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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Carmen Paun, Evan Peng, Erin Schumaker and Ben Leonard | | | | |  The UN says the world needs guardrails around new brain chip technology. | AFP via Getty Images | | As Elon Musk’s Neuralink gears up for the first clinical trial implanting chips into people’s brains to treat diseases, the United Nations is developing an ethical framework for neurotechnology’s use. On the plus side: The field, which encompasses electronic devices or methods to read or modify how neurons function in the nervous system, holds promise that was until recently seen as science fiction, said Gabriela Ramos, assistant director-general for social and human sciences at UNESCO. “For example, we are using deep-brain stimulation techniques to treat certain forms of Parkinson’s disease,” she said at a conference on neurotechnology in Paris on Thursday. And experts believe that, in the future, neurotechnology could help people with Alzheimer’s, depression or eating disorders, she said. For the negative: There’s also peril if governments don’t regulate devices to ensure that users respect ethical issues and human rights, she said. Ear plugs that register brain activity and headsets that help people meditate or measure blood pressure collect neural data that could be used unethically, she said. “Our brain and the brain data contains unique information on the physiology, health and mental status of every individual,” she said. This has a tremendous market value and has thus become a sought-after commodity, Ramos said. This data converging with artificial intelligence can decode people’s mental processes “and sometimes manipulate the brain mechanisms underlying intentions, emotions and decisions,” she said. Ramos warned that such a capacity “can deepen social inequalities and open new ways to exploit and manipulate people, affecting social cohesion and democratic processes, among others. And this is happening now,” Ramos said. What’s next? UNESCO will work with other U.N. agencies and member countries to develop guardrails ensuring neurotechnology doesn’t go rogue.
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Breiðamerkurjökull, Iceland | Evan Peng | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Bird's-eye view: An algae bloom on Florida's largest freshwater lake, Lake Okeechobee 40 miles inland from West Palm Beach, is now so big that it's visible from space. As of mid-July, the bloom had grown to 440 square miles, according to NASA satellite images, prompting the state health department to issue public health warnings advising residents not to swim or boat on the lake. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Kelly Hooper talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein, who explains why the Biden administration’s plan to expand regulations implementing the federal health privacy law HIPAA to protect abortion rights is facing dual criticism from Republicans, who say it overreaches, and Democrats, who say it doesn’t go far enough.
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A nonprofit group says it will evaluate the performance of AI tools and apps to help buyers know what works. | AFP via Getty Images | The government is playing catch-up on the digital revolution in health care, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. That’s created an opening for private sector assessments of how well the new technologies work, including one from the Peterson Center on Healthcare, a nonprofit patient advocacy group. Its new initiative aims to help the public better assess the efficacy of new apps and AI-driven algorithms. The Peterson Health Technology Institute will evaluate the tools’ clinical benefits and impact on health care costs, equity and privacy and make its reports publicly available. Why it matters: “The tremendous investment in digital health throughout the pandemic has really supported rapid growth in the market,” Caroline Pearson, the Peterson Center’s executive director, told Evan. “But we feel like it’s actually really hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.” The technologies Pearson has in mind range from sleep and period trackers to insulin-dosage calculators. Some are AI-powered like chatbots and algorithms. The Food and Drug Administration regulates some digital health products, but not others. The center hopes its initiative can step in where government regulation hasn’t yet caught up, providing the public — patients, providers, investors and beyond — information to make smart decisions. “If a lot of these evaluative steps were taken over by the government and there was less need for [Peterson], that would be fine,” Pearson said. “I know that FDA is focused on this, so I think we will continue to see an evolution. But government and agencies take time. … Hopefully, we have the ability, the leg up, to be more nimble and independent and able to fill a gap, at least while there’s not a lot of regulatory oversight in this space.” What’s next? Peterson’s initial funding commitment is $50 million. The center will publish its detailed assessment framework, developed with the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, after summer, and then release reports on a rolling basis.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | | |  Identifying the close contacts of people with tuberculosis is key to stemming the plague, new research found. | AP | The lives of 850,000 people, mostly children, could be saved by 2035 if governments identify the people who live with someone newly diagnosed with tuberculosis and provide them with treatment, a study published in The Lancet Global Health on Tuesday shows. Since only 30 percent of children under 5 with tuberculosis are identified globally, the strategy would have an outsized impact in reducing kids’ TB deaths, according to researchers at John Hopkins University, the South Africa-based Aurum Institute and the global health organization UNITAID, which funded the study. The household contacts of a person living with TB represent a high percentage of the 10.6 million people who become infected with the bacterium. About 1.6 million people died from tuberculosis in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. “At the moment, too many family members of people diagnosed with TB are slipping through the cracks and too many lives are being lost,” said Tess Ryckman, an instructor at Johns Hopkins and the study’s lead author, in a statement. Even so: If contacts are identified, treating them would be costly. The combination of isoniazid-rifapentine taken once a week for 12 weeks — a regimen called 3HP — or the same two drugs taken daily for a month can clear latent tuberculosis infection before it turns into active disease. But a full course of 3HP costs about $14,25 per person, and countries would need to provide it to millions of people living with someone who has active TB. Its cost would take up more than half of the total tuberculosis budget of countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Pakistan, the researchers said. Ahead of a world leaders’ meeting on tuberculosis in New York City in September, the researchers called for rich countries to support the treatment and contact tracing, combined with a plan to transition to domestic funding once the TB cases and deaths decline. Making the case: The researchers modeled the impact of providing the short-term preventive treatment after contact-tracing investigations in 29 countries with a high burden of tuberculosis, including Brazil, India and Tanzania. Treating children under 15 could be cost-effective in all those countries, they found. And a decrease in the cost of rifapentine, which is the more expensive drug in the regimen, would help make it cost effective for more age groups in more countries, the researchers said. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
