Future Pulse Newsletter

The American Cancer Society says self-collection methods for cervical cancer screening are now acceptable as pap smear alternatives for people aged 25 to 65. Women may pursue self-collection methods at a doctor’s office, or at home with approved devices, by using a swab or brush to gather vaginal tissue samples for testing of human papillomavirus, known as HPV, that can cause cancer. Why’s that?

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wants tech to drive better health outcomes for America, and now his agency has found a way to pay for it. On Thursday, in Washington, the CMS hosted an event to promote a new, voluntary payment model that will cover telehealth software, wearable devices and apps that coach people on their health goals. The pilot program is called Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions.

For years, lawmakers grappled with what to do about negative impacts on kids’ mental health from social media and online platforms. But they’ve repeatedly failed to come to an agreement on how tech companies should be regulated. The House Energy and Commerce Committee attempted to address that failure by putting forward 19 bills on the issue and holding a Tuesday hearing on legislative solutions to protect kids online. However, 11 of those bills would preempt state-level consumer protections.

Parents hoping to protect their kids have long questioned the effects of smartphones on children . Now, researchers say there is an association between tech devices and health. How’s that? A study published in the journal Pediatrics this week found children under 12 who had smartphones faced a higher risk of depression, obesity, and sleep deprivation. And the younger a child acquired a phone, the higher their risk of obesity and poor sleep by the time they were 12, according to the study.

Tomorrow Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and House Energy and Commerce Chair Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) will host a hearing on a group of bills that propose methods to protect young people online, following several lawsuits alleging chatbots have encouraged teens to kill themselves or others. Bilirakis and Guthrie said the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade hearing will be a first step in passing federal legislation for an issue both parents and lawmakers care about.

Programming note: We’ll be off on Thursday and Friday but will be back in your inboxes on Monday. Lawmakers are pulling kids’ online safety into their controversial plan to block state rules on artificial intelligence, Ruth and POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon report.

With mental health needs mounting worldwide over the past decade, the World Health Organization released new guidance this week to help governments and organizations across many sectors to protect the well-being of their citizens. What does the WHO recommend? The organization suggests the following three policy directives for government agencies and health departments.

Crafting AI legislation is tricky because artificial intelligence can perform a wide variety of tasks — some good, and some not so good. To give lawmakers and others involved in policy making greater clarity and more insight into available AI tools and their capabilities, the University of Texas School of Law’s AI Innovation and Law Program has launched the . The inventory’s purpose is to catalog and, to a certain degree, vet AI products that could be beneficial to society.

Doctors are concerned that patient trust might be jeopardized if the British government follows through on its plans to share Covid-19 research data with outside researchers for other studies without clearly explaining what information is being shared and who it belongs to. What’s new: Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care faces backlash over a formal direction, “GP Data for Consented Research,” which would release the data for use in other research , POLITICO’s Mizy Clifton reports.

With help from Simon Levien Telehealth platform Done grew to prominence by prescribing stimulants to people with ADHD during the pandemic when tele-prescribing rules were loosened. Now its founder has been found guilty of illegally distributing Adderall and other stimulants. On Tuesday, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted Done Global founder Ruthia He and clinical president David Brody of illegally distributing Adderall over the internet and committing health care fraud.