First ARPA-H Project Launched at Emory; Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Effective Against Latest Variant as Cases Rise; Med Schools Adopt Holistic Reviews; and Other Items of Interest
The Biden administration announced the launch of an inaugural Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) project, Curing the Uncurable via RNA-Encoded Immunogene Tuning (CUREIT). Led by Emory University the project will aim to develop generalizable mRNA platforms that can train the immune system to fight cancer. The university also announced the effort in a statement. “It’s a tremendous honor for Emory to be the inaugural recipient of this very first ARPA-H Open BAA award, which will elevate and invigorate the visionary, life-changing health care research of our faculty,” said Emory President Gregory Fenves.
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The Biden administration is also proposing to make more employees at colleges and universities eligible for overtime pay, but the change could represent an added burden to many institutions by causing them to increase affected employees’ pay to exempt them from overtime or figure out how to track their hours, potentially leading to tuition increases or service reductions, reported Inside Higher Ed.
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“It's been downgraded from a hurricane to not even a tropical storm. We're lucky. This one could have been really bad,” said Eric Topol, MD, a professor and executive vice president of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, when describing the outlook on the latest COVID-19 variant BA.2.86, nicknamed Pirola, reported USA Today. The piece also reported that clinical trial data found Moderna’s updated vaccine generated a ninefold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the variant.
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Pfizer and Moderna alike reported that their new boosters are highly effective in neutralizing antibodies against BA.2.86, reported Reuters. And the New York Times described an “embarrassment of riches,” in the words of Ofer Levy, MD, PhD, director of the Precision Vaccines program at Boston Children’s Hospital and an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration, when describing the number and quality of vaccines available this fall for flu, COVID-19, and RSV.
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The Atlantic discussed how hospitals are wrestling with the question of whether to bring back mask requirements this fall now that universal masking mandates are almost entirely gone. And the Washington Post reported on how school districts are facing potential political backlash when moving forward with masking requirements.
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With an uptick in COVID-19 cases and masking recommendations creeping back up, many households have wondered whether a stockpile of expired home testing kits, which generally are not so widely available for free any longer, remain usable. CBS News reported on an extension of the deadline for some kits, along with how you can tell whether a test kit is still safe to use.
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“Lots of scrambling on the ground. I think there’s a lot of fear, which is probably what concerns me the most, that people are not confident in the holistic reviews that they’ve been doing previously,” said Consuelo Wilkins, MD, the senior associate dean for health equity and inclusive excellence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, when describing medical schools’ current efforts to maintain diversity and inclusion after the Supreme Court’s decision on race-conscious admissions. Many medical schools had relied more on affirmative action to guarantee racial diversity and are struggling to shift to a full holistic review admissions process. STAT covered the story.
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An article in Forbes explained why a focus on gender equality, especially for women of color, is essential for health equity.
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90,000 more deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease happened in the United States during the first two years of the pandemic than were expected during that span of time and “physicians and researchers now have little doubt that Covid-19 itself was a factor. In addition to the complications that can occur during the acute phase of a Covid infection, there appears to be an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and other problems up to a year after an infection,” reported the New York Times.
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A study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes added to the evidence that a diet full of fruits and vegetables can help with heart health and also found that “produce prescriptions” helped people with lower income in 12 states improve their health by giving them money for produce at retail stores or farmers markets, reported NPR.
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The American Hospital Association and other provider associations and health systems are complaining that the proposed rule to remedy cuts in 340B Drug Pricing Program payments from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is budget neutral, reported Modern Healthcare. Under the proposed rule issued, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HHS “would offset those payment cuts through a one-time lump sum payment, but reduce reimbursement for other outpatient services to ensure that Medicare spending remains the same.”
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“The dispirited feeling that drives doctors away from primary care has to do with far more than money. It’s the lack of respect for non-specialists. It’s the rising pressure to see and bill more patients: Employed doctors often coordinate the care of as many as 2,000 people, many of whom have multiple problems. And it’s the lack of assistance. Profitable centers such as orthopedic and gastroenterology clinics usually have a phalanx of support staff. Primary-care clinics run close to the bone,” said an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Elisabeth Rosenthal, exploring the reasons behind a shrinking number of primary care physicians and the worrying trend’s impacts on the health care system.
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“Looking at the states with the most restrictive legislation, there has not been a decline in the number of applicants attempting to match or those who have matched OB/GYN positions,” said Donna Lamb, president of the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®), in an article in Newsweek that covered issues with the physician pathway in rural states and states that have limited abortion.
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And the New York Times reported on how restrictive abortion laws are leading to a critical talent drain that is leaving some rural areas in red states without OB/GYN care to manage high-risk pregnancies or maternal-fetal medicine specialists in general. Experts worry that “maternal care deserts” in some areas of the United States are not far behind.
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AAMCNews featured an interview with Danish human rights lawyer Jacob Mchangama on why free speech is under attack and how to promote diverse viewpoints. Mchangama will be a plenary speaker at Learn Serve Lead 2023: The AAMC Annual Meeting on Nov. 4.
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A study published in Nature Metabolism found that men and women with obesity and prediabetes who combined exercise and dieting doubled the metabolic health benefits of their weight loss by improving their insulin sensitivity twice as much as people who only dieted, reported the Washington Post.
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States are running out of $24 billion in stimulus money Congress had set aside for child care during the pandemic and an estimated 70,000 child care centers are expected to close, leaving many parents with few affordable options, reported the Washington Post.
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The New York Times explored changing perception in the United States regarding the value of a college education against the price. Notably, the value seems to increase for those pursuing STEM and business fields, but those majoring in other fields may see a more complicated view of value. Also, notably, while perceptions about a college education are declining in the United States, it is increasing in other countries.
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An estimated 30 million adults in the United States take benzodiazepines such as Klonopin, Ativan, Xanax, and Valium, but there is little awareness about the consequences of withdrawing from long-term use or high doses of these medications, and even primary care physicians are often unaware of the need for a slow, supervised taper off the drugs, reported the Washington Post.
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Whether you prefer a book, a podcast, or an app, AAMCNews discussed five wellness resources that can help physicians and medical students take a small step to support their own wellness. Included on the list is A Doctor’s Dozen: Twelve Strategies for Personal Health and a Culture of Wellness by CFAS Administrative Board member and chair of the CFAS Faculty and Organizational Well-Being Committee Catherine Pipas, MD, along with other resources which may be familiar or may be new to members of the academic medicine community.
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The AAHCI Leadership Perspectives Series from the AAMC presents commentaries from academic health center leaders, and other leaders in health care, from the United States and around the world who offer their perspectives on the challenges and issues impacting their institutions and academic medicine as a whole.
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The AAMC is soliciting feedback on the revised Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Competencies Across the Learning Continuum, which were originally developed in 2019. Please submit feedback to QIPS@aamc.org by Sept. 15.
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Registration is open for the National Diversity in STEM Conference, taking place in Portland, Oregon, from Oct. 26-28. The National Institutes of Health- (NIH-) funded conference is presented by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
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Registration has also opened for the third webinar in the AAMC series on reproductive health, focused on advocacy and activism in academic medicine for reproductive health post-Dobbs. This webinar will take place on Sept. 11 at 10:45 a.m. ET.
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The AAMC is a sponsor of the 11th annual Rally for Medical Research on Sept. 14 in Washington, D.C. The event will bring together a broad coalition of organizations and advocates to highlight the need for sustained, predictable funding growth for the NIH. Members of the academic medicine community are encouraged to participate either in person or virtually to underscore for lawmakers the crucial need for increased funding for medical research. Follow the AAMC on X, formerly known as Twitter, and consider sharing or reposting content about the event.
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Yaron Tomer, MD, has been named the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, effective Oct. 2. Dr. Tomer is currently the Anita and Jack Saltz Chair in Diabetes Research, and professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Einstein and Montefiore.
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Natalio Debs-Elías, MD, has been appointed interim dean at University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. Dr. Debs-Elías is an orthopedic hand surgery specialist in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Thomas Agresta, MD, has been named chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UConn Health and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine after serving in the interim department chair role. Dr. Agresta has been a member of the school of medicine faculty since 1995. In addition to his expertise in family medicine, he is also board certified in clinical informatics.
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Anne Dixon, MA, BMBCh, has been appointed chair of the Department of Medicine at the Robert Larner, M.D., College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Dixon is a professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine and has been serving as interim chair of the Department of Medicine since last October.
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Michael Robek, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease at Albany Medical College. Dr. Robek is a professor of immunology and microbial disease at Albany Medical College and has served as interim chair of the department since last year.
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Steven Yeh, MD, has been named vice chair of clinical and translational research at the University Nebraska Medical Center Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Yeh is Stanley J. Truhlsen Endowed Chair and director of retina and uveitis at the Truhlsen Eye Institute at UNMC.
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Steven Mennerick, PhD, has been named director and associate dean of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Mennerick is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and the John P. Feighner Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and has served as interim associate dean of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences since Dec. 2020.
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Oh, the irony. Could it be that the language of love is not so universal after all? At least where music is concerned, that may be the case. Researchers at Yale University designed a study where they asked people from around the world representing an array of different cultures with different primary languages to identify the broad meaning behind songs from various regions of the world by categories, such as dance songs or lullabies or even music meant to promote healing. The ability to make those determinations across cultures was strong, except for when it came to love songs. Why might that be? Researchers theorized that expressions of love can be highly varied: affection, tenderness — but perhaps also jealousy, passion, and longing — all of which may lead to highly varied music while still technically being a “love song.” The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
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And finally, it turns out the closeness between humans and our primate relatives is aligned in yet another uncomfortable way: getting fat. Lest you think the spare tire you may be sporting exists in the domain of humans alone, a paper published in Science noted a similar weight gain in other primates — but primarily those in captivity, who often enjoy treats just as much as you do in your captive life. Key to the finding is the notion of captivity: those who are in zoos or research facilities are much more likely to be overweight than their counterparts in the wild. While we’re at it, what are our own workplaces if not zoos and research facilities, perhaps even literally?
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Visit the CFAS Resources page for an archive of the previous edition of CFAS News as well as our People of Academic Medicine page, which features a running list of academic promotions, appointments, and departures.
Your comments and news tips are always welcome. Please email them to Eric Weissman at eweissman@aamc.org.
Eric Weissman
Senior Director, Faculty and Academic Society Engagement
AAMC
eweissman@aamc.org
www.aamc.org/cfas