WORLD POPULATION: 8,015,936,000*
YEAR 2050 PROJECTION: 9,800,000,000**
YEAR 2100 PROJECTION: 11,200,000,000**
U.S. POPULATION: 333,287,557***
*https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
**https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100
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POLITICS & POLICIES
April 28, 2023: The Health Policy Institute of Ohio has released the latest edition of its biennial Health Value Dashboard, which found that Ohio ranks 44 on heath value compared to other states and D.C. (as displayed in the graphic above).That means that Ohioans are living less healthy lives and spending more on health care than people in most other states.The Dashboard is designed for policymakers and other public- and private-sector leaders to examine Ohio’s performance relative to other states, track change over time and identify and explore health disparities and inequities in Ohio. The report also highlights evidence-informed strategies that can be implemented to improve Ohio’s performance.With more than 100 data metrics, the report can be a valuable tool as Ohio’s leaders continue to develop the state’s biennial budget over the next two months.In the fifth edition of the Dashboard, HPIO identified three specific areas of strengths on which Ohio can build to create opportunities for improved health value in the state.
https://www.healthpolicynews.org/
April 28, 2023: The Biden administration on Thursday rolled out proposals to set national standards for care in Medicaid and children’s health care plans, amid upheaval for millions of Americans’ coverage in both programs (Source: “Biden officials propose slate of Medicaid transparency changes,” Stat News, April 27). A pair of draft rules released by federal health officials Thursday would require Medicaid plans to book enrollees for appointments within two weeks. The rules would also require states to track and report the quality of care patients receive, to share provider payment rates and to oversee these changes through “secret shopper” surveys. However, while the agency proposed a slew of reporting requirements, the changes did not come with clear penalties or incentives for improving wait time and care. The draft plans come as states reassess Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment in the wake of the Covid-19 emergency. Congress allowed states to begin removing people from Medicaid rolls this month, ending a pandemic freeze that saw Medicaid coverage balloon with more than 20 million new enrollees. An estimated 18 million people could lose coverage in the next year, according to a KFF survey of state Medicaid programs.
https://www.healthpolicynews.org/
PROGRAMS, PROJECTS, CONFERENCES, GRANTS, AWARDS & EVENTS
MAy 29, 2023: The Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 21–30 May 2023. The theme of this year’s Health Assembly is: WHO at 75: Saving lives, driving health for all.Proceedings will be webcast live from this web page. Simultaneous interpretation is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
https://www.who.int/about/governance/world-health-assembly/seventy-sixth-world-health-assembly
Co-Hosted by the Department of Bioethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University and the Program in Medical Humanities, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Registration is now open for the 2023 Health Humanities Consortium Annual Conference! The conference will be held in Cleveland, Ohio at the Health Education Campus from Thursday March 16th through Sunday March 19th, co-hosted by Case Western Reserve University Department of Bioethics and the Program in Medical Humanities at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. This year’s conference theme is “Mobilizing Selves, Transforming Structures.” Please note that all decisions on submissions to the conference were emailed in early December. The conference website (https://hhc2023.vfairs.com/) includes the preliminary agenda for the conference and some basic information about the local venue (more will follow). Participants may attend in-person or virtually.
HISTORICAL, REPORTS, DOCUMENTS, DATA & INDEXES
February 6, 2023: Cancer figures provide stark evidence of the gap between the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people in Australia. The difference is confronting – and it’s increasing over time. Cancer is the leading broad cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, accounting for 3,612 deaths (23% of deaths). Indigenous Australians are 14% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. They are 20% less likely to survive at least five years beyond diagnosis. While the likelihood of dying from cancer in the general population declined by 10% from 2010 to 2019, it increased by 12% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These figures highlight major challenges for the federal government’s stated aim to close the life expectancy gap in a generation. But data will also be critical to meeting this goal.
Health data can include information about health-care services, health status and behaviours, medications and genetic data, in addition to demographic information like age, education and neighbourhood. These facts and statistics are valuable because they offer insights and information about population health and well-being. However, they can also be sensitive, and there are legitimate public concerns about how these data are used, and by whom. The term “social licence” describes uses of health data that have public support. Studies performed in Canada, the United Kingdom and internationally have all found public support and social licence for uses of health data that produce public benefits. However, this support is conditional. Public concerns related to privacy, commercial motives, equity and fairness must be addressed.
RESEARCH
May 29, 2023: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum ferritin level and prognosis in sepsis. It also explored the potential prognostic value of serum ferritin for predicting outcomes in sepsis based on a large public database. Sepsis patients in MIMIC-IV database were included. Different models including crude model (adjusted for none), model I (adjusted for age and gender) and model II (adjusted for all potential confounders) were performed. Smooth fitting curves were constructed for exploring the relationships between serum ferritin and mortalities of 28-day, 90-day, 180-day and 1-year. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized for assessing the predictive value of serum ferritin. 1947 sepsis patients were included. The mortalities of 28-day, 90-day, 180-day and 1-year were 20.18% (n = 393), 28.35% (n = 552), 30.30% (n = 590) and 31.54% (n = 614), respectively. In Model II (adjusted for all potential confounders), for every 1000 ng/ml increment in serum ferritin, the values of OR in mortalities of in 28-day, 90-day, 180-day and 1-year were 1.13 (95% CI 1.07–1.19, P < 0.0001), 1.15 (95% CI 1.09–1.21, P < 0.0001), 1.16 (95% CI 1.10–1.22, P < 0.0001) and 1.17 (95% CI 1.10–1.23, P < 0.0001), respectively. The relationships between serum ferritin level and outcomes were non-linear. The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of ferritin for predicting mortalities of 28-day, 90-day, 180-day and 1-year were 0.597 (95% CI 0.563–0.629), 0.593 (95% CI 0.564–0.621), 0.595 (95% CI 0.567–0.623) and 0.592 (95% CI 0.564–0.620), respectively. The non-linear relationships between serum ferritin and clinical outcomes in sepsis were found. Serum ferritin had a predictive value for short-term and long-term outcomes in sepsis.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35874-2
May 29, 2023: This study aims to quantify whether age and sex groups in Austrian regions are equally affected by the rise of type 2 diabetes. Population-wide medical claims data was obtained for citizens in Austria aged above 50 year, who received antihyperglycemic treatments or underwent HbA1c monitoring between 2012 and 2017. Diabetes incidence was measured using an epidemiological diabetes progression model accounting for patients who discontinued antihyperglycemic therapy; the erratic group. Out of 746,184 patients, 268,680 (140,960 females) discontinued their treatment and/or monitoring for at least one year. Without adjusting for such erratic patients, incidence rates increase from 2013 to 2017 (females: from 0·5% to 1·1%, males: 0·5% to 1·2%), whereas they decrease in all groups after adjustments (females: − 0·3% to − 0·5%, males: − 0·4% to − 0·5%). Higher mortality was observed in the erratic group compared to patients on continued antihyperglycemic therapy (mean difference 12% and 14% for females and males, respectively). In summary, incidence strongly depends on age, sex and place of residency. One out of three patients with diabetes in Austria discontinued antihyperglycemic treatment or glycemic monitoring for at least one year. This newly identified subgroup raises concern regarding adherence and continuous monitoring of diabetes care and demands further evaluation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35806-0
DISEASES & DISASTERS
May 29, 2023: MILAN (AP) — A body was retrieved early Monday in a northern Italian lake by police divers, raising to four the final death toll in the capsizing of a tourist boat a day earlier during a sudden, violent storm that included a whirlwind. Two bodies had been recovered by firefighter divers on Sunday evening, while the fourth victim had died shortly after being rescued following the capsizing of the houseboat, which the owners used as a tour vessel to take visitors around Lake Maggiore, police said.
May 29, 2023: FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Eight months ago, chef Michael Cellura had a restaurant job and had just moved into a fancy new camper home on Fort Myers Beach. Now, after Hurricane Ian swept all that away, he lives in his older Infiniti sedan with a 15-year-old long-haired chihuahua named Ginger. Like hundreds of others, Cellura was left homeless after the Category 5 hurricane blasted the barrier island last September with ferocious winds and storm surge as high as 15 feet (4 meters). Like many, he’s struggled to navigate insurance payouts, understand federal and state assistance bureaucracy and simply find a place to shower.
TECHNOLOGY
May 25, 2023: AcuPebble Ox100 builds on an older Acurable device, AcuPebble SA100, that received 510(k) clearance in the summer of 2021. Like the older device, AcuPebble Ox100 features a sensor that the patient sticks to their neck to record respiratory and heart sounds. The acoustic signals are processed and analyzed by algorithms to detect sleep apnea. The new device combines the neck sensor with an oximetry sensor that the patient wears on their finger to record blood oxygen levels. While the AcuPebble SA100 clearance said the device is “not intended as a substitute for full polysomnography,” the FDA notification for the new product lacks that caveat. Esther Rodriguez-Villegas, inventor of the AcuPebble technology and founder and co-CEO of Acurable, said in a statement that the company has “already had a lot of interest from U.S. clinicians, who believe it can be transformational [for patients].
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/acurable-launch-sleep-apnea-diagnosis/651232/
May 25, 2023: Medtronic, with a warning letter recently lifted from its U.S. diabetes business, aims to bring new products to market. The company plans to integrate its new insulin dosing algorithm, which is used in the 780G pump, with EOFlow’s pump. “We’ve never lost faith in our technology,” Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha said on a Thursday earnings call, adding that “the patch segment is a good segment and we look forward to having multiple options.” EOFlow’s technology currently is authorized in Europe, South Korea, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, with a smartphone application that allows users to monitor and control the patch directly from their phone.
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/medtronic-acquire-eoflow-patch-pump-insulin-MDT/651278/
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
May 26, 2023: A United Nations fundraiser for aid operations in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa has fallen short as donor countries pledged only a third of the $7 billion sought. The UN warned against a “catastrophe” in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, which it described as the epicentre of the world’s worst climate emergencies. Donor countries have pledged a total of $2.4 billion for 2023, but only $0.8 billion in new financial support was announced at this week’s event. The US will provide nearly two-thirds of the money, followed at some distance by the European Commission, Germany and the UK. The money raised at a pledging conference this week will help humanitarian agencies provide food, water, healthcare and protection services to over 30 million people across the three countries.
May 25, 2023: The United Nations climate body has cast doubt over technologies that aim to suck carbon pollution from the atmosphere, calling them “unproven” and potentially risky. In a briefing note, unnamed authors from the UN’s climate body (UNFCCC) said these removal activities are “technologically and economically unproven, especially at scale, and pose unknown environmental and social risks”. It concludes they are therefore not suitable for offsetting carbon emissions under the upcoming UN’s global scheme. The UN assessment has angered the growing industry, which is seeing billions of dollars of investment from governments and corporations.
EQUITY & DISPARITIES
May 24, 2023: Increasing physical activity levels, especially among people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, can greatly improve heart health and could help reduce racial disparities in heart disease, according to a new science report. The scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published Wednesday in the journal Circulation, highlights the need to remove barriers to physical activity among groups at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, including adults who are older, female, Black, have depression, disabilities or lower socioeconomic status, or live in rural areas. Physical activity levels are often lower in these groups and increasing levels could help lower cardiovascular risks, the report found. It looked at individual and community-level physical activity and provided suggestions for how to increase it. “Helping everybody improve their heart health is important,” statement writing committee chair Gerald J. Jerome said in a news release. Jerome is a professor in the department of kinesiology at Towson University in Maryland.
May 17, 2023: Like many people of South Asian ancestry, Anjana Srivastava can offer a long list of family members who’ve had heart disease. “My grandfathers. My dad. My father-in-law. My brothers,” she recalled. “My grandmother died from it. I don’t think I even know a single family where someone doesn’t have heart disease.” That’s one reason Srivastava, who grew up in India but lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, signed up to be part of the first large, long-term U.S. study of heart health in South Asian Americans more than a decade ago. That study is MASALA – the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America. Launched in 2010, it has uncovered important details about heart health in the fast-growing group. The study is in the midst of collecting a third round of health data from its original participants even as it expands to capture a broader slice of the community. As Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is celebrated in May, the 100th scientific paper will be generated by the study.
WOMEN, MATERNAL, NEONATAL & CHILDREN’S HEALTH
May 21, 2023: WEST WENDOVER, Nev. — In April, Mark Lee Dickson arrived in this 4,500-person city that hugs the Utah-Nevada border to pitch an ordinance banning abortion. Dickson is the director of the anti-abortion group Right to Life of East Texas and founder of another organization that has spent the last few years traveling the United States trying to convince local governments to pass abortion bans. “Sixty-five cities and two counties across the United States” have passed similar restrictions, he told members of the West Wendover City Council during a mid-April meeting. The majority are in Texas, but recent successes in other states have buoyed Dickson and his group. “We’re doing this in Virginia and Illinois and Montana and other places as well,” he said.
May 18, 2023: Medical students say strict abortion laws are driving them away from pursuing careers as doctors in states where the procedure is banned. The finding comes from a survey of third- and fourth-year medical students, conducted from August through October of last year — just after the June 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision that overturned Roe V. Wade, which for nearly 50 years granted the right to an abortion across the U.S. The reluctance to be a medical resident — young doctors who train in hospitals or clinics after graduating medical school — in states with abortion bans could further strain health care shortages in many parts of the country. The survey results reflect the feelings of future obstetricians and gynecologists as well as doctors who plan to go into other specialties, such as surgery or internal medicine, said Ariana Traub, a third-year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine, who conducted the survey.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/states-abortion-bans-young-doctors-survey-rcna84899
POVERTY ALLEVIATION & ERADICATION
May 29, 2023: Hunger is set to worsen in 18 “hotspots” worldwide including Sudan, where fighting is putting people at risk of starvation, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a report published on Monday. Additionally, a likely El Niño – a naturally occurring climatic phenomenon that has a warming effect on ocean surface temperatures in the central and east Pacific – is also raising fears of climate extremes in vulnerable nations. Against ‘business-as-usual’ The report calls for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods, and to prevent starvation and death. “Business-as-usual pathways are no longer an option in today’s risk landscape if we want to achieve global food security for all, ensuring that no one is left behind,” said Dongyu Qu, the FAO Director-General. He underlined the need for immediate interventions in the agricultural sector “to pull people from the brink of hunger, help them rebuild their lives, and provide long-term solutions to address the root causes of food insecurity.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1137127
May 28, 2023: Fatoumatta Fatty’s commute on an old, malfunctioning wheelchair takes up to two hours during rainy season in The Gambia, but she is happy joining her co-workers at a sanitary pad production centre, where she takes pride in making products that help women overcome “period poverty” across the country. Period poverty, or the inability to afford menstrual products, is a serious issue especially in developing countries, an issue menstruating girls and women grapple with monthly and a spotlight topic on Menstrual Hygiene Day, observed annually on 28 May. “I’m happy to come work here because I meet and work with other people,” said Ms. Fatty, who operates a special machine to install snaps on each pad. “This place gives me joy because I can forget about my disability while working here.” The sturdy, long-lasting pads she produces help women like her with a mobility impairment, who have trouble going to the restroom. After working there for a year, Ms. Fatty hopes to continue. While her disabilities bring many challenges and she struggled to make ends meet for a long time, her life has become better since she joined the project.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1137067
HUMANITARIAN, NONPROFITS, FOUNDATIONS & NGOS
February 27, 2023: More than half of U.S. hospitals are nonprofit, meaning they receive generous tax exemptions in exchange for benefiting their communities. Many aren’t fulfilling that mission. Some nonprofits have billed patients who should have qualified for charity care, racking up billions of dollars in charges. Some have aggressively collected on medical debt through legal action or reports to credit agencies. Others have exploited poor communities by maintaining a token presence there to qualify for federal subsidies that benefit the needy, only to expand in rich communities. At least one institution has explicitly set up care pathways that prioritize the elite at the expense of the general public. At the same time, many hospitals — both nonprofit and for-profit — have failed to meet their workers’ expectations. Throughout the pandemic, staff members had to proactively organize for key protections — tests, masks, and vaccines — while flooded with patients. Nurses nationwide have accused hospitals of placing financial interests before safety in adopting imbalanced staffing ratios. All this while many institutions fail to pay their employees a living wage.
May 29, 2023: Inova Health System in Falls Church, Virginia, has announced a $75 million gift from Dwight C. and Martha Schar in support of cardiovascular care across the northern Virginia region. The gift will expand and rename Inova Schar Heart and Vascular, providing support for efforts to grow specialty services; focus on research, outreach, prevention, and early diagnosis; recruit and retain talent; and promote health equity. In addition, it will enable the system to build multidisciplinary team-based programs in advanced heart failure and lung disease care, minimally invasive cardiac surgery and interventions, vascular medicine and surgery, women’s heart health, and wellness and prevention. Longtime supporters of Inova, the Schars have committed more than $126 million since 1993, including a $50 million gift in 2015 to establish the Inova Schar Cancer Institute. “Countless lives will be transformed by this remarkable gift as it allows Inova to push the boundaries of medical research, innovation, and patient care,” said Inova Health System president and CEO J. Stephen Jones. “We are grateful for this generous donation by Dwight and Martha Schar. It will have a lasting impact on heart health and will accelerate the trajectory of our mission to provide world-class health care to everyone, in every community we have the privilege to serve—one heartbeat at a time.
IH CONNECT 