Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is one of the most common procedures in the US. Performed more than 17.1 million times per year in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings as well as ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), GI procedures account for 68% of all endoscopies, according to a May 2022 article in Digestive…

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Rural hospitals in the US have been facing a prolonged, multifaceted crisis. The literature presents several reasons for why healthcare facilities in rural areas struggle, including shrinking budgets, rising chronic illness and public health issues like addiction and obesity, poor telehealth and broadband access, aging populations, deteriorating mental health, and…

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Editor's Note The advance of ketamine and other anesthetics as depression treatments is spurring collaboration among anesthesiologists and psychiatrists for further advances in mental health treatment, according to an article in the June issue of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. As the established experts in…

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Editor's Note A pair of immunotherapy drugs administered before surgery significantly diminished tumor size without serious safety concerns in patients with mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Healthline reported the news June 8. Constituting 10-15% of cases, dMMR cancer…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery provides longer-lasting, more effective weight loss than GLP-1 receptor agonists and lifestyle interventions, according to systematic reviews of medical literature from 2020 to 2024. Medical Xpress reported the news June 11. Presented at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting,…

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Editor's Note Preoperative use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA) medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy is safe, according to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Controversy has swirled around these drugs due to the risk of slowed stomach emptying increasing a patient’s odds…

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Editor's Note Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic diabetes treatment and Wegovy weight-loss treatment, outperformed a placebo and demonstrated capacity to reduce risk of death from kidney-related or cardiovascular causes in a recent study of patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease spearheaded by manufacturer Novo Nordisk. Published…

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Over 20 years ago, an article from Johns Hopkins published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that Staphylococcus aureus decolonization of the nares can decrease risk of surgical site infections (SSI). Since then, nasal decolonization—the application of a topical antimicrobial or antiseptic agent to the nares—has been adopted…

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Editor's Note Average prices for healthcare services trended upward from 2018 to 2022 despite fluctuations in utilization of service, according to the annual Health Care Cost and Utilization Report (HCCUR) from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). In the same timeframe, per-person spending increased nearly 19%. "Prices, in particular, pose a…

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Editor's Note The number of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Class 1 recalls—the most serious classification—for medical devices has been trending upwards. Regulatory News, a publication of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), reported the news April 25.  According to the report, Anne Reid, program director of the Office…

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