Longer looks: Tech-savvy health care ads; being cautious of bad hospital data

Jun 13 2014

Every week KHN reporter Marissa Evans finds interesting reads from around the web. 

WBUR: Troubled Future For Young Adults On Autism Spectrum
"Mom, Dad, what's wrong with me?" Michael Moscariello was a smart, thoughtful 10-year-old when that question burst out one evening before dinner. ... May Moscariello, Michael's mom, had taken him to Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston three years earlier, in 1988. "They evaluated him and came up with Asperger's syndrome. It was their first case," May says. ... Today, Asperger's is folded into the broad diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This includes people like Michael who are bright and articulate. ... Their lives, as adults with autism, raise troubling questions about whether the flood of children receiving this diagnosis will find meaningful work, safe housing and networks that will help them become happy and productive adults (Martha Bebinger, 6/9).

New York Magazine: Does Oscar Sound Cooler Than Aetna?
For a very long time, health-­insurance advertisements, like health-­insurance companies, were stolid and -­relatively predictable things. ... Then, last October, a new breed of health-care ad began cropping up on the subway. The tone was Nickelodeon meets Manhattan Mini Storage-;cuddly cartoon avatars and exceedingly clever copy, intended to make New Yorkers feel good about cottoning on to the in-jokes. In one, a man bear-hugged by an overaffectionate grizzly seeks help for a broken pelvis. Another reads: "Get a bright, articulate doctor to call you without having to join a dating site." The campaign was the work of Oscar, which bills itself as the first new health insurer in New York in 15 years and the only "tech-driven" insurance company in the country (Matthew Shaer, 6/11).

The New York Times: The T.M.I. Pregnancy
Becoming a mother was so simple when I became a mother. Pregnancy was treated as a natural experience. You peed in a cup, and then once a month the obstetrician pressed his stethoscope against your belly and you watched his face for a smile. "We're going to have a baby," my son, Peter, calls. I think about being a grandma and the grand continuum. I think about the wondrous ways my boy's life is going to change. I do not think about sonograms, DNA testing and preeclampsia. I do not think about the endless forbidding stream of fetal data (Patricia Volk, 6/4).

The Wall Street Journal: The Experts Blog
It's Time for Doctors to Be Honest About Their Stress ... Baby Boomers Aren't Prepared Financially for a Long Life ... The Limits of Current Health-Care Data ... Beware Bad Data About Hospitals ... What Doctors Are Doing When They Aren't Seeing Patients ... The Gaps in Health-Care Data ... Doctors Should Be Role Models ... Why Doctors Should Follow Their Own Advice (6/11).

The New Statesman: How Mistakes Can Save Lives: One Man's Mission To Revolutionise The NHS
Martin Bromiley is a modest man with an immodest ambition: to change the way medicine is practised in the UK. ... Naturally, we respect and admire doctors. We believe that health care is scientific. We think of hospitals as places of safety. For all these reasons, it comes as something of a shock to realise that errors still play such a significant role in whether we leave a hospital better or worse, alive or dead (Ian Leslie, 6/4).

The New York Times: How To Beat Malaria, Once And For All
Malaria is a seasonal disease; with tropical rains come the fevers. In the news media, malaria is also seasonal. Every spring around World Malaria Day we hear about its devastating effects, including deaths in the hundreds of thousands. This year the reports were encouraging: Infections have been reduced and many lives saved. In May, researchers reported in Science that yet another potential malaria vaccine may be around the corner. Malaria seems to be on the retreat. But is it really? (Francois H. Nosten, 6/7).