News from other sources

Safety, quality and clinical practice

The House just passed a 20-week abortion ban. Opponents say it's "basically relying on junk science." | Vox

The House passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on Tuesday, making abortions after 20 weeks illegal. Opponents say evidence shows that fetuses likely do not feel pain until after 20 weeks of gestation. Just 1 percent of abortions happen after 20 weeks.

Personal genetic testing is here. Do we need it? | The New York Times

As genetic testing becomes more common, clinicians and researchers wonder how effective they are at improving outcomes.

Twitter a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment | Science Daily

Overall, between 2010 and 2015, people in the U.S. more frequently penned anti-vaxxer tweets. That was particularly true in affluent places and places with new mothers.

Information technology

Rock Health: 16% of digital health companies funded in Q3 2017 led by women | Medcity News

In the quarter that ended September 30, 84 digital health companies raised $1.2 billion, according to a Rock Health survey. Those run by women include Tia, a women's healthcare startup, and Maven, a telemedicine company for women's healthcare.

A spin-out from Google parent company Alphabet aims to help low-income Americans get better health care | CNBC

Google's urban innovation group, Sidewalk Labs, has spun out a startup called Cityblock, which will partner with insurance companies to transform healthcare for low-income patients.

In other news

Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to three scientists for 3-D imaging of biomolecules | The Wall Street Journal

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work that led to the development of cryo-electronc microscopy, a technique that captures sharp images of biomolecules' atomic structures. Scientists have used the technique to capture the structure of the Zika virus, along with hundreds of other biomolecules.