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A Black health-equity advocate is named JAMA editor, a year after accusations of racism

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, the new editor-in-chief of JAMA (Credit)

A year after the prestigious medical journal JAMA was embroiled in controversy over a podcast criticized as racist, the American Medical Association has appointed a prominent health-equity researcher as the publication’s new editor-in-chief — the first person of color to hold the position. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a Black internist, epidemiologist, and health-equity researcher from UCSF who has been a leading voice for equitable health care during the Covid-19 pandemic, will lead the JAMA network of journals, the AMA announced yesterday. Bibbins-Domingo co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Recently named to the inaugural STATUS list, STAT’s compilation of influential leaders in life sciences, Bibbins-Domingo has spent her career focused on erasing health disparities. STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling has more.

Patients who get immunotherapy before lung cancer surgery do better, study says

Giving the immunotherapy Opdivo to lung cancer patients before surgery can help prevent the disease from coming back, a new study says. The FDA approved Opdivo for this use on March 4, and yesterday the data behind that decision were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients in the study who received three courses of Opdivo in combination with chemotherapy were 37% less likely to have progression of disease that prevented surgery, any progression of disease after surgery, or death. In patients receiving Opdivo and chemotherapy, the median time to one of these negative events was 31.6 months, compared to 20.8 months for patients treated with chemotherapy alone. An editorial in NEJM called the result “practice changing.” STAT’s Matthew Herper has more in STAT+.

WHO panel endorses single HPV vaccine dose

An expert panel that advises the WHO on vaccines said yesterday there is now enough evidence to conclude a single dose of HPV vaccine will protect girls aged 9 to 20 from cervical cancer. If adopted, that would halve the doses needed for girls and young women, which could dramatically increase use of these highly effective vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said in women 20 and younger, one or two doses can be used; women 21 and older should receive two doses six months apart; and immunocompromised women should get at least two but preferably three doses. SAGE recommends the same dosing for boys, but notes that while global HPV vaccine supply is constrained, girls should be prioritized. HPV vaccines are highly protective against a number of cancers, including anal and some head and neck cancers.

Closer look: A psychiatrist's proposal to fill the field's depleted ranks

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Every day, people in crisis call Christin Drake’s office looking for help, the NYU psychiatrist writes in a STAT First Opinion. Their conditions are complex and acute, requiring the expertise of a psychiatrist who can talk with them, assess possible medical causes, prescribe medications when needed, and connect with other providers. “Before the pandemic, I could almost always help,” Drake writes. “But now, my every available hour … is full. My colleagues tell me the same.” The shortage exists while only 40% of applicants gain entrance to medical school and there were 50% more applicants than spots this year for psychiatry residency training. “A helpful first and immediate step would be the capacity to train all qualified students along the pathway from undergraduate and medical education through residency training,” she writes. Read more.

Advocacy group calls unaffordable U.S. insulin a human rights abuse

Insulin prices are sky high. High enough that Human Rights Watch is declaring that their price tag contributes to human rights abuse. The international advocacy organization best known for investigating war crimes, genocides, and dictatorships is out with a new report that argues that the human rights of people with diabetes are being violated when they’re unable to afford their insulin. That makes insulin makers, who set those high prices, complicit in human rights abuses, Matt McConnell, the lead author, told STAT’s Nicholas Florko, who has more here. And Rachel Cohrs has a story here on a congressional effort to entice drugmakers to lower their insulin prices.

Report: Tax breaks exceed charity care for most nonprofit hospitals

Nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care and community investment than they reaped in tax exemptions, the Lown Institute calculates in a report out today. The nonpartisan health-care think tank concluded that 227 of 275 hospital systems had “fair share deficits” amounting to $18.4 billion for fiscal years ending in 2019. The top 10 systems and their deficits:

Providence Saint Joseph Health - $705M
Trinity Health - $671M
Mass General Brigham (FYE 2018) - $625M
The Cleveland Clinic Health System - $611M
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center - $601M
University of Pennsylvania Health System - $571M
Catholic Health Initiatives - $515M
Advocate Aurora Health - $498M
Dignity Health - $456M
Ascension Health - $388M

The report also notes three of these hospital systems accepted funding from the CARES act for hospital relief: the Cleveland Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

What to read around the web today

Psilocybin spurs brain activity in patients with depression, small study shows. New York Times
Profit strategy: Psychiatric facilities prioritize out-of-state kids. Kaiser Health News
Private equity giant Carlyle to acquire biotech venture capital firm Abingworth. STAT+
FDA scolds Bausch Health for misleading claims about a psoriasis cream. STAT+
Research finds stark racial disparities in how Boston responds to unhealthy conditions that trigger asthma. Boston Globe
Opinion: The Texas abortion arrest is a harbinger of things to come. Washington Post