Editor's Note Many people have reportedly been experiencing cold-like symptoms this winter, which have often been attributed to โsome bugโ; however, thereโs a strong chance these symptoms were due to a new surge of COVID-19, Wired January 10 reports. Thereโs a new, large global surge in daily COVID-19 infections currently…
Editor's Note:ย Large language models trained to extract patientsโ social determinants of health (SDoH) from clinician notes could help to identify patients who need additional support and resources. The findings, from investigators at Mass General Brigham, appeared in the Nature journal Digital Medicine on January 11.ย Housing circumstances, employment, access…
Editor's Note:ย Englewood, Colo,-based Leiters Health is voluntarily recalling 33 lots of vancomycin, phenylephrine, and fentanyl IV bags due to concerns that they may contain twice the labeled amount of drug, according to a January 8 safety alert from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). โThe semi-automated IV bag…
Editor's Note: Non-monetary compensation to physicians is limited to no more than $507 for calendar year 2024, according to a report on the federal Stark Law published December 27 in Lexology. The Stark Law applies to non-cash or cash-equivalent payments from hospitals, physician groups, labs and other provider entities. The…
Editor's Note:ย Fondoplication and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass are both viable choices for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in patients with obesity, according to a recent study comparing the two procedures. Results were published December 27 in ScienceDirect. The study was based on a retrospective review of a prospectively maintained quality…
Editor's Note Nearly 200 members of Congress co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leaders to act quickly in order to prevent a 3.37% cut to Medicare reimbursement payments that was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. The American Medical Association, which supports the effort, reported the news…
Editor's Note The cost of COVID-19 hospital admissions increased at more than 5 times the rate of overall medical inflation as fewer patients died from the virus. The new study findings appeared in JAMA Network Open on January 3. The 26-percent increase in average costs to provide inpatient care occurred…
Editor's Note Recent announcements from The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) validate vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) as an established device sterilization method and warn against the use of the Synovo Total Hip Replacement system. Issued January 8, the announcement about VHP is part of the agencyโs multi-pronged approach to…
Editor's Note Postoperative telehealth for general surgery patients is both safe and effective, according to a study published on December 22 in The American Journal of Surgery. The study consisted of a retrospective review of 1,075 veterans undergoing qualifying procedures at a medical center from June 2019 to September 2021.…
Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US rose by 37,700 from December 2023 to January 2024, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on January 5. Overall, employment rose by 2.7 million in 2023 (an average monthly gain of 225,000), which is less than the…