June, 2024

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Supreme Court undercuts regulators’ authority across government

STAT

Federal agencies’ longtime authority to regulate industries was significantly weakened by a Supreme Court decision on Friday. The 6-3 decision, though it stems from cases on fishing regulations , will ripple across government agencies that have broadly interpreted the powers handed to them by Congress since a 1984 decision known as Chevron. The so-called Chevron doctrine laid out that courts should generally defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of their authority w

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From Collision to Clarity: PECARN cervical spine injury prediction rule for injured children

ALiEM - Pharm Pearls

For years, adult literature has provided clear guidelines for cervical spine imaging through the NEXUS and Canadian C-spine Rule (CCR) tools. These have been invaluable in helping clinicians decide when to image the neck in trauma patients. Similarly, the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) has developed robust tools for assessing blunt head trauma in children.

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Avoiding the pharma ‘junk pile’ with launch readiness, pipeline rigor and ‘quick kills’

PharmaVoice

Drug launches have underperformed expectations at a high rate, and pharmas need to get better at thinning the pipeline to make room for the real wins, says a life sciences consultant.

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STAT+: Supreme Court rejects Purdue bankruptcy plan

STAT

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a controversial bankruptcy deal in which the owners of Purdue Pharma sought to contribute up to $6 billion in exchange for immunity from further lawsuits. The ruling means the company and its creditors — numerous states, cities and counties, as well as Native American governments — will have to negotiate a new settlement.

Immunity 363
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From Diagnosis to Delivery: How AI is Revolutionizing the Patient Experience

Speaker: Simran Kaur, Founder & CEO at Tattva Health Inc.

The healthcare landscape is being revolutionized by AI and cutting-edge digital technologies, reshaping how patients receive care and interact with providers. In this webinar led by Simran Kaur, we will explore how AI-driven solutions are enhancing patient communication, improving care quality, and empowering preventive and predictive medicine. You'll also learn how AI is streamlining healthcare processes, helping providers offer more efficient, personalized care and enabling faster, data-driven

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Three months into bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows, experts see deep-rooted problems in response

STAT

Three months since an outbreak of avian influenza in U.S. dairy cattle was declared, the country is failing to take the necessary steps to get in front of the virus and possibly contain its spread among cows, according to interviews with more than a dozen experts and current and former government officials. The country still does not have a sufficient testing infrastructure in place, nor a full understanding of how the virus is moving within herds and to new herds, experts say.

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Michigan launches first effort of its kind to detect silent bird flu infections in farmworkers

STAT

Michigan has led the nation in making inroads with its farmers as it has worked to contain spread of H5N1 bird flu infections in dairy cows. Now the state’s health authorities are trying to do the same in looking for undetected infections among farmworkers. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is working with an undisclosed number of farms to try to assess the risk to workers of becoming infected with the virus, which has spread to at least 25 farms in the state in the pas

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Surgeon general declares gun violence a public health crisis

STAT

Firearm violence is officially a public health crisis in the U.S. — Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says so. In a new advisory published on Tuesday, Murthy calls attention to the health toll of gun violence, describing the size of the crisis while laying out a roadmap of research and policy interventions to curb its effects. “My hope is that framing just the profound impact and pervasive impact of gun violence in our country … can firmly take it out of the realm of politics and

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By the numbers: America’s alcohol-related health problems are rising fast

STAT

In the pit of the pandemic, with no one to see and nowhere to go, and horrors unfolding daily outside the front door, there was for many a reliable bright spot: the 5 p.m. drink that would mark the end of the workday. Drinking, which was already on the rise before 2020, became a coping mechanism for overburdened parents, burnt-out workers, the traumatized, and the bored.

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STAT+: Gilead’s twice-yearly antiviral protected women from HIV infection in large trial

STAT

Gilead said Thursday that twice-a-year injections of a new antiviral drug, called lenacapavir, completely protected cisgender women from contracting HIV in a large Phase 3 trial. In the study, none of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV. By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women who received the long-running daily pill Truvada contracted HIV.

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Opinion: Journals that published Richard Lynn’s racist ‘research’ articles should retract them

STAT

In 2012, the Elsevier journal Personality and Individual Differences published a special issue that included articles with titles like “Life history theory and race differences: An appreciation of Richard Lynn’s contribution to science” and “National IQs and economic outcomes.” At a celebratory dinner at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London, contributors to the issue awarded Lynn a ceremonial sword and a pair of horns.

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Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

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Opinion: Long Covid feels like a gun to my head

STAT

I have spent my career studying infectious diseases that fall under the heading of neglected tropical diseases. Now I have a neglected disease — long Covid — an incurable (for now and for me) disease. As a medical anthropologist working in global health, I thought I understood the despair of poor health. I didn’t. I join 7% of the U.S. adult population — or about 18 million Americans — who have experienced long Covid.

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Opinion: With the threat of H5N1 bird flu, hospitals must stay prepared

STAT

A third case of mammal-to-human transmission of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus has been reported in the United States. This latest case, involving a dairy worker in Michigan , raises concerns due to the individual exhibiting respiratory symptoms, highlighting the pandemic potential of this virus. U.S. hospitals need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Hospitals 363
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Journals issue corrections noting vaping researchers’ undisclosed ties to Juul

STAT

WASHINGTON — A journal published by the American Medical Association has corrected four articles from two of the nation’s top tobacco researchers, Ray Niaura and David Abrams, after STAT uncovered undisclosed ties the New York University professors had with the e-cigarette company Juul. The articles corrected Tuesday by JAMA Network Open include a highly cited study comparing the level of toxic substances users of e-cigarettes are exposed to versus smokers of combustible cigarettes

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New Merck pneumococcal vaccine wins FDA approval

STAT

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Merck’s new pneumococcal vaccine for adults 18 and older. The vaccine, which will be sold under the name Capvaxive, is designed to protect against pneumococcal pneumonia, which hospitalizes about 150,000 adults in the United States every year and kills about 1 in 20 who develop it, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

Vaccines 363
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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

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STAT+: Vertex reports positive results in stem cell trial for type 1 diabetes

STAT

ORLANDO — Twelve people with type 1 diabetes who received a therapy derived from stem cells were able to produce enough of their own insulin to maintain healthy blood glucose levels 90 days later, Vertex Pharmaceuticals said Friday. All but one reduced or eliminated the need to inject insulin over those three months and three people followed for one year no longer needed to inject insulin at all.

Diabetes 363
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Inside Anthony Fauci’s ‘On Call’: 9 health and science takeaways from the memoir of America’s most famous doctor

STAT

Anthony Fauci spent 40 years in the top echelons of government. It was no accident. To read the forthcoming memoir by the country’s former top infectious disease expert, “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service,” a copy of which was obtained by STAT, is to get a sense of his finesse while advising seven presidents. He strove, he writes, to speak with complete candor and stay out of politics, while remaining strategic in pushing for policies he considered vital t

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Bird flu snapshot: A critic of the U.S. response speaks out, and USDA tries to ‘corner the virus’

STAT

Bird flu snapshot: This is the first in a series of regular updates on H5N1 avian flu that STAT is publishing on Monday mornings. To read future updates you can also subscribe to STAT’s Morning Rounds newsletter. Seth Berkley, the former head of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, gave voice last week to a point of view STAT has been hearing for a while about the U.S. response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cows.

Vaccines 363
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STAT+: Doctors Without Borders is closing its widely regarded access-to-medicines campaign

STAT

In a surprise move, Doctors Without Borders is closing down its access-to-medicines campaign, which has been credited with ensuring needed drugs and vaccines have been made available to countless patients in low-income countries around the world. The organization plans to close its campaign by the end of this year and create a new effort devoted to access to products for health care.

Vaccines 363
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Position Your Pharmacy for Expansion

Speaker: Chris Antypas and Josh Halladay

Access to limited distribution drugs and payer contracts are key to pharmacy expansion. But how do you prepare your operations to take the next step? Meaningful data: Collect and share clinical data regarding outcomes, utilization, and more Reporting: Limited distribution models require efficient tracking and reporting systems Workflows: Align workflows with specific pharma and payer contractual requirements For in-depth, expert insights on pharmacy expansion, watch this webinar from Inovalon.

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Change Healthcare to begin notifying patients that cyberattack compromised their private info

STAT

Change Healthcare is beginning the process of notifying a “substantial proportion” of Americans that their private information, such as Social Security numbers and medical diagnoses, was compromised in the cyberattack that brought portions of the U.S. health care system to a halt earlier this year. On Thursday, Change will begin to notify health care providers, insurance companies, and other customers that their patients’ data was stolen in the company’s February cybe

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Global health leader critiques ‘ineptitude’ of U.S. response to bird flu outbreak among cows

STAT

LONDON — Seth Berkley, a longtime and widely respected global health leader , said Thursday that it has been “shocking to watch the ineptitude” of the U.S. response to the avian influenza outbreak among dairy cattle , adding his voice to a chorus of critics. In a presentation in London about vaccine development, Berkley, the former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, raised the issue of H5N1 bird flu when discussing whether the world was ready for another pandemic following i

Vaccines 364
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In dribs and drabs, USDA reports suggest containing bird flu outbreak in dairy cows will be challenging

STAT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released two reports Thursday that lay out what has been learned about how H5N1 bird flu is moving among dairy cow herds in the United States. The reports do not shed much new light on the situation. Instead, they sum up what is known: that the outbreak was probably the result of a single “spillover” of the virus from wild birds into a dairy herd, likely late last year, and that movement of cows, farmworkers, and shared equipment appears to be res

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Opinion: To reduce suicide, primary care and mental health clinicians need to work together. Congress can help that happen

STAT

Suicide rates in the United States increased approximately 36% between 2000 and 2022, according to updated data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide was responsible for just under 50,000 deaths in 2022 (the last year with complete statistics) — an all-time high. As this appalling trend continues, offering mental health assessments and care in primary care settings could help save lives.

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Enhance Healthcare Efficiency With Top Payroll & HCM Services

Running a healthcare facility requires precision and care, not just for patients but also for your staff. Our guide, "A Buyer’s Guide to Payroll & HCM Services," helps healthcare providers choose the best provider. Efficient payroll management ensures timely, accurate payments, critical for maintaining staff morale and trust. Compliance support helps navigate complex healthcare regulations and avoid costly fines.

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Vaping is just as good as Chantix at helping people quit cigarettes, new study finds

STAT

WASHINGTON — E-cigarettes were about as effective at helping people quit smoking as the gold-standard pharmaceutical drug, varenicline, according to a clinical trial published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. The trial randomized 458 people who smoked daily and wanted to quit to receive either a nicotine-containing e-cigarette and placebo tablets, varenicline and an e-cigarette without nicotine, or a placebo tablet and a nicotine-free e-cigarette for 12 weeks.

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Opinion: Readers respond to essays on long Covid, hypochondria, and more

STAT

First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and maybe even provocative articles about the life sciences writ large, written by biotech insiders, health care workers, researchers, and others. To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them.

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Opinion: The J&J lawsuit should be a wakeup call to the PBM industry — and to companies everywhere

STAT

The ongoing legal dispute involving Johnson & Johnson has again thrust the topic of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) into the spotlight. Ann Lewandowski, a J&J employee, sued the company for overpaying for its employees’ prescription drugs through its PBM, Express Scripts, claiming that these overpayments resulted in higher health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket drug costs for employees.

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Michigan stands out for its aggressive bird flu response. Will other states follow its lead?

STAT

For weeks now, as the H5N1 bird flu has been spreading into dairy cattle herds in more and more places, one state continues to lead the pack. With reports of infections in 25 herds, Michigan currently accounts for about one-third of the country’s confirmed cases in livestock. And of the three people known to have contracted the H5N1 virus from sick cows since the outbreak began, two of them are farmworkers in Michigan, including one who experienced respiratory symptoms.

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5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Pharmacy Management Software

Are you still using workarounds to manage your daily operations? To achieve peak performance, it's time to explore other options for specialty and infusion pharmacy software. Streamline pharmacy operations and improve clinical performance with automated processing, real-time data exchange, and electronic decision support. Download this helpful infographic to: Drive efficiency and patient adherence from referral receipt to delivery and ongoing care – all with our Pharmacy Cloud.

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Bird flu snapshot: USDA secretary urges farmers to take protective measures

STAT

Bird flu snapshot: This is the second installment in a series of regular updates on H5N1 avian flu that STAT is publishing on Monday mornings. To read future updates you can also subscribe to STAT’s Morning Rounds newsletter. As the H5N1 outbreak in dairy herds approaches the three-month mark, America’s top animal health official is calling on farmers to step up the use of personal protective equipment, limit traffic onto their farms, and increase cleaning and disinfection practice

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Four Tops singer’s lawsuit says he visited ER for chest pain, ended up in straightjacket

STAT

When Alexander Morris, a member of the Motown group The Four Tops , visited a Detroit-area Ascension hospital with chest pain and trouble breathing, he said the staff assumed he was mentally ill after he told them he was a famous singer. Instead of treating Morris, a white security guard told him to “sit his Black ass down” and he was placed in a straightjacket, Morris claims in a new lawsuit.

Hospitals 364
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With placenta-on-a-chip, researchers hope to gauge how drugs and toxins impact pregnancy

STAT

Early in her pregnancy in 2015, Nicole Hashemi wanted to know how much caffeine was safe for her to consume. “I was actually advised not to drink a lot of caffeine,” Hashemi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, told STAT. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, for instance, advises that pregnant people consume no more than 200 milligrams per day  to reduce the risk of miscarriage or preterm birth.

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Millions fewer people may need statins, a new study suggests. But guidelines have yet to agree

STAT

It’s a familiar scene for patients during a routine primary care visit. The doctor scans blood test results, notes high cholesterol flagged by a standard calculator to assess risk of heart attack or stroke, then decides — and ideally discusses — whether to recommend taking a statin to cut the risk over time. That conversation may happen less often if changes in the risk model presented by the American Heart Association in November translate into new guidelines for prescribin

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Opinion: Empathy should guide responses to reported vaccine injuries

STAT

As a co-leader of the team at the National Institutes of Health that developed technologies powering a number of Covid-19 vaccines, I often speak publicly about vaccine science, even though I no longer work for the government. After my talks, people often approach me, almost always thanking me for my work. There is no denying the millions of lives that Covid-19 vaccines saved. sometimes, though, they relate stories of vaccine injuries.

Vaccines 363