first opinion
Is HHS climate washing? (What is climate washing?)
Charlie Riedel/AP
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stated it will do all that it can to mitigate the health care industry's greenhouse gas emissions. But in a new First Opinion essay, health care consultant David Introcaso argues that the agency is actually just "climate washing."
If the term is unfamiliar to you, climate washing is basically when a government or company simultaneously engages in positive communications about climate performance and negative climate practices.
Introcaso comes with evidence: Three years ago, HHS established the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE). But so far, OCCHE has done nothing regulatorily to mitigate health care emissions. And since the office's inception, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has never argued for funding it in congressional budget testimony.
Read more on whether the agency is putting enough of its money where its mouth is on climate change.
international women
How does women's health care in the U.S. stack up to other nations?
You may not like this answer, but women in the U.S. have worse health care access and outcomes than those living in 13 other high-income nations like Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund. What outcomes? Oh, you know, like life expectancy, "avoidable deaths," and mental health. Here are some highlights:
- Women in the U.S. have the lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of avoidable deaths. If prevention measures had been in place or the right treatment had been provided, 70 out of every 100,000 women who die in the U.S. could live. This rate is more than three times the rate of avoidable death in South Korea.
- All 13 other countries in the analysis provide some form of government health care coverage to all residents. None have a substantial portion of people who are uninsured. In the U.S. last year, 14% of women ages 19-64 said they were uninsured, including more than a quarter of Hispanic women.
- The U.S. and Australia are the two countries where women most often report having a mental health care need. But they're also the two countries where women are most likely to skip getting mental health services due to the cost. One in four women in each country reported skipping mental health care. (At least we aren't alone on this one?)
disability
How one ALS patient used a brain-computer interface at home for seven years
Brain-computer interfaces won't be available to the general public anytime soon. For now, disabled people are the first ones to test-drive new technology like this. It can help people who have been paralyzed to communicate, and could prove particularly fruitful for ALS patients as their eye muscle control wanes, leading eye-gaze devices to lose utility.
Mariska Vansteensel is a neuroscientist who has spent most of the last decade experimenting with BCI at-home use. Her team followed one ALS patient who used such a device for more than seven years. When the study began, nobody with motor impairment had ever tried to use a BCI implant at their home, she told STAT's Timmy Broderick. The team found that the person's usage of the BCI increased as time passed and paralysis increased.
Read Timmy's interview with Vansteensel about what her team learned after observing almost a decade of real-world BCI use.
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