Three for the Road

Nearly a million people in Scotland were prescribed antidepressants last year, with patients in their early fifties taking more than any other age group. The reason: experts said that the pressures of looking after teenagers and caring for frail relatives were taking their toll. LondonTimes

The Trump administration wants Medicare for the first time to embrace telemedicine by paying doctors $14 for a five-minute “check-in” phone call with their patients. But many physicians say the proposed reimbursement will cover a service they already do for free, and it could have a chilling effect on patients because they would be required to pay a 20 percent cost-sharing charge. Medicare said the call would be used to help patients determine whether they need to come in for an appointment. But doctors and consultants said the virtual sessions could cover a broad array of services, including monitoring patients starting a new medicine or those trying to manage chronic illnesses, such as diabetes. Kaiser

We’ve all felt it before: that weird mix of jealousy and pride when a friend accomplishes something that we also want to accomplish. But sometimes, buried in that mess of emotions, is the feeling that we missed our chance to hit our career peak. No so, according to a study published in Nature. The study found that about 90 percent of people will experience a “hot streak” in their career, which is that span of a few years when a person’s greatest, most effective work is produced. The study also found that your hot streak can appear at any point in your working life, meaning that it’s never too late, or for that matter, too early to hit your peak. NYTimes