Petrie-Flom Interns’ Weekly Round-Up: 1/12-1/18

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

  • After an estimated 500,000 patients in the United States have received all-metal hip replacements that are failing early in many cases, the Food and Drug Administration is proposing rules that will require manufacturers to produce clinical data to support their devices’ safety and effectiveness.
  • A study published in Science identified people from online searches of DNA sequences, age, and a state. The result raises concerns about the difficulty of protecting the privacy of volunteers involved in medical research.
  • The Obama administration says it will give states more time to comply with the new health care law after finding that many states lag in setting up insurance exchanges.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced $1.5 billion in new grants Thursday for states to continue building their insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont received funding.
  • Pharmacies around New York City struggled to meet the demand for flu vaccinations on Sunday, a day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared a public health state of emergency in response to a drastic increase in the number of flu cases this year.
  • A new type of flu vaccine that requires less manufacturing steps and shorter production time won regulatory approval on Wednesday, and its manufacturer said that limited supplies are expected to be available this winter.
  • Quebec is slowly moving towards legal euthanasia. A committee of legal experts has delivered a 400-page report to the provincial government which argues that it should allow “medical assistance to die” when a patient is close to death and is suffering from unbearable physical or psychological pain.

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff

The Petrie-Flom Center staff often posts updates, announcements, and guests posts on behalf of others.

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