�������ýҕ�l

Through a recent article he wrote in the Independent, we learned about Steve Shorney, who lived with depression for most of his life despite years of psychotherapy, medication, yoga and many other attempts at holistic treatments. With his decision to enroll in a psilocybin clinical trial at Imperial College London, his life “radically changed.” Psilocybin was different from every other treatment or experience he had. As he recalled in the Independent article, “I had seen an alternative reality, another way of being, and knew beyond anything I’d known before that day that life is extraordinary. And in that moment I felt happier, more alive, and more Me than I imagined was possible.” (Danielle Schlosser and Thomas R. Insel, 9/14)

For a few months, the pandemic afforded a glimpse into an alternate reality: a health care system where doctors like us could evaluate patients via telemedicine from all over the country who sought our opinions as experts in our fields. Patients found that they did not have to board a plane or book rooms in a hotel overnight just to find out if they were good fits for a clinical trial in another state. Others could check-in on video and have their prescriptions updated rather than wait weeks for an appointment without medications. Well, the jig is up. (Trisha Pasricha and Pankaj Jay Pasricha, 9/15)

One of the fundamental principles on which the U.S. economy is based is that the expectation of a positive return drives one’s willingness to invest time and money. Individuals investing in a portfolio of stocks hope that some stocks’ gains will offset others’ losses. Yet Congress threatens to dismantle this framework, extinguishing an ecosystem that employs millions of people and serves as a global leader in creating new medicines for deadly diseases. (Peter Kolchinsky and Daphne Zohar, 9/15)

Struggles with mental ill-health are the world’s leading cause of disability. Beset by the coronavirus pandemic, underresourced mental health systems have strained to keep up. But access to care is limited by three major obstacles: a dearth of professional care providers, embedded stigma surrounding mental health problems and a distrust of institutions. (Brandon Staglin and Helen Herrman, 9/14)

The acceleration of investment in digital health and adoption of health-related apps triggered by the pandemic, which aimed to expand access at a time when access was difficult and health care needs were growing, may be harming the particularly important subset known as digital therapeutics (DTx). Health apps constitute a broad category, focusing on everything from health and well-being to treatment of disease. They may be unvalidated or based on limited evidence, essentially a caveat emptor situation. Digital therapeutics, in contrast, deliver medical interventions using evidence-based, clinically evaluated software, with a focus on treating, managing, and preventing diseases and disorders such as asthma and musculoskeletal pain. (Tom Denwood and Scott Kollins, 9/16)