Editor's Note Despite the increasing prevalence of robotic-assisted surgery, recent data on cholecystectomy results indicates minimally invasive laparoscopic methods could be a safer option. Published in JAMA Surgery on September 20, the nationally representative study of Medicare beneficiary cholecystectomy patients showed a higher rate of bile duct injury (0.7%) for…

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Editor's Note Guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about when healthcare workers should wear N95 masks are less stringent than those from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), Medical Xpress reported on December 21. Specifically, the CDC’s advisory committee has suggested that health workers wear surgical…

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Editor's Note Reports of burn injuries have prompted two medical device recalls: one for Megadyne patient return electrodes and one for Olympus bronchofiberscopes and bronchovideoscopes. According to a December 21 notice from AORN, the former recall is a voluntary correction on the part of Megadyne Medical Products, Inc. Following reports…

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Editor's Note Spinal surgeons seeking a better standard of care now have an alternative to traditional scanning that exposes patients to levels of radiation equivalent to multiple X-rays. Highlighted in LA Weekly on December 19, the PathKeeper 3D optical and navigation system uses high-resolution 3D optical cameras to provide real-time…

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Editor's Note The FBI has infiltrated the ransomware group BlackCat—the group responsible for a February cyberattack on the Lehigh Valley Health Network—and issued a decryption tool enabling victims around the world to restore their systems, according to a December 19 Justice Department press release.   Emerging during the past 18…

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Editor's Note New data raise questions about the effectiveness of image-based AI model explanations in helping clinicians recognize systematic bias when diagnosing hospitalized patients. The findings appeared in JAMA on December 19. Researchers looked at the diagnostic accuracy of 457 hospital physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in diagnosing patients…

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Editor's Note Researchers have discovered a new way to prompt blood vessel growth and prevent amputations in diseases such as diabetes and peripheral arterial disease. Findings were published December 19 in Cell Reports Medicine.  The study consisted of an in-depth examination of two patients involved in a clinical trial who…

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Editor's Note A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai could help doctors better understand which patients are at greatest risk of dying following surgery, according to a December 15 report in Newswise. Based on findings originally published in the Lancet Digital…

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Editor's Note Health record codes that track social, environmental, and economic influences on patient health outcomes are vastly underutilized during screening, according a December 19 EurekAlert! report on research from John Hopkins and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.   Published in Health Affairs Scholar, the study analyzes the…

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Editor's Note A study from Panda Health, a digital health company, found that virtual nursing has the lowest adoption rate among digital hospital tools and is perceived as having exaggerated value by hospital leaders, according Becker's Health IT December 13. The survey of 100 hospital leaders found that just 13%…

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