1. Surgery for Alzheimer’s?
The hype is high. The evidence is low. But the momentum is gaining. A new surgical intervention for Alzheimer’s started in China, spread to the Internet, and now involves Cleveland Clinic. Nature reports “the scientific community remains divided over whether or not the procedure actually alters the course of the disease.” Here’s how it works (maybe):
Deep cervical lymphatic-venous anastomosis (dcLVA)…involves connecting tiny lymphatic vessels in the neck…to nearby veins, creating a route that, in theory, allows fluid and waste proteins to flow more easily into the bloodstream.
If the brain’s waste ultimately drains through these fluid-clearing pathways into lymphatic vessels in the neck…then improving the outflow there might enhance clearance upstream. And if clogs in that plumbing contribute to disease, then fixing the flow might even help to treat neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
2. Big Sky vs. The Beltway
Montana has passed right-to-try legislation that allows “any biotech company with an experimental drug [to have] a clear path to selling it to consumers.” All it takes is informed consent and $12,500. Patients are thrilled. Biotech is skeptical. MIT Technology Review explains why:
Companies that want to stay on good terms with the FDA would be safest taking the expanded-access route. That’s the pathway the FDA already uses for people who are seriously or terminally ill, have run out of options, and want to try experimental drugs that have not yet been through clinical trials. The FDA approves over 99% of these applications, says Harvard’s Kesselheim. “The FDA isn’t a bottleneck but in fact exists to help ensure that expanded-access programs are aboveboard and that patients who receive [the drugs] are able to contribute knowledge about [them].”
3. AI Can Fill Your Prescription
Utah, not to be outdone, now allows residents to refill prescriptions via an AI chatbot, Doctronic. Utah took advantage of “a ‘regulatory sandbox’ that allows state officials to waive laws for AI companies offering promising technology.” Some old school HCPs (i.e., people) are nervous:
“Many times when I see people after six months I find that their medical history or situation has changed,” one doctor said. “Just because something was prescribed before does not mean it’s appropriate now.”
The American Medical Association has voiced similar concerns, warning that “prescription renewals aren’t routine checkboxes.”
4. …But Maybe Not?
BeevR, a software firm, recently posted about how a new HIPAA security rule will change how AI tools operate. Might Doctronic be on the chopping block?
The 2026 update to the HIPAA Security Rule — the first major overhaul in over two decades, expected to finalize in 2026 — changes the rules for any product that touches protected health information (PHI) with AI. Two shifts matter most: it removes the “addressable” distinction, so safeguards like encryption and multi-factor authentication become required, not optional; and it mandates annual risk assessments that explicitly include AI systems. If your app runs PHI through an LLM, a hallucination is no longer just a bug — it is a compliance event.
5. Your Next Beach Read: Pharma Policy Failures!
Saloni Dattani’s latest post, “Every disease is a policy failure,” isn’t the downer the title suggests. While it does expose deep, persistent flaws in our drug development process, most of the piece is a love letter to the history of science and medicine. One example:
A century ago, if you were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, your remaining life expectancy would be a few months, and a ‘starvation diet’ would be one of your few options. Today, you’d simply need to wear a small device on your arm to track your blood sugar level and release insulin to stabilize it in real time. A century ago, it was unheard of for anyone to be cured of cancer, except, in rare cases, by a surgeon’s knife. Penicillin hadn’t been discovered, and a simple wound infection could result in sepsis and death. Smallpox still existed. It swept across the world and killed millions globally, year after year. I think we underestimate how much medicine has progressed because we rarely experience life without it anymore.
