Herpes virus may play role in Alzheimer's, study says
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WH
Jen Christensen, in a
June 21, 2018
CNN post, reports that researchers have found strong evidence to suggest that two strains of the human herpes virus -- 6A and 7 -- may contribute to the disease that robs people of their memory and cognitive functions. The research was published Thursday in the journal
Neuron. Some scientists have long believed that viruses play a role in the development of Alzheimer's, according to Ms. Christensen. One of the most prominent theories is that Alzheimer's may start in the brain as a response to injury from a virus.
WIM
"This is the most compelling evidence ever presented that points to a viral contribution to the cause or progression of Alzheimer's," said study Co-author
Sam Gandy, a professor of neurology and psychiatry and Director of the
Center for Cognitive Health at
Mount Sinai in New York. According to the article, the new study could help scientists identify virus biomarkers in the brain that could one day help diagnose the disease and assess a person's risk. There is also hope that this study could be the beginning of research that would provide new targets in the brain for drugs to treat the condition.
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Dr. Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and intellectual provocateur, dies at 68
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WH
Adam Bernstein delivered the bad news in a
Washington Post obituary on Thursday:
Charles Krauthammer, a
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and intellectual provocateur who championed the muscular foreign policy of neoconservatism that helped lay the ideological groundwork for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died
June 21 at 68. He graduated in 1975 from
Harvard Medical School - on time, despite a diving accident that left him a quadriplegic - and practiced psychiatry before a restless curiosity led him to switch paths. Instead of diagnosing patients, he would analyze the body politic.
WIM
A star of page and screen, Dr. Krauthammer (pronounced KRAUT-hammer) was one of the highest-profile commentators of his generation. In addition to his syndicated weekly column in
The Post, which garnered him a Pulitzer in 1987, he was a marquee essayist for magazines across the political spectrum, including
Time, the
New Republic, the
Weekly Standard and the
National Interest foreign policy journal. He also was a near-ubiquitous presence on cable news, particularly
Fox.
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Request for Information (RFI): Working Together for Value
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WH
The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director,
Seema Verma, is appealing to the healthcare community for insights into how to modify
Stark Law and regulations, so they are compatible with the move to
Value Based Care.
WIM
According to Ms. Verma, in a
6.20.18
CMS.gov blog post:
To achieve a truly value-based, patient-centered health care system, doctors and other providers need to work together with patients. Many of the recent statutory and regulatory changes to payment models are intended to help incentivize value based care and drive the
Medicare system to greater value and quality. This has been a priority of
CMS and
HHS and is reflected in many of our current ongoing initiatives. Medicare's regulations must support this close collaboration. The Stark Law and regulations, in its current form, may hinder these types of arrangements. To help better understand the impediments to better coordinated care caused by existing regulatory efforts, this RFI seeks to obtain input about how to address those concerns.
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| About Us |
Florida Health Industry Week in Review is published every Monday by
FHIcommunications.
Each Monday morning, we share the top healthcare headlines of the previous week and summarize
What Happened (WH) and
Why It Matters (WIM).
To learn how you can join our team of editorial contributors, contact
Jeffrey Herschler
.
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Inside FloridaHealthIndustry.com
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