In a recent NIH report, federal officials issued recommendations to reduce the "unacceptably high" stillbirth rate through research and prevention measures, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Kansas, Maryland, and Massachusetts. 

• Kansas: The Kansas legislature has advanced a bill that would increase its legal age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21. Last month, the House voted 68-53 to advance the measure. Then, the state Senate last week approved the bill in a 28-11 vote. After the bill passed through the House and Senate, it was sent to Gov. Laura Kelly (D) for approval. Many public health officials believe the move will decrease the use of tobacco products and lower healthcare costs. In particular, the Kansas Department of Revenue and the Department for Aging and Disability Services have voiced support for the measure. So far, 41 other states have changed their legal age to 21. In addition, the federal government in 2019 changed its legal age to 21 and informed states that they would be required to enforce the rule to receive federal support for substance abuse programs. (Associated Press, 3/29)

• Maryland: In a recent NIH report, federal officials issued recommendations to reduce the "unacceptably high" U.S. stillbirth rate through research and prevention measures. For the report, HHS' stillbirth task force evaluated health disparities and communities with a high risk of stillbirth, as well as barriers to data collection, the psychological impact of stillbirth, treatment following a stillbirth, and known risk factors. The HHS task force issued 12 recommendations, most of which were for NIH and CDC. According to Lucky Jain, who served as co-chair of the Stillbirth Working Group of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Council, the report concluded that barriers to decreasing the U.S. stillbirth rate were tied to issues "at every level," instead of just a single federal agency, state health department, or local hospital. "The extent of the problem is massive," Jain said. "All of my life, I have maintained that what I cannot measure, I cannot improve. And so if I don't have proper data, records, autopsy findings, genetics, the background information of why a fully formed baby died suddenly, how do I even begin improving things as a scientist?" (Eldeib, ProPublica, 3/23)

• Massachusetts: The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on Thursday released a report outlining the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine and announced the formation of a journal dedicated to AI. In the report, researchers detailed potential medical uses of a generative AI chatbot powered by generative pretrained transformer 4 (GPT-4), including note taking, medical education, and participation in "curbside consults." While GPT-4 could serve as a powerful tool in multiple settings, including clinical settings and medical research, the researchers highlighted the need for careful evaluation of any potential uses of the chatbot, noting that "GPT-4 is an intelligent system that, similar to human reason, is fallible." "We believe that the question regarding what is considered to be acceptable performance of general AI remains to be answered," the researchers wrote. "Our hope is to contribute to what we believe will be an important public discussion about the role of this new type of AI, as well as to understand how our approach to health care and medicine can best evolve alongside its rapid evolution." In addition, NEJM announced plans to launch NEJM AI, a new journal dedicated to AI in medicine, in 2024. According to the announcement, the new journal will focus on "the reasonably established and the growing possible roles of AI and machine learning technologies in all aspects of health and health care." (DePeau-Wilson, MedPage Today, 3/29)