Weekend Update

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, Patient safety, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • The House of Representatives and the Senate remain on their District / State work breaks until September 9.
  • ABC News reports,
    • “The federal government will restart its free at-home COVID tests program in September as officials prepare the country for the upcoming respiratory virus season.
    • “Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that this is the seventh time the Biden-Harris administration has allowed Americans to order over-the-counter tests at no charge.
    • “It’s not clear when the website, COVID.gov/tests, will come back online. The website stopped accepting orders in early March.”
  • Cardiovascular Business lets us know,
    • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that Inari Medical is recalling its ClotTriever XL catheter for large blood vessels. 
    • “The news comes after the FDA received several reports of “serious adverse events” due to the device becoming entrapped or blocking arteries in the patient’s lungs. Six deaths and four other patient injuries have been associated with the issue so far. 
    • “The ClotTriever XL catheter, like Inari Medical’s other ClotTriever devices, was designed to treat deep vein thrombosis. Marketed as “a large device for the largest vein,” it was built specifically to target issues found in the vena cava.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

  • MedPage Today offers a series of interviews with public health experts on the measles, bird flu, and Covid.
  • McKinsey and Company share a string of insightful articles on closing the women’s health gap.
    • “In the quest for women’s equality, the health gap is a major player. Women live longer than men, but they spend 25 percent more of that time in poor health. This gap boils down to disparities in efficacy, data, and care delivery, say McKinsey’s Anouk Petersen, Lucy Pérez, and coauthors. 
    • “Closing this gap could add up to seven more healthy days of life per year, per woman. The key? Recognizing that women’s health is not just a scaled-down version of men’s health but is biologically distinct. Change can begin by tackling specific diseases and conditions at a country or regional level.
    • “Ahead of Women’s Equality Day [tomorrow] August 26, explore these insights to understand the widespread benefits of closing the chasm.”
  • Per Medscape,
    • “Patients with dementia may instead have hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and should be screened with the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index for cirrhosis, one of the main causes of the condition, new research suggests.
    • “The study of more than 68,000 individuals in the general population diagnosed with dementia between 2009 and 2019 found that almost 13% had FIB-4 scores indicative of cirrhosis and potential HE.
    • “The findings, recently published online in The American Journal of Medicine, corroborate and extend the researchers’ previous work, which showed that about 10% of US veterans with a dementia diagnosis may in fact have HE.
    • “We need to increase awareness that cirrhosis and related brain complications are common, silent, but treatable when found,” corresponding author Jasmohan Bajaj, MD, of Virginia Commonwealth University and Richmond VA Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia, told Medscape Medical News. “Moreover, these are being increasingly diagnosed in older individuals.”
    • “Cirrhosis can also predispose patients to liver cancer and other complications, so diagnosing it in all patients is important, regardless of the HE-dementia connection,” he said.”
  • and
    • “When doctors and patients consider the appendix, it’s often with urgency. In cases of appendicitis, the clock could be ticking down to a life-threatening burst. Thus, despite recent research suggesting antibiotics could be an alternative therapy, appendectomy remains standard for uncomplicated appendicitis.
    • “But what if removing the appendix could raise the risk for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and colorectal cancer? That’s what some emerging science suggests. And though the research is early and mixed, it’s enough to give some health professionals pause .
    • “If there’s no reason to remove the appendix, then it’s better to have one,” said Heather Smith, PhD, a comparative anatomist at Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona. Preemptive removal is not supported by the evidence, she said.”