STAT

APRIL 30, 2024

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been around for decades, and the damage it wreaks on chickens and other poultry is well documented. But the recent discovery that the virus has jumped into dairy cattle — whose udders seem to be where the virus either infects or migrates to — has dumbfounded scientists and agricultural authorities. Questions for which there are pretty clear answers when it comes to birds are suddenly unsettled science in cows.

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PharmaVoice

APRIL 15, 2024

The biotech is developing a ‘gene-agnostic’ approach to expand the patient pool for gene therapies.

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STAT

APRIL 29, 2024

Scientists who know about the types of pathogens — E. coli and Salmonella among them — that can be transmitted in raw milk generally think drinking unpasteurized milk is a bad idea. But right now, they believe, the danger associated with raw milk may have gone to a whole new level. “If I were in charge, for the moment I would forbid the selling of raw milk,” said Thijs Kuiken, a pathologist in the department of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam,

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STAT

APRIL 29, 2024

“Going to medical Spanish class really isn’t worth my time. I’d rather use the time to do research,” one of my classmates told me during the first week of my first year of medical school. Such a comment was my introduction to the publish-or-perish environment that is increasingly pervasive amongst medical students. Before then, I had known publish-or-perish as something for those seeking tenure at universities.

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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

Communication

STAT

APRIL 26, 2024

New federal rules aimed at limiting the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus among dairy cattle go into effect Monday, but detailed guidance documents released Friday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal its mandatory testing order is less stringent than initially described. While that is easing concerns from farmers and veterinarians about the economic and logistical burden of testing, it leaves questions about how effective the testing program will be at containing additional outbreaks.

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STAT

APRIL 25, 2024

Andrew Bowman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Ohio State University, had a hunch. He had been struck by the huge amounts of H5N1 virus he’d seen in milk from cows infected with the bird flu and thought that at least some virus was getting off of farms and going downstream — onto store shelves. He knew the Food and Drug Administration was working on its own national survey of the milk supply.

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STAT

APRIL 24, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture moved to try to limit spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus among dairy cattle on Wednesday, issuing a federal order that will require an animal to test negative for the virus before it can be moved across state lines. It also requires laboratories and state veterinarians to report to the USDA any animals that have tested positive for H5N1 or any other influenza A virus.

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STAT

APRIL 23, 2024

WASHINGTON — Testing conducted by the Food and Drug Administration on pasteurized commercially purchased milk has found genetic evidence of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the agency confirmed Tuesday. But the testing, done by polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, cannot distinguish between live virus or fragments of viruses that could have been killed by the pasteurization process.

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STAT

APRIL 23, 2024

The H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cows in the United States has likely been going on for months longer than was previously realized, and has probably spread more widely across the country than the confirmed outbreaks would imply, according to an analysis of genetic sequences that were released Sunday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The genetic data point to a single spillover event that probably occurred in late 2023, Michael Worobey, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Ariz

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STAT

APRIL 30, 2024

A national advisory panel significantly lowered the age recommendations for screening mammography on Tuesday, saying that all women should start breast cancer screening at age 40, rather than 50, and continue every other year until age 74. The previous recommendations from the panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, suggested that women make an individual choice on getting mammography from ages 40 to 49.

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STAT

APRIL 21, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has been under pressure from scientists both at home and abroad to share more data on the H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in dairy cows, uploaded a large number of genetic sequences of the pathogen late Sunday. Access to the 239 genetic sequences will help scientists assess whether the dangerous virus has acquired mutations that might make it easier for it to spread to and among mammals, and whether additional changes have been seen as it moves from cow to cow a

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STAT

APRIL 26, 2024

On a spring afternoon in Tucson, Ariz., about a half dozen children and teens hung out in the sunny common room of Pima County’s Crisis Response Center. Beyond the pastel-painted room stretched a long, wide hall where partitions separated individual beds, many left unmade with rumpled sheets. Wearing scrubs, the kids sat in rocking chairs, watched TV, talked and laughed.

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STAT

APRIL 18, 2024

In the chaotic first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, stores faced shortages of all kinds — toilet paper, canned food, and especially, cleaning supplies. With everyone scrubbing their groceries, mail, even library books, good luck finding antibacterial wipes or disinfectant sprays back then. That’s because public health advice in early 2020 focused on sanitizing surfaces, not protecting against a virus that could be spread through the air.

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STAT

APRIL 18, 2024

With H5N1 bird flu spreading to more dairy cow herds, scientists and pandemic experts in this country and abroad are calling on the U.S. government to release more information to help them assess the risk the outbreaks pose to cattle operations and people. Three and a half weeks after first announcing the startling news that cows from a milking herd in Texas had tested positive for H5N1, the government agencies involved in the investigations have not yet revealed what research shows about whethe

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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.

STAT

APRIL 18, 2024

As two former secretaries of Health and Human Services, we are all too familiar with the struggle of finding narrow openings for bipartisanship. Despite our different approaches, we believe that addressing health care costs is a truly bipartisan issue. To be serious about creating access for people to the best possible care, that care must be affordable for patients and taxpayers.

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STAT

APRIL 17, 2024

Eli Lilly reported positive results for its obesity drug Zepbound in obstructive sleep apnea, giving the medication a new edge in the highly competitive obesity market. The results also pave the way for Zepbound to potentially become the first approved treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, a common disorder characterized by breathing interruptions during sleep.

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STAT

APRIL 24, 2024

Heart failure mortality rates are moving in the wrong direction, a new analysis reports, reversing a decline in deaths that means more people in the United States are dying of the condition today than 25 years ago. The concerning conclusion comes as newer medications are raising hopes for better outcomes in the years to come. A research letter published Wednesday in JAMA Cardiology tracked U.S. death certificate data from 1999 through 2021, revealing a steady drop in deaths until 2012, when rate

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STAT

APRIL 22, 2024

The ambitious idea of using CRISPR to cure genetic diseases before birth is one step closer to reality. Scientists reported on Monday that they used a form of the technology known as “ base editing ” to alter the DNA of laboratory monkeys in the womb, substantially reducing the levels of a toxic protein that causes a fatal liver disease before the animals had even been born.

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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.

STAT

APRIL 14, 2024

As diligent taxpayers breathe a sigh of relief that the hassle of filing their tax forms is over for another year, the Internal Revenue Service continues to let most U.S. hospitals pay nothing in federal taxes. It’s time for Congress to take a hard look at the IRS’s hand in health care. The agency uses a vague “community benefit” standard to liberally grant tax-exempt status to so-called nonprofit hospitals even as many of them are financially taking advantage of sick

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Hospitals 364

STAT

APRIL 17, 2024

The fight against malaria is a test of human intelligence against mosquitoes — and so far, our minuscule winged enemy is winning. But new results shared this week show substantial improvements in one of the most important tools we have to prevent the life-threatening disease: bed nets. Results shared this week by the New Nets Project, an initiative funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund, highlighted a pair of second-generation bed nets tested in endemic areas between 2019 and 2022.

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STAT

APRIL 12, 2024

The recent detection of H5N1 bird flu in U.S. cattle, coupled with reports of a dairy worker contracting the virus , demands a departure from the usual reassurances offered by federal health officials. While they emphasize there’s no cause for alarm and assert diligent monitoring, it’s imperative we break from this familiar script. H5N1, a strain of the flu virus known to infect bird species globally and several mammalian species in the U.S. since 2022, has now appeared to have bre

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STAT

APRIL 11, 2024

WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders is pushing for a long Covid “moonshot.” He released a draft legislative proposal this week, a follow up to a milestone hearing in January that sounded the alarm on long Covid as a pressing public health crisis. The pitch calls for $10 billion in mandatory funding over the next decade to establish a new long Covid research program at the National Institutes of Health.

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STAT

APRIL 10, 2024

SAN DIEGO — Cancer vaccines have traveled a potholed road over the last decade. But as researchers from different companies and academic institutions presented promising early data at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego this week, experts said there’s a collective feeling of turning a corner. “There’s a lot more interest in vaccines” now that the technology is improving, said Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Can

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STAT

APRIL 9, 2024

One of the country’s biggest life insurers is venturing into genetic testing, an area that’s historically been a minefield for that industry, in a purported effort to keep its members alive longer.  MassMutual announced Tuesday that it’s offering many of its 4.2 million policyholders free genetic risk assessments for eight common diseases, like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer.

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Diabetes 363

STAT

APRIL 8, 2024

Anyone can now walk into a pharmacy in the United States and buy oral contraceptives over the counter without a prescription, thanks to the FDA’s approval of norgestrel (Opill). This change reflects the drug’s safety and the public health imperative to ensure wider access to birth control. But another safe class of medicine that addresses a massive public health need remains unavailable except by prescription: the antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

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STAT

APRIL 18, 2024

An ongoing investigation into data integrity at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has resulted in a string of retractions, the latest of which is a 2006 Science paper co-authored by institute president and CEO Laurie Glimcher. The retraction notice, published in Science on Thursday, noted that the authors had become aware of discrepancies in key scientific images that led them to lose confidence in key figures in the study, although the study’s lead author opposed the retraction.

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Pharmacy Management

STAT

APRIL 11, 2024

Medicare for the first time has estimated that a new Alzheimer’s treatment could cost the program billions of dollars by next year — well beyond what Wall Street or even the drug’s manufacturer have projected — according to a document obtained by STAT. Medicare’s actuaries expect the drug Leqembi , made by the Japanese drugmaker Eisai and sold in partnership with Biogen, to cost the traditional Medicare program around $550 million in 2024, and the entire Medica

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Documentation 363

STAT

APRIL 7, 2024

SAN DIEGO — Cancer cases among younger people have been rising for years, a trend researchers have struggled to explain. New evidence suggests a significant factor: younger generations seem to be aging faster at the cellular level than their predecessors. A team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis tracked data from nearly 150,000 people between the ages of 37 and 54 in the U.K.

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APRIL 5, 2024

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged medical practitioners on Friday to be on the lookout for people who might have contracted H5N1 bird flu from cows. The agency also urged state health departments to rapidly assess any suspected human cases, and recommended that dairy farms with confirmed or suspected outbreaks require workers to use personal protective equipment.

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APRIL 5, 2024

News that H5N1 avian influenza has breached another mammalian species — this time dairy cows — has taken the flu science community aback. Though cows previously had been seen to be susceptible to human flu viruses , and could be experimentally infected with H5 in a lab, the absence of cow involvement until now in H5’s nearly 30-year history lulled scientists into thinking the species was outside the virus’s remit.

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APRIL 8, 2024

For the vast majority of pancreatic cancer cases, the tumor grows undetected until it has already spread locally or to distant parts of the body. That means most patients, over 80% by some estimates, are diagnosed when it’s already too late to do surgery — depriving them of their best chance for a cure. “For the majority of patients, we cannot resect the tumor.

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