robots: already downplaying women’s health

• When one Canadian province made long-acting birth control like IUDs and implants completely free of charge (no copays, etc.), their usage jumped nearly 50%.
   
• A study from the London School of Economics found AI models were more likely to downplay women's health needs compared to men when summarizing events like home care visits. (And they are already in use!) 
   
• The Washington Post explains just how deadly last week's shooting at the CDC could've been -- 200 bullets hit the building after a man angry about vaccines open fire.  

CDC Shooting in Atlanta Sparks Backlash Against RFK Jr.

What: On Friday a man angry about coronavirus vaccines fired hundreds of bullets at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer. The death toll was low for a mass shooting event in America, but the Washington Post reports that it could have been a much deadlier attack: 500 bullets were fired, 200 of them actually *hit* the CDC building, and police recovered five more firearms after the shooting. But HHS Sec. Kennedy was back to bashing the vaccine on Monday.

Key Line: "In a Monday interview with Scripps News, Kennedy reiterated his concerns about coronavirus vaccine injuries. He also criticized public health messaging about coronavirus vaccines when asked about the plan to quell misinformation to prevent something like the CDC shooting from happening again."

Source: Washington Post

AI Tools in England Downplay Women's Health Compared to Men

What: A study from LSE found AI tools used by more than half of English local governments are biased against women on health topics. The models frequently summarized men's conditions as more serious and in need of more assistance compared to women in nearly identical situations.  Google's Gemma model was the most likely to downplay women's physical and mental health needs in comparison to men's.

Key Line: "In one example, the Gemma model summarised a set of case notes as: 'Mr Smith is an 84-year-old man who lives alone and has a complex medical history, no care package and poor mobility.'

The same case notes inputted into the same model, with the gender swapped, summarised the case as: 'Mrs Smith is an 84-year-old living alone. Despite her limitations, she is independent and able to maintain her personal care.'

Source: The Guardian

OBGYN Triples Salary Making TikTok Videos

What: An interview with OBGYN Franziska Haydanek, known as Paging Dr. Fran, that published late last month. Dr. Fran started posting on TikTok in 2021 but her following really picked up after the fall of Roe vs. Wade. Her posts aim to push back on misinformation about women's health, and with over 650,000 followers she has tripled her physician salary.

Key Line: "Combating misinformation is the root of my whole platform, and it continues to be what I find the most rewarding. It’s very important to me that I continue to show up, especially for ob-gyn. Our medicine is so deeply intertwined with politics and people's political and religious agendas, more than probably most other aspects of medicine. So I think it's really important that there's someone there who is saying what the actual evidence-based information is."

Source: Yahoo
 

Long-Acting Contraception Rates Jumped When Free

What: After British Columbia made long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs and under-the-skin implants free, dispensations rose by 49%. When LARCs cost money, implantations had been steadily dropping. 

Key Line: "In April 2023, when the new policy took effect, 'we saw an immediate increase by over 1050 additional dispensations per month,' Schummers said. 'By June 2024, there were almost 1300 additional dispensations per month for LARC that amounted to a 49% increase in what we observed vs what was expected, based on the pre-policy trends. That really tells us there was an unmet need for the most effective forms of contraception and that costs were driving contraceptive choices, as well as contraceptive use overall.'”

Source: Medscape
 

Include Pregnant Women in Drug Trials

What: Health policy professor Alyssa Bilinski has an op-ed outlining the serious need to include pregnant women in randomized controlled drug trials. The lack of evidence results in many pregnant women having to make difficult medical decisions without proper guidance.

Key Line: "'Well, we don’t have as much evidence as we would like on steroid use during pregnancy,' the obstetrician warned my co-author, Natalia Emanuel, as she wrote a prescription for inhaled corticosteroids to help treat a respiratory illness that was causing chronic shortness of breath. 'But having difficulty breathing isn’t good for your baby either. It’s really up to you: You decide whether you feel you need the inhaler.' Natalia’s obstetrician was following best practices for “shared decision-making” around medication use in pregnancy. But it was not a comforting message. While inhaled steroids — like all FDA-approved medications — were tested in rigorous randomized controlled studies before distribution, these studies didn’t include pregnant participants. So uncertainties lingered about the impact on her unborn son." 

Source: STAT