (Winkler and O'Brien, 8/16)

The empty auditoriums, Gila monsters, resistant pharmaceutical executives and enigmas that led to Ozempic and other drugs that may change how society thinks about obesity. (Kolata, 8/17)

While the surge in prescriptions for ADHD drugs during the pandemic has often been attributed to expanded telehealth access, new research finds there has been little difference in prescribing rates for in-person or virtual care at large health centers since 2020. (Dreher, 8/17)

Doctors in New York have managed to keep a brain-dead man in a state of sort of suspended animation for more than a month after removing his kidneys and replacing them with one from a pig. Dr. Robert Montgomery, who directs the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, said he hopes that by showing the kidney can function successfully in a brain-dead person, it will clear the way for the Food and Drug Administration to approve clinical trials in living people. (Weintraub, 8/16)

The national system for allocating and distributing human organs for transplantation is on the verge of a transformation that advocates have sought for years. After an outcry from providers and patients and a major congressional investigation, lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act of 2023 in July. President Joe Biden, who requested an overhaul in his fiscal 2024 budget proposal, is expected to sign the bill, which would end the United Network for Organ Sharing's nearly four-decade monopoly over the system and enable other organizations to participate. (Berryman, 8/16)

Researchers are proposing using artificial intelligence technology to help diagnose autism spectrum disorder. In a recent article published in Scientific Reports, researchers from Brazil, France and Germany reportedly used magnetic resonance imaging to train a machine learning algorithm. The work – in which the "quantitative diagnostic method" is proposed – was based on brain imaging data for 500 people, with more than 240 that had been diagnosed with autism. (Musto, 8/16)

The heritable nature of schizophrenia has been known for about a century. But researchers are still trying to learn how genes that have been linked to an increased risk of the disease actually lead to schizophrenia. (Cueto, 8/16)

A research team led by the universities of Cambridge and Warwick in Britain and Fudan University in China found that teens who started smoking cigarettes by 14 years of age had significantly less grey matter in a section of the brain's left frontal lobe. Tuesday's findings, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, indicate that adolescents with less grey matter on the left frontal lobe have less cognitive function and therefore are more inclined to break rules and develop bad habits such as smoking. (Lyons, 8/16) 

Experiencing pain a year after having a heart attack is common, but new research says it may also be a clue in predicting a patient's long-term survival. According to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, people who had moderate or extreme pain were more likely to die within the next 8 years compared with adults who did not have any post-heart attack pain. (Moniuszko, 8/16)

A new meta-analysis published in The Lancet Global Health finds that nearly one in three men around the world have one or more types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and about one in five have at least one kind of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV). (8/16)

The NFL is expanding use of the padded softshell caps that players have been wearing for the duration of preseason practices, as well as regular season contact practices, amid signs they're cutting down on concussions. Player safety has been under increased scrutiny, and the Guardian Caps worn by offensive and defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers resulted in 52% fewer concussions up to the second preseason game this year, compared to an average of the same period over the previous three preseasons. (Reed, 8/16)

The summertime rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations is making some Americans rethink if the pandemic is over, but it isn't persuading them to start wearing masks again or test for the virus, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. (Bettelheim, 8/17)

If you've noticed a sudden rise in the number of people wearing masks while you're out and about lately, here's why: COVID-19 is on the upswing once again, according to closely watched metrics. The late summer spread comes as a new variant, EG.5, is now the dominant form in the U.S., per CDC estimates — though it's unclear if that variant is directly responsible for the rising numbers. (Fitzpatrick and Beheraj, 8/17)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that a relatively new strain of E. coli is responsible for multiple outbreaks of foodborne illness in recent years, including those related to romaine lettuce and other leafy greens. (Reiley, 8/16)

Visit any grocery store and you can expect that the produce, meat and other products that line the shelves are not contaminated. But sometimes that’s not the case. Each year the federal government launches dozens of investigations into foodborne disease outbreaks traced to germs like salmonella, listeria, E. coli and others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 48 million people fall ill annually as a result. And of those who get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die. (Schmid, 8/17)

The death of a Long Island resident has been linked to a bacteria found in raw shellfish or seawater that has also been blamed for two deaths in Connecticut, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday. The Vibrio vulnificus bacteria was identified in a Suffolk County resident who died recently, Hochul said. “While rare, the vibrio bacteria has unfortunately made it to this region and can be extraordinarily dangerous,” Hochul said in a news release. (8/16)

Florida health officials sent a warning about a rise in cases of dengue fever, issuing a new alert after two local cases in Broward County. The two cases in the South Florida county, which includes Fort Lauderdale, brings to 10 the number of locally acquired cases this year, the Florida Department of Health said in a new surveillance report. Eight cases have been confirmed in Miami-Dade County, also under alert for the virus. (Alltucker, 8/16)

An Oklahoma law aiming to regulate pharmacy benefit managers’ retail networks and pharmacist contracts is unconstitutional, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled. The three-judge panel on Tuesday invalidated four provisions of an Oklahoma law targeting PBMs, third-party intermediaries that negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers. (Tepper, 8/16)

A proposal to legalize recreational adult use of marijuana in Ohio was cleared Wednesday to appear on statewide ballots this fall after the Republican-led state Legislature failed to act on it. The measure would allow adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow plants at home. A 10% tax would be imposed on purchases, to be spent on administrative costs, addiction treatment programs, municipalities with dispensaries and social equity and jobs programs. (Smyth, 8/16)

About 15.5 million Californians—including over 150,000 people across the Bay Area—will have their Medi-Cal eligibility reconsidered. As of June, 21% of Medi-Cal recipients in California—or approximately 225,000 people—have lost coverage as a result of the redetermination process, in which needs for the health coverage are reassessed, according to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). (8/16)

A bill aimed at compensating oil field workers and immediate relatives for uninsured medical costs related to air pollution and heat-related illness has been introduced by a first-term congressman from New Mexico. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez said Wednesday his bill would require that oil and natural gas companies nationwide pay into a trust that provides reimbursement to workers for health costs associated with ailments linked to methane and smog, including respiratory problems such as asthma. (Lee, 8/16)

The evacuation center at the South Maui Community Park Gymnasium is now Anne Landon’s safe space. She has a cot and access to food, water, showers, books and even puzzles that bring people together to pass the evening hours. But all it took was a strong wind gust for her to be immediately transported back to the terrifying moment a deadly fire overtook her senior apartment complex in Lahaina last week. “It’s a trigger,” she said. “The wind was so horrible during that fire.” (Rush, 8/17)

Transgender youth in North Carolina will face more restrictions accessing health care,  participating in sports and exploring gender identities at school after Republican state lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of three bills Wednesday. After about six weeks of inactivity, state lawmakers returned to Raleigh to take the override votes, which passed mostly along party lines in the House and the Senate, with two Democrats voting with Republicans on two out of three of the bills. (Crumpler, 8/17)

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office has issued at least three civil investigative demands to medical providers as he continues to seek out information regarding gender-affirming care practices across the state. ... The move by Rokita’s office comes after just three medical providers responded to a March 6 request for details on care for transgender minors. He laid out more than a dozen questions, including requests for data on hormone treatments, surgeries and consent. (Smith, 8/16)

The order, which along with government agencies applies to schools and state institutions, stipulates definitions for certain terms, like “man,” “boy,” “woman,” “girl,” “father,” and “mother.” The narrow definitions in the so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights” exclude trans and nonbinary people or anyone whose gender does not fit into the binary categories of woman or man. The order’s language does not make room for those with chromosomal variations, like intersex people. (Kemp, 8/16)

Over 81% of infants admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during the 2022 seasonal peak had no underlying medical conditions and were born full-term, finds a study published today in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 8/15)

A US study shows that people who had positive home-based COVID-19 test results from January 2021 to March 2022 had a 29% lower likelihood of following isolation recommendations than those with results from a healthcare provider. (Van Beusekom, 8/15)

Older adults who are hospitalized for COVID-19 have double the rate of death upon discharge as older adults hospitalized for influenza-related complications, according to a new study in The BMJ. (Soucheray, 8/11)

A new real-world study in Greece finds that for high-risk patients, COVID-19 antivirals are highly effective in reducing the risk of both hospitalization and death. The study is published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Patients who were older than 75, and reported good drug adherence benefitted the most from the drugs molnupiravir (Lagevrio) and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid). (Soucheray, 8/14)

A new study in JAMA Pediatrics shows that low-income children and adolescents were disproportionately affected by pandemic-related weight gain, while a study in BMC Public Health shows more US Army soldiers classified as overweight and obese during COVID-19. (Soucheray, 8/15)

It’s not just that life expectancy in Mississippi (71.9) now appears to be a hair shorter than in Bangladesh (72.4). Nor that an infant is some 70 percent more likely to die in the United States than in other wealthy countries. (Nicholas Kristof and September Dawn Bottoms, 8/16)

Last year the C.D.C. issued new prescription guidelines intended, in part, to induce a course correction. But facing a confusing mess of federal and state laws, many physicians are still afraid to prescribe opioids to genuine pain sufferers. (Vishakha Barbha, Lucy King and Adam Westbrook, 8/16)

Several companies are trying to develop brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, in hopes of helping patients with severe paralysis or other neurological disorders. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company Neuralink, for example, recently received Food and Drug Administration approval to begin human testing for a tiny brain implant that can communicate with computers. (Laura Y. Cabrera, 8/16)

In 1903, my grandfather Alex entered the United States from Bialystok, Poland, following a pogrom that saw his parents killed. Once in the United States, he did not enter right away, despite a brother who was already here. Instead, he first waited at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, not just to be processed but also so that he could be screened for tuberculosis as well as other contagious diseases. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 8/17)

There are people in your life who influence and shape how you see the world. For me, one of these people is Terry Moakley, a warm and welcoming family friend, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and a fervent advocate for people with disabilities. After he became a quadriplegic as a result of an injury, he began a decades-long career dedicated to improving disability access. (Liz Beatty, 8/17)

Precision medicine driven by genetic health care is knocking on the door. It offers hope that, sooner than later, we can address health problems like Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and heart disease that affect the lives of so many Americans. For many patients, the first step will be genetic testing and counseling by a board-certified genetic counselor. But for 65 million Medicare beneficiaries, genetic counselors’ services are currently behind a locked door. (Deepti Babu, 8/17)