Your Speech May Reveal Early Signs of Alzheimer’s - WIRED   

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, but these are still underdiagnosed or detected too late for optimal intervention. StartupAccexible is trying to change that, based on the premise that early signs of certain conditions might be seen—or heard—in a person's voice.

"Accexible works at the intersection of neuroscience, linguistics, and mathematics," said Carla Zaldua Aguirre, the company's CEO, speaking at WIRED Health this March. Accexible's product—which is accessible on computer, app, or through a phone call—assesses the linguistic content of someone's speech, as well as how they're speaking, to identify changes that may indicate an underlying problem. Aguirre promises 90 percent accuracy and results in just a few minutes. The idea is that general practitioners can use the app as a screening test and neurologists can use it to monitor how their patients progress over time.

The company said it's already being used by 10,000 patients and 40 practitioners across five markets, and Accexible is running pilots in Spain, Colombia, and the UK. If a patient comes in with a memory complaint, a doctor can use the technology to run a screening test and then refer them to a memory clinic for further attention if needed.

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A well-meaning FDA policy is a threat to pediatric cancer treatment - STAT   

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The medical community today faces a deceptively simple question: How quickly should we act when a child’s life is on the line? I’m a pediatric oncologist, so my answer won’t surprise you — I think we should act immediately. But a new Food and Drug Administration policy could delay things for children who need treatment now.

Many childhood cancers are still treated with intensive chemotherapies developed decades ago that leave virtually all survivors with severe or life-threatening conditions such as hearing loss, heart disease, or secondary cancers later in life. This is the unavoidable nature of these old therapies, and it’s been one of the defining paradoxes of my 20-year career in pediatric oncology: The very treatments I give children will almost always create problems for them as adults. Kids deserve better, which is why my peers and I are committed to unlocking new therapies designed specifically to cure pediatric cancers — without the collateral damage.

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John Oliver Reveals What Really Happens When You Donate Your Body To Science - HuffPost   

Organ donations can save lives, but John Oliver said the entire system is a huge mess filled with errors, wasted opportunities, racism and more.

The “Last Week Tonight” host also showed how wealthy people can game the system to cut the line, while thousands of others literally die waiting.

What’s more, loose regulations mean that body parts and whole bodies may be used in ways the donor never envisioned, intended or approved of.

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Which EU country is winning our economic pentathlon? - The Economist   

The European economies are in for a troubling few years. Germany is probably in recession. The European Commission is forecasting growth of just 0.8% for the EU as a whole in 2023, and little more in 2024. Inflation is coming down only slowly, prompting the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise rates yet again at its September meeting. Business confidence continues to worsen. The commission has asked the ECB’s former boss, Mario Draghi, to come up with a plan to strengthen Europe’s economy. It could make a book, working title: “Whatever it Takes (to Grow)“.

Not all countries are equally affected, though. As our calculations show, they perform differently on the five major challenges that are facing all European economies. Demand will have to be lowered to fight inflation; and the resulting higher rates on debt-piles will weigh against spending. Ageing societies lose workers to retirement faster than youngsters enter the labour market. Meanwhile, the fight against climate change requires industry to transform; and trading with autocracies is increasingly a risk in the new geopolitical age. Welcome to our European economic pentathlon, where we award each country a gold, silver or bronze medal in each of the five disciplines, according to our assessment of their performance. 

We start with demand. The ECB is required to increase interest rates to bring down inflation. That is not always working according to plan. In Austria annual inflation is still at 5.8%, while it is down to 2.4% in Greece, close to the ECB target of 2%. The same interest rate could thus soon be too low for some, and too high for others. Additionally, the central banks of the seven EU countries that are not in the euro tend to try to ensure that their economies do not get too out of whack with the euro zone. Ideally, inflation in all EU countries should be close to the euro-zone average, even in those outside it. Those whose inflation rate deviates too much from the euro-zone average (currently 4.3%), whether below or above it, will have a costly period of adjustment ahead of them.

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