global health
Cancer cases expected to surge 77% by 2050
Mass General Cancer Center
Sorry to bring bleak news on a Monday morning, but here it is: Cancer cases around the world are expected to surge 77% by 2050, a new report from WHO estimates. That attention-grabbing statistic, based on an analysis of 185 countries, cites a growing and aging population and factors including tobacco, alcohol, obesity, and pollution.
Aparna Parikh, an oncologist who directs the Global Cancer Care Center at the Mass General Cancer Center who was not involved with the report, spoke to STAT's Elizabeth Cooney about the global disparities revealed by the report, which also found significantly higher mortality rates in lower-income countries.
Is there consensus on screening?
Some of the nihilists in global health will say, well, if you don't have the systems in place to actually treat the cancer, why should we screen? If you can set up capacity for mammography, or clinical breast exams from a provider, or colonoscopy, which is more resource intensive, but then you don't have the downstream health systems to treat them, is that ethical?
Do you have an answer?
I think we need to focus on health system strengthening for screening and early detection. And it's not an option to not think about how we bolster those services when we see numbers like this.
Read more from their conversation.
health tech
Making medical devices more accessible to the blind
Home medical devices are in a regulatory gray area when it comes to accessibility standards. No agency requires manufacturers to incorporate features for blind people, so advocates from the National Federation of the Blind have lobbied lawmakers for years to fix this. (Early insulin pumps had tactile buttons, but later ones typically have digital screens.) Now, federal lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop rules mandating that device makers build accessible products.
"Blind people cannot independently and safely manage our lives through the technology that's available in home medical devices," said Katie Keim, an advocate who was diagnosed with diabetes at 8 years old. The condition started affecting her vision 20 years later, and by the time she was 36, her sight was completely gone. Read more from STAT's Lizzy Lawrence on the status of the bill in Congress.
health
New guidelines on caring for patients with epilepsy
For the first time in over 13 years, the National Association of Epilepsy Centers has published updated guidelines on how its 260+ member clinics should provide better care to patients. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic chronic conditions in the world, and yet almost a third of those who live with it do not respond to medication. The guidelines were published Friday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Some new recommendations include:
- Offering genetic testing and counseling: No consensus currently exists on the best genetic testing strategy for epilepsy, the authors note. But it is most useful for those with drug-resistant epilepsy, those who started having seizures earlier, and those with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
- Employing care coordinators who facilitate multidisciplinary care: Patients with epilepsy are often dealing with much more than "just" epilepsy. Especially when it comes to caring for young patients, centers need to coordinate with other medical providers, therapists, schools, and social workers, the authors advise.
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Providing mental health screening: Up to 30% of adults with epilepsy also live with a serious mental health condition, according to the CDC. Better incorporation of mental health and psychosocial services into epilepsy care may improve people's treatment outcomes and overall quality of life, the authors write.
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