Editor's Note In a Scientific Statement, the American Heart Association (AHA) says marijuana use has no cardiovascular benefits and that it has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. Though a full understanding of how marijuana use affects the heart and blood vessels…

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Editor's Note The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on August 5 announced the launch of the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center, which will create new tools using artificial intelligence (AI) and medical imaging to diagnose and personalize therapies for COVID-19 patients. The Center will build a large repository of…

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Editor's Note Researchers at George Washington University, Washington DC, have found five biomarkers in blood of COVID-19 patients that are associated with higher odds of clinical deterioration and death. The research team analyzed 299 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who were admitted to George Washington University Hospital. Of these, 200 had…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 5 announced that it has approved new and revised requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals certified under the Patient Blood Management program that will go into effect January 1, 2021. The certification requirements have been updated to align with the third edition…

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Editor's Note From January through April 2020, emergency department (ED) visits decreased and hospital admissions increased in this study of five healthcare systems in five states. In the 24 EDs studied, the annual volume before the COVID-19 pandemic ranged from 13,000 to 115,000 visits per year. The largest decrease in…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 4 released the 2021 proposed payment rule for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). Among the proposals in the rule: CMS proposes to expand the number of procedures that Medicare would pay for when performed…

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Editor's Note The use of an automated web-based symptom monitoring tool as part of Maine's COVID-19 contact tracing program made the state's contact tracing and monitoring faster and more efficient. The tool was well received, with the majority of monitored contacts (96.4%) agreeing to the automated system. Contacts automatically received…

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Editor's Note The Curial AI test, an artificial intelligence (AI) program developed at the University of Oxford, UK, can identify COVID-19 within 1 hour of a patient arriving at an emergency department (ED), the July 31 Belfast Telegraph reports. The AI test analyzes patient data, such as blood tests and…

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Editor's Note This study finds that front-line healthcare workers with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) had a three-fold increased risk of testing positive for COVID-19, compared to the general population. Those with inadequate PPE had a further increase in risk. The study also found that healthcare workers from Black, Asian,…

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Editor's Note Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced July 30 that it has started its human safety trials to assess its COVID-19 vaccine, after reporting on details of its animal study. A single dose of the vaccine completely protected all six animals from lung disease and five of six from infection,…

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