This yr, STAT revealed a cornucopia of tales on well being and medication, bringing our signature evaluation, perception, and investigative abilities to readers. Right here’s a sampling of among the necessary protection you could have missed:
What the killing of a medical health insurance govt revealed
As a rule, we don’t cowl legal justice. However the focused killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, unleashed a concerted backlash, as we’ve tried to elucidate. Our long-running protection of the nation’s largest well being insurer may shed some gentle on the topic: Final yr, STAT’s Bob Herman and Casey Ross investigated UnitedHealth Group’s use of an unregulated algorithm to disclaim claims. This yr, STAT revealed a multi-part sequence (reported by Herman, Ross, Tara Bannow, and Lizzy Lawrence) on how UnitedHealth grew to become Well being Care’s Colossus, squeezing income out of sufferers, pressuring physicians, and pursuing questionable diagnoses.
Talking of multi-part sequence and investigations…
Along with our in depth reporting on UnitedHealth, this yr we delivered plenty of different compelling particular studies to readers. “Embedded Bias,” by Katie Palmer and Usha Lee McFarling, explored the wrestle to take away racial algorithms from medical care. In “Coercive Care,” Eric Boodman detailed how physicians have steered sickle cell sufferers towards sterilization. In “The Battle on Restoration,” Lev Facher wrote about how folks with opioid dependancy have been denied the lifesaving medicines buprenorphine and methadone. And a particular report from a group led by Katherine Eban revealed that mind biopsies being carried out on weak sufferers at Mount Sinai had set off alarm bells on the FDA.
Will Donald Trump and RFK Jr. Make America Wholesome Once more?
STAT has reported on how authorized protections for vaccine makers and vaccine approvals may change underneath the brand new administration. We’ve explored why pharma isn’t lobbying in opposition to RFK Jr. to be HHS secretary, and his “robust love” strategy to dependancy remedy. We additionally wrote in regards to the views of Trump’s picks to run the FDA, CMS, the NIH, the CDC and, in fact, HHS. And a month forward of the election, STAT readers discovered in regards to the MAHA motion, whose twists and turns reporter Isabella Cueto and others have been masking ever since.
Ought to we be anxious about H5N1 fowl flu?
Simply because it spearheaded early protection of a mysterious virus rising from China 5 years in the past, STAT has been on the case writing about H5N1 fowl flu from early studies of it showing in U.S. cattle. (STAT’s Helen Branswell has saved us apprised of measles, mpox, Marburg, and Oropouche developments as properly.) Readers discovered why it is likely to be troublesome to know whether or not it’s time to freak out about fowl flu, and why human circumstances have been comparatively delicate so far. In the meantime, we took you to an Iowa state honest, whereas we additionally went undercover to purchase uncooked milk.
CRISPR therapies maintain advancing…
STAT’s Megan Molteni launched readers to a fetal surgeon who’s forging CRISPR’s subsequent frontier by enhancing genes within the womb, the race to construct higher CRISPR supply automobiles, and the prospect for transplants of CRISPR-edited pig livers. She additionally caught up with “CRISPR child” researcher He Jiankui, who’s getting assist from a cryptocurrency entrepreneur.
…and GLP-1s maintain proving their value
First, in 2023, STAT introduced you “The Weight problems Revolution.” This yr we saved reporting on GLP-1s and the way their use may enhance cardiovascular well being. Then how they may affect Alzheimer’s, liver illnesses, sleep apnea and arthritis. Quickly, maybe: Parkinson’s and dependancy. Rising demand for GLP-1s this yr led telehealth prescribers to leap on the bandwagon, whereas compounders tried to handle shortages and decrease costs with copycat medication — leading to a regulatory brouhaha. And whereas we saved our “Weight problems Drug Tracker” updated, we additionally tracked sure human prices of the deal with weight, together with with our particular report “Black voices, Black our bodies: Life within the age of Ozempic.”
Meals, meals, meals — and alcohol
“Meals is medication” has grow to be a mantra. STAT profiled a researcher on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being learning the hazards of ultra-processed meals, and explored why some meals consultants assume it’s too quickly to maneuver to limit them. In the meantime, some are additionally recommending a larger emphasis on plant-based diets. Relating to drinks, we discovered extra in regards to the dangers of alcohol consumption, even in small quantities.
All the things you all the time needed to learn about drug patents (however have been afraid to ask)
No query, the subject is complicated. Why can’t generics acquire market share? How do drug firms maintain boosting drug costs on top-selling medication and the place are the regulators? What are patent thickets anyway? What’s the Hatch-Waxman Act, and why does it matter? In a sequence of tales by Ed Silverman and movies by Anna Yeo, STAT laid all of it out.
AI is…in all places
This yr evidently AI was the key phrase. We wrote about AI in protein design, AI in radiology, AI scribes, AI in medical trials, AI regulators, and Nobel-winning AI. We reported that AI is now getting used to struggle well being insurers’ AI-generated declare denials. We profiled firms like Recursion which can be utilizing AI to hurry drug improvement. And we advised you ways Trump’s strategy to AI in well being care might be totally different from President Biden’s.
What’s taking place within the lab
Advances within the life sciences this yr yielded a roundup on researchers making an attempt to give you most cancers vaccines, a narrative on efforts to refine a placenta-on-a-chip, and a chunk on mounting proof of a viral trigger for dementia. STAT’s Megan Molteni took a deep and nuanced take a look at the collaboration between Nobel-prize successful microRNA researcher Victor Ambros and his spouse and lab supervisor Rosalind Lee. And STAT continues to observe the work of the main scientific watchdogs difficult scientific papers, and even travelled to Wales to interview one of many sleuths.
Attaining well being fairness stays an enormous problem
In 2024, STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling wrote about how rank and race have an effect on army medication, about the one tribal medical college within the nation making an attempt to spice up the variety of Indigenous docs, and profiled College of Minnesota professor Rachel Hardeman, who’s studied structural racism in well being care supply and coverage. And he or she reported from Portugal, which spends 20% of what the U.S. does on well being care per particular person, but has a life expectancy 4 years longer. STAT’s new incapacity reporter Timmy Broderick wrote about how new gene therapies are prompting deaf folks to query whether or not they need “a treatment,” whereas exploring the affect of lethal warmth on folks with disabilities, in addition to computer-brain interfaces for folks with ALS, a brand new process for below-the-knee amputation, and a robotic assist for kids with cerebral palsy.
And in closing…
One among STAT’s core protection areas is biotech and pharma, and a few of our greatest work final yr chronicled the ups and downs of those firms, together with: Sarepta, 23andMe, Eli Lilly, Amylyx, Nvidia, Cassava, and Vertex. We reported on the little-known Chinese language firm whose drug beat Keytruda in lung most cancers, and advised readers in regards to the U.S. biotech outsider who’s scored a win with that drug. We made positive to inform the tales of sufferers, households, affected person advocates, and even researchers engaged on their very own behalf, as startups and established pharma firms alike attempt to deliver new cures to market. And in case you needed to know what’s taking place in Washington that would have an effect on pharma firms, you may have adopted our studies on lawmakers taking a look at reining in pharmacy profit managers, pushing the BIOSECURE Act, coping with drug shortages, and extra.
That’s simply the tip of the iceberg. Tune in for extra nice protection in 2025!
