closer look
Penis pics to spot STIs? AI startup pitches pre-date diagnosis
STAT
There's a new entry in the parade of AI-enhanced tools: A platform called Calmara whose marketers say it can detect an STI from a photograph of a penis. It's promoted to members of Gen Z who want to test a partner before sex. "Pics vanish quicker than Snapchat," the website says. "So yeah, your secrets? They're locked in our crypt, no trace, no trail."
As you might imagine, its launch was greeted with skepticism. First question: Does it work? There's a preprint published by the company this month, yet to be peer-reviewed. The Food and Drug Administration has not cleared Calmara, and the company selling it, HeHealth, asserts it's not making medical devices that would need such a review. The FDA's power to actively regulate digital health products is relatively new, codified in 2016. Agency spokesperson James McKinney told STAT's Lizzy Lawrence that deciding whether a product is a medical device is a "significant scientific decision." Read more.
health equity
Study ties disparities in U.S. tuberculosis cases to social determinants of health
The incidence of tuberculosis in the U.S. has fallen by almost half since 2000, to the point that most cases (72%) in this country affect people born elsewhere. But among people born in the U.S. who have TB, there are persistent racial and ethnic disparities, based on national data from 2011 through 2021. Researchers writing in yesterday's Annals of Internal Medicine found the incidence of TB among U.S.-born people was more than four times higher for American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, or Hispanic people compared with white U.S.-born people.
"Eliminating these disparities could reduce overall TB incidence by more than 60% among the U.S.-born population," the researchers predict. The current gap is blamed on barriers to TB prevention, spurring authors of a companion editorial to recommend expanding early detection and care of groups at high risk for TB and promoting culturally sensitive approaches to their care.
health insurance
How high is high? When the price won't fit on the page
Here's a new metric for the high cost of health care: Prices are literally running off the page Medicare uses for its billing forms. Last month, CMS said it was adding two digits to the Medicare claims processing system for hospital and doctor office charges, called the Fiscal Intermediary Shared System. That means it can now fit prices just a penny shy of $100 million, the agency told private health care insurers that process claims for fee-for-service Medicare.
It's "bizarre and a sign of the times," David Cutler, a Harvard economics professor who specializes in health care, told STAT's John Wilkerson. "It's almost funny," said Stacie Dusetzina, a Vanderbilt University associate professor who is a member of the board that advises Congress on Medicare. "But not funny." Read more about the last time such an adjustment was needed, and watch this video from STAT's Alex Hogan.
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