First Opinion is STAT’s platform for attention-grabbing, illuminating, and provocative articles concerning the life sciences writ giant, written by biotech insiders, well being care employees, researchers, and others.
To encourage strong, good-faith dialogue about points raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes chosen Letters to the Editor acquired in response to them. You possibly can submit a Letter to the Editor right here, or discover the submission type on the finish of any First Opinion essay.
The story
“I’m a pediatrician. My bosses need me to chop new-patient go to instances in half,” by Frances Quee
the response
This can be a good instance as to why a non-public observe setting is finest. Sure, there are numerous complications, however the freedom to set one’s personal guidelines trumps the above issues.
— Mark Diamond
the response
I’ve practiced pediatrics for over 40 years. A good portion of the affected person go to is used for amassing affected person information, documenting procedures, and reviewing numerous vaccinations. A brand new affected person go to might simply stretch over an hour when a number of well being points must be addressed. The advice [to cut visit times in half] is establishing the suppliers for failure and legal responsibility.
— Shailesh Shah
the story
“40 doesn’t look good on Hatch-Waxman,” by Tahir Amin and Timi Iwayemi
the response
The Bolar exemption from patent infringement, the ANDA approval course of, resolving patent disputes earlier than launching, and first-filer market co-exclusivity are additionally a part of Hatch-Waxman. Throw out patent itemizing and patent time period extension, it’s essential to throw out these, too. That will kill generic medicine. If the aim is a sturdy and sustainable revolutionary and generic drug ecosystem, thank Hatch-Waxman and resolve the actual issues, like stopping the largest purchaser of medicine (utilizing U.S. taxpayer funds and prioritizing taxpayers’ pursuits) from having actual value negotiations on the time of approval.
— Paul Fehlner
The story
“How the subsequent president ought to reform Medicare,” by Paul Ginsburg and Steve Lieberman
the response
As a faster although partial resolution, why not merely have CMS require all Medicare supplemental plans enable Medicare Benefit plan members to change again to straightforward Medicare and a medigap complement, with none underwriting restrictions? 4 states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York) require this now and but many carriers nonetheless fortunately supply such plans. The price impression to the medigap carriers needs to be very minor, since members don’t make frequent modifications anyway, it’s not like these members don’t have any present protection and have been withholding all remedy, and Medicare Elements A and B would choose up the majority of any new prices. Many Medicare Benefit carriers are additionally those providing medigap plans anyway and thus would have enough earnings to soak up what little adversarial choice nonetheless happens. Permitting Medicare Benefit individuals to change again to Medicare with medigap no less than throughout annual enrollments would enhance competitors between conventional Medicare and Medicare Benefit. This might incent the latter to scale back the extreme preauthorizations and denials that Benefit sufferers and their physicians often complain about.
— George Faulkner
The story
“WHO pandemic risk director: Right here’s what must occur to fight mpox,” by Maria D. Van Kerkhove
the response
I agree with the writer {that a} “swift, coordinated, and equitable response” is completely mandatory. Nevertheless, collaboration ought to begin a lot earlier than vaccine distribution. Open communication, as highlighted towards the tip of the article, can considerably impression not solely remedy administration, however coordinated efforts to determine strains and mitigate outbreaks to start with. Main illness management initiatives with an open-science strategy allows faster intervention in order that far fewer persons are affected by outbreaks.
Open science is a motion that goals to scale back numerous boundaries to scientific collaboration by enhancing the accessibility and transparency of analysis for everybody. It has been supported internationally by teachers and scientists alike for over a decade now, with 1000’s of researchers, bioinformaticians, and laptop engineers collaborating on environment friendly and extremely safe modes of sharing crucial information and software program evaluation instruments for a standard good, and is an unbelievable useful resource for the sector of epidemiology.
For instance, researchers on the Institute of Tropical Medication in Antwerp, Belgium, leveraged open-source pipelines and viral sequencing protocols to shortly perceive an outbreak of mpox in Central and West Africa in 2022. With these instruments, they delivered fast proof of asymptomatic infections, a major contribution to successfully controlling that outbreak and stopping additional unfold of this variant.
Whereas enhancing entry to vaccines is definitely one space we are able to take classes from shifting ahead, I urge the U.S. life sciences business to begin excited about how the open-science motion and its international neighborhood of champions may be leveraged to attenuate future outbreaks by investing extra sources into early response collaborations moderately than sinking consequently greater prices into later phases of outbreak management. Working collectively, we are able to higher meet the advanced challenges of evolving viruses and ailments leveraging the ability of Open Science.
— Evan Floden, CEO and co-founder of Seqera
The story
“Lengthy Covid seems like a gun to my head,” by Rachel Corridor-Clifford
the response
I actually appreciated your article, because it made me really feel much less alone on this battle.
— Jennifer Powers
