Closer Look
Volunteers left adrift after an eating disorder helpline turns to chatbots
Dozens of volunteers working a helpline run by the National Eating Disorders Association recently received a surprise announcement: Their services were no longer needed. Instead, the helpline would rely on an AI chatbot called Tessa to reduce ballooning wait times. But that strategy change has consequences for the recently replaced volunteers, writes STAT's Mohana Ravindranath, many of whom have struggled with eating disorders and who said that working the helpline sparked an interest in going to graduate school to pursue a career as a therapist.
There's also intrinsic value in callers being able to connect with another human being, one former volunteer told Ravindranath, especially since many people call amid mental health crises. "A robot has not experienced the human experience," she said. "We can at least relate on some level, or at least be able to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and see where they've come from." Read more.
infectious disease
Anthony Fauci, top infectious disease expert, heads to academia
After nearly 40 years spent running the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, Anthony Fauci, widely regarded as the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., is headed to academia. It was announced yesterday that the renowned immunologist, who became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic for his role in communicating the value of vaccines, masking, and other basic precautions to the public, will become a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., starting next month.
"I ask myself, now, at this stage in my life, what do I have to offer to society?" Fauci told Georgetown in a Q&A. "I could do more experiments in the lab and have my lab going, but given what I've been through, I think what I have to offer is experience and inspiration to the younger generation of students."
CMS
Opinion: CMS policy is hampering the 'food as medicine' movement
A growing chorus of nutrition advocates and organizations is pressing insurers, researchers, and the government to value healthy eating as a key part of any effort to stem the rise of chronic conditions. But recent CMS guidelines prevent states from enrolling Medicaid members in food-as-medicine programs for more than six months. That rule threatens to undermine the agency's ambitions to reduce rates of chronic disease by 2030, warns Adam Shyevitch, chief program officer of About Fresh, a Boston-based nonprofit, in a First Opinion for STAT.
Shyevitch writes that the "food as medicine" movement is in part fighting against deep inequities. That's because chronic poverty can push families to prioritize cheap and filling calories over nutritious meals, leading to a higher risk of chronic conditions, which already affect 60% of Americans. Read more.
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