Tag: Health Policy

Most US COVID-19 Deaths Could Have Been Avoided, Birx Says

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Most of the coronavirus-related deaths in the US were avoidable, Deborah Birx, MD, the coronavirus response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, told CNN. Birx and several doctors who ran the pandemic response spoke with Sanjay Gupta, MD, CNN’s chief medical

Biden Administration Changes Vaccination Timeline

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Last week, Anthony Fauci, MD, said that “virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated” in April. But on Tuesday, the Biden administration changed the timeline for mass vaccinations to May, June, or July. At a CNN

Taxing sweetened drinks by the amount of sugar could cut obesity and boost economic gains: New analysis finds greater health and economic benefits to taxing sugar content compared to liquid volume

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages by the amount of sugar they contain, rather than by the liquid volume of these drinks, as several U.S. cities currently do, could produce even greater health benefits and economic gains, a team of researchers has concluded. The analysis, by researchers at New York University, Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health,

Psychiatric disorders may be linked to unnecessary oophorectomies

Undergoing a hysterectomy, especially in conjunction with removal of the ovaries, can take a major toll on a woman’s mental health. A new study, however, turns the tables on this relationship and investigates the psychiatric symptoms that may prompt a woman to undergo an oophorectomy, even after confirmation of a nonmalignant diagnosis. Study results are

Bystanders will intervene to help victims of aggressive public disputes: Third-party conflict resolution is a human universal; similar results across three different countries

Bystanders will intervene in nine-out-of-ten public fights to help victims of aggression and violence say researchers, in the largest ever study of real-life conflicts captured by CCTV. The findings overturn the impression of the “walk on by society” where victims are ignored by bystanders. Instead, the international research team of social scientists found that at

Study identifies better, cheaper ways to stem arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh: Some solutions are 100 times cheaper than others, costing as little as $1 per person

In what has been called “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history,” some 40 million people in Bangladesh are drinking water that contains unsafe levels of arsenic. The naturally occurring element seeps into groundwater reached by shallow wells, and from there it has a huge impact on the health and lives of Bangladeshis;

Life-threatening birth complication rate increasing across US racial, ethnic groups: Analysis suggests need for more research to identify causes

Racial and ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity — life-threatening maternal complications associated with childbirth — have persisted and increased at high rates among U.S. women, according to an analysis of nearly 20 years of California hospital records funded by the National Institutes of Health. Known risk factors for these complications — such as blood

Progress against hepatitis C by 2030 is possible

A comprehensive package of prevention, screening, and treatment interventions could avert 15.1 million new hepatitis C infections and 1.5 million cirrhosis and liver cancer deaths globally by 2030 — equal to an 80% reduction in incidence and a 60% reduction in deaths compared with 2015, according to the first study to model hepatitis C interventions

How to create health care centaurs, half doctors and half managers: Organizational support key

If hospital doctors around the world often struggle to become those health centaurs, half professionals and half managers, that modern healthcare organizations need, the main responsibility is not their resistance to change, but the lack of effective support from the organization, according to a study by Marco Sartirana (CERGAS, Bocconi University), Graeme Currie (Warwick Business

Childhood physical inactivity reaches crisis levels around the globe: Report compares 49 countries; says 75 percent of countries have failing physical activity grades

Children around the world are not moving enough to maintain healthy growth and development, according to a global report released today. The report by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) compared 49 countries from six continents to assess global trends in childhood physical activity in developed and developing nations, resulting in the “Global Matrix

The quality of protein supplements for athletes

Powdered protein supplements are one of the most commonly consumed nutritional supplements, whether by professional athletes or amateurs, even by those who use them for aesthetic purposes instead of sporting ones. This study, led by a researcher from the Area of Human Motility and Sporting Performance at the University of Seville, has analysed the quality

Communication among organs, tissues regulating body’s energy revealed: First-ever ‘atlas’ of circadian metabolism shows how disruptions may lead to disease

An international research team led by the University of California, Irvine has identified a system of communication networks that exists among organs and tissues that regulate metabolism. Findings from their study provide, for the first time, a detailed “atlas” illustrating how the body creates and uses energy, and how imbalances in the networks may impact