Telehealth became a necessity for many people during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with state health emergencies expiring, laws that have made it more available could go away, leaving the region’s more rural areas hurting the most due to access barriers and disparities. Read more.
Trauma doctors in Birmingham are treating a record number of patients with gunshot wounds. Health officials hope a violence intervention program could help reverse the trend. Read more.
More of Alabama’s children have health insurance and are graduating high school on time, but many of them need more support in key areas such as math skills. Alabama ranks 47th in the nation for children’s well-being, according to the 2021 Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Each year, the report tracks challenges facing kids and their families in all 50 states. It uses 16 indicators ranked across four areas, including health, education, economic well-being and family and community. Alabama has generally improved over the last couple evaluations, making the top five in 2019 for children graduating on time and children with health insurance. The state has also improved or stayed the same in 14 of 16 indicators, but is still falling behind the rest of the country. Alabama ranked lowest in the country for eighth-grade math proficiency, and the state performed worse on several health indicators. It saw more babies born with low birth-weights, and child and teen deaths increased from 37 in 2018 to 41 in 2019. Read more.
The FDA has approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in 20 years, but some doctors, including one at UAB, warned patients’ families not to expect much from the drug any time soon. Read more.
Alabama's new medical marijuana law is more than 100-pages long. We did the hard work and pulled out the highlights that may impact you. Read more.
Finding a 100% bone marrow match is a challenge for most people with cancer, but it’s even more difficult if you’re Black. Be The Match, the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world, only carries 4% of their registry from African Americans. Research showed bone marrow matches are best among people of the same race and ethnicity. This makes Black people far less likely to find a bone marrow match when searching for a cure for blood cancer. Stephanie Jackson, an account manager with Be The Match, said African-Americans have an especially hard time matching with donors compared to whites. “If you are Caucasian, and you do not have a match in your family, you have a 77% chance of finding a match,” Jackson said. But for African Americans, that drops to 23%, because only a tiny fraction of registered donors are African American, Jackson said. Read more.
CEO Mike Warren said he thought he could fix Medicaid, but he was naive. Read more.
A lack of racial diversity in clinical trials can make new drugs and treatments less effective for people of color. According to one recent study, 78% of trial participants were white. Acclinate, a new Birmingham-based company, is trying to correct that imbalance by connecting underserved populations with researchers. Read more.
WBHM After a fire destroyed their last apartment in 2019, Kenneth Tyrone King and his family recently saved up enough money to rent a new place in Birmingham. But the relief was short-lived. Bills, mostly medical, quickly began piling up at the new address. For King, 57, this was just the latest development in a cycle of debt. He has not had health insurance for years. He lost his most-recent job at a temp agency after having emergency open heart surgery in December. He barely has enough money for the two prescriptions that he needs each month. “I can afford one of them, but one of them, it’s like a $60 medication,” King said. “Those types of challenges, if I had affordable health care, or a health care plan, it would have at least covered some of it.” King falls in the coverage gap. He does not qualify for Medicaid and he cannot afford to buy a private insurance plan. If Alabama expanded Medicaid, that would mean opening up eligibility to people like him and other low-income adults who make up to 138% of the federal poverty level, which equates to less than $18,000 a year for a single adult. Read more.
Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson hosted a press conference Wednesday to bring attention to breast cancer and the need — despite the pandemic — for persons to be tested for this disease. The event was a reminder that fear of COVID-19 or the vaccines created to fend it off should not be reasons to forego a mammogram. “The coronavirus and breast cancer both are potentially deadly diseases,” said registered nurse Josie Dukes-Bland. “But you do not have to choose one over the other when it comes to treatment and diagnosis.” Read more.
