| | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker | | | | | 
Hain | Courtesy of Epic Systems | | Health software giant Epic Systems is rolling out a new tool in the coming months that could help health systems understand how artificial intelligence systems could change patient care. Seth Hain, the company’s senior vice president of R&D, told Future Pulse that Epic’s offering will allow health systems to analyze new AI tools — and their impact on patients — before implementing them. “We felt it was important to provide this updated suite of capabilities,” he said. How it works: The software will map the data used in the tools, which Epic says is a major challenge for health systems validating the products. That capability allows leaders of small hospitals in rural areas to assess how a system would affect patients — an ability urban or specialty centers would also benefit from, Hain said. Several validation efforts were announced recently, including by big players in the health and tech sector. Epic, while collaborating with some of those efforts, is developing its own tool — but offering it publicly so others can use and build on it, Hain said. It’s part of a larger ecosystem — which includes government oversight from the FDA, HHS and, potentially, Congress — to ensure the AI tools’ safety and efficacy and help guide health systems in their use. Additionally, health systems have requested better ways to understand AI capabilities and their impact on care, Hain said, driving the development of the tools. But does Hain see it as a conflict of interest for a company that creates AI tools to also build a system that validates them? “We felt it was our responsibility as a software development group that has these types of models running on them to provide this type of suite of capabilities — and to do so in a way that invited the community to collaborate on that,” he said. What’s next: Epic plans to publicly release the tools this summer.
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Queenstown, New Zealand | Daniel Payne | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Christmas in April. If you’re traveling to the “zone of totality” for Monday’s solar eclipse, consider wearing a red-and-green outfit to enhance your viewing experience. That’s due to the Purkinje effect, where our eyes become sensitive to blue-green hues in low-light conditions, the Arizona Republic reports. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  Diagnosis for postpartum mood disorders are on the rise, according to new research. | LM Otero/AP | The number of mothers being diagnosed with mood disorders in the weeks following birth is increasing, according to a new study in Health Affairs. This rise in postpartum mental health struggles is concerning, as suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality. More than a fifth of maternal deaths are attributed to suicide. The CDC says those deaths are preventable. Across the country, the prevalence of mental health diagnoses among privately insured new mothers increased more than 90 percent between 2008 and 2020, accelerating the most between 2015 and 2020. Risk of suicide and use of psychotherapy also increased during this time. But researchers say the increases in psychotherapy might have stemmed suicide rates. Why it matters: Certain policies have helped make this problem visible. The Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers to cover preventive services and maternity care, has likely led to more new mothers getting mental health screenings, researchers noted. It also connected people with a higher risk with insurance coverage, they say. Researchers credit the Bringing Postpartum Depression Out of the Shadows Act of 2017 and the Biden-Harris administration’s mental health initiatives aimed at maternal behavioral health with increasing access to resources. Even so: A major limitation of this study is that it looked at claims data, but disproportionate levels of maternal mortality occur among the uninsured. What’s next: The researchers call for more and better tracking of maternal health. They say it’s hard to know whether mental health is worsening for new moms or whether tracking is just improving. Since the rise in diagnoses occurred across states and demographics, the researchers suggest that maternal mental health is worsening.
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Bioengineers were inspired by slug mucus to create an adhesive for internal wounds. | Courtesy of Max Rousseau, Wyss Institute | Inspired by slug mucus, Havard bioengineers have created a gel adhesive that can seal wounds inside the body. “The gel performed better than currently used surgical sealants in an animal model,” NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, this week. Why it matters: No single adhesive on the market offers a combination of strength, flexibility, nontoxicity and the ability to withstand movement, according to the researchers. By modeling their gel after the Dusky Arion slug — which uses mucus to glue itself in place to prevent predators from ripping it off surfaces — researchers designed an adhesive that could stick to wet, moving surfaces, such as a beating heart, and stretch up to 20 times its length. In an animal study, the gel sealed a hole in a pig heart and withstood tens of thousands of cycles of blood pumping. “Since the beginning of time, nature has been the world’s most powerful engineer,” Benjamin Freedman, co-inventor of the technology, told Erin. “Using the slug as inspiration, we’ve aimed to create materials that behave in a similar way.” What’s next: Researchers envision using the gel to attach medical devices to organs and eventually engineering it to dissolve after the body heals from an injury. They’ve also formed a startup, Limax Biosciences, to commercialize their technology. The gel has yet to be tested in humans. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
