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Good morning. Tomorrow’s the deadline for filing taxes. Godspeed to anybody who will be rushing through it tonight or tomorrow over takeout.
CMS moves ahead with tech-focused chronic care experiment
More than 150 companies and providers have been provisionally approved to participate in an experimental Medicare program meant to expand access to technology-supported chronic care. CMS will pay participants — which include popular mental health apps, wearable device makers, a life sciences company tied to Google, and more — set rates to treat chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, musculoskeletal pain, anxiety, and depression.
Officials have said that 70% of Medicare beneficiaries may be eligible for the program, which may be why so many companies were interested. Read more from STAT’s Mario Aguilar on the details. As he puts it, the long-term question hanging over this 10-year experiment is whether it can lower Medicare costs while maintaining or improving quality of care.
A fluoride shortage for some U.S. water systems
During the 2024 presidential election, now-health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to remove fluoride from the drinking water. While that hasn’t exactly happened, another unexpected factor is disrupting the ability of some U.S. water utilities to fluoridate water at the recommended levels: the war in Iran. As the AP reported yesterday, Israel is one of the world’s top exporters of fluorosilicic acid, and at least one of its suppliers is struggling as workers are called into active military service.
A small number of water utilities in the U.S. have been affected so far, but they provide water to hundreds of thousands of people, per the AP. And experts say that, if the violence continues, shortages are likely to continue.
Some good research funding news
Good news hit the inboxes of hundreds of students Sunday evening, when the National Science Foundation announced the recipients of its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The prestigious program provides students with three years of funding to support research during their graduate studies. It was rocked last year, as the administration initially decided to halve the number of awards given out, and heavily prioritize research on quantum computing and computer science.
Researchers worried the tumult would continue into 2026, as the NSF seemed to spike more applications than normal. But those concerns did not come to pass. According to the list of winners released Sunday, the agency funded the largest cohort it ever has, and also increased the proportion of students doing biology research from last year. Read more from our colleague Jonathan Wosen about those unexplained rejections from earlier this year here, and how uncertainty with the GRFP is contributing to a difficult environment for first year PhD students here. — Anil Oza
What keeps a major WHO official awake at night
The second and final term for the current WHO director-general will end next summer, and the conversation about who will replace him has already started. Hanan Balkhy, who leads the group’s Eastern Mediterranean region, has emerged as a frontrunner. But she’s got enough on her plate already: her region includes a number of the countries caught up in the war in Iran.
“What worries me at this specific moment is a further escalation into full-blown nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare,” Balkhy told STAT’s Helen Branswell. Read their conversation for insight on the complexities of her work amid international conflict, as well as whether or not she plans to enter the race to lead WHO.
How family dynamics affect brain recovery
When a child or teen suffers a traumatic brain injury, it can put them at higher risk for both physical and mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, headaches, and chronic pain. A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open found that adverse childhood experiences accentuate these risks, while “family resilience” and “child flourishing” are associated with lower odds of poor outcomes.
It’s long been understood that adverse childhood experiences are key risk factors for mental and physical health. Family resilience encapsulates how a family responds to stress, communicates, and mobilizes in a crisis or big event. Flourishing refers to how much interest, curiosity, and ease a young person has when learning new things or facing a challenge. In the study, these measures were calculated based on federal survey responses from caregivers. Young people in more resilient families had fewer issues after recovery than those in struggling families.
“Clinically, these results underscore the value of integrating strength-based, family resilience-enhancing approaches into pediatric TBI care to promote holistic recovery and well-being,” the authors wrote, adding that future research should develop such interventions.
The devastation of age-based approvals for rare disease drugs
For two decades, there has only been one FDA-approved treatment for Hunter syndrome, a rare disease caused by the deficiency of an enzyme needed to break down sugars called glycosaminoglycans. That is, until this spring, when the agency granted accelerated approval for another drug. Nathan Grant, an M.D.-M.B.A. student whose twin has severe Hunter syndrome, knows he should have been happy about the progress. But the drug is only approved for people up to age 16 — his brother is 28.
“Ever since he received his diagnosis at the age of 2, my brother has gradually lost the ability to communicate verbally and is now fully dependent on others for care,” Grant writes in a new First Opinion essay. “Surviving into adulthood should not mean being excluded from hopeful therapies.” Read more.
What we’re reading
New report details safety issues that led to Miami organ recovery group’s closure, Miami Herald
Cancer rates are higher near large livestock feeding operations in three states, a new study finds, Inside Climate News
- Dana-Farber CEO talks untangling from Mass General Brigham and building new cancer hospital, Boston Globe
- Can red light therapy really deliver a beauty and health glow-up? Here’s the science, NPR
- For Ben Sasse, Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer trial felt like his best, only option, STAT
