Healthcare systems worldwide, regardless of their size or market, are facing the same challenge: how to meet the growing demand for qualified staff without straining hospital budgets. According to a report by the American Hospital Association, health systems are experiencing a significant workforce turnover that began in 2016. On average,…

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In every OR, the complicated dance of surgical care coordination—the series of handoffs between stakeholders throughout the surgery lifecycle—is performed mainly in the background. Those stakeholders include physician offices, schedulers, preadmission testing, insurance verification, vendors, sterile processing, supply chain, anesthesia, and surgical staff. But what does it look like when…

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Editor's Note:  Surgeons successfully tested three fixes for a leaky heart valve on a biological pig heart fitted with a silicone robotic pump, HealthDay reported on January 11. According to the article, the biorobotic heart offers significant advantages over existing heart simulators. These include a longer shelf life, greater ability…

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Editor's Note:  Researchers from UCLA and UC Irvine have created the first comprehensive online repository of physiological waveform and health record data from surgeries which is intended to serve as a resource for training and testing AI algorithms. The findings were published in JAMIA Open on October 17.  In development…

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Editor's Note:  Initial testing of an AI-driven documentation tool showed great promise in reducing administrative burdens on primary care clinicians at Atrium Health, according to a January 9 report in Chief Healthcare Executive. The health system is reportedly the first to widely test the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot, which records…

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Editor's Note:  The World Health Organization (WHO)  has released recommendations around the ethics and guidance of artificial intelligence (AI)-based large language models (LLMs) in healthcare applications.  In a January 18 announcement, the organization recognized that AI LLMs, with their ability to analyze and interpret data, have a wide range of…

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Editor's Note:  General Electric (GE) EVair and EVair 03 (Jun-air) air compressors can release dangerous levels of formaldehyde when paired with Carescape R860 and Engström Carestation/Pro ventilators, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned January 9. Designed to supply the respective ventilators when wall air is not available, the…

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Editor's Note:  Large language models trained to extract patients’ 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.  Housing circumstances, employment, access…

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Editor's Note:  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). “The semi-automated IV bag…

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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 agency’s multi-pronged approach to…

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