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There will come a time in the not too distant future when we look back at the healthcare system as it is today with shame and embarrassment. We’ll wonder how anyone got the right kind of care and rue the policy and clinical decisions that have made our system unaffordable, inaccessible, wasteful, and inferior to our peer nations. To hear some people discuss healthcare these days, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) fixed the healthcare system. But that’s not really true. The ACA broadened the tent and made health insurance coverage available to more people. But the tent poles now need to be replaced. (Sachin H. Jain, 5/26)

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce whether it is approving aducanumab, a new drug that is supposed to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. The decision is going to be controversial either way. Many neurologists say that the evidence for the drug is too flimsy; in fact, 10 of the 11 independent experts asked to review it said there wasn’t enough proof it worked. Meanwhile, patient advocacy groups have pressed the FDA to OK it. Their point: We essentially have nothing else. It’s true. Even though we keep hearing that a breakthrough for Alzheimer’s is right around the corner, it’s been 17 years since a new drug came on the market. Pharmaceutical companies have invested billions looking for that miracle medicine, ending in a string of disappointments. According to one analysis, 87 Alzheimer’s drug research programs have shut down since 2008. The few drugs available now only temporarily ease the symptoms. (Kat McGowan, 6/4)

Forty years later, I can still recall my visceral reaction to reading an article in the June 5, 1981, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which opened with this sentence: “In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California.” I was an infectious disease fellow at Harvard Medical School at the time, trying to keep abreast of epidemic trends from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which published the weekly bulletin. (Kenneth H. Mayer, 6/4)

It is not very often that those with worldwide status reveal that they suffer from the problems that we, the general public, do not reveal to our family, friends and associates — that we are medically depressed and are getting, or trying to get, help to deal with a problem that is seen by others as a weakness, insignificant and something that will just go away if we will it to do so. That is wrong. Depression is real. Depression is an illness. Depression should be treated by a health professional. Perhaps, Ms. Osaka’s revelation will convince others who suffer from depression to be more willing to seek the help that they need. (Alice L. Haber, 6/3)

Naomi Osaka, the world’s No. 2-ranked female tennis player and highest paid female athlete made international headlines Monday, perhaps in ways she did not anticipate or intend. She withdrew from the French Open tennis tournament — one of the four Grand Slam events in international tennis. In her withdrawal announcement on social media she stated, “I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly. The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the U.S. Open in 2018.” She continued, “Anyone who knows me knows I’m introverted and anyone who has seen me at tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety.” (Anand Kumar and Sally Weinstein, 6/2)

Over 30 years ago, advocates and policymakers discovered that not only were women not being included in clinical research, they were actively excluded during their reproductive years. It's 2021, and while we've made progress, focusing on and increasing research into women's health is just as important now as it was then. (Martha Nolan and Monica Mallampalli, 6/3)

In San Francisco in 2020, the number of opioid overdose deaths, 697, was more than twice as high as the city's COVID-19 deaths, 257. Yet California lawmakers, so quick to lock down the economy, issue stay-at-home orders and mandate masks, are taking a very different approach to the opioid epidemic – giving people with drug addictions a so-called safe place to inject their drugs. Advocates say the Golden State’s efforts to reduce the harms of drug abuse will set a model for other states to emulate. Based on our collective experience – one of us was addicted to drugs and lived on San Francisco's streets, the other has worked with homeless women and children for more than a decade – we believe that this proposal will not lessen the substance abuse epidemic that California cities face, nor will it help homeless individuals. (Michele Steeb and Thomas Wolf, 6/4)