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When my younger sister was 18, she began fainting in her dorm room at the University of Colorado Boulder. By the time I passed out in a parking lot a year and a half later — at age 24 — we knew that a genetic heart arrhythmia called Long QT Syndrome (Type 2) was the culprit. An electrical abnormality that made our hearts quiver instead of pump, Long QT could have caused both of us to die of cardiac arrest. (Katherine E. Standefer, 7/12)

For most of the past six weeks, 4-year-old Lylah Baker has been struggling to survive an infection that doctors at Children’s Medical Center Dallas couldn’t beat back. It started out like a typical stomach bug, but within days tore through her body and into her brain. Lylah’s family told me that doctors thought she had a rare autoimmune disorder that can be triggered by an infection. They put a tube down her throat to help her breathe. They gave her CT and MRI scans, and hooked her to machines to filter and replace her blood.  They administered steroids and multiple antibiotics. She still wasn’t getting any better. (Alison Young, 7/11)

With the introduction of wearable technologies such as the Apple Watch, patients have been able to monitor their health like never before. Advocating for patients to take charge of their own health has been a goal for many doctors, hospitals and big tech companies seeking to disrupt a system ripe for change. One of the Apple Watch’s unique features is to screen for an irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation, a condition the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects will affect 12.1 million people in the United States by 2030. Diagnosing and treating atrial fibrillation can help prevent strokes and other conditions that cause thousands of deaths each year. In 2018 alone, the CDC calculated nearly 180,000 people died from conditions related to atrial fibrillation. (Brian Carr, 7/11)

Gov. Larry Hogan recently announced a four-year, $72 million program to support maternal and child health with an emphasis on prevention and early intervention. “By investing in access to prenatal care, postpartum care and child health visits,” the governor said, “we can improve a wide range of outcomes that potentially impact the health of multiple generations of Marylanders.” (Dan Morhaim and Michael Auerbach, 7/12)

COVID-19 vaccines illustrate the transformative power of vaccination to control infectious illness, and some schools have implemented mandates. In this context, the Massachusetts Legislature is considering two vaccination bills that would end or limit access to school, day care, or even college for the roughly 1 percent of Massachusetts children or young adults using a religious exemption. One of the bills would also allow vaccination of children without parental consent or knowledge — irrespective of age or capacity—and would also limit medical exemptions. While broad vaccine coverage is important to control infectious illness, it is imperative that citizens appreciate the destructive consequences of these bills. (Sylvia Fogel, Andrew Zimmerman, Charlotte Mao and John Gaitanis, 7/10)

With policy shifting away from Covid relief toward more long-term goals such as shoring up infrastructure and promoting competition, U.S. lawmakers have a rare opportunity to address the American economy’s deep structural issues. And because the pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to businesses, workers in danger of displacement want some sort of reassurance that their lives won’t be upended. Now is therefore the perfect time to revisit a big idea that seems to have fallen by the wayside: national health insurance. (Noah Smith, 7/10)

With two-thirds of adult Americans having received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the quest for herd immunity turns to vaccinating the harder-to-reach communities — including many communities of color, which remain under-vaccinated compared to their White peers. We must recognize that in this next chapter of the vaccine rollout, it’s not the medical or public health professionals who know best, but the communities themselves. When the former first lady of D.C., Cora Masters Barry, invited our institute to help organize a mass vaccination event at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center she founded in Ward 8, we immediately reached out to community-based organizations such as the Family Success Centers, established by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), and the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative. Rather than taking a top-down approach to administering vaccines, our years of experience have taught us that success hinges on collaborating directly with the community. (Jehan "Gigi" El-Bayoumi, 7/9)