Hacker News: brandonb

Serious statin side effects on muscles are rare, new research confirms

brandonb — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:07:30 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-health/statin-side-effects-muscles-rare-cholesterol-medication-new-study-rcna351811

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687551

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by brandonb in "Om Malik has died"

brandonb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:12:25 +0000

Very sad news. :(

Medicare's ACCESS model: outcome-based payment for health technologies

brandonb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:14:39 +0000

Article URL: https://phti.org/cms-access-model-in-context/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48676460

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Machine learning rediscovers equations governing ocean biogeochemistry

brandonb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:28:01 +0000

Article URL: https://phys.org/news/2026-06-machine-rediscovers-equations-ocean-biogeochemistry.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48673047

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

$0 copays could save billions

brandonb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:14:22 +0000

Article URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/06/24/0-co-pay-can-save-billions-health-care-costs/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672839

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Dietary cholesterol activates a Ral-dependent pathway driving LDLR turnover

brandonb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:11:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10697-z

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672802

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by brandonb in "U.S. health spending on pace to hit $6T"

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 22:14:14 +0000

Right now lots of good health companies hiring, including my own (Empirical). https://www.workatastartup.com/ lets you filter YC companies to see health startups, by stage and location (or remote).

New comment by brandonb in "U.S. health spending on pace to hit $6T"

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:32:19 +0000

IMO, there's an interesting opportunity for AI to make healthcare deflationary.

For example, Medicare is launching a new program in July that pays a fixed rate for achieving defined outcomes, like lowering blood pressure or cholesterol. Medicare's explicit goal here is to create incentives to automate the repetitive parts of care delivery with software. (Much of preventive cardiology is surprisingly algorithmic and guideline-driven, so this is more plausible than it seems.)

This reverses the incentives of the current system, where CPT codes incentivize doing more "stuff" (but not necesarily delivering the most effective care efficiently).

If you're a software engineer who cares about health, and have been sitting on the sidelines till now, I think the next few years are a really interesting time to make a contribution.

U.S. health spending on pace to hit $6T

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:10:33 +0000

Article URL: https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/24/health-care-spending-up-7-point-3-percent-6-trillion-dollars-2026/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48665685

Points: 31

# Comments: 31

An ECG biomarker for sudden cardiac death discovered with deep learning

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:21:31 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10674-6

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48664527

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

Cardiometabolic Health in Pregnancy

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:47:13 +0000

Article URL: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacadv.2026.102804

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48659769

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

FDA drops enforcement against Whoop after it tweaks blood pressure feature

brandonb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 01:18:42 +0000

Article URL: https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/fda-drops-enforcement-against-wearable-maker-whoop/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653937

Points: 4

# Comments: 3

Why insurers say ACA premiums must spike in 2027

brandonb — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 21:39:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mh-2027-aca-exchange-premium-rates-unitedhealthcare/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651840

Points: 6

# Comments: 1

New comment by brandonb in "The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated"

brandonb — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:13:27 +0000

It's pretty well-established science now that vitamin D is a hormone, not a true vitamin. Vitamin D binds a nuclear receptor that regulates roughly 1,000 to 2,000 genes (5-10% of the human genome).

The "Vitamin D" moniker has just stuck around since it was named in 1922.

New comment by brandonb in "The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated"

brandonb — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:09:14 +0000

TARGET-D is an in-progress study that supplements vitamin D based on blood levels (your idea).

New comment by brandonb in "The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated"

brandonb — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:37:01 +0000

Another more recent trial (TARGET-D) is showing a 52% reduction in heart attack risk: https://www.empirical.health/blog/vitamin-d-heart/

That trial used a dynamically-adjusted dosage of a vitamin D3 supplement, where dosing was set as to keep blood levels within a target range of 40–80 ng/mL. IMO part of the reason this trial is showing better results than the previous clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation quoted in the above article is that vitamin D has bad effects if too low and too high. Adjusting the dose dynamically to achieve an optimal range gets you the benefits without some of the negative effects.