Research Library

The unproven stem cell intervention industry is a worldwide, direct-to-consumer market where clinics offer stem cells or stem cell-derived components to patients with little to no scientific or clinical basis. In this paper, the authors call for the establishment of a World Health Organization Expert Advisory Committee on Regenerative Medicine to tackle this issue and provide guidance. Stem Cell Reports: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2021.05.004

Private equity investment in hospitals has grown substantially in the 21st century, and it accelerated in the years leading up the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study of short-term acute care hospitals acquired by private equity firms, the authors find they not only have higher markups and profit margins, they’re also slower to expand their staffs.

The authors identify mental health stressors and strategies for coping with distress among underserved Latino communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vaccines and other biomedical advances will not be sufficient to halt COVID-19, unless we simultaneously counter anti-science aggression, writes Peter Hotez, fellow in disease and poverty, in a new article for PLOS Biology.

It now seems technically feasible to culture human embryos beyond the “fourteen‐day limit,” which has the potential to increase scientific understanding of human development and perhaps improve infertility treatments. Robust stakeholder engagement preceded adoption of the fourteen‐day limit and should arguably be part of efforts to reassess it, write the authors.

Environmental disasters impact disadvantaged communities disproportionately both through the epidemiological challenge of exposure, but also by undermining the progress of public health efforts.

This study leverages validated patient-reported outcomes measures  to analyze the association between "financial toxicity" and quality of life and satisfaction among women undergoing ablative breast cancer surgery. Journal of the American College of Surgeons

Analysis of a survey conducted by the authors found that prosocial behavior plays an important role in an individual’s ability to engage in health-promoting behaviors, such as physical activity, despite adverse conditions. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Aug. 13, 2020.

Societal inequities extend to medical and mental health research. The authors propose a framework for more equitable research that addresses disparities in mental health services and outcomes.

The authors found that six months of pre–end-stage kidney disease nephrology care did not significantly improve the likelihood that patients would remain employed when they started dialysis. This finding underscores the need to identify effective methods to help patients stay employed when they transition to dialysis.