(NPR) – When drug company reps visit doctors, it usually includes lunch or dinner and a conversation about a new drug. These direct-to-physician marketing interactions are tracked as payments in a public database, and a new study shows the meetings work. That is, doctors prescribe about five percent more oncology drugs following a visit from a pharmaceutical representative, according to the new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month. But the researchers also found that the practice doesn’t make cancer patients live longer. (Read More) The post Oncologists’ M ..read more

(The Hill) – Contractors for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) cut access to tests for transplant patients that could show early signs of organ rejection despite expert physicians advising the opposite, a new report has found. (Read More) The post Medicare Ignored Expert Advice to Cut Tests for Transplant Patients: Report first appeared on bioethics.com ..read more

(Reuters) – Eating disorders remain a “huge” issue in climbing, Olympic gold medallist Janja Garnbret said, even as new regulations meant to stop dangerously underweight athletes competing came into effect earlier this month. The International Federation of Sport Climbing announced the new rules in February after a group of elite climbers spoke out about their experiences with relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) and demanded action from the governing body. (Read More) The post Eating Disorders Still a “Huge Problem” in Climbing, Gold Medalist Garnbret Says first appeared on bioethi ..read more

(New York Times) – Twenty-three top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 but were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping and the global authority charged with policing drugs in sports chose not to intervene. Several of the athletes who tested positive — including nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to the Tokyo Games — went on to win medals, including three golds. Many still compete for China and several, including ..read more

(Associated Press) – The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country. The investigation drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known and involved ..read more

(Wall Street Journal) – Psychedelics are beginning to find some adherents beyond Silicon Valley who say the drugs make them better at their jobs by expanding imaginations or taming doubts about their abilities, though supporting research is limited. The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning last fall about ketamine’s popularity as an off-label mental-health treatment, saying it “has not determined that ketamine is safe and effective for such uses.” The FDA also warned that using ketamine without monitoring by a healthcare provider puts people at serious risk of adverse reactions, inc ..read more

(Axios) – There are growing efforts in medicine to correct a major blind spot: women’s pain. Why it matters: The impact of social media testimonies and a greater systemic focus on women’s health are helping drive a shift in how providers treat women’s pain, especially for reproductive care. (Read More) The post “Not Acceptable”: Doctors Start to Take Women’s Pain More Seriously first appeared on bioethics.com ..read more

(Axios) – Hospitals for the first time could be asked to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the federal health department. Why it matters: A new Medicare proposal to collect that data is a “game changer” for hospital efforts to fight climate change, the head of Health and Human Services’ climate office told Axios. (Read More) The post Hospital Emissions Reporting Proposal Is a “Game Changer” first appeared on bioethics.com ..read more

European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 32, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only.  Articles include: “Uncertainties Experienced by Parents of Children Diagnosed with severe Combined Immunodeficiency through Newborn Screening” by Melissa Raspa, et al. “Surveillance of multiple congenital Anomalies; Searching for new Associations” by Joan K. Morris, et al. “Glowing Gels and Pipettes aplenty: How do Commercial stock Image Banks Portray genetic Tests?” by Rachel Horton   The post A New Edition of European Journal of Human Genetics Is Now Available first appeared on bi ..read more

(PC Gamer) – When Borderlands Science was announced back in 2020 I thought it all sounded a little silly. Science? In my Borderlands? It struck me as a lot less likely than Dr. Mayim Bialik seemed to think. But it turns out that I was the silly one all along, because McGill University, the institution leading the project, says the project was in fact a massive success that will “substantially advance our knowledge of the microbiome and improve on the AI programs that will be used to carry out this work in future.” (Read More) The post Borderlands 3 Community Scores a Big Win for Science fi ..read more