first opinion
How telehealth can build on in-person relationships
ALISSA AMBROSE/STAT
Telehealth filled an important need for patients during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when they couldn't get care any other way. But Deepak Sirdeshmukh doesn't see a good reason for him to ask for virtual care as it's currently provided. In his experience, telehealth is transactional, writes the digital health company CEO — fulfilling simple needs like switching from a muscle relaxant causing severe drowsiness to something milder.
In a new first First Opinion, Sirdeshmukh suggests telehealth could be more powerful if it were more personal, with virtual appointments following an in-person visit with a given provider or their group. "This process would build off the relationship — even if it's just familiarity or awareness — of the physician within my ambulatory care team," he writes. Read more about how he thinks more personalized telehealth could become a key piece of the health care delivery system.
health disparities
Racial disparities in death rates widening for U.S. children & teens
Black children, indigenous children, and other youth of color die from all injuries and diseases at disproportionately higher rates than white youth, according to a new study in JAMA. And the disparities are widening — between 2014 and 2020, the overall death rate among Black youth increased 37%, while only increasing 5% for white youth.
The disparities persist across deaths from illness and injuries. Between 2016 and 2020, seven times as many Black youth died from asthma than white youth, and 10 times as many were murdered. In the same time span, the suicide rate for American Indian or Alaskan Native youth was more than two and a half times the rate for white youth.
Researchers compared mortality rates for youth ages 1 to 19 using a national CDC database. They noted that between 2019 and 2021, the overall pediatric mortality rate increased by more than 18% — an increase mainly driven by homicides, suicide, and car crashes (Covid played only a small role). Firearms and crashes were the leading factors in widening racial disparities, with firearm injuries as the leading cause of death for all children and teens. The findings indicate that efforts to address gun violence will be needed to address racial disparities, the authors write.
research
Meet the scientist sending tumors into space
What happens when you catapult cancer into space? Or shoot stem cells toward the stars? Hematologist Catriona Jamieson has done both. Down on Earth, she treats patients with bone marrow disease, and her orbital research on the International Space Station lets her investigate the mechanisms behind cancer growth on an accelerated timeline. STAT's resident space-man Nicholas St. Fleur spoke with Jamieson about her work.
"We want our normal bone marrow stem cells to be asleep 80 percent of the time," Jamieson explained. But in space, her research has shown, they get exhausted. "They go crazy, they party, they hyper-proliferate, and then they lose their capacity to go to sleep," she said. "They're totally wired." Read more about what that means for how we treat cancer back on planet Earth.
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