closer Look
How one health system helps patients navigate language barriers — and their smartphones
Ambar Castillo/STAT
Janelle Vargas is used to Hernan Quintero's quips, such as joking about needing to win the lottery to pay his medical bill. In her two years helping him navigate his health care online, she has shown him how to pull up his medical bills on his phone, as well as check on the long list of medications in his records on the Mass General Brigham electronic patient portal.
Vargas is a "digital access coordinator" at Pentucket Medical, part of the Mass General Brigham system in Lawrence, Mass. The program helps patients prepare for virtual visits, explains video calls, and notes tech- or health-related concerns providers might need to know. "A person, for example, that just came from their country, that doesn't know the language, that maybe has problems using technology, they may not even know that these resources are available to them," Vargas told STAT's Ambar Castillo. Read more.
mental health
Opinion: CDC reports autism numbers are up. It's the need that's rising
Yesterday the CDC reported yet another increase in autims's prevalence among children, based on analyses of 8-year-olds and 4-year-olds. That translates into 1 of every 36 children, up from 1 in 44 in 2018 and far above the 1 in 110 found in 2006. There's an explanation for the jump: Clinicians are getting better at spotting it. No diagnostic test exists, which can mean other problems — attentional issues, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, self-harm, eating challenges, anxiety — obscure what's really going on.
Still, girls and children of color are probably still overlooked, John Elder Robison of the College of William & Mary and Dena Gassner of Towson University say in a STAT First Opinion. Both are autistic adults and parents of autistic adults. "As tools and expertise improve, diagnoses will continue rising," they write. "This is critical, because unsupported autism contributes to homelessness, abuse, self-harm, and other preventable damage. The more autism we recognize, the more people we can help."
coronoavirus
Antiviral in Paxlovid linked to lower risk of long Covid
It doesn't meet the gold standard for medical research, but a cohort study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that nirmatrelvir, one of the two pills combined in Paxlovid, could cut the risk of developing long Covid if given within five days of testing positive for Covid-19. The study analyzed VA medical records of more than 35,000 patients who received nirmatrelvir and more than 246,000 patients who didn't. The antiviral is FDA-authorized for people with one or more risk factors for severe Covid, such as being over 60, smoking, having a BMI over 25, or diseases such as cancer or diabetes.
People who took nirmatrelvir, whether vaccinated or not, had a 26% lower risk of long Covid symptoms, a 47% lower risk of death, and a 24% lower risk of hospitalization after their infections. "Until we have better data, the available evidence suggests that nirmatrelvir may prevent [post-Covid condition]," an editor's note says.
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