burning man baby

• A large study found that beta blockers, a commonly prescribed drug after heart attack, doesn't help most patients--and could lead to *worse* outcomes in women.  
   
• AI triage systems might have the same old gender stereotypes baked into the data, leading to things like dismissing severe period pain instead of referring for endometriosis.
   
• Burning Man, the infamous desert music festival, had a surprise baby born in a camper this year. Luckily, an OBGYN (in his underwear) and a NICU nurse were close by to help mom and the baby girl, who only weighed 3 pounds, 9 ounces. The baby is in good condition at a Reno hospital.  

AI Triage Might Have Bias Baked in on Women's Health

What: Algorithm Watch has a deep dive on how current AI triage systems can misread or dismiss symptoms like severe period pain, delaying care for conditions such as endometriosis. Most tools rely on small, biased, or incomplete datasets, making their predictions unreliable and poorly suited to real-world use. Researchers warn that without larger, diverse trials and better funding, AI risks adding new barriers instead of reducing them

Key Line: "'Take some paracetamol.' That’s the advice a woman might receive from an AI triage system when she seeks help for excruciating period pain, says Jessica Morley, a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Digital Ethics Center. These systems are designed to streamline access to general practitioners, but when symptoms are not described in exactly the right way, they can become barriers. 'Unless she hits the algorithm’s red-flag triggers,' Morley warns, 'she may never make it past the gate.'”

Source: Algorithm Watch
 

Surprise Baby Born at Burning Man, Aided by Clinicians Nearby

What: The infamous desert music festival Burning Man has come and gone, but this time it delivered a baby. The New York Times has the details on how a woman who had no idea she was pregnant delivered a 3-pound, 9-ounce baby in the bathroom of her camper. Thanks to the help from clinicians at the festival and a Life Flight to a hospital in Reno, the baby is doing well in the NICU.

Key Line: "After Ms. Thompson delivered the baby, Mr. Thompson ran out of the R.V. and desperately called for help, he said. “I was yelling for anyone to come help us,” Mr. Thompson, 39, who lays tiles, recalled through tears. Within minutes, a neonatal care nurse, a pediatric doctor and an obstetrician-gynecologist, among other festival attendees from nearby camps, filled their camper. Dr. Jacob Christ, an OB-GYN, was wearing nothing but his underwear as he helped Ms. Thompson deliver the placenta."

Source: The New York Times

Lessons Learned from Digital Pregnancy Tracking Study 

What: The SMART Start study tested a digital pregnancy care framework with 528 women in Germany using an app and home monitoring tools. About half engaged with at least one feature, with higher use for weight tracking (up to 67%) but much lower for blood pressure and urine tests (20–28%). The results show pregnant women can use digital self-monitoring, but future programs need better feedback, such as confirmation from clinicians that the information was received, or explanations of what the data meant.

Key Line: "One key issue was the lack of clinically relevant feedback from the wearables and urine measurements provided by the app. Participants could see changes in heart rate, sleep duration or blood pressure over time but did not receive any feedback on whether the data were normal or if action was needed. Without some form of data interpretation or clinical guidance, measurements can feel disconnected from care, and the engagement to collect such data could decrease over time."

Source: Nature

Beta Blockers May Not Benefit Heart Attack Patients, Especially Women

What: Yet another cardiovascular study that included women found differences in how they respond to treatment compared to men. A large trial found that beta blockers, drugs commonly given to heart attack patients, may not actually help those with uncomplicated heart attacks--and women were even found to have worse outcomes if they took beta blockers post-heart attack.

Key Line: “This trial will reshape all international clinical guidelines. ...Additionally, a REBOOT substudy, published Saturday, August 30, in the European Heart Journal, shows that women treated with beta blockers had a higher risk of death, heart attack, or hospitalization for heart failure compared to women not receiving the drug. Men did not have this increased risk."

Source: Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Weight Loss Drugs Cut Heart Patients' Risk of Early Death by Half

What: A study in JAMA looking at 90,000 heart failure patients who were obese and had type 2 diabetes found that patients who took a GLP-1 drug were significantly less likely to end up in the hospital of dying prematurely. Patients on semaglutide (Wegovy) were 42% less likely compared to placebo, and those on tirzepatide (Zepbound) were 58% less that placebo.

Key Line: "We thought that we actually might not really find a treatment that would work well for a significant proportion of these patients, and what’s been a good surprise is that these drugs that are working through weight loss, but possibly through other effects that go beyond weight loss, are potentially reducing the rates of hospitalisation and mortality in patients with heart failure."

Source: The Guardian