closer look
New documents present differing versions of dispute between MD Anderson researchers
If you've been following the dispute between a senior faculty member and a junior scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, you know it's been both complicated and contentious. STAT's Angus Chen reports that, early last year, the cancer center hired the law firm Ropes & Gray to sort out the conflict involving authorship, credit, and allegations of abuse. That investigation concluded in favor of star cancer scientist Padmanee Sharma over junior researcher Jamie Lin concerning the authorship and scientific credit portions of the dispute.
But a separate investigation conducted by a former official at the federal Office of Research Integrity tells a somewhat different story. Lin has filed a lawsuit against Sharma alleging retaliation, harassment, threatening, and intellectual theft, as STAT has reported. Angus tells us about key discrepancies that have emerged when comparing the law firm's executive summary, court filings submitted by Sharma and her lawyer, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and other documentation provided to STAT by Lin. Read more.
climate
Extreme heat linked to preterm births, but trees can help, study says
In a large, long-running study conducted in Australia, extreme heat was linked to a greater risk of preterm births in the third trimester of pregnancy, a finding with clear implications for our warming world. The JAMA Pediatrics study, which analyzed 1.2 million births in Sydney, Australia, from 2000 through 2020, looked at births before 37 weeks' gestation in light of both daytime and nighttime high temperatures. Preterm birth rates with high daytime heat exposure were 7.5% compared to 4.9% during normal temperatures and 7.2% vs. 4.9% for nighttime heat.
There were differences depending on the greenness of a neighborhood. The authors say increased tree cover and other vegetation could reduce heat-associated preterm births by 13.7% in the daytime and 13% at night. "These findings highlight the importance of considering heat exposure and greenness to reduce [preterm birth] risks," they write. "Further interventions should prioritize urban green to mitigate detrimental impacts of heat."
health inequity
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One-third of U.S. adults think racism is a major problem in health care, a new KFF survey finds. Although not exactly a vote of confidence in American medicine, it's more favorable than views people expressed on politics, criminal justice, policing, education, housing, or employment. That may reflect greater trust in health care, but individual experiences matter, too. Black adults are much more likely than white adults to say racism is a major problem in these realms; Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian and Alaska Native adults are somewhat more likely than white adults to say so.
People who have recently been treated unfairly or with disrespect by a health care provider are much more likely than those who haven't to call racism a major problem in health care. Black and Asian adults who mostly visit health care providers who share their racial identity are more likely to say they trust providers than those who don't.
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