Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of July 31, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of July 31, 2023–Aug. 4, 2023.

Reuters (8/3, Dey, Sunny) reports the CDC “said its advisory panel on Thursday recommended use of Sanofi and partner AstraZeneca’s antibody therapy to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and toddlers.” The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “recommended nirsevimab for preventing lower respiratory tract disease in newborns and infants below eight months of age born during or entering their first RSV season.” The panel “also recommended its use in children aged 8-19 months who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second such season.”

The AP (8/3, Johnson) reports “the CDC director signed off on the panel’s recommendations later Thursday.” The drug “is expected to be ready in the fall before the RSV season, typically November through March.” Even though “the new drug is not a vaccine, the expert panel also supported including it in Vaccines for Children, a government program providing free immunizations.”

MedPage Today (8/2, Monaco) reports SARS-CoV-2 “infection didn’t appear to precipitate a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in kids, a prospective multinational cohort study suggested.” In the study, “researchers tested more than 4,500 adolescents every few months for type 1 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 infection, and vaccination antibodies from January 2020 through December 2021.” The researchers found “no difference among the 45 kids diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during this time when it came to” SARS-CoV-2 “infection history.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Healio (8/1, Rhoades) reports, “Individuals who are planning to or could become pregnant should take a daily folic acid supplementation of 0.4 to 0.8 mg to prevent neural tube defects, according to a final recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.” The task force’s “A-grade recommendation, published in JAMA, aligns with the task force’s draft recommendation from February and its 2017 final recommendation.” This “recommendation comes as folic acid deficiency remains a concern in the United States.”

HealthDay (8/1, Gotkine) reports that experts reviewed data “from 12 observational studies reported in 13 publications, with 1,244,072 participants.” Investigators found “no reports of significant harms associated with pregnancy-related folic acid exposure.”

Reuters (7/31, Satija) reports that the administration “said on Monday it would trial a new payment program for people who provide dementia care coordination services for patients covered by the Medicare health plan.” This “program includes services such as personalized assessments, care plans for patients as well as 24/7 access to a support line.” The new “pilot program will test a per-patient per-month amount payment model for people who provide support services to patients with dementia.”

The Hill (7/31, Choi) reports, “In the GUIDE care model, participating providers will establish dementia care programs through which they will assign people with dementia and their caregivers to ‘care navigators’ who will help them in accessing services and support. Unpaid caregivers would also be connected with training programs and education on best practices.” According to the plan, “Medicare Part B-enrolled providers who are able to bill for Medicare Physician Fee Schedule services and agree to the requirements of the GUIDE model are eligible to apply.”

Modern Healthcare (7/31, Tepper, Subscription Publication) reports that the eight-year program “seeks to keep Medicare enrollees outside of long-term care facilities by extending a package of local care coordination and management and caregiver education and support services.”

NBC News (7/28, Carroll) reported, “Deaths related to excessive alcohol consumption are rapidly rising in the United States, especially among women, a...study finds.” Although “drinking is still killing more men than women, the rate of alcohol-related deaths is rising faster among women, according to the report published...in JAMA Network Open.”

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