| | | | |  | | By Ruth Reader, Carmen Paun, Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker and Toni Odejimi | | | | |  Banks says the smartphones have got to go. | Getty Images | Mental health concerns drove New York City’s decision this week to ban city schoolchildren from using cellphones. David Banks, chancellor of the nation’s largest public school system serving more than 900,000 kids, said doctors concerned about smartphone addiction and other harms connected to social media apps kids access on their phones had advised the city to make the move. The city plans to issue detailed rules early next month, our Madina Touré reports from New York. “Our kids are fully addicted to these phones,” Banks said in an interview on NY1. “We've got to do something about it.” Why it matters: The ban in New York comes amid a nationwide movement to curb phone use in schools and growing worry about how smartphones affect children. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote in a New York Times op-ed last week that social media is so harmful to kids that Congress should force apps to include warning labels like those required on cigarettes and alcohol. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, vowed last week to limit smartphone use during the school day. The school board in Los Angeles — the country’s second-biggest school district — also recently approved restrictions that will go into effect in January. And in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed a similar measure into law. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — a Democrat who recently signed a bill that would require social media platforms to turn off personalized recommendation systems for pupils — also plans to propose legislation that would prohibit smartphones in schools statewide. Overseas, France has long banned smartphones for kids in middle school and younger, and the U.K. is considering a ban.
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF HEALTHCARE POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries, like healthcare, equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
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Damariscotta, Maine | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Here’s another innovation spurred by the pandemic: Scientists are using Google Street View to identify stray dogs in the Peruvian city of Arequipa to vaccinate them against rabies. The technology led to an accurate count during the country’s lockdown, when people couldn’t go outdoors to find them, Science reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com, or Toni Odejimi at aodejimi@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. | | |  AI tools may soon get independent vetting. | AP Photo | | An alliance of big tech companies and major hospitals has dropped a 187-page draft framework for responsible health artificial intelligence. The framework from the Coalition for Health AI is designed to guide health systems, payers, device manufacturers and technology vendors in their development of AI tools. The document sets out how institutions should think about AI usability, fairness, transparency, safety and privacy. Dr. Brian Anderson, CEO of CHAI, said he hopes to create consensus. Right now, the Food and Drug Administration offers guidance on how AI tools should perform, but it’s far from comprehensive. CHAI’s proposal gets into the weeds of how AI developers should design and deploy their products. Why it matters: The FDA doesn’t have the resources to vet AI tools that can evolve and change over time or perform differently in different settings. So CHAI, with input from federal agency officials, plans to set up a network of labs that will vet AI tools. So far, 30 labs are in progress with a goal to launch later this year. The new AI framework is a foundation for those assurance labs to build their evaluation metrics around. And it comes with the backing of CHAI’s founders, including Google, Microsoft, Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Mayo Clinic, among other big names. What’s next? CHAI has invited its members and the public to review and comment on the draft standards over the next 60 days. Anderson expects to have a final version published by the end of the year.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | | |  Congress passed a 2017 law directing the FDA to approve over-the-counter hearing aids. | Getty Images | A two-year old FDA rule that allows people to buy hearing aids over the counter without a prescription hasn’t led to “an era of greater choice, innovation and consumer price relief,” says a report out today from the Global Council on Brain Health, a collaborative of scientists, health professionals and policy experts convened by the AARP, an advocacy group focused on issues affecting people over age 50. “The private sector can do more to make sure consumers are not left adrift in a confusing marketplace of varied products and services,” the report says. The report advises people who want to purchase a hearing device to do some research before buying an over-the-counter hearing aid and consult a health professional. Why it matters: About one in three people in the U.S. between 65 and 74 have hearing loss due to aging, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. But people often do not seek care for it or don’t think they need hearing aids, the report says. A majority of the more than 800 people over 50 the AARP surveyed earlier this month said they didn’t need hearing aids, even if their hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be. Some 16 percent among them had hearing difficulty. Untreated hearing loss puts people at higher risk of dementia, as a growing body of evidence has shown over the past decade, the report says. It’s also more likely to isolate people experiencing hearing loss and make them feel lonely, anxious or even depressed. The risk of falls goes up too, as the loss of hearing undermines the awareness of environmental sound cues that are important for balance, according to the report. What’s next? The report says removing the stigma surrounding hearing aids as a visible sign of advanced age or disability is a good place to start. While the AARP wants to increase awareness of the relationship between decreased cognitive abilities and untreated hearing loss, health care providers and policymakers should be mindful of concerns that the link between the two may exacerbate this stigma and find ways to mitigate it, the report says. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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