update to the archives
An 'addict broker' pleads guilty, 7 years later
Photo illustration: STAT/Photo: Facebook
Seven years after STAT first wrote about him, an "addict broker" named Daniel Cleggett has pled guilty for his involvement in a fraud scheme involving multiple sober homes that he operated in Massachusetts.
In 2017, then-STAT reporter David Armstrong wrote a story with the Boston Globe's Evan Allen about what they called "addict brokers." These brokers were almost like bounty hunters — they'd recruit people struggling with addiction from the Northeast and Midwest, then arrange transportation and insurance coverage for them to travel to Florida for treatment. But the rehab centers that brokers work with often provide few services and can be run by people without any actual training or expertise.
Daniel Cleggett was one of those brokers. Read the story about the widespread patient trafficking he was involved in, and a follow-up piece from the same year about the patients who get played as pawns in the system.
cancer
Study: New treatment approach could ease common childhood cancer relapse
A new treatment approach to a type of leukemia that's the most common childhood cancer — combining standard chemotherapy with immunotherapy — saw significantly better survival rates than chemotherapy alone in a study published this weekend in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The most common cancer in children is a blood and bone marrow cancer called B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or B-ALL. Despite a pretty high survival rate — about 85% of those under 18 who get the disease are still cancer-free five years later — relapse from B-ALL is a leading cause of cancer-related death for youth. Researchers randomized the two courses of treatment to 1,440 kids with an average or high risk of relapse, but ended up stopping the trial early because the results were so promising. Overall, the study showed a 61% risk of B-ALL relapse or death for those receiving the combination.
As with any treatment, there were side effects: Those kids who received the more effective combination treatment were also more likely to get sepsis and catheter infections. Still, the study authors believe the combination approach could become a new standard of care.
addiction
RI will open first supervised drug consumption site outside of NYC
A Rhode Island nonprofit is set to open a government-sanctioned site for illicit drug use this week, making it just the second organization in the country to officially offer supervised consumption, and the first to do so outside New York City.
The goal of supervised consumption is to prevent overdose deaths by allowing people to use drugs under medical supervision. Evidence on the overall effectiveness of these sites is limited, but most studies suggest their presence is linked to a reduction in overdose deaths. While groups in other states have announced similar plans, they've faced resistance at the local, state, and federal levels.
And the barriers may only grow. President-elect Donald Trump will take office in less than two months, and conservative political leaders have typically opposed supervised consumption. Read more from STAT's Lev Facher about how the Rhode Island site broke new ground in the legal fight for harm-reduction.
health tech
How generative AI is already transforming radiology
These days, the main clinical application of artificial intelligence is in medical imaging: Algorithms that help to analyze CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays account for more than three-quarters of AI-based devices authorized by the FDA. But by 2030, generative AI could become ubiquitous in radiology.
That hypothesis comes from radiologists themselves, at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Hallway discussions and official sessions alike circled around products using large language models to streamline radiology documentation."I think that this kind of tool will be so powerful that essentially it's going to read our minds at some point," said one radiologist, who consults for Open AI and MD.ai.
Generative AI took the spotlight at the meeting at the same time that the technology's applications in medicine have been receiving increasing scrutiny. Read more from Katie Palmer on how people are talking about it.
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