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PREGNANCY
Stethoscope with AI Doubles Detection of Fatal Pregnancy Heart Disease in Trial
What: Mayo Clinic conducted a study that found a digital stethoscope that captured electrical rhythms of the heart and heart sounds and enhanced with AI helped identify twice as many cases of peripartum cardiomyopathy than traditional care.
Why it matters: The results suggest that many pregnant and postpartum women aren’t getting properly diagnosed, in part because “the symptoms, such as shortness of breath when lying down, swelling of hands and feet, weight gain, and rapid heartbeat, can be confused with normal symptoms of pregnancy.”
Source: Mayo Clinic
ABORTION ACCESS
An Abortion Could Have Saved Yeniifer Alvarez’s Life. She Died in Texas Two Weeks After Roe Fell.
What: A long piece on the life and death of Yeniifer Alvarez in rural Texas, who died, along with her unborn child, at 30 weeks of pregnancy and after enduring multiple trips to the hospital.
Why it matters: At no point is there a record of Alvarez being offered an abortion due to the risk her prior pulmonary embolism put her in, despite “four outside experts” concluding that “Yeni’s death was preventable; that she’d been discharged prematurely from the Austin hospital; and that a therapeutic abortion, if offered and accepted, would probably have saved her life.”
Source: The New Yorker
MENOPAUSE
First Lady Jill Biden, Halle Berry Talk Menopause
What: In an event tied to the White House’s Women’s Health Research Initiative, actress Halle Berry will join First Lady Jill Biden at the University of Illinois Chicago that will focus on “advancing research on menopause and women’s health.”
Why it matters: This is the first public event for the Women’s Health Research Initiative since federal agencies had to turn in recommendations for spending at the end of December.
Source: The Hill
New Drug Helps Relieve Hot Flashes, Disturbed Sleep
What: Pharmaceutical company Bayer announced its menopause drug “eased hot flashes and improved sleep in two late-stage trials.”
Why it matters: This would add competition to the non-hormonal treatment of menopause symptoms if approved.
Source: Reuters
ONCOLOGY
Study Identifies Individualized Treatments for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
What: “Triple negative” breast cancer grows faster and is harder to treat than other types of breast cancers and makes up about 10-15% of cases. A study from Cedars-Sinai Cancer found these patients fell into three distinct groups: one group responded to immunotherapy, one did not, and most interestingly, one group responded only if there was radiation therapy plus immunotherapy.
Why it matters: This could give women with triple negative breast cancer more treatment options and save others from living with the side effects of tough cancer treatments that won’t work.
Source: Cedars-Sinai
WELLNESS + BEAUTY
The Millennial Woman Who Grew Up on a Dirt Road and Built Mega-Beauty Brand Thrive
What: A profile of Karissa Bodnar, the founder and CEO of Thrive. Bodnar worked at Sephora to put herself through community college before working at Clairsonic and eventually founding Thrive after the death of a close friend. Her goal was to mimic the Toms and Warby Parker model of giving something away for every product purchased.
Why it matters: Bodnar has eschewed the plans of other industry giants, who send influencers to Dubai to launch products, choosing nonprofits instead as a launching pad.
Source: New York Times
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