Health care workers to NY regulators: Give us the data

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Jun 14, 2024 View in browser   By Ruth Reader, Gregory Svirnovskiy and Erin Schumaker DIAGNOSIS From left to right: Luis Fernandez, Care Coordinator at Care for the Homeless; Sandhya Kumar, Associate Program Director at Montefiore-Einstein Department of Family & Social Medicine; Judith Cole, Program Director of Harm Reduction at Harlem United; and Alexis Del Rio, Education Leader at Bronx Móvil | Harlem United To better help people with substance use disorder, care workers need more precise demographics than what they get now, says Alexis Del Rio, lead educator for Bronx Móvil, a harm-reduction program in New York City. He’s asking the state’s regulators to share data that provides more details about who experiences drug overdoses in the city so organizations like his can better target resources to help them. “We don’t know where the latest crisis of overdoses happened [each] week,” said Del Rio at a panel discussion on harm reduction at the City University of New York School of Public Health. He wants the state to disaggregate its data so health workers can identify emerging overdose trends among certain ethnic groups and neighborhoods. Instead, he said, his program receives overly broad demographic data that’s often not useful. He also said that groups like his have spoken with state senators about the issue and have gotten nowhere. Why it matters: About 6,300 New Yorkers died of a drug overdose in 2022, according to New York’s Overdose Prevention Report. Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse have called for an overhaul of how data is used to address the opioid epidemic. Faster access to data could help deploy medications and social services in a more targeted way. And it could help health workers predict where the next rise in overdoses might occur. Above all, researchers have recommended that stakeholders consider what data workers on the ground need. What’s next: New York’s Office of Drug User Health is tasked with expanding near real-time surveillance data on overdose spikes to help local public health officials and other relevant organizations. The office did not respond to a request for comment.   THE GOLD STANDARD OF HEALTHCARE POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries, like healthcare, equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced and better sourced than any other. Our healthcare reporting team—including Alice Miranda Ollstein, Megan Messerly and Robert King—is embedded with the market-moving legislative committees and agencies in Washington and across states, delivering unparalleled coverage of health policy and the healthcare industry. We bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Researchers are increasingly concerned about the effects of drugs — both legal and illegal — on wildlife populations. Whether brown trout getting dosed with methamphetamines or starlings taking in antidepressants, the spillovers sometimes have significant impacts. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com, or Toni Odejimi at aodejimi@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.   WEEKEND READ AI tools are increasingly being used to stop drugs from getting into the wrong hands. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images Health care facilities have a powerful new ally in their fight against drug theft: artificial intelligence. In the face of widespread theft within the medical system, federal officials and health care executives are expanding their use of AI tools to crack down on employees stealing controlled substances for personal use or profit, Gregory reports. State of play: More than 700 hospitals nationwide use tech company Wolters Kluwer’s AI surveillance tool to uncover potential theft and monitor drug inventory. A medical intelligence firm, Invistics, built the machine-learning tool with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse before Wolters Kluwer bought it last year. It’s one in a burgeoning marketplace of machine-learning services health care facilities can choose from to safeguard their drug supply and protect against theft. Why it matters: The expanded use of the tools comes at a time when federal and industry data show an estimated 10 percent of health care workers abuse drugs;roughly 1 percent of the millions of doctors, nurses and support staff steal medicine; and 148 million controlled-substance doses were lost in 2019 — a 215 percent increase from the year before. Meanwhile, fatal drug overdoses in the country remain near record highs at around 110,000 a year, according to the CDC. The synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is at the center of the country’s staggering opioid epidemic, is among the most commonly diverted drugs. What's next: The number of health care leaders who say they use AI to uncover drug diversion has nearly doubled from 29 percent to 56 percent since 2019, according to a 2023 survey by Wolters Kluwer.   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW.     WASHINGTON WATCH Smith is among those tackling loneliness and isolation through policy. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images Three bipartisan members of Congress joined forces for a Global Loneliness Awareness Summit in Washington this week. Despite differing policy approaches to addressing loneliness and social isolation, Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) have all heeded Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s advisory report, which last year warned that both issues are underappreciated public health concerns. They represent a crisis the surgeon general believes should be prioritized the way we prioritize health threats like smoking and obesity. Why it matters: Loneliness is associated with myriad physical and mental health problems, with a growing body of evidence linking loneliness and isolation to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression and anxiety. View from Congress: On Tuesday, Smith, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called for reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, which includes a social isolation and loneliness provision that provides screenings and social services for older Americans. Smith also described loneliness policy’s evolution from a nonstarter issue to a legitimate policy concern. When she first started working on the issue in the Senate, she recalled being told: “You can't legislate away loneliness.” “I thought, well, that’s kind of ridiculous because there’s so much that we can do to address the underlying causes of social isolation and loneliness,” Smith said at the summit, citing federal programs like Meals on Wheels and support for caregivers and community groups that facilitate social connection. With loneliness in the zeitgeist, Smith’s concern is shared by her Republican colleagues, including Flood, who advocates for a narrower approach to loneliness policy. Flood, who introduced the Improving Measurements for Loneliness and Isolation Act last year, wants to define loneliness and social isolation and determine how to measure progress on them before putting forth policy. Flood, along with Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy, plans to ask the U.S. Government Accountability Office to collect the available data on loneliness and social isolation, he said Tuesday. “Let’s start there and then work our way into the future,” Flood said.   Follow us on Twitter Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Daniel Payne @_daniel_payne Ruth Reader @RuthReader Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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