RD: Three-Parent IVF Success, Restarted Donor Heart, Christin's Dream for Reframe

Reframe Daily is where Christin Chong (neuroscience PhD, chaplain, healthtech strategy consultant) curates optimistic and credible healthtech news so you don’t have to.

Christin’s note: my dream is to build Reframe to take care of my friends when we get old, and their loved ones too. It’s so tough when many of us have aging parents and relatives! Pls pop into the Reframe community if this is something you’re thinking about too, and let’s support each other.

Today’s Reframe community chatter: we welcomed new members, talked about sleep, cholesterol management, meditation practice, disputing insurance claims, and more. Join our fun chats about taking care of each other here → https://forms.gle/tN3oabFTsDF21VnS8

Today’s healthcare news in 1 sentence: A three-parent IVF trick helped babies avoid a serious gene disease, surgeons brought stopped hearts back to life for transplants, a common bone medicine eased hard-to-treat nerve pain, and a quick breath test could warn doctors early about lung scars after bad COVID. 

Good news: Doctors used a “three-parent” IVF method so eight babies were born without deadly energy-gene diseases—showing families a new, safe path to healthy kids. 

Mitochondrial Donation in a Reproductive-Care Pathway for mtDNA Disease – NEJM

Market readiness: 🙂🙂🙂🙂 (already licensed and working in the UK; U.S. regulators still need to evaluate the technique)

Good news: Surgeons “woke up” hearts donated after the heartbeat stopped and successfully transplanted them, hinting at a bigger donor pool that could save more lives. 

Rapid Recovery of Donor Hearts for Transplantation after Circulatory Death – NEJM

Market readiness: 🙂🙂 (proved in only a few patients so far; larger trials and device tweaks are needed before everyday use)

Good news: The bone drug pamidronate eased pain for two-thirds of people with complex regional pain syndrome after four months, giving doctors a low-cost helper already on pharmacy shelves. 

Evaluation of the Efficacy and Tolerance of Pamidronate in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1 – Scientific Reports

Market readiness: 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 (pamidronate is FDA-approved for other uses and can be prescribed off-label right away)

Good news: A quick, painless breath test (FeNO) can flag people likely to develop lung scarring after severe COVID-19, letting doctors act sooner to protect lungs. 

FeNO as a Biomarker of Interstitial and Fibrotic Pulmonary Sequelae in Severe SARS-CoV-2 Pneumonia – Scientific Reports

Market readiness: 🙂🙂🙂 (FeNO machines are common in clinics, but using them for post-COVID fibrosis needs bigger confirmation studies)

Thank you for taking the time to reframe! Take care of yourself and your loved ones.