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With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research?

June 5, 2018

What is the place of a profit motive in the production of knowledge at public universities?

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With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research?

Tuesday, June 5th, 2018

What is the place of a profit motive in the production of knowledge at public universities?

The Trump administration’s initial budget request presented in 2017 offered one answer to that question. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the budget proposal included a 17 percent reduction in funding for basic research. Proposed cuts to particular agencies and programs within them, such as research on basic energy sciences at the Department of Energy, were particularly acute. And while Congress intervened to avoid these cuts, the current funding package is nevertheless part of a long-term trend of reduced federal commitment to science.

…continue reading ‘With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research?’

Image: By Jericho – http://2bgr8stock.deviantart.com/art/Money-Cash-113445826, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11480660

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The Conversation

Ebola Returns Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds

May 9, 2018

Fortunately, the new outbreak is happening in the DRC, a country well versed in fighting the dreaded virus

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Ebola Returns Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018

By Ed Yong,

Ebola is back.

The infamous viral disease first made itself known to the world in 1976, in a small village called Yambuku in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now, 42 years later, Ebola is causing another outbreak in the DRC—the ninth in the country’s history.

The new outbreak has hit the town of Bikoro in the northwestern part of the country. The nearby iIkoko Iponge health facility—picture a small building with no electricity and limited supplies—reported 21 suspected cases over the past 5 weeks. Seventeen have died, but it’s not clear how many of these people actually had Ebola. So far, just two cases were actually positive for the virus in laboratory tests, out of five samples that were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa.

…continue reading ‘Ebola Returns Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds’

Image: By Daniel Bausch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC – https://www.cdc.gov/globalidplan/7-priority_1.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2083669

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The Atlantic

The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States

May 7, 2018

Bariatric surgery works, but hundreds of thousands of eligible patients can’t get it

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The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States

Monday, May 7th, 2018

In Mississippi, more than 37 percent of adults are obese, making it the second-most obese state in the nation. But Mississippi is also one of two states, along with Montana, that doesn’t cover bariatric surgery in its Medicaid program, which serves 760,000 people.

One popular type of bariatric surgery, the gastric sleeve, costs between $20,000 and $35,000 without insurance, experts told me. It shrinks the stomach to about the size of a banana, changing the body’s hunger hormones and reducing a person’s natural weight—one they don’t have to starve themselves to stick to. For the morbidly obese, diet and exercise don’t usually have this same effect on their own. (People who lost hundreds of pounds sweating it out on the TV show The Biggest Loser, for example, tended to gain it all back.)

… continue reading ‘The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States’

Image: By https://magenverkleinerung.tips/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62100315

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The Atlantic

Redesigning Maternal Care

April 24, 2018

Sweeping changes in medical practice could improve the dismal U.S. rate of maternal deaths and near-deaths, an influential doctors’ group says

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Redesigning Maternal Care

Tuesday, April 24th, 2018

This story was co-published with NPR.

Doctors would see new mothers sooner and more frequently, and insurers would cover the increased visits, under sweeping new recommendations from the organization that sets standards of care for obstetrician-gynecologists in the U.S.

The 11-page “committee opinion” on “Optimizing Postpartum Care,” released today by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, represents a fundamental reimagining of how providers, insurers and patients can work together to improve care for women after giving birth. “To optimize the health of women and infants, postpartum care should become an ongoing process, rather than a single encounter, with services and support tailored to each woman’s individual needs,” the committee opinion states.

While an ACOG task force began rethinking its approach several years ago, the guidelines arrive at a moment of mounting concern about rising rates of pregnancy-related deaths and near-deaths in the U.S. As ProPublica and NPR have reported, more than 700 women die every year in this country from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth and more than 50,000 suffer life-threatening complications, among the worst records for maternal health in the industrialized world. The death rate for black mothers is three to four times that of white women.

… continue reading: Redesigning Maternal Care

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ProPublica: Lost Mothers Series

Wildfire Spread of US Stem Cell Clinics Lacking FDA Approval

January 29, 2018

(Animated map video) There are now so many clinics selling non-FDA approved stem cell offerings across the U.S. that tens or hundreds of thousands of patients are at risk. How did we get here?

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Wildfire Spread of US Stem Cell Clinics Lacking FDA Approval

Monday, January 29th, 2018

Image: By Human_embryonic_stem_cells.png: (Images: Nissim Benvenisty)derivative work: Vojtech.dostal (talk) – Human_embryonic_stem_cells.png, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16687143

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The Niche

China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials

January 22, 2018

Many advocate an international consensus on ethical issues around a science that makes fundamental changes to human DNA yet still isn’t completely understood. “How do we make sure everyone is under the same tent?” says Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. With Crispr science still uncertain, “we need to be talking to each other internationally.”

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China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials

Monday, January 22nd, 2018

U.S. scientists helped devise the tool, known as Crispr-Cas9, which has captured global attention since a 2012 report said it can be used to edit DNA. Doctors haven’t been allowed to use it in human trials in America. That isn’t the case for Dr. Wu and others in China.

In a quirk of the globalized technology arena, Dr. Wu can forge ahead with the tool because he faces few regulatory hurdles to testing it on humans. His hospital’s review board took just an afternoon to sign off on his trial. He didn’t need national regulators’ approval and has few reporting requirements.

Dr. Wu’s team at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital has been drawing blood from esophageal-cancer patients, shipping it by high-speed rail to a lab that modifies disease-fighting cells using Crispr-Cas9 by deleting a gene that interferes with the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. His team then infuses the cells back into the patients, hoping the reprogrammed DNA will destroy the disease.

Image via Flickr Some rights reserved by DigitalMajority

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Wall Street Journal

American Kids Are 70% More Likely to Die Before Adulthood than Kids in Other Rich Countries

January 8, 2018

A new study ranks 20 wealthy countries on childhood deaths. The US comes in last.

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American Kids Are 70% More Likely to Die Before Adulthood than Kids in Other Rich Countries

Monday, January 8th, 2018

A child born in the United States has a 70 percent greater chance of dying before adulthood than kids born into other wealthy, democratic countries, a new study has found.

The research, published in the journal Health Affairs on Monday, shows that the United States lags far behind peer countries on child health outcomes. It estimates that, since 1961, America’s poor performance accounts for more than 600,000 excess child deaths — deaths that wouldn’t have happened if these kids were born into other wealthy countries.

“In all the wealthy, democratic countries we studied children are dying less often then they were 50 years ago,” Ashish Thakrar, the study’s lead author, said. “But we found that children are dying more often in the United States than in any similar country.”

Image via Flickr Some rights reserved by uwhealth

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Vox

America Experiences More Pain Than Other Countries

December 20, 2017

A third of Americans have pain “often” or “very often”—here’s why

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America Experiences More Pain Than Other Countries

Wednesday, December 20th, 2017

When T.R. Reid, an American reporter, went to his American doctor for an old shoulder injury, he got a very American recommendation. The doctor suggested a total shoulder arthroplasty, a Cadillac of a procedure that would saw off his shoulder joint, replace it with silicon and titanium, and cement it into place.

Reid declined, then set off to get the same shoulder treated in five other countries, documenting the experience in his book, The Healing of America.

A French doctor demurred, saying a total shoulder replacement was only for those in constant pain. A British NHS doctor didn’t mince words: “You are living your normal life without much impairment. So [surgery] is not indicated.”

Image: By Thomas671973 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26497758

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The Atlantic

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With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research?

With Federal Funding for Science on the Decline, What’s the Role of a Profit Motive in Research?

Ebola Returns Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds

Ebola Returns Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds

The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States

The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States

Redesigning Maternal Care

Redesigning Maternal Care

Wildfire Spread of US Stem Cell Clinics Lacking FDA Approval

Wildfire Spread of US Stem Cell Clinics Lacking FDA Approval

China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials

China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials

American Kids Are 70% More Likely to Die Before Adulthood than Kids in Other Rich Countries

American Kids Are 70% More Likely to Die Before Adulthood than Kids in Other Rich Countries

America Experiences More Pain Than Other Countries

America Experiences More Pain Than Other Countries

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