House votes down QALYs; support for descendants; aging vs. ability in the brain – Morning Medical Update

QALYs out of the equation

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the “Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act,” which bans federal health programs from using measures known as “quality adjusted life years” (QALYs). Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), chair of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, said QALYs devalue the lives of people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.

Scholarships for descendants

The CDC Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have announced a new endowed scholarship program, Voices Today for Change Tomorrow, for descendants of Black men who were part of the U.S. Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama, 1932-1972. It is “one of the most well-known, large-scale medical ethics violations in U.S. history.”

Building ability in the brain

As people get older, they sometimes suffer cognitive decline due to age. But scientists say their new study is the strongest proof yet that some people’s brains compensate for deterioration by recruiting other areas of the brain to help perform tasks. The University of Cambridge published an accompanying news release on the findings.