From racial bias in drugs to extra accessible Alzheimer’s medicine, listed below are the well being tales you’ll have missed this week from Yahoo Information companions.
Biden warns AI may ‘overtake human pondering’
At a graduation tackle on the Air Pressure Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday, President Biden mentioned he had been warned by consultants that synthetic intelligence may “overtake human pondering.” USA Today reported that this was the president’s “most direct warning to this point” concerning the energy of AI expertise.
“It is not going to be simple choices, guys,” Biden mentioned. “I met within the Oval Workplace with eight main scientists within the space of AI. Some are very fearful that AI can truly overtake human pondering and planning. So we have got loads to cope with. An unimaginable alternative, however loads [to] cope with.”
The president’s remarks come days after a whole bunch of leaders in AI, in addition to different public figures, released a statement saying that “mitigating the danger of extinction from AI must be a world precedence alongside different societal-scale dangers corresponding to pandemics and nuclear battle.”
Final month, Biden met with the CEOs of AI innovation corporations, together with Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, in an effort to make sure that AI merchandise are secure earlier than they’re accessible to the general public.
Lung issues in Black males are underdiagnosed attributable to racial bias in testing, examine says
A examine published on Thursday contends that 40% extra Black male sufferers could be recognized with respiration issues corresponding to “bronchial asthma, persistent obstructive pulmonary dysfunction or lung scarring attributable to air pollutant publicity” if present diagnosis-assisting pc software program was modified to get rid of racial bias, the Associated Press reported.
Based mostly on information from greater than 2,700 Black males and 5,700 white males examined by the College of Pennsylvania Well being System, researchers checked out a generally used check with a computer-generated report that scores an individual’s means to breathe primarily based on how a lot and the way shortly they’ll inhale and exhale. The report is created by algorithms that alter for race, which “increase the brink for diagnosing an issue in Black sufferers,” the Related Press mentioned. When evaluating the race-based algorithm with a brand new algorithm, researchers discovered that there could be practically 400 extra circumstances of lung obstruction or impairment in Black males recognized if the brand new algorithm had been used.
The American Thoracic Society, which represents lung-care docs, has recommended that race and ethnicity ought to not be a consider decoding check outcomes, but additionally known as for extra analysis to keep away from any adjustments that would result in an overdiagnosis of lung issues.
Medicare plans to pay for Alzheimer’s medicine that get FDA approval
The Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS) will now pay for brand new Alzheimer’s medicine which have acquired full Meals and Drug Administration approval, the company mentioned Thursday, on the situation that docs who prescribe the medicine use a authorities registry to trace sufferers’ progress and assess “how these drugs work in the real world.”
NBC News reported that till now, Medicare would solely pay for medicines if sufferers had been enrolled in a scientific trial. This new growth is more likely to allow extra sufferers to afford medicines that would gradual development of the illness.
“Alzheimer’s illness takes a toll on not simply the individuals affected by the illness but additionally on their family members and caregivers, in a means that nearly no different sickness does,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure mentioned. “CMS has at all times been dedicated to serving to individuals get hold of well timed entry to progressive therapies that meaningfully enhance care and outcomes for this illness.”
Winter noticed a spike in uncommon pediatric mind infections, CDC experiences
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published this week discovered that whereas nonetheless very uncommon, hospitals reported the best degree of pediatric mind infections in years this previous winter.
CBS News reported that the CDC started trying into a possible improve in “pediatric intracranial infections” after docs reported an uptick in hospitalizations, with many kids contaminated by the micro organism Streptococcus. Most Streptococcus infections result in benign diseases like strep throat, however on uncommon events, they’ll progress to worrying signs, “like seizures and adjustments in psychological standing.”
This previous winter, there have been 102 circumstances in December — exceeding the earlier peak of 61 circumstances in the course of the 2016-2017 winter season.
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