Good morning! It’s not 420 yet, but we can still celebrate that the FDA declared marijuana has legitimate medicinal purposes. About time, said everybody (including your granny who takes 1/8 of an edible daily for glaucoma). Having the U.S decriminalize medicinal marijuana would be a great next step, but we can’t have it all!

☕️Postcall’s one-sip markets update:

Stocks aren’t starting this week as bullish as last week (when stocks raced to the highest point this year) after US Fed Chair Jerome Powell previewed a series of rate cuts. But one stock that’s rising is Digital World Acquisition Corp (the shell company that merged with Donald Trump’s Truth Social and started trading as DJT yesterday). It’s up about 16%, and Trump (who owns 58%) now has a stake valued at $4.6 billion — at least on paper.

Time for some stories!

Staying #Up2Date 🚨

1. Doping dangers

An observational study followed over a thousand young men who had used androgenic anabolic steroid (AAS). At follow-up, 2.8% of AAS users vs.1% of controls had died (hazard ratio, HR, of 2.8). Amongst AAS users, the HRs were 3.6 for unnatural deaths (i.e., accidents, violent crimes, or suicide) and 2.2 for natural deaths (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular-related deaths).

2. Maternal mortality miscalc

Maternal deaths have been under-reported for decades. In 2003, the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death added a question to identify pregnancy-associated deaths. A new study now suggests that many maternal deaths in the US have likely been misclassified as a result of this move. While maternal mortality in the US has increased - from 18 to 32 deaths per 100K births between 2018-2021 — a different methodology using a definition-based approach actually argues that these rates are lower in the U.S and that obstetrical complications are actually decreasing.

3. Which knee rehab is best: virtual vs. remote?

In a noninferiority trial, researchers in Australia randomized 394 adults with chronic knee pain to in-person vs. remote rehab. Both groups showed similar improvements in pain and function on standardized scales after 3 months (with similar outcomes at 9 months too!). This means you may be able to reassure your patients that getting remote physio will not compromise their outcomes.

👨‍💻Heidi’s Tech Bites

1: 🤖 A new study in the UK found that AI could eliminate up to 8 million jobs. Researchers analyzed about 22,000 tasks that were done by UK workers and found that 11% are “exposed to the threat of displacement by AI.” The most common job at risk was administrative roles. But don’t panic because while technology may eliminate some positions, they can also create new ones.

2: ⚖️ The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly over “performance smartphones” (by defining the market this way, Apple has over 65% of the market). The complaint alleges that Apple has made it hard for users to switch away from Apple products, thereby hurting consumers by keeping prices high and quality low. Even if the DOJ succeeds, finding an effective solution to address the alleged harms may be difficult.

3: ❤️‍🩹 Microsoft wants to help you prevent burnout — they filed a patent application for “well being assessment and mitigation”. This tech will supposedly use machine learning to watch behaviours and summarize them into a “well being score”. What’s the chance they add this into the Epic EHR?

Want to use AI instead of just reading about it? Try Heidi, the only free AI scribe.

Pig-ture Perfect Breakthrough  🐷

How scientists are organ-izing a new way for humans to receive transplants.

What happened? For the first time, surgeons have transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a living person. After a successful 4-hour procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital, the hospital has reported that he’s recovering well and should be allowed to be discharged soon. 

The 62-year-old patient was suffering from end-stage kidney disease.

Why it’s interesting: The organ came from a pig created by eGenesis using CRISPR-Cas9 tech. eGenesis pigs are bred with 69 genetic modifications to make them safe for humans. Some of these include inactivating retroviruses that are found in pigs to reduce the risk of infection, and adding human genes to make them more compatible.

eGenesis’ goal is to genetically modify pigs to provide kidneys, livers, hearts, and other organs to help with the shortage. There are currently over 100K people on the transplant list in the US.

But there are concerns surrounding the medical breakthrough. For example, some people wonder how the organ will hold up in the long run. All of the other patients who have received animal organs have died, leaving this patient as eGenesis’s only success. 

There’s also a question regarding the animals. How ethical is it to raise animals solely to slaughter them for human organ transplantation? Despite eGenesis’s accomplishment, this has still been left unanswered. 

Bottom line: eGenesis’s work is the first step towards potentially solving a huge health crisis in North America. But like most things practice makes perfect so we’ll be watching closely to see what comes next for this medical phenomenon.  

Notable Numbers 🔢

8: the number of months “miracle baby” Ellyannah had to spend in the NICU. The baby was born at 26 weeks gestation and after almost a year of fighting, is healthy enough to begin her new life at home!

6: people have died after the container ship vs. bridge incident in Baltimore you’ve likely already heard about. It was reported that those 6 people were working on construction on the bridge when it collapsed. Investigators are still trying to figure out how this tragedy happened.

$30B: is how much money Visa and Mastercard settled to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants. This is one of the largest antitrust settlements in US history and if approved, would resolve most claims in nationwide litigation dating back to 2005. But some critics believe this is a temporary solution.

Postcall Picks ✅ 

💳️ Pay: your taxes with the Capital One VentureOne Rewards credit card. Forbes named them as the best personal card for paying taxes. The card offers no annual or foreign transaction fees and you’ll earn extra points for booking hotels and rental cars. 

💪 Learn: how to stay hydrated if you’re fasting during Ramadan. This article shares information about the holy month and foods you should consider eating like watermelon and other electrolyte packed beverages to avoid dehydration!

🛍️ Shop: these Easter weekend sales! Find the full list of deals here with everything from clothes all the way to outdoor furniture!

🤣 Laugh: at what we’d sound like, if lawyers were treated like doctors:

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