Editor's Note Published December 21, a year-long investigation by KFF Health News into medical device malfunctions found that the FDA allows the sale of most medical devices, including many implants, without requiring tests for safety or effectiveness. Instead, manufacturers need to show only that they have “substantial equivalence” to an…

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Editor's Note Nursing exam pass rates are on the rise after years of decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a January 1 report from MedPage Today.   During 2020 and 2021, the share of US candidates who passed the national licensure exam to work as an RN fell from…

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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 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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Takeaways • The Joint Commission eliminated 56 redundant or outdated Elements of Performance, revised four others, and is using more checklists. • The Joint Commission is emphasizing healthcare equity and identifies it as a priority to address healthcare quality and safety, calling organizations to integrate health equity into their QAPI…

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An estimated 126.6 million Americans are dealing with the impact of a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition, according to a US Bone and Joint Initiative report. That means, one in two adults in the US have gone or will be going through a wide range of hip, knee, shoulder, and/or spine procedures.…

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Initially, the massive nursing credentials scam—disclosed by federal prosecutors early last year—involved three once legitimate, now-shuttered, Florida nurses’ training institutions. Some two dozen criminal operators and recruiters have been arrested and indicted; an as-of-yet unknown number face decades behind bars. According to multiple indictments, most for wire fraud, the scammers…

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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 Lending greater weight to patient opinions could help clinicians diagnose certain conditions, according to a study published in Rheumatology on December 18.  The study focused specifically on neuropsychiatric lupus, an autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose and includes symptoms such as headache, fatigue, and hallucinations that can…

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Editor’s Note US hospitals charge approximately 55% higher average fees than ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) for colonoscopies covered by private health insurance. The findings, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, appeared as a research letter in JAMA Health Forum on December 15. The analysis is one of…

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