Eric Boodman
Journalist . Trad fiddler. Formerly . Always happy to hear your story ideas! [email protected]
Thought Leader
#488 The New Center
Last synced from Twitter 7m ago
Grassroots group mobilizes to help toddlers access SMA gene therapy
Shraddha Chakradhar - STAT 29h 4 tweets
Their success reflects not only the effectiveness of public pressure campaigns but also the stakes for families whose children have the rare disease.
A drug maker revamped an old treatment — and hiked the price by 1,200%
STAT 32h 9 tweets
American Regent revamped the only essential mineral used by hospitals for feeding patients intravenously recently and raised the price by a whopping 1,250%.
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Eric Boodman “It’s not even a drug, it’s a trace element that is mined and has literally been around as long as dirt." A dramatic price hike for an ingredient in IV nutrition. The company's response? They "only" doubled the wholesale price. 28h
Beyond 23andMe: DNA sequencing clinics for the healthy (and wealthy)
Rebecca Robbins - STAT 5d 12 tweets
Top academic medical institutions are opening clinics that promise to probe much deeper into your DNA — if you’re willing to pay.
Amid rising concern, pay-to-play clinical trials are drawing federal scrutiny
Rebecca Robbins - STAT 15d 15 tweets
The FDA has asked a committee to consider how the research community should handle clinical trials that rely on the controversial funding mechanism.
Eric Boodman If anyone can write a great, attention-grabbing lede about IRBs, it's 15d
Counselors engage new parents before vaccine hesitancy hardens
Eric Boodman - STAT 16d 13 tweets
The counselors are themselves a kind of prophylaxis. Their job is to ask about parents’ worries long before anyone’s trying to vaccinate their kids.
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Eric Boodman I went back to Québec to learn about a whole new workforce, hired to address parents' anxieties about vaccines. Here's my story on vaccination counselors, the doctor who gave rise to their work, and his interaction with one especially hesitant mother 15d
The unsung rotifer is helping us untangle the biology of aging
Eric Boodman - STAT 20d 3 tweets
The rotifer's genetic makeup, lifespan, and sexual bent make it a good candidate for studies on how older bodies fall apart.
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Eric Boodman . and I profiled , aquatic ecologist and rotifer evangelist. These creatures are pretty cool. They can live in the moisture caught between strands of moss, survive a decade of desiccation... and help us understand aging? 20d
Fitbits, other wearables may not accurately track heart rates in people of color
Ruth Hailu - STAT 28d 20 tweets
Many popular wearable devices rely on technology that could be less reliable for consumers who have darker skin, experts told STAT.
Eric Boodman Great reporting from : Wearables may not accurately track heart rate in people of color. "Inserting another tool, no matter how advanced it is, will likely... continue to uphold the existing biases or exacerbate them," says . 28d
Why Does an FDA Page About Abortion Pills Cite Murders and Overdoses as 'Associated With' the Drugs?
Francie Diep - Pacific Standard 29d 4 tweets
There's no evidence that medication abortion caused these deaths.
Eric Boodman An FDA webpage states that 24 deaths were "associated with" abortion pills—but found that 2 of those people were murdered, 1 died of pulmonary emphysema, 1 overdosed on opioids, etc. Plus, the FDA neglected to list the denominator... 29d
Pregnancy tech is ‘the way of the future.’ But do we really want it?
Megan Thielking - STAT 29d 3 tweets
Doctors say the new technologies have the potential to transform prenatal care, but caution they could cause problems before they're proven useful.
Fight for coveted CRISPR patents gets knottier, as a new party weighs in
sharon begley - STAT 30d 6 tweets
The unusual move by MilliporeSigma seems to be the company’s last-ditch effort to pull out a CRISPR victory at the patent office.
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Eric Boodman Just when you thought you knew what was going on with the CRISPR patent disputes... 30d
Zoos Called It a ‘Rescue.’ But Are the Elephants Really Better Off?
Nytimes.com 43d 6 tweets
Despite mounting evidence that elephants find captivity torturous, some American zoos still acquire them from Africa — aided by a tall tale about why they needed to leave home.
Eric Boodman Uhhh, this quite a detail, from a story full of wild details 36d
HIV’s genetic code, hidden in old tissue, adds to signs of virus’ emergence
Helen Branswell - STAT 36d 11 tweets
Scientists at the University of Arizona were able to extract from the tissue a nearly complete genetic sequence of an HIV virus.
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Eric Boodman A nub of lymph node tissue from 1966, moldering in a box in Kinshasa, backs up a theory on when HIV began spreading among people. Cool story from 36d
Come on Boston, let’s pick up the pace on building bike lanes - The Boston Globe
BostonGlobe.com 41d 1 tweets
The city has a good vision for creating safer commutes for bicyclists, but it’s been vexingly slow to build them.
Eric Boodman I'm glad wrote this piece. I like to say that biking to work puts deadline pressure in perspective.... but seriously, I've come close to being squashed more times than I care to count. 41d
Sean Parker is nerding out on cancer research. And he’s doing it in style
Rebecca Robbins - STAT 43d 21 tweets
The billionaire is catalyzing real scientific progress through his eponymous institute. He's also bringing glamour to a field largely unfamiliar with it.
Eric Boodman This profile of Sean Parker is so good. (A $10,000 ice sculpture! Late night phone calls about protein targets! Ashton Kutcher inquiring about esoteric advances in immunotherapy!) 43d
The Most Controversial Tree in the World
Rowan Jacobsen - Pacific Standard 57d 6 tweets
Is the genetically engineered chestnut tree an act of ecological restoration or a threat to wild forests?
Eric Boodman Loved this piece! Learned a ton about trees! E.g. Chestnut "was known as the cradle-to-grave tree because people were born in rot-resistant chestnut houses, warmed by chestnut fires, entertained by chestnut fiddles, and laid to rest in chestnut coffins." 49d
Health tech companies often flop. Here’s what’s behind the successes
Megan Thielking - STAT 49d 9 tweets
Of the 50 companies founded by one program's fellows, just two folded. Six were acquired; the rest are "alive and well." The director shares his tips.
Eric Boodman “All clinical needs are compelling, right? I mean, people are suffering from those things. But not all clinical needs are worth 10 years of your time and tens of millions of other people’s money." 49d
What if AI in health care is the next asbestos?
Casey Ross - STAT 63d 21 tweets
“I think of machine learning kind of as asbestos,” one speaker said, explaining that AI in medicine could turn out to be as harmful as it is promising.
Locking down revenue | Estancia, New Mexico | Searchlight New Mexico
Searchlight NM 64d 1 tweets
Two years ago, the county jail in Estancia shut its doors because it didn’t have enough inmates. Then in May, Torrance County landed a contract with the federal government to re-open the jail and house detained migrants
Eric Boodman For this town, the reopening of a jail to detain migrants for the federal government means, as one resident put it, "money's comin' again!" By , newly arrived in New Mexico! 64d
Ghost networks of psychiatrists hinder patients' access to care
Jack Turban MD - STAT 65d 20 tweets
Insurers' out-of-date or fraudulent lists of mental health providers — ghost networks — can prevent vulnerable individuals from getting the care they need.
Eric Boodman Officials lists of "in-network" psychiatrists included numbers for McDonald's locations, jewelry stores, and a lot of shrinks who didn't actually accept that particular insurance company. 65d
‘None of this happened the way you think it did’
Hcn.org 72d 3 tweets
For years, the clients of a Colorado funeral home kept their loved ones’ cremated remains. Then the FBI called.
Eric Boodman A powerful (and bizarre) story from 69d