Editor's Note In an era of social media channels, video sharing, and other new communication methods, traditional verbal or written communication between clinician and patient is inadequate for combating health misinformation, according to the Penn Medical Communication Research Institute. Published December 7 in Jama Network, the researchers’ findings emphasize the…

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Editor's Note Chief Nursing Officers should reestablish academic partnerships in order to strengthen pipelines into the nursing industry that were fractured during the COVID-19 pandemic, according a January 29 analysis in Health Leaders Media. As the healthcare industry nationwide struggles with inadequate staffing, widespread nurse burnout, and many veteran nurses…

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Editor's Note:  Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems lost a total of $8.1 billion to COVID-19 between January 2020 and December 2022, HealthLeaders reported on January 18. In addition to illuminating the new data from The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council and The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, the…

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Editor's Note:  Hospitals and health systems are reporting improved operating margins and increases in revenue as they continue their long recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a January 10 report from Chief Healthcare Executive. Citing the National Hospital Flash Report from Kaufman Hall, the article notes…

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Editor's Note:  Cholecystectomy case volume significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results published in ScienceDirect December 30. While cholecystectomy is infrequently performed in children, the pandemic drove lifestyle changes, delays in healthcare access, and increases in childhood obesity. Further studies are needed to determine whether these braoder…

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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…

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Editor’s Note Social distancing was more effective than closing borders in preventing the spread of COVID-19, according to a study published in Cell December 14. Conducted by Scripps Research, the study examined the efficacy of various mandates—including stay-at-home measures, social distancing, and travel restrictions— in preventing local and regional transmission…

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Editor's Note This study, led by Boston University and VA Boston Healthcare System, finds a large variation in mortality across Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 11.4 million VHA enrollees during 2016 and 2020 were included in the analysis. Among the findings: VHA-enrolled veterans…

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Editor's Note This multi-center study, which is part of the National Institutes of Health’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative and led by the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, was conducted to develop a definition of long COVID using self-reported symptoms of 9,764 participants (8,646 infected; 1,118 uninfected) at 85…

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Editor's Note The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, on May 20, launched the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) to prevent and detect infectious disease threats before they become epidemics or pandemics. The network provides a platform for helping countries and regions improve systems for collecting and analyzing samples,…

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