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brittanytrang

@brittanytrang@newsie.social

Health tech / AI reporter @STAT | chem PhD on PFAS | AAAS MMF alum at the Journal Sentinel. Buckeye, believer, sad indie rock concertgoer.

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brittanytrang, to Health
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NEW: After months of struggles, at-home Covid testing company Cue Health, once valued at $2.3 billion, is laying off all employees and shutting down

not much to do once the FDA tells people to not use your one approved product

https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/22/cue-health-covid-19-test-maker-layoffs/

brittanytrang, to ai
@brittanytrang@newsie.social avatar

We've got an absolutely packed agenda of in experts at , @STAT's summit in San Francisco today.

Research's Peter Lee related a story this morning about an email he got the third day after launched:

brittanytrang, to Health
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I need an entire streaming series of Nick Florko buying illegal stuff!!

"I'm on my way to what feels like the world’s weirdest drug deal," he writes.

The stuff he picked up (in the driveway of a $1.5M home outside of DC)?

Raw #milk, which the #FDA will tell you not to drink but won't stop people from selling to you

More at @STAT
https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/15/bird-flu-raw-milk-fda-loophole-lax-enforcement-interstate-ban/

#health #publichealth #rawmilk #H5N1

brittanytrang, to microsoft
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New from @STAT's Casey Ross and me:

has helped organize at least 4 efforts to set standards in . Is that problematic?

also: did I sneak a history of the EPA's TSCA into a story about AI? ✨click to find out✨

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/18/microsoft-health-care-artificial-intelligence-regulatory-capture/

brittanytrang, to ai
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There was a fight in the @STAT slack about whether we could call this piece "Dick pics for diagnosis" (you can see who won)

This app wants you to upload a picture of your partner's genitals and uses an unproven to tell you whether they have an or not

and the can't regulate it because it's a "lifestyle product" 🙃
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/02/hehealth-calmara-app-sti-detection-penis-pictures/

brittanytrang, to Health
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.@STAT's Bob Herman combed the documents so you don't have to:

In annual financial filings, UHG listed dozens of facilities it quietly acquired in 2023

Its main targets? Outpatient surgery centers...in areas where UnitedHealthcare is the main Medicare Advantage insurer 👀

https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/11/unitedhealth-outpatient-surgery-centers-medicare-advantage-ncp-fresenius/

brittanytrang, to Cybersecurity
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The Change Health cyberattack has sidelined prescriptions and medical care because providers can't communicate with insurers

United now says the attack involves a "suspected nation-state" 👀

The , HHS will be on a call with hospitals this afternoon

Has this outage affected you? ✉️ brittany.trang@statnews.com

https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/23/pharmacy-cyberattack-unitedhealth-change-healthcare-widespread-outage/

brittanytrang, to Health
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UnitedHealth's Optum has rather quietly assembled ~90,000 physicians into its provider empire

But its acquisition of a 100-provider clinic in Oregon is drawing outsized scrutiny due to Oregon's oversight and transparency laws, which may be the new norm

new from me for @STAT:
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/12/scrutiny-health-transactions-providers/

brittanytrang, to ai
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"Any AI system is defined by its reliance on the use of data from the past to make decisions about the future.

"But the government signaled it is concerned that the technology’s use by insurers is allowing them to bend the future to their own benefit."

via @STAT
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/07/government-warns-medicare-advantage-insurers-not-to-deny-care-based-on-ai/

brittanytrang, to Health
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This is "the big one," @STAT's Bob Herman tells us.

An employee is suing J&J for overpaying for its employees' prescriptions—to the tune of $10,000 for a $30 drug—and taking the excess out of paychecks.

A STAT investigation found that consultants & PBMs are in cahoots (and not in a good way), meaning J&J's consultant & PBM might get pulled into the lawsuit, opening the door for an industry-wide precedent.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/05/johnson-johnson-pbm-consultant-employer-erisa-drug-prices-lawsuit/

brittanytrang, to Health
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We love some courtroom reporting:

@STAT's John Wilkerson was in the room for the first oral arguments in a drugmaker's suit alleging that Medicare's drug price negotiation violates its rights.

The judge was skeptical.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/31/medicare-drug-price-negotiation-lawsuit-skepticism/

brittanytrang, to Pharmacy
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A bonkers investigation from the Dept of Defense OIG says that the White House's pharmacy was:

giving out drugs to unauthorized people on DoD's dime

letting patients use aliases in their medical records (which meant Walter Reed wasn't able to bill them)

not keeping records for drugs for fentanyl and ketamine correctly

and MUCH more

Story from me for @STAT
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/23/white-house-pharmacy/

brittanytrang, to Futurology
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In case you missed this @STAT exclusive over the weekend:

Dana-Farber researchers are moving to retract one paper and correct others amid a broad, expanding review of work by four of the institute's top scientists, including CEO Laurie Glimcher

Dana-Farber does not announce the results of research misconduct investigations because of legal liability, it said

https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/19/dana-farber-cancer-institute-allegations-manipulated-data-glimcher/

brittanytrang, to Medicine
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Every time Bob & Casey publish a story about how plans deny care, I think it can't get crazier.

But then more whistleblowers come out of the woodwork, and it does get crazier.

Their latest:

used secret rules to restrict rehab care for seriously ill Advantage patients

https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/28/medicare-advantage-united-health-navihealth-rehab-care-restrictions/ via @STAT

brittanytrang, to Futurology
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panel calls for fewer, better-paid postdocs in bid to halt loss of scientists to industry

The group called for raising minimum salaries to $70,000 beginning next year.

https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/15/nih-life-science-postdocs-salary-increase/ via @STAT

brittanytrang, to Health
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Today the FDA approved 2 gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease, including the first CRISPR-based therapy.

Bluebird Bio, who has the ~$1M more expensive and not-CRISPR therapy, has a single card left to play in this competition: It's been conducting a year-long dress rehearsal for this moment

https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/08/lyfgenia-sickle-cell-gene-therapy-bluebird-vertex-crispr-casgevy/

brittanytrang,
@brittanytrang@newsie.social avatar

Don't miss the rest of STAT's coverage of this historic moment:
https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/08/fda-approves-casgevy-crispr-based-medicine-for-treatment-of-sickle-cell-disease/

brittanytrang,
@brittanytrang@newsie.social avatar

We also have a video explainer on how Vertex and Therapeutics' CRISPR-based treatment works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sAGtqm3o1g

brittanytrang, to Health
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ICYMI on Friday while you were surfing for deals:

A health system says that at a 2021 dinner, execs told the health system to "stay in its lane" and out of the physician business, which Optum viewed as its "domain."

Many more alleged anti-competitive practices abound in the lawsuit. Read more: https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/24/unitedhealth-optum-antitrust-lawsuit/

brittanytrang, to science
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After Gaza tweet, firing of eLife journal editor and open science advocate Michael Eisen sparks freedom of speech concerns

via @STAT https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/25/gaza-michael-eisen-elife-editor-fired-freedom-of-speech/

brittanytrang, to Health
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Jurassic Park, but make it drugs: How one research group is mining extinct creatures' for future

a delightful one from @STAT's Jason Mast:

https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/25/antibiotics-resistance-ancient-dna-cesar-de-la-fuente/

brittanytrang, to physics
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I haven't read all the coverage I've wanted to this week (there's so many good Katalin Kariko stories), but couple good historical look-backs:

Lise Meitner was nominated 46 times for the Nobel in both and , but she never won.

A great one from Katrina Miller at the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/science/lise-meitner-fission-nobel.html

brittanytrang, to chemistry
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Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov get the 2023 in “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.”

What a huge day for nanocrystal fans, confinement, and pictures of glowing rainbow flasks everywhere.

https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/04/nobel-prize-chemistry-bawendi-brus-ekimov-awarded-prize/

brittanytrang, to science
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Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have won the 2023 in medicine for developing the technology that enabled the coronavirus .

So glad to see Karikó recognized; her story is both infuriating (though it shouldn't have been!) and inspiring

https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/02/nobel-prize-medicine-kariko-weissman-awarded-prize/

brittanytrang,
@brittanytrang@newsie.social avatar

For more on mRNA and Karikó's story, give this a read:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/

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