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Good morning. I almost missed a meeting yesterday because I was captivated by Caity Weaver’s article on her adventurous quest to find the best free restaurant bread in America. Fellow Massachusetts millennials, Bertucci’s got a mention, thanks to those of us who spread the word.
AI could review scans for heart risk, if someone will pay for it
Each year, 19 million general chest CT scans are performed on patients—whether for lung cancer screening, investigating a cough, or other reasons. Radiologists often note any coronary artery calcium they find, even if it wasn’t the initial purpose of the scan. The presence of more calcium indicates a heightened risk of heart attack or stroke, yet an estimated 20% to 40% of such findings go unreported. Experts are exploring AI as a potential solution to identify more of these patients.
“Without anybody needing to lift a finger on a day-to-day basis, patients can get screened for cardiac diseases,” said Nish Khandwala, CEO of Bunkerhill, a company with FDA-approved algorithms for detecting incidental calcium in existing chest CTs. Despite this, few health systems are currently using these tools. Read more from STAT’s Katie Palmer on the challenges of this type of opportunistic screening.
Trump DOJ report says Biden administration treated anti-abortion protestors unfairly
The DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, which aims to eliminate politically motivated actions within the department, released a report yesterday. It contends that the Biden administration improperly enforced the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, prosecuting anti-abortion protestors while collaborating with abortion clinics and pro-choice groups. The 1994 law prohibits using or threatening physical force or obstruction to prevent someone from obtaining an abortion or exercising their First Amendment right to religious freedom.
The report highlights that the Biden administration sought longer average sentences for “peaceful pro-life defendants” (26.3 months) compared to “violent pro-abortion defendants” (12.3 months). It further asserts that the Biden DOJ minimized attacks on crisis pregnancy centers and religious institutions, though critics argue the report omits crucial context.
An analysis in the law journal Just Security indicates that cases against these “peaceful” pro-life protestors involved actions such as firebombing, arson, bomb threats, and organized blockades. As noted in a 2024 article by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “one of the anti-abortion movement’s most effective weapons has been terror.”
What happens if med schools stop teaching health equity
Formal accreditation requirements for medical schools to teach health disparities and equity were not established until 2015. Over a decade later, as political pressures increase, the primary accreditation body has removed this language from its standards, opting instead for a focus on “structural competency.”
“This change isn’t trivial,” writes physician Uché Blackstock in her new First Opinion essay. “The LCME has made this content easier to deprioritize at a moment when its understanding remains essential to clinically competent care.” Learn more about the everyday emergency room experiences that have underscored for Blackstock the importance of this education.
Since 2009, hundreds got tetanus despite effective vaccine
A recent CDC analysis of tetanus cases and fatalities in the U.S. highlights that not keeping up with vaccinations or recommended boosters continues to expose individuals to this dangerous and widespread bacteria.
From 2009 to 2023, at least 402 tetanus cases were recorded in the United States, with 37 resulting in death. While many records were incomplete, a significant portion of cases involved individuals who had never received a tetanus vaccine, hadn’t completed the primary series, or had exceeded the recommended 10-year interval for a booster. No deaths occurred among those who had received three or more doses of a tetanus-containing vaccine.
Most patients should have been offered a tetanus vaccine when seeking treatment for their wounds, and roughly three-quarters should have been provided tetanus immune globulin, according to the report published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, this care was administered in only a minority of cases. The report suggests that health providers could benefit from refreshing their knowledge on appropriate responses when tetanus is a potential risk. — Helen Branswell
An expression of concern over one journal’s expression of concern
If an academic journal issues a warning in the digital realm and no one notices, is it truly effective and transparent? This question — posed more clearly than my attempt — is at the center of Ed Silverman’s latest Pharmalot column. The warning, issued last fall by the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, concerned a controversial 2001 study on a widely prescribed antidepressant.
The journal issued an “expression of concern” and retracted the study. However, as Ed explains, the study was more easily accessible online than the expression of concern itself, until he contacted the journal and publisher. Discover more about Ed’s journey through this issue and its broader implications for academic publishing.
What we’re reading
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States change custody laws to keep children of detained immigrants out of foster care, KFF Health News
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You should be more freaked out by shingles, Wired
- Listen: Hosting the ‘intellectual wrestling match’ between MAHA, public health, STAT
- The problem with thinking you’re part Neanderthal, MIT Technology Review
