Save On Medicare Drugs; Genetic Testing Poll; Software Searches For Cancer

Parenting Types: Carpenter Or Gardner?

How To Raise A Human  Don't miss the latest stories from our special series on parenting.   When Sam Schimmel was growing up in Seattle, he says the school told his family, “You need to go back to Alaska” and that he wouldn’t make it to college. At 18, he proved them wrong. Learn how an Alaska native family reclaimed its stolen heritage. There are two kinds of parents in America, says researcher Alison Gopnik. The "carpenter" thinks that his or her child can be molded. The "gardener" provides a protected space for the child to explore. Which parent are you?   A century before parenting books, blogs, celebrities and developmental psychologists, many new parents turned to the U.S. government for help and advice on child rearing. Read letters from moms in the early 1900s.   Scott Olson/Getty Images   Psst! Want To Pay Less For Your Medicare Prescription? If you or someone you know has Medicare drug coverage, one question at the pharmacy counter could unlock some big savings: “Excuse me, is there a lower cash price?”   Pharmacists are often barred by insurance contracts from volunteering the information without a query from you to start. So speak up!   “If they bring it up, then we can inform them of those prices," Nick Newman, a pharmacist in Marengo, Ohio, tells Kaiser Health News’ Susan Jaffe. "It's a moral dilemma for the pharmacist, knowing what would be best for the patient but not being able to help them and hoping they will ask you about the comparison."   Andrew Brookes/Cultura RF/Getty Images   Genealogical Curiosity Is A Top Reason For DNA Tests; Privacy A Concern With the rise of genetic testing, we asked Americans about their attitudes toward it and experiences with it in the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll.  We found that 29 percent of respondents said they or family members had considered getting a genetic test. Among those people, about a third had gone ahead with a direct-to-consumer test. The top reason was to learning about their ancestry. For the people who got a genetic test through a doctor, the top reason was to help with a diagnosis. We were also curious how people felt about the confidentiality of their genetic information. About half — 47 percent — of people who'd had a test or whose family member had undergone one said they had privacy concerns. A solid majority were willing to share genetic test information with doctors, relatives and health care researchers. A minority — 39 percent — were willing to share the information with employers.   Courtesy of The Felix Project   To Find Elusive Tumors, Doctors Seek Help From Artificial Intelligence Cancers of the pancreas are hard to detect. And that’s a big problem because the tumors can be so advanced by the time they are finally identified that they can’t be removed surgically. Now radiologists at Johns Hopkins are training computers to search for tumors in CT scans. Americans get about 40 million scans of the abdomen each year for all sorts of ailments, NPR's Richard Harris reports. What if  the scanner software automatically looked for signs of pancreatic cancer in those images? "That's the ultimate opportunity — to be able to diagnose it before you have any symptoms and at a stage where it's even maybe too subtle for a radiologist to be able to detect it," says Dr. Karen Horton, chair of the Johns Hopkins radiology department and a collaborator on the project. Your Shots editor, Scott Hensley   You received this message because you're subscribed to our Health emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002