Iowa news
Bringing law and medicine together to improve criminal defense representation
Professor Alison K. Guernsey recently presented at a continuing legal education seminar focused on improving federal criminal defense practices, alongside Dr. Alison Lynch, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Professor Guernsey is director of Iowa Law’s Federal Criminal Defense Clinic, where law students have the opportunity to act as real attorneys and handle federal criminal cases under Guernsey’s supervision. Students represent indigent people charged with federal crimes at the district court level, as well as in post-conviction and sentence-reduction proceedings, including compassionate release. Before coming to Iowa, Guernsey was the supervising attorney for the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho. Dr. Lynch is a psychiatrist with the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and serves as a clinical professor and the director of the Opioid Addiction Clinic and Addiction Medicine at Carver College of Medicine. (The University of Iowa College of Law)
UnityPoint Health extends virtual care services to pediatric patients
UnityPoint Health has expanded its virtual care offerings to pediatric patients across Iowa. Families with children, ages 2-17, who are unable to see a primary care provider or visit a walk-in clinic, can now use virtual care options, SmartExam or virtual urgent care, for treatment of several common ailments and illness. (KGAN)
New strategy will help address community mental health problems
An innovative solution to provide help for those situations in which mental health problems intersect with the criminal justice system is getting started in Fort Dodge. This new program puts a mental health professional in the Webster County Law Enforcement Center, where they will stay in contact with police officers and the citizens those officers encounter who have mental health problems. (The Fort Dodge Messenger)
National news
Why hospitals pay millions to get paid electronically
Hospitals and physicians are paying millions of dollars for a hidden fee to receive reimbursement from payers electronically, ProPublica reported Aug. 15. Payers and middlemen charge health care providers as much as 5% to process electronic payments, according to the story. The ACA required payers to offer electronic funds transfers and nudged physicians to take them. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at one time prohibited the processing fees before reversing course. Now, hospitals and health systems are beginning to push back. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Pig kidney works in human body for over a month
A genetically altered pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead man has continued to function for 32 days, an advance toward the possible use of animal organs in humans, surgeons at NYU Langone Health said Wednesday. The kidney was not rejected in the minutes after it was transplanted — a problem in xenotransplantation, the use of organs from a different species. It began producing urine and took over the functions of a human kidney such as filtering toxins, the physicians said at a news conference. (The Washington Post)
Being in good physical shape could reduce the risk of nine types of cancer
A new study adds to the large body of evidence that being in good physical shape can dramatically reduce cancer risk. The study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that men with high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness in young adulthood had a lower risk of developing nine forms of cancer years later, including in the head and the neck, the lungs, the kidneys and the gastrointestinal system. (NBC News)