First opinion
Requiring travel to Texas puts OB-GYN trainees at risk
ADOBE
Technically, doctors don't have to get board-certified by a professional group like the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. It's a different credential than a medical license, but one that essentially all hospitals require for physicians who want a job. For OB-GYNs, the only way to get a stamp of approval from ABOG is to travel to the group's testing facility in Dallas, Texas.
But in a First Opinion essay, two medical trainees argue that it's unfair to demand reproductive health professionals go somewhere like Texas, which has put harsh restrictions on abortion and targeted clinicians who perform the procedure. The same trainees who are required to travel to Texas are also required to have experience with abortion and the management of early pregnancy in order to practice medicine. This puts them in a stressful position that could be relieved by instating virtual board examinations, the authors write. Read more on the risks OB-GYN trainees take and how ABOG has responded.
mental health
Researchers look at the brains of young people with conduct disorder
"Conduct disorder" is a slippery mental health diagnosis identifying youth who display antisocial and aggressive behavior. While potential biological origins of the condition are unclear, it is associated with the highest burden of any mental disorder for youth — meaning it is most associated with early death. A study published yesterday in The Lancet looked at MRI scans from more than 1,100 youth with conduct disorder and another 1,200 without. The researchers found "subtle yet widespread" differences in brain structure between the two groups, they wrote.
Compared to the youth developing typically, those with conduct disorder had lower surface area in 26 regions of the brain's outer layer — which is critical for emotional processing and decision making — and in total surface area. Affected youth also had a smaller amygdala, nucleus accumbens, thalamus, and hippocampus, if that means anything to you. While more research on the condition is needed, the study authors say that the identified differences could be useful down the line in further defining the condition.
maternal health
How to address the "postpartum cliff" (hint: it's simpler than you think)
When someone is pregnant, they're always talking to their doctor. As nine months progress, there are more and more visits, tests, and scans. But after delivering a child, this attention practically vanishes. It's the "postpartum cliff," as Jessica Cohen, a health economist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, calls it.
A new study co-authored by Cohen tests a different approach to helping postpartum women transition to regular health care: texting. In the study, patients received automated messages explaining the importance of follow-up care with a PCP, and offering help scheduling an appointment. Reminders were sent one month after the delivery date, and one week prior to the visit.
The improvement was significant: 40% of patients in the intervention group completed their follow-up primary care physician visits, compared to 22% of the control group, which received no messages. Read more from STAT's Nalis Merelli.
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