Category: BLOG

(New York Times) – Some patients in a clinical trial of one new drug lost so much weight that they became concerned and dropped out.

Recent top-line results from a recent trial on retatrutide, a compound that Eli Lilly is developing, found that people with obesity and knee osteoarthritis lost an average of 28.7 percent of their body weight after 68 weeks on the highest dose. Currently available weight-loss drugs have helped people lose around 20 percent of their body weight over the same time period.

Between 12 and 18 percent of participants dropped out of the trial because of side effects, a higher percentage than is typical in trials of existing weight loss drugs. (Read More)

(NPR) – Dr. Mehmet Oz is pitching a controversial fix for America’s rural health care crisis: artificial intelligence.

“There’s no question about it — whether you want it or not — the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars,” Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said recently at an event focused on addiction and mental health hosted by Action for Progress, a coalition aimed at improving behavioral health care. He said AI could multiply the reach of doctors fivefold — or more — without burning them out. (Read More)

(Wired) – EVA AI created a pop-up romantic date night at a Manhattan wine bar to help in making AI-human relationships a “new normal.”

While dating apps have been yielding diminishing returns for singles for years now, more people are finding companionship with AI partners.

But where do you take your AI lover for a night on the town? (Read More)

(ABC13) – Aymeric and Naiah Monello-Fuentes contracted with Miracle Surrogacy only to discover the baby they’re raising isn’t who they expected.

Aymeric and Naiah Monello-Fuentes spent just under $81,000 with Miracle Surrogacy, a Florida-based agency operating in Mexico, to have a child using Aymeric’s sperm and a donor egg. But after baby Emma was born in January 2025, two separate DNA tests showed Aymeric is not the biological father, and one test suggests the surrogate may be Emma’s biological mother. (Read More)

(The Guardian) – Exclusive: Google fails to include safety warnings when users are first presented with AI-generated medical advice

Google is putting people at risk of harm by downplaying safety warnings that its AI-generated medical advice may be wrong.

When answering queries about sensitive topics such as health, the company says its AI Overviews, which appear above search results, prompt users to seek professional help, rather than relying solely on its summaries. “AI Overviews will inform people when it’s important to seek out expert advice or to verify the information presented,” Google has said.

But the Guardian found the company does not include any such disclaimers when users are first presented with medical advice. (Read More)

(MIT Technology Review) – Patrick Darling used a music tool from ElevenLabs to perform a song with his former bandmates.

Darling’s last stage performance was over two years ago. By that point, he had already lost the ability to stand and play his instruments and was struggling to sing or speak. But recently, he was able to re-create his lost voice using an AI tool trained on snippets of old audio recordings. Another AI tool has enabled him to use this “voice clone” to compose new songs. Darling is able to make music again. (Read More)

(WSJ) – Inventors and executives are warning of widespread consequences that they don’t begin to understand.

In the end you wonder of the creators: Are they even in control, or is their creation?

We don’t know. That’s why we are looking, with awe and a resigned terror, at that wave, and wondering where is safety, and can we get to it. Or is the land flat all around and nowhere to go? (Read More)

(Public Discourse) – So, all in all, a propitious time to reflect on Sen. Ben Sasse’s announcement, in December of last year, that he has been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. As he says, that diagnosis is without doubt a death sentence, a death that will be upon him rather quickly. He has now prematurely entered his own winter, and however much time he has left will in some ways be an ongoing February of suffering. 

Yet Sasse’s announcement reveals to us both goods and virtues that show in his dying a glimmer of light, a stirring of hope, and the possibility of spring even in one’s final winter. All of us labor under the same death sentence that Sasse does, and so it is worth our time to reflect upon the lessons he offers us. (Read More)

(CT) – Our culture idolizes independence and self-sufficiency to the point that people fear dependence on others more than almost anything else. The feeling of “being a burden” and a pervasive sense of loneliness are major reasons people seek euthanasia. The church of Jesus Christ has to offer people a better way of thinking about life and dependence if we want to push against the horrors of euthanasia. (Read More)

(New York Times) – Aging means “becoming a target” of the industry, one expert said. After decades of debate, politicians of all stripes are proposing bans.

Industry and academic research have shown that ads influence prescription rates. Patients are more apt to make appointments and request drugs, either by brand name or by category, and doctors often comply. Multiple follow-up visits may ensue.

But does that benefit consumers? Most developed countries take a hard pass. Only New Zealand and, despite the decade-long opposition of the American Medical Association, the United States allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Public health advocates argue that such ads encourage the use and overuse of expensive new medications, even when existing, cheaper drugs work as effectively. (Read More)

(NPR) – “It has to do with the fact that our [insurance] contracts don’t pay as well as we think they should,” Carlan said. “The cost of everything is going up.”

Valley Medical Group is far from alone in this predicament. Thousands of primary care practices, a key gateway to the medical system, are fighting to remain financially viable — and independent.

In response, many of them are banding together to form Independent Physician Associations, or IPAs. The goal is to increase their market power, change the way they get paid, and remain in control of how they treat patients. (Read More)