Eric Boodman
Journalist @statnews. Trad fiddler. Formerly @PittsburghPG @mtlgazette. Always happy to hear your story ideas! [email protected]
Thought Leader
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Ghost networks of psychiatrists hinder patients' access to care
Insurers' out-of-date or fraudulent lists of mental health providers — ghost networks — can prevent vulnerable individuals from getting the care they need.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.
7h
‘None of this happened the way you think it did’
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 @elenaSB_
hcn.org/issues/51.10/c… pic.twitter.com/hi1RulQ2gg
4d
FDA warns of one patient death from a fecal transplant
At least one person has died after a fecal microbiome transplant transmitted drug-resistant bacteria, the FDA said Thursday.
Uganda confirms first Ebola case outside outbreak in DRC
For months DRC’s neighbors have been preparing for the possibility, with several vaccinating health workers in health facilities near their shared border.
Stem cell clinics co-opt clinicaltrials.gov to push unproven therapies
What worries critics is these companies’ co-opting of a taxpayer-funded database to market therapies without proof of safety or regulatory review.
2
Eric Boodman
I wrote about how the unapproved "stem cell"companies that the FDA is cracking down on are still using a federal government website to legitimize their work.
6d
Reprieve
A near-death experience should change a person’s outlook on life, shouldn’t it?
Top Republican outlines a path forward for bipartisan drug pricing bill
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s remarks are among the strongest yet from a Republican regarding a path forward for drug pricing reforms in this Congress.
He Jiankui's attempt to protect against HIV shortens lives, study shows
"I recognize I pushed too quickly into a first-of-kind clinical study," Chinese researcher He Jiankui wrote in an email to a bioethicist at Stanford.
1
Eric Boodman
The genetic variant given to the famous CRISPR babies is, it turns out, “probably not a mutation that most people would want to have. You are actually, on average, worse off having it."
14d
The surgeon had a dilemma only a Nazi medical text could resolve
The illustrations were compiled by an Austrian medical school dean and were based in part on the bodies of people executed by the Nazis.
Eric Boodman
The surgeon had already opened the patient's knee when she realized she needed to consult a detailed anatomical map produced 80 years ago. But there was an ethical problem: It was drawn by Nazis.
By @sxbegle
18d
New fetal surgery for spina bifida may be safer for baby and mom
Abigail Giron had no brain swelling at birth and no paralysis, and so far hasn't required a catheter to urinate. "This is life-changing," one doctor said.
3
Eric Boodman
A new way to operate on spina bifida in utero without opening the mother's abdomen.
(With @ushamcfarling's characteristic eye for detail)
20d
As DNA ancestry sites gather more data, consumers' results are shifting
To the companies selling tests, the ever-evolving nature of ancestry reports is more of a feature than a bug. To consumers, it can mean an identity crisis.
Eric Boodman
He thought he was 100 % Korean.
Then @23andMe revealed he was almost half Japanese. But when he checked the website again, his Japanese heritage was down to 5%.
@damiangarde on the "existential whiplash" of questionable genetic tests
26d
Abortion Bans Have Passed in 7 States This Year, Seeking to Challenge Roe
Alabama legislators on Tuesday voted to ban abortions in nearly all cases, making the state the seventh this year to pass abortion restrictions.
Scientific labs look for new ways to become sustainable
Labs have big energy bills and produce a ton of trash — but a growing number of them are trying to become more eco-friendly.
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German ethics council expresses openness to eventual embryo editing
The German council's openness to human germline editing was notable because of the Nazis’ eugenics programs and horrific human medical experiments.
The Birth-Tissue Profiteers
How well-meaning donations end up fueling an unproven, virtually unregulated $2 billion stem cell industry.
Eric Boodman
I'm a week late to this party, but... The details in this @CarolineYLChen piece are truly bonkers.
Ads for fictional doctors. Laissez-faire regulators. Tissues donated in the haze of childbirth used to make questionable treatments.
35d
Unlocked And Loaded: Families Confront Dementia And Guns
As more Americans are diagnosed with dementia, families who have firearms struggle with ways to stay safe. A KHN investigation uncovered dozens of cases of deaths and injuries.
What a rabbi's request might say about fighting vaccine hesitancy
Concerns about vaccines spread from friend to friend, family member to family member, beloved leader to congregant. A defense of vaccines spread similarly.
1
Eric Boodman
“Physicians sometimes feel overwhelmed about these vaccine-hesitant parents," @DubeEve told me.
Here's how a whole chain of people—from a rebbe in upstate NY to a stroke specialist in southeastern Minnesota—tried to address that.
38d
TV producers make bold pitches to health companies, but don't always deliver
The pitches suggest health companies will be introduced by celebrities and millions might see the shows. But the experience doesn't always deliver.
Eric Boodman
A small health care company was excited about (and willing to pay for) a widely distributed TV segment where its work would be introduced by James Earl Jones.
It didn't quite pan out that way.
By @meggophone
39d
FDA takes new steps to bolster research on pregnant and lactating women
Federal health officials rolled out two new draft guidances about how to study drug safety and efficacy in pregnant and lactating women.