March 10, 2026
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Morning Rounds Writer and Reporter

Good morning. I've got a late-breaking hot take for my fellow Boston area townies: McDonald's coffee might be better than Dunks. (Easy follow-up take: It's all better than Starbucks.) 

politics

Amid dueling autism meetings, HHS cancels

A federal advisory committee on autism — known as the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, not to be confused with a new, similarly named independent group — will not meet later this month as originally planned. The news was first reported over the weekend and confirmed by HHS yesterday in a post online.

The cancellation came days after the independent committee launched, announcing that it would meet the same day as the federal group. The new version was formed in response to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s move to stack the federal committee with members who align with his debunked view on autism and vaccines. Read more from STAT’s O. Rose Broderick.

neurology

Suicidality as a predictor of epilepsy med response

Psychiatric disorders are common among people with epilepsy. But a new study, published yesterday in JAMA Neurology, pinpoints suicidal ideation and attempts as unique predictors of a person’s response to antiseizure medications. Among nearly 350 participants in the Human Epilepsy Project, experiencing suicidality — whether or not it was accompanied by a mood or anxiety disorder — significantly increased a person’s risk of developing resistance to antiseizure medications.

Patients were screened for psychiatric disorders and suicidality upon entering the program within months of receiving their epilepsy diagnosis. Those with no psychiatric problems had about a 16% chance of developing treatment resistance in six years of follow-up data. Those with anxiety disorders saw that risk increase to nearly 33%. And those who experienced suicidality without a diagnosed disorder saw the risk jump to 47%.

The study included a small number of participants, and more research is needed. Still, the authors believe that the results could be “a marker of more severe neuropathology.”

one big number

$835 million

That’s how much behavioral health provider Universal Health Services paid to acquire the virtual mental health company Talkspace, according to an announcement yesterday. In a digital health sector that’s been plagued by ups and downs since the Covid pandemic, Talkspace has shown consistent growth and stability. STAT’s Mario Aguilar has the details on the deal. 

health equity

A long-awaited fix to the kidney transplant system
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Mark Humphrey/AP

Until recently, the main clinical algorithm used to measure kidney function included an inflation for all Black patients. “It was a really heated battle to get the powers that be to have a race neutral equation,” recalls Vanessa Grubbs, a nephrologist who spent more than a decade pushing for the change. In 2022, that equation phased out, and programs were required to modify existing numbers for Black patients already on the kidney transplant waitlist.

According to a new study, these changes had a marked impact. Among Black patients, the policy changes were associated with 5.3 more kidney transplants per 1,000 candidates. “Our study really shows, on a national scale, what the specific, quantifiable impacts of a remedy policy for the harms of the race-based equation were,” study author Rohan Khazanchi told STAT’s Anil Oza. Read more about the impact of the change, and what more could be done.

first opinion

The Himsification of medicine

For physician Vishal Khetpal, the legal battle between Hims & Hers and Novo Nordisk (which, by the way, was settled yesterday) is just one symptom of something much larger going on with American health care. He calls it the “Himsification” of medicine.

“At its core, Himsification reimagines patients as consumers seeking an alpha, racing to buy into products and practices that feel aspirational and cutting edge,” Khetpal writes in a new First Opinion essay. “It is a world in which patients arrive with a preferred diagnosis, rather than symptoms, and a shopping cart, rather than concerns.” Read more in Khetpal’s latest column about how this reality differs from the traditional model of medicine.

notable quotable

‘Whatever I’ve needed to do, I’ve done it by myself, alone.’

That’s part of a testimony from somebody who had to take a three-day trip to get an abortion in 2023. In a qualitative study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, researchers spoke with 33 people at an Illinois clinic who had come from out of state to receive an abortion. The speaker, who came from a state with a partial abortion ban, lamented that they didn’t have enough money to bring a loved one with them. They left their baby for the first time to travel for the procedure, they said.

“Here, I cannot say a word. I feel like I’m going to hell,” said another patient, who came from a state with a total abortion ban. People repeatedly expressed fear of discussing abortion with others and difficulty searching for information online, along with long delays in accessing care because of these challenges and other financial barriers.

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What we're reading

  • The captivating derangement of the looksmaxxing movement, New Yorker

  • Large drugmakers are developing fewer antibiotics, analysis finds, STAT
  • The human egg sellers, NPR

Thanks for reading! More next time,