October, 2023

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STAT+: Pharmacists can make shortage drugs, but at what cost?

STAT

Pharmacists increasingly are being asked to make drugs in bulk for hospitals that are in short supply, and they’re even beginning to make chemotherapies. But some in the industry worry about the unintended consequences of overreliance. Hospitals’ reliance on pharmacist-made drugs, a practice called compounding, has risen in step with worsening drug shortages.

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Exclusive: Six in 10 pharmacists confident to deliver Pharmacy First this winter, suggests survey

The Pharmacist

More than six in 10 community pharmacists surveyed by The Pharmacist believe they have the capacity to deliver a common conditions service in England this winter. Those surveyed highlighted public and GP awareness, proper funding for the service and training for pharmacists as key enabling factors for the service. ‘More resources, clarity on payment reconciliation, […] The post Exclusive: Six in 10 pharmacists confident to deliver Pharmacy First this winter, suggests survey appeared first

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Pfizer to cut costs, lay off staff on waning demand for COVID products

BioPharma Dive

Sales of Pfizer's antiviral Paxlovid and shot Comirnaty have been slower than it anticipated, while a shift to the commercial market for the antiviral has been delayed.

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Actor and epilepsy advocate Greg Grunberg wants the world to ‘talk about it’

PharmaVoice

The actor of “Heroes” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” fame is starring in another role as a patient advocate for people with epilepsy.

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Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

Speaker: Jennifer Hill

Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.

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SAEM Clinical Images Series: Intracranial Abnormality

ALiEM - Pharm Pearls

A 26-year-old male with no significant past medical history presented to the ED after slipping on wet pavement and hitting his head on the ground three hours prior. He endorsed a constant, achy 7/10 headache accompanied by nausea and photophobia. He denied vomiting, dizziness, diplopia, loss of consciousness, or seizures. Nothing made it better or worse.

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Second recipient of genetically modified pig heart dies, six weeks after surgery

STAT

Nearly six weeks after his surgery, the world’s second recipient of a genetically modified pig heart has died, the University of Maryland announced Tuesday. Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old resident of Frederick, Md., with terminal heart disease, died Monday. He had received the experimental xenotransplant on September 20 at the University of Maryland Medical Center in an eight-hour operation.

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Extreme heat could lead to 233% increase in U.S. excess cardiovascular deaths, study says

STAT

When the human body is exposed to extreme heat, it tries to fight back. To keep us from cooking, our hearts pump faster and harder to distribute the hot blood out to our fingers and toes, away from precious internal organs. We produce more sweat, and when it evaporates, the blood beneath the skin’s surface cools down, helping to lower our body temperature.

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‘We’re absolutely making it too hard’: The complexity of adult immunization delivery hinders vaccine uptake

STAT

Alison Buttenheim was floored by a sign she saw in her doctor’s office when she went to get the first jab of the two-dose shingles vaccine to protect her against painful flare-ups of varicella zoster. “Medicare patients cannot receive Tdap or zoster vaccines here. They need to obtain [them] at their pharmacy. If they receive it here, they need to pay out of pocket,” the notice read.

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Maternal Covid-19 vaccination offers infants immunity for up to 6 months

STAT

The risks of severe neonatal morbidity, neonatal death, and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit were all significantly lower during the first month of birth in infants whose mothers were vaccinated against Covid-19, and protection against the virus continued for up to six months after birth, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

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Giant sloths and woolly mammoths: Mining past creatures’ DNA for future antibiotics

STAT

PHILADELPHIA — Cesar de la Fuente believes the next breakthrough antibiotic might come from animals that have been dead for thousands of years. Since 2021, his lab here at the University of Pennsylvania has built algorithms to trawl genetic databases for protein fragments, called peptides, with microbe-squashing properties. They started with human DNA.

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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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Researchers try to tease out possible ties between long Covid and menopause

STAT

When she stopped getting her period in March 2022, Daryn Schwartz wasn’t especially concerned. At 42, she had recently come off birth control, and figured her cycles were still adjusting. When it hadn’t come back by the summer, she sought gynecological care, but was told to wait it out. So she did, with no changes. She was having other symptoms, too — fatigue, chronic pain, and difficulty focusing.

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Zuckerberg and Chan announce a New York biohub to build disease-fighting cellular machines

STAT

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician and philanthropist Priscilla Chan, announced on Wednesday plans to invest $250 million over 10 years to establish a new “biohub” in New York City focused on building a new class of cellular machines that can surveil the body and snuff out disease. The new initiative, publicly revealed at the 2023 STAT Summit and previewed exclusively to STAT, is the latest program from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, or CZI, a company the coup

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Opinion: I lost my son to OxyContin. ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is my Sackler revenge fantasy

STAT

Editor’s note: This essay contains spoilers for the Netflix show “The Fall of the House of Usher.” “W atch “ The Fall of the House of Usher” on Netflix when you can. F**cking Great! Totally based on the Sacklers—Fictional obviously but so damn good!

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The fight for control of methadone, addiction treatment’s ‘miracle molecule’

STAT

A doctor, a patient advocate, and the most powerful figure in the methadone treatment industry presented competing visions for the future of American addiction medicine this week — a conversation that touched on stigma, patients’ rights, and a stark divide in health provider attitudes toward patients with addiction. The debate centered on a single question: whether U.S. doctors should be able to prescribe methadone, a medication used to treat addiction to drugs like fentanyl and he

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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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Serotonin levels are depleted in long Covid patients, study says, pointing to a potential cause for ‘brain fog’

STAT

If you’ve been following the mystery of long Covid since it emerged in 2020, you’ll recall interferons and serotonin have been clues from the start as combatants in the body’s prolonged battles against the virus. Theories about why symptoms persist long after the acute infection has cleared often point to two suspects: viral reservoirs where SARS-CoV-2 lingers and inflammation sparked by the infection that doesn’t subside.

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Is there a nursing shortage in the United States? Depends on who you ask

STAT

Hospitals are frustrated with a nationwide nursing shortage that’s only gotten worse since the pandemic. In 2022, the American Hospital Association quoted an estimate that half a million nurses would leave the field by the end of that year, bringing the total shortage to 1.1 million. At the same time, National Nurses United insists there isn’t a nurse shortage at all.

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Fixing America’s health insurance woes is ‘actually very simple,’ says leading economist

STAT

Fixing the U.S. health care system can seem like a herculean task. But the solution is “actually very simple,” according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Amy Finkelstein. In their recent book “ We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care ,” Finkelstein and Stanford economist Liran Einav describe how years of research have led them to the conclusion that the best way forward is for the U.S. to offer universal basic health care coverag

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Opinion: Yes, everyone should get an updated Covid-19 vaccine

STAT

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone in the U.S. 6 months and older receive an updated Covid vaccine targeting the XBB.1.5 variant. Since then, some notable voices, including Paul Offit , have publicly questioned whether the updated vaccine is needed for those who are not in a high-risk group. He recently wrote, “At this point in the pandemic, it is hard to make a case for vaccinating everyone.

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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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STAT+: For Parkinson’s disease, advances spurred by Apple Watch offer a glimmer of hope

STAT

Since the Apple Watch was unveiled in 2014, it has been trumpeted not only as a high tech fashion accessory, but also as a way for people to track their own health and fitness. It has evolved as a popular cardio tool for such uses as heart rate monitoring, recording your ECG, and measuring the oxygen saturation of your blood. But now, after nearly a decade of development, the Apple Watch is being leveraged on an entirely new health frontier: Parkinson’s disease, the degenerative brain dis

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What will it take to end the crisis of Black deaths in the U.S.?

STAT

In the last two decades, Black Americans have suffered 1.63 million excess deaths compared to white Americans. Experts gathered at the STAT Summit in Boston last week to discuss the crisis of Black deaths in the U.S. and interventions that can help advance health equity. “If we continue to have a maternal health crisis, if we continue to have an infant mortality crisis … then we’re going to potentially see a situation or circumstance where Black people can be extinct in the

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STAT+: Like a vampire, some cancer cells can suck the energy source from immune cells

STAT

As elite hunters of the immune system, T cells are constantly prowling our bodies for diseased cells to attack. But when they encounter a tumor, something unexpected can happen. New research shows that some cancer cells can fire a long nanotube projection into the T cell that, like a vampire’s fang, sucks energy-creating mitochondria from the immune cell, turning the predator into prey.

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STAT+: UnitedHealth discontinues a controversial brand amid scrutiny of algorithmic care denials

STAT

UnitedHealth Group and Optum are getting rid of the name of their tech-driven care management company just months after the company faced congressional criticism over the use of its algorithms to cut off payments for patients’ care. Discontinuing the NaviHealth name is part of a broader rebranding of Optum’s division that provides services to people at home and in post-acute facilities.

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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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Treating Rural America: The new country doctors

STAT

Family medicine physician Olusunmisola Oyesiku always thought she would practice in a big city, but after going through her family residency program at the University of Alabama in Selma, she ended up falling in love with rural medicine. The Selma program is one of a small, but growing, number of residencies in the country that places residents entirely in rural medical settings.

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FDA authorizes Novavax’s updated Covid-19 vaccine

STAT

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized Novavax’s updated Covid-19 vaccine, giving Americans seeking to update their protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus another option. Though the FDA’s green light came three weeks after the approvals for the updated Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots, it contained some welcome news for the Gaithersburg, Md.

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2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine: Karikó, Weissman awarded prize for mRNA research

STAT

LONDON — Two pioneers of mRNA research — the technology that helped the world tame the virus behind the Covid-19 pandemic — won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology on Monday. Overcoming a lack of broader interest in their work and scientific challenges, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman made key discoveries about messenger RNA that enabled scientific teams to start developing the tool into therapies, immunizations, and — as the pandemic spread in 2020 &

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CDC recommends rationing of RSV shot due to shortages

STAT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended rationing an important monoclonal antibody product to protect young infants from RSV due to strained supply of the new product, Sanofi’s Beyfortus. In a health alert issued Monday, the CDC said clinicians should prioritize available doses for babies at highest risk from respiratory syncytial virus, reserving 100-milligram doses for infants under the age of 6 months and those with underlying health conditions that put them at h

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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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STAT+: In major test for eGenesis, gene-edited pig kidneys kept monkeys alive for more than two years

STAT

Scientists at a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company and their academic research partners reported Wednesday that an engineered breed of miniature pig containing up to 69 genetic changes produced kidneys that functioned well in monkeys for an average of 176 days and in one animal for more than two years. The results, published in Nature , are an encouraging sign that the long-struggling science of xenotransplantation might one day become a medical reality.

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STAT+: Nobel Prize, in a rarity, celebrates a fruitful and durable partnership

STAT

The most noteworthy aspect of awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology to two pioneers of mRNA research was not who won Monday — Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were widely expected to get the accolade for discoveries that made it possible to deliver the finicky molecule to cells and enabled the record-breaking development of vaccines that tamed the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The ‘model-eat-model world’ of clinical AI: How predictive power becomes a pitfall

STAT

A growing number of AI tools are being used to predict everything from sepsis to strokes, with the hope of accelerating the delivery of life-saving care. But over time, new research suggests, these predictive models can become a victim of their own success — sending their performance into a nosedive and generating inaccurate, potentially harmful results.

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STAT+: Cigna to pay $172 million in Medicare Advantage fraud settlement

STAT

Health insurer Cigna is paying more than $172 million to settle allegations that it committed fraud by knowingly submitting inaccurate diagnoses of its Medicare Advantage members, the company and Department of Justice announced Saturday. The settlement stems from a wide-ranging government investigation into the coding practices of Medicare Advantage insurers, as well as a specific whistleblower lawsuit against Cigna that the DOJ joined last year.

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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.