This week, First Opinion rolled out something new and exciting: a Letters to the Editor system.
Going forward, at the end of each article, you'll find a link to submit a response of up to 400 words to any essay. Starting next Saturday — at least, each week when we receive enough robust responses! — I'll publish a selection of them on STAT, like a good old-fashioned Letters to the Editor page in the newspaper.
The goal here is to create more of a conversation between the readers (you!), the writers, and me. As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, one of my concerns about op-eds as a format is that they can be a monologue — an opportunity for someone to make a statement without taking questions. I hope that our new Letters to the Editor initiative will offer a way both to applaud well-reasoned, well-written pieces and to point out potential flaws (sometimes in the same essay!). Of course, I will not be publishing letters that are not in good faith or cruel to people who are brave and generous enough to share personal experiences in First Opinion. This approach offers an alternative to the morass of commenting sections.
And as a reminder, another great way to provide feedback on First Opinion (and maybe test out an idea you're toying with?) is to join us over on STAT+ Connect, a subscribers-only platform where readers can find jobs, debate the news, catch live events, and much more.
This week on First Opinion we had a lot of pieces that generated conversation. David Velasquez, a fourth-year medical student, argues that many pre-med requirements are largely not useful for preparing future doctors — and drive out many people who would be great physicians. Jennifer Canvasser shares the heartbreaking story of her son Micah, who died after contracting necrotizing enterocolitis in a NICU, and what her family experiences say about a recent FDA warning. Contrary to popular belief, Christina Farr writes, doctors make great startup CEOs. Americans might be receiving too much health care. Errors at a fertility clinic are indicative of a much bigger industry problem. A strategy to help secure medical devices may actually offer hackers a blueprint. What if harm reduction is actually a fad? Some state and local governments are sidelining science.
And on the First Opinion Podcast, I spoke with Utsha G. Khatri, author of a recent First Opinion on the end of "excited delirium," and Brooks Walsh, who was involved with the campaign against the fake diagnosis.
Have thoughts about First Opinion? What about an idea? Email me.
Recommendation of the week: I devoured J. Courtney Sullivan's "Friends and Strangers" during a recent trip. The page-turning novel follows a new mother struggling to find her place in a suburb after an adulthood in Brooklyn, and the babysitter she comes to rely on even more than her infant does.
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