The flow of oil around the world, via Wonkblog.
The flow of oil around the world, via Wonkblog.
This week, the New York Times devoted several articles to an emerging medical field: “youth concussion management.”
Our recent explainer on the concussion crisis in sports focused largely on professional football players. But as the Times reminds us, this is an issue that spans numerous sports (basketball, soccer, lacrosse, hockey) and that can affect players at a surprisingly young age.
I found this comment particularly fascinating:
“A concussion might be the only injury where the younger you are, the longer it takes to get better,” Dr. Cynthia Stein said. “Anything else, if you cut your hand or whatever, the younger you are, the quicker you heal. But for a concussion, recent studies indicate that a 10-year-old heals slower than a 14-year-old, and a 14-year-old heals slower than a 17-year-old.”
If there’s a theme that permeates the Times reporting this week, it’s uncertainty. The one thing doctors know for sure is that during the period after a person experiences a concussion “they are especially vulnerable to catastrophic injury if subjected to another blow to the head.” But determining the appropriate length of that period is extremely subjective.
It’s a reminder of how much work is yet to be done in the area of concussion science.
- J.K.
This population graph really gives you perspective on the world.
Until I got around to reading Stephen Brill’s TIME article “Bitter Pill” a couple months ago, I’d never heard the word “chargemaster” before. Chances are, if you’ve come across the term, it’s probably because: A) you work around the health care industry or, B) you’re uninsured and have had the misfortune of dealing with a medical bill that’s based off of one of these documents.
Today, the Obama administration unveiled a federal database that brings the country’s chargemasters out of the dark and into the light.
But before we get to that, here’s Brill’s brief explanation:
CISPA Is Not Dead
Visit Fight For The Future and CISPA Is Back for an overview and actions you can take, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for background on the bill since it passed the House and what happens next as it moves to the Senate.
If you found our recent explainer on privacy policies interesting, you should be concerned about CISPA. It would pretty much make the assurances in those privacy policies meaningless, at least when it comes to government agencies gaining access to your personal information.
