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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Erin Schumaker, Daniel Payne, Evan Peng and Carmen Paun | | | | | 
A smile's a great connection tool. | AP | The “We Are Made to Connect Tour” may be coming to a college town or community center near you. It’s part of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s campaign against loneliness, and attendees can expect interactive events in which Murthy will encourage students and young people to strengthen their relationships and build moments of connection into their daily routines. Why it matters: The program builds on advisory reports about loneliness and social isolation and youth mental health that Murthy issued in May. Murthy then called loneliness an "underappreciated public health crisis" and said it needed to be prioritized in the same way other threats to Americans' well-being, like smoking and obesity, are. The advisories detail how loneliness is widespread and linked to a host of health problems. About half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness — and some of the highest rates are among young people. What’s next? The tour, which Murthy previewed this morning on the “Today” show, will kick off Oct. 25, with schools and conversation partners to be announced earlier that week.
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Thurmont, Md. | Shawn Zeller | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. High-rise owners: Turn off the lights at night. They attract birds, more than a thousand of whom were found dead Thursday morning in Chicago after colliding with a convention center on the shore of Lake Michigan, CNN reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Evan Peng at epeng@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 POLITICO reporter Megan R. Wilson about why proposed legislation to make health care more affordable could cost hospitals billions despite their clout on Capitol Hill.
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AI could help patients better understand the risks and benefits of surgery, a study found. | SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via AP Images | Deciding whether to undergo surgery can be a difficult call for patients, but new research suggests that artificial intelligence could help. In a study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday, a version of ChatGPT from the firm OpenAI provided patients considering surgery with “more readable, complete, and accurate” information about a procedure’s risks, benefits and alternatives than surgeons did. How so? In the study, researchers compared AI-generated guidance for six common surgeries — colectomy, coronary artery bypass graft, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, inguinal hernia repair, knee arthroplasty and spinal fusion — to five surgeons’ advice. They found the human docs weren’t as thorough as the bot. Even so: More research is likely needed. The study didn’t consider the ways doctors would interact with the system, an important part of evaluating AI tools, according to experts on the technology who weren’t involved in the study. Additionally, the research was done at a single center, so outcomes may differ in another setting. Still, the researchers, from the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Minnesota, said the technology has potential to enhance informed consent disclosure.
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO APP: Stay in the know with the POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | | |  Pumping iron reduces stroke risk. | Getty Images | Global deaths from strokes could increase to 9.7 million a year by 2050, nearly 47 percent over 2020 levels, a new report warns. According to a World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission report, that burden will also increasingly fall on low- and middle-income countries, while stroke deaths in high-income countries will remain largely stagnant. Why it matters: The number of people worldwide who’ve had a stroke has almost doubled over the past 30 years already. If the report’s projections hold, treatment, rehabilitation and other indirect costs of strokes could hit $2.3 trillion in 2050 — up from $891 billion in 2017. One of the World Health Organization's sustainable development goals is to reduce the 41 million deaths from non-communicable diseases such as stroke by one third by 2030. The report’s projections jeopardize reaching that goal. What can be done? Strokes are preventable and treatable. Risks rise as people age. Key recommendations from the report include: — Set up surveillance systems to provide accurate data to help guide prevention and treatment — Raise public awareness about the importance of diet and exercise in preventing strokes — Improve stroke care services by building capacity, increasing training and boosting supplies of equipment and medicine | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
