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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Ruth Reader , Ben Leonard , Carmen Paun and Grace Scullion | POLITICO partnered this week with the Milken Institute to bring a special edition of Future Pulse to the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. We are taking readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators as they tackle today’s pressing health challenges.
| | | |  Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wants you to put down that candy. | Getty Images | Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wants to use the next farm bill to improve Americans’ bad eating habits. “Our diets are killing us at alarming rates,” Booker said Thursday at the Milken Future of Health Summit. Congress will need to address agriculture policies in the new Congress. The current farm bill expires at the end of 2023. Booker, who has a seat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee that will write the bill, sees opportunities:
- to reform SNAP (the federal government’s food stamp program) with an eye on incentivizing Americans to buy more nutritious meals.
- to align farm subsidies in support of consumption that adheres to U.S. nutrition guidelines.
- to do trials on new nutrition programs on military bases and in federal prisons.
Why it matters: Unhealthy food is contributing to chronic disease and huge medical bills, Booker said: “Fifty percent of our country and a quarter of our children are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. The costs are significant, over $200 billion a year for diabetes costs. And in just the last five years alone, they've gone up 25 percent.” What’s next: In a nod to President Joe Biden’s ambitions to end hunger through better nutrition, Booker said the data is there for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reimburse people for medically tailored meals. They’d get prescriptions for them, just like they do for drugs and devices. Earlier this year, CMS announced it would run pilot programs that reimburse people for healthy meals as a medical expense. Fun Fact: Booker gave up sugar from July 4th until Labor Day. He said America should consider doing the same. And more on food from the Milken Summit: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said his department is currently auditing its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children to see why some people who qualify aren’t taking the food it provides. The department is also working with schools to upgrade equipment necessary to provide more nutritious school lunches, Vilsack said.
| | | | POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023. | | | | | | | | | 
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park | Shawn Zeller | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Lab-grown meat promises both environmental and health benefits because it doesn’t take as much of a toll on the Earth as traditional meat production and because it could potentially be produced in great enough quantities to feed the world cheaply. But how does it taste? Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has tried some and says it tastes just like the real thing. Share news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Grace Scullion at gscullion@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today in our Pulse Check podcast, retiring Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) joined Ruth to talk about his years of health care work on the Energy and Commerce Committee. And Upton urged colleagues to pass an updated version of his 21st Century Cures Act as well as the PASTEUR Act to spur the creation of new antibiotics. Later, John Halamka of the Mayo Clinic Platform talks about the future of AI in health care.
| | | | | | |  One mother was willing to wear an Apple Watch, but not less chic trackers, to watch her vitals. | Getty Images | “Big, beige and boring is where we are today,” Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, says of the current state of at-home care for elderly adults. But that will change, Coughlin predicts, to the point where care will integrate many kinds of sensors, utilize artificial intelligence, and those being cared for will hardly notice. “Technology is best when it's invisible and works like magic,” Coughlin said at the Milken Summit. Digital tools to improve caregiving for seniors took off amid the pandemic, but there’s still growing pains.
- Amy Goyer, national family and caregiving expert at AARP, said a friend’s mother was skeptical of wearables until she got an Apple Watch. “The young kids were wearing those,” Goyer said. “We need to make it acceptable and have dignity.”
- The way we think about caregiving is a barrier, said Micky Tripathi, head of the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. “The way we think about technologies … telehealth, policies and the ways things are paid for are all rooted in paper, bricks and mortar,” Tripathi said.
Despite the barriers, Jisella Dolan, chief global advocacy officer at Home Instead, said that the pandemic showed that older people could embrace technology to stay connected.
| | | | A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We’re kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY . | | | | | | | | | | “My one concern is that everyone thinks this is the answer to everything. It’s not.” – Mark Feinberg, president of vaccine developer IAVI, on mRNA vaccines | | Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna based on mRNA technology have proven effective in reducing severe cases of Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean they’ll have the same impact against other diseases. That was the main takeaway of a panel on the future of the mRNA revolution at the Milken Summit. Great expectations: The technology is a way to teach the immune system to produce any molecule you want, said Mary Marovich, director of the vaccine program in the AIDS division at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That means it can be used to fight cancer or to treat people after they have heart attacks, other panel speakers said. In the case of cancer, for example, the mRNA molecule can incorporate multiple antigens that can be delivered anywhere in the body to fight the disease, said Vinod Balachandran, a researcher and surgical oncologist at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Moderna has an RSV vaccine in the works based on mRNA. But there are drawbacks: The mRNA shots still must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, which is hard to do in rural areas and developing countries. And the Pfizer and Moderna jabs require regular doses to retain their maximum effectiveness against severe disease. They also have not prevented people from contracting Covid, as originally hoped. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
