Health Highlight Thur. 2, Mar.
Today's highlights: Challenging implicit bias in doctor-patient interactions; insights on the connection between addiction and microbiome; concerns about the spread of bird flu in mammals (humans).
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🔗: Do no unconscious harm: Can ‘hidden’ prejudices in medicine be stamped out?
By: Rodrigo Pérez Ortega • @rpocisv @Newsfromscience
Efforts are being made to counter the negative effects of bias in medicine, including creating new models of education and training, developing accurate tests to objectively measure pain, and targeting structural issues within institutions that promote biases.
Hidden biases can affect how people think and act, and research suggests that they may also affect how diagnoses and treatments are made, which could cause health disparities in marginalized groups.
Scientists are developing feedback tools, using artificial intelligence to analyze patterns in recordings, and creating clinical simulations to address implicit bias.
Mandated implicit bias training for physicians is being implemented in some states, but sustained training and monitoring of health care outcomes for different groups are needed.
#BiasInMedicine #HealthDisparities #ImplicitBias #HealthCareOutcomes
🔗: Bugs, the Brain, and Behavior —The Gut Microbiome’s Role in Addiction
By: Michael Tabasko, OD• LinkedIn @IRPatNIH
The microbiome influences the gut-brain axis, which involves communication between the brain and gut via the vagus nerve and hormones produced in the gastrointestinal tract.
Dysbiosis, defined as an imbalance of healthy versus unhealthy gut flora, has been linked to anxiety, depression, and obesity.
Recent research suggests that dysbiosis may play a role in neuropsychiatric conditions such as alcoholism and other addictive behaviors.
Chronic, long-term binge drinking causes long-term changes in the microbiome and metabolome.
FMT (fecal microbiota transplant) as well as oral health interventions could be used to treat AUD and alcohol-related liver disease.
#GutBrainAxis #Microbiome #AlcoholUseDisorder #AddictiveBehaviors #FecalMicrobiotaTransplant
🔗: Bird Flu Has Begun to Spread in Mammals—Here’s What’s Important to Know
By: Jennifer Abbasi • @JAMA_current
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus has spread between farmed mink in Spain and seals in coastal New England, marking the first large H5N1 outbreaks potentially driven by mammal-to-mammal transmission.
The ongoing avian influenza outbreak is now the largest on record in Europe and North America, with nearly 60 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks in 47 US states dying or being culled.
The virus has been detected in many species of wild birds and mammals, posing risks to the poultry industry, wildlife conservation, and human health.
However, experts caution against assuming an H5N1 pandemic is a foregone conclusion, as universal influenza vaccine development continues to advance.
#AvianInfluenza #HPAI #H5N1 #birdflu #Outbreaks