September, 2024

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Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda draws concern over possibility of international spread

STAT

A large outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda is drawing international concern about the possibility of spread beyond the country’s borders. The number of cases detected so far, 27 , already makes the outbreak one of the biggest involving Marburg on record. Nine of those individuals have died. There are currently no licensed vaccines to combat the disease.

Vaccines 363
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Behind the rise BMS’ KarXT, the first new schizophrenia drug in decades

PharmaVoice

KarXT’s approval demonstrates Bristol Myers Squibb’s dealmaking prowess and marks a turning point for a new generation of treatments.

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STAT+: Health care CEOs dialed back their pay in 2023. They still made $3.5 billion

STAT

Health care stocks stumbled compared with the rest of the market in 2023. Companies missed their profit targets. Some CEOs even lost their bonuses. But the biggest names in health care still made $3.5 billion combined last year, compared with $4 billion in 2022. The average chief executive brought home $11 million, while the median was $4.1 million.

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Four more health care workers reported illnesses after caring for bird flu case in Missouri

STAT

An investigation into the still unexplained human H5N1 bird flu infection in Missouri has turned up four additional health care workers who developed mild respiratory illness symptoms after caring for the patient in hospital in August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday. It is not clear if any of these people were actually infected with H5N1; they were not tested at the time when they were ill.

Hospitals 364
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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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Opinion: Sequencing wastewater material may be the key to getting a grip on the H5N1 bird flu outbreak

STAT

Despite no known infections of H5N1 bird flu among its dairy cows, Missouri recently detected a case in a person with no apparent exposure to possibly infected animals or related products (i.e., raw milk). A close contact and two health workers who cared for the person all developed respiratory symptoms , but were never tested. There has not yet been a wider uptick of other potential cases in the same community to indicate efficient human-to-human transmission — the evolution of which is

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Opinion: Millions of people are missing from U.S. disability data

STAT

Many disabled people are not included in official U.S. data. This is because there is “ No Box to Check ” to indicate their particular disability on surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies. The questions used to identify people with disabilities are missing millions. Two question sets are most often used to assess disability in U.S. federal surveys: the American Community Survey Six (ACS-6) or the Washington Group Short Set (WG-SS).

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STAT+: Electronic health records giant Epic Systems sued over alleged monopolistic practices

STAT

The health data company Particle Health has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Epic Systems, alleging that the electronic health record vendor has used its control of patient data to thwart competition and undermine its business. The suit filed Monday in federal court in the Southern District of New York is a full-throated assault on Epic’s dominance in the market for electronic health records, charging that the privately held company has become a “behemoth” and a “mo

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STAT+: FDA approves schizophrenia drug that could alter how disorder is treated

STAT

For decades, doctors caring for people with schizophrenia have relied on mood-regulating drugs that target the brain chemical dopamine. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved for the first time a new type of medicine that may change the way the psychiatric disorder is treated.  The drug, called Cobenfy, will be sold by Bristol Myers Squibb.

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Can MRIs ensure prostate cancer screening does more good than harm?

STAT

Prostate cancer presents a tricky screening challenge. Catching it early could mean dodging a painful journey with advanced cancer. Yet a sizable majority of prostate cancers are “indolent” — slow growing tumors that most likely would never metastasize during the patient’s lifetime, and whose treatment  would do more harm than good.

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Second health care worker tied to Missouri bird flu case had respiratory symptoms

STAT

A second health worker who cared for a person hospitalized in Missouri with H5N1 bird flu developed mild respiratory symptoms but was not tested for influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday. The CDC said Missouri health officials didn’t learn that the health worker had symptoms until after the individual had recovered, too late to run a diagnostic test.

Hospitals 364
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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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STAT+: FTC sues big 3 PBMs for ‘artificially inflated’ insulin prices caused by ‘perverse’ rebating

STAT

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against the largest pharmacy benefit managers and their group purchasing organizations for allegedly anticompetitive practices that “artificially inflated” the price of insulin and, consequently, impeded patient access to the life-saving treatment. The administrative complaint accused CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx of creating a “perverse” system of rebates that favored

Diabetes 363
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FDA approves first at-home flu vaccine in U.S., a nasal spray

STAT

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved AstraZeneca’s bid to allow its nasal spray influenza vaccine, FluMist, to be sold for home administration.  Starting next flu season, people who want to order the vaccine to give it to themselves or their children at home will be able to do so.

Vaccines 363
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Long-overlooked scientist shares Lasker Award with other GLP-1 researchers

STAT

GLP-1 based drugs are transforming the treatment of obesity and opening up new avenues for addressing heart disease , addiction , and even Alzheimer’s. Now, three scientists who played key roles in their invention have won a prestigious Lasker Award for biomedical research.  Announced on Thursday in New York, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award will be shared by Svetlana Mojsov and Joel Habener , who identified and characterized the GLP-1 hormone in the 1980s whil

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Opinion: Tested in Africa, used in America

STAT

At the recent annual International AIDS Conference, a startling presentation about the newest wonder drug in HIV prevention brought a raucous standing ovation. Lenacapavir, a novel drug given as an injection under the skin every six months, was 100% successful in preventing HIV in adolescent girls and young women in two countries in Africa. It felt to many like a generational moment.

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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Year-long fallout over retracted trans youth paper highlights new research era

STAT

Last year, a Springer Nature journal published a study surveying 1,700 parents of adolescents and young adults with gender dysphoria. Just a few months later, the study was retracted because there had been no formal process for those parents to consent to the study. But the story didn’t end there. Ongoing fallout from the paper and its retraction has opened up an internal rift among academic editors and journal staff that led to one editor’s resignation, as first reported by Retrac

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STAT+: The little-known Chinese biotech whose cancer drug beat Keytruda has global ambitions

STAT

Recent headlines about a potent new immunotherapy have mostly focused on the U.S. company helping to develop it. Less attention has been paid to Akeso, a Chinese biotech that had kept a low profile until its drug bested Merck’s mega-blockbuster Keytruda in a late-stage lung cancer trial.  Now, Akeso’s leaders want you to know that its recent success isn’t a one-off.

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Sickle cell community scrambles to find safe plan after a drug is pulled from the market

STAT

She knew what it was to have pain she couldn’t put into words, but this was worse. As a child, Nana-Bilkisu Habib had felt it in her arms or legs or back, but this was everywhere, as if her whole body were shutting down. She couldn’t move. Her dad had to carry her into the car and lay her in the backseat. She spent the drive to the hospital reciting verses of the Quran, praying that she would make it through.

Hospitals 360
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STAT+: A mysterious anti ‘Big Pharma’ bus is barnstorming swing states

STAT

WASHINGTON — The wheels on a big red bus emblazoned with anti-pharmaceutical industry messaging are going ’round and ’round all through the nation’s electoral battlegrounds, from Montana to Arizona to Pennsylvania. But nobody will say who’s paying to fill up the gas tank. A new dark-money group called Americans for Pharma Reform has launched a multi-state bus tour to bring awareness to what they characterize as bad behavior by the pharmaceutical industry.

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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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Inquiry into unexplained bird flu case in Missouri broadens to a close contact

STAT

A close contact of the person in Missouri who had an unexplained H5N1 bird flu infection last month was also sick around the same time, but was not tested for influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.  The CDC revealed the previously undisclosed information in FluView , its weekly report on influenza activity.

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STAT+: A new drug offers a rare option for brain cancer treatment — and inspires hopes for more

STAT

For more cancer coverage, sign up for STAT’s pop-up newsletter focused on this weekend’s European Society for Medical Oncology conference, one of the biggest oncology meetings of the year. Details here. When Rachel Guberman found out she had brain cancer, she did so much reading and Googling about the disease that she joked she had reached the end of the internet.

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STAT+: Pfizer pulls sickle cell treatment Oxbryta off global markets

STAT

Pfizer said Wednesday that it was removing Oxbryta, a pill for the treatment of sickle cell disease, from all markets globally due to high risks of severe safety events, including deaths.  The decision is a stunning blow for a drug that was approved in 2019 , heralded as a new way to treat the inherited blood disorder. Pfizer acquired the maker of Oxbryta, a biotech company called Global Blood Therapeutics, in 2022 for $5.4 billion.

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Pediatricians’ obesity guidelines rest on shaky evidence about eating disorder risks

STAT

To address soaring rates of childhood obesity, the American Academy of Pediatrics last year endorsed tactics it once considered risky.  “Watchful waiting” had been standard practice, in part from concern that a doctor’s focus on weight could inadvertently plant the seed for stigma or eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.

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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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Q&A: The U.S. can, and should, do more on H5N1 bird flu, a top WHO official says

STAT

More work needs to be done by the agricultural sector to get to the bottom of — and put a stop to — transmission of H5N1 bird flu in dairy cattle in the United States, a senior World Health Organization official said over the weekend. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s acting director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the world is watching how the U.S., with its advanced scientific expertise, is responding to this outbreak.

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Medicine struggles to define chronic Lyme. Long Covid has only made it harder

STAT

Going to the doctor is already tricky enough for people with chronic symptoms of Lyme disease. Their concerns often dismissed by mainstream medicine, those patients now face an additional hurdle: ruling out long Covid.  The two illnesses — one seeping in over the course of decades and another suddenly springing to life on a massive scale — share many qualities, including being widely misunderstood.

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STAT+: Can Anne Wojcicki save 23andMe?

STAT

Usually, introductory meetings with startup executives are perfunctory and fade to irrelevance within an hour. But I still remember the first moment I met 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki in 2007. My editor at the time had set up a meeting between my reporting partner and I and Wojcicki, along with 23andMe co-founder Linda Avey, at an upscale sandwich shop on East 13th Street in New York City.

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Cause of Missouri H5 bird flu case remains a mystery, CDC says

STAT

Disease investigators have not been able to determine how a person in Missouri with no known exposures to animals or poultry became infected with an H5 bird flu virus, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. But Nirav Shah said the ongoing investigation has turned up no evidence of onward spread of the virus, suggesting this case may turn out to be a one-off infection that defies explanation.

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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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5 burning questions about Missouri’s mysterious H5 bird flu case

STAT

News that a person in Missouri contracted H5 bird flu despite having no known contact with infected animals or birds — in other words, no evident route of infection — raises pressing questions public health officials are surely scurrying to answer. The rationale for that urgency is this: An unexplained H5 infection raises the possibility of person-to-person spread of a flu virus that has never before circulated in humans, and to which people would not have immunity.

Immunity 364
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How a government scientist is pushing to supersize research into ultra-processed foods

STAT

CHICAGO — The last place you might have expected Kevin Hall to make a plea for help was at a conference of scientists who work for global food conglomerates. After all, the government researcher is the leading scientific voice in the United States warning that a steady diet of these engineered products might be a crucial driver of the nation’s epidemic of overeating.

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STAT+: Millions of Americans want to quit smoking. Critics say drugmakers and the FDA are failing them

STAT

WASHINGTON — Of the roughly 15 million Americans who tried to quit smoking in 2022, 5 in 6 failed. It’s a jarring statistic — and an indictment of the treatment options for an addiction that kills 480,000 people in the U.S. each year. The smoking-cessation drugs on the market don’t work well for the majority of people, and they come with side effects and reputations that keep some smokers from ever trying them.

Vaccines 359
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STAT+: The U.S. has relied on cheap, effective generic drugs for 40 years. Now that promise is under threat

STAT

STAT is co-publishing this article by Tradeoffs. Lisa Ann Trainor struggled to stay on top of schoolwork, hold a job or even perform basic tasks like laundry for six exhausting years. Then, in 2018, she finally found a drug that kept her ADHD in check.

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Opinion: What the doctors’ protests in India are missing

STAT

In early August, a doctor was raped and murdered in a Kolkata public hospital by a “ civic volunteer ” who was neither a patient nor a staff member. The crime has enraged and rattled the medical profession in India. For weeks now, doctors have been protesting throughout the country, demanding among other things “justice for the victim” and a safer work environment.

Hospitals 361