🎯Today's Healthcare Pulse
Updated 3h agoWhat's happening: FDA places Regeneron's anti‑activin A antibody garetosmab under priority review
The FDA has granted priority review to Regeneron's garetosmab for the rare disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, with a decision expected by August. Phase 3 OPTIMA results showed a 94% reduction in new heterotopic ossification lesions at the lower dose and a 90% reduction at the higher dose, alongside a >99% drop in lesion volume.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Hims & Hers acquires Eucalyptus in $1.15B deal
News•Feb 16, 2026
Handgrip Strength Forecasts Depression in Chinese Elders
A new BMC Geriatrics cohort study of Chinese seniors finds handgrip strength inversely predicts incident depression. Participants with lower baseline grip were significantly more likely to develop depressive symptoms over several years, even after controlling for age, gender, socioeconomic status and health comorbidities. The researchers propose incorporating grip dynamometry into routine geriatric screenings to flag high‑risk individuals early. The work also highlights frailty and myokine pathways as potential mechanisms linking muscle loss to mood disorders.
By Bioengineer.org
News•Feb 16, 2026
Ultrasound Enables In Vivo Acoustoelectric Neural Recording
Researchers have demonstrated in‑vivo acoustoelectric neural recording in mice using ultrasound‑induced frequency mixing, achieving high‑fidelity, non‑invasive monitoring of brain activity. The technique converts neuronal electrical fields into detectable frequency shifts, delivering millimeter‑scale spatial resolution and millisecond‑level temporal precision. By calibrating...
By Bioengineer.org
News•Feb 16, 2026
Fujifilm Biotechnologies Opens Largest Single-Use CDMO Facility in the UK
Fujifilm Biotechnologies has opened an expanded UK site in Teesside, marking the launch of the country’s largest single‑use biopharmaceutical CDMO facility. The £400 million investment adds 2,000 L and 5,000 L single‑use bioreactors, delivering up to 19,000 L of small‑ and mid‑scale antibody manufacturing...
By GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News)
Social•Feb 16, 2026
China’s Biotech Boom: 5 Hidden Drivers & Future Forecasts
5 Hidden Themes Driving China’s Biotech Surge | Ep. 314 ...and 5 Bold Predictions for What’s Next https://t.co/TxBhvw5PG8 https://t.co/jTR63o431j
By BowTiedBiotech
News•Feb 16, 2026
How AI Innovations Like DeepSeek Are Revolutionizing Emotional and Mental Health Support for Chinese Youth
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has launched a conversational platform that delivers real‑time emotional and mental‑health support to teenagers. Leveraging large‑language models tuned with culturally specific data, the service offers 24/7 chat‑based counseling, crisis detection, and personalized coping strategies. Within...
By Bioengineer.org
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
CMS Posts Proposed NBPP 2027. Be Afraid; Be Very Afraid (Part 1)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its proposed 2027 Notice of Benefit & Payment Parameters, a 577‑page rule outlining changes to ACA implementation. Key proposals include stricter marketing restrictions, removal of the gender‑identity definition of sex, lowering the...
By ACA Signups
News•Feb 15, 2026
What Makes an Agentic AI System Safe for Medical Records Management?
The episode explores how Non‑Human Identities (NHIs)—machine credentials like tokens and keys—are reshaping cybersecurity in healthcare, especially as cloud adoption and Agentic AI expand. It outlines a lifecycle‑focused NHI management strategy that includes discovery, classification, continuous threat monitoring, and context‑aware...
By Security Boulevard
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Nanopillar-Studded Plastic Films Physically Destroy Viruses, Cutting Infectivity by 94% without Chemicals
Researchers at RMIT and international partners engineered flexible acrylic films stamped with dense nanopillar arrays using ultraviolet nano‑imprint lithography. The 60 nm pitch configuration reduced human parainfluenza virus type 3 infectivity by up to 94 % within one hour, achieving mechanical rupture of...
By Nanowerk
News•Feb 15, 2026
Healthcare Costs Abroad — How Travelers Prepare For Medical Expenses
Travelers increasingly recognize that medical expenses abroad can quickly derail a trip, prompting a shift toward proactive financial planning. Costs range from modest clinic visits to emergency‑room bills that run into thousands, while most domestic health policies offer limited overseas...
By eTurboNews
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Mobile Wound Care in 2026: Navigating Regulatory Pressures
Mobile wound‑care providers face tighter Local Coverage Determinations, heightened CMS surveillance, and expanded documentation mandates in 2026. These regulatory shifts narrow reimbursement, limit visit frequency, and force clinicians into defensive practices. The burden disproportionately impacts high‑acuity, home‑bound patients who rely...
By KevinMD
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Government Reports on Healthcare Require a Closer Look
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 3.6% rise in hospital compensation costs and a 3.2% increase for nursing homes in 2025, while January 2026 saw healthcare add 82,000 jobs, the bulk of total payroll growth. The January CPI showed...
By The Keckley Report
Social•Feb 15, 2026
Physicians Evolve Into AI‑Guided Medical Orchestrators
Think AI will reduce demand for doctors? Consider this: Claude writes 100% of its own code, yet Anthropic's engineering team is exploding. We aren't looking at the end of the physicians, but the birth of Medical Orchestrators. When asked why Anthropic...
By Joshua Liu, MD
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Why Smaller Hospitals May Be Faster for Cancer Diagnosis
A rural Taiwanese patient faced a 20‑day wait for a diagnostic mammogram at a large tertiary hospital, while a community hospital in Taipei provided immediate evaluation and treatment. The article attributes the delay to fragmented administrative structures, global‑budget constraints, and...
By KevinMD
Social•Feb 15, 2026
120 Biomarkers for $99 and Nationwide CT Calcium Scans
This is how I test 120 biomarkers for $99 and get CT calcium scans anywhere nationwide. Vitals Vault. https://www.vitalsvault.com/
By Robert Lufkin, MD
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Missed Diagnosis Visceral Leishmaniasis: A Tragedy of Note Bloat
Louis‑Hunter Kean, a 34‑year‑old, died in November 2023 after a year of high fevers, organomegaly, and multiple hospitalizations. Although clinicians repeatedly noted “visceral leish” and ordered a PCR, the test was never completed and his travel to Tuscany was buried in...
By KevinMD
Social•Feb 15, 2026
Modern Bluetooth Pacemakers Continuously Broadcast When Disconnected
Regarding this, there was a couple questions on does the pacemaker continue to advertise - most BLE implantable devices go into a sleep type mode. In this case, we are lucky - it does not. We know based on law enforcement...
By Dave Kennedy
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Carl Zeiss Meditec: When the Thesis Gets Punched in the Mouth
In this episode, the host revisits his deep‑dive analysis of Carl Zeiss Meditec, using the company’s Q1 FY2025/26 earnings call as a live case study to demonstrate how investment theses should evolve with new data. He critiques the common practice...
By Boredom Baron
Social•Feb 15, 2026
Insurance Doesn't Prevent Massive Medical Debt, Even for Celebrities
When a celebrity tragically dies with massive medical debt, I’m left with the questions. Did they have insurance? People with insurance absolutely have medical debt, but out-of-pocket costs are capped. Debt may be from out-of-network care, claims denials, or unocvered...
By Larry Levitt
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Mifepristone Restrictions: How Bans Force Patients Into Riskier Care
Mifepristone is banned in 14 states and restricted in another 10, forcing patients to rely on misoprostol‑only regimens. The dual‑drug protocol achieves 95‑98% success with less than 0.5% serious complications, while misoprostol monotherapy raises emergency department visits to 7.9% and...
By KevinMD
Social•Feb 15, 2026
Saudi‑US Biotech Tie Is Just a Pay‑for‑promotion Scheme
This is not a Saudi-USA Biotech Alliance, it’s a Saudi @DrPatrick $IBRX “you pay we pay” marketing campaign. Anktiva is stalled in the US because he can’t generate the clinical data to move the drug forward, so he goes to...
By Adam Feuerstein
Social•Feb 15, 2026
15‑PDGH Inhibition and Ozempic May Restore Cartilage
Two things that may help restore cartilage —15-PDGH inhibition https://t.co/chCj9Lj5qk —Semaglutide (Ozempic), independent of weight loss https://t.co/fqbrQQYfRt https://t.co/6CRdY1QtC1
By Eric Topol
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Pediatric Care in Ghana: Addressing Malnutrition and Sickle Cell Disease
In Ghana, child mortality has fallen but remains high, with 37 per 1,000 children not reaching age five and neonatal deaths at 21 per 1,000. Malnutrition still affects roughly 17‑18% of under‑five children, while 15,000‑20,000 newborns are born with sickle...
By KevinMD
News•Feb 15, 2026
What Medicines Are Kept on the International Space Station, and Why?
The International Space Station maintains a structured “space pharmacy” organized into color‑coded medical kits that address convenience care, minor illnesses, and emergency stabilization. Medications are selected for stability in radiation‑rich microgravity, versatility across multiple symptoms, and ease of use by...
By New Space Economy
![Sabbaticals Provide a Critical Lifeline for Sustainable Medical Careers [PODCAST]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=3840,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://kevinmd.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Podcast-by-KevinMD-WideScreen-3000-px-3-scaled.jpg)
Blog•Feb 15, 2026
Sabbaticals Provide a Critical Lifeline for Sustainable Medical Careers [PODCAST]
Physicians rarely receive formal sabbaticals, yet burnout data shows they need extended breaks. A 2021 American Journal of Medicine survey found only 51% of medical schools reported any faculty sabbaticals, typically senior white‑male researchers rather than clinicians. Christie Mulholland’s experience...
By KevinMD
Blog•Feb 14, 2026
Curing versus Caring in Medicine: Bridging the Gap in Patient Trust
The article argues that modern medicine’s obsession with cures has sidelined genuine caring, eroding patient trust. It highlights how women experience chronic pain yet often have their symptoms dismissed, and how minority groups remain invisible in clinical research. Evidence shows...
By KevinMD
Blog•Feb 14, 2026
DNA Nanomachine Inside Living Cells Measures How Aggressive a Cancer Is
Researchers at Wenzhou and Fuzhou Universities unveiled a three‑wheel DNA nanomachine (TW‑harvester) that rides a gold‑nanoparticle track inside living tumor cells. The device uses a DNA tetrahedron with an aptamer targeting nucleolin and miR‑21‑triggered wheel activation to cleave fluorescent substrates,...
By Nanowerk
Blog•Feb 14, 2026
Beyond the Fitbit: Why Your Next Health Tracker Might Be a Button on Your Shirt
Scientists at King’s College London discovered that loose‑fit clothing can track human movement more accurately than tight wearables, delivering 40% higher precision while using 80% less data. The research, published in Nature Communications, suggests that simple fabric elements—such as a...
By Nanowerk
News•Feb 14, 2026
When Patients Win, Hospitals Lose
A senior hospital administrator convened an emergency summit after heart‑failure admissions fell dramatically, not because care quality suffered but because outpatient improvements reduced inpatient volume. The meeting’s hidden agenda was how to restore admissions, exposing a financial model that profits...
By Forbes – Healthcare
News•Feb 14, 2026
Guernsey Medical Practice Sanctioned After Cyber Criminals Access Patient Data Through Email Account
Guernsey’s Data Protection Authority has sanctioned First Contact Health after a phishing attack compromised an employee’s email, exposing confidential patient data. The breach was discovered by the practice, which reported it to authorities, but regulators found the organization lacked adequate...
By DataBreaches.net
Social•Feb 14, 2026
AI Docs Tools Expand Into Health System Enterprise
Those “direct-to-physician” CDS AI tools like OpenEvidence and DoximityGPT? They're now going after health systems too. My 5 thoughts on how this will all play out: First, the gist of what was announced: → Sutter Health will integrate OpenEvidence with Epic, allowing...
By Joshua Liu, MD
Blog•Feb 14, 2026
The $800B Open Secret: What the New Medicaid Spending Dataset Means for Health Tech Builders and Investors
The episode breaks down the release of the largest publicly available Medicaid claims dataset, detailing its composition, gaps, and immediate utility for health‑tech builders and investors. It quantifies the scale of Medicaid spending (~$849 B) and improper payments (over $30 B annually),...
By Thoughts on Healthcare Markets & Tech
News•Feb 14, 2026
Journalists Unpack Impact of ICE Arrests on Families and Caffeine’s Effect on Dementia Risk
KFF Health News experts appeared on multiple broadcast platforms in February, covering a range of pressing health topics. Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed soaring cancer‑care costs on ABC News Live, while Claudia Boyd‑Barrett highlighted families’ difficulty locating hospitalized ICE detainees on KQED’s...
By KFF Health News (formerly Kaiser Health News)
News•Feb 14, 2026
Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome Cases In Virginia ERs Up By Nearly 29%
Virginia’s emergency departments have seen a sharp increase in cannabis‑related visits, with overall cases climbing to an average of 31,000 per year between 2020 and 2024. Specifically, diagnoses of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) jumped nearly 29%, rising from 4,027 cases...
By Forbes – Healthcare
Social•Feb 14, 2026
Age‑Restricted Longevity Drugs: Accept Risks After 70
We should have a class of drugs you can only sell to people over 70 —super aggro longevity stuff, muscle regeneration, etc - tolerate more possible bad side effects given you don’t have much time left for effects to manifest...
By Jason Kelly
Social•Feb 14, 2026
3D‑Printed Brain Phantoms Replicate Gray and White Matter
Printing brain phantoms in a support gel and selectively replicates gray and white matter https://t.co/9rIVOPCjd2 https://t.co/LFwa9Qlqjc
By Brian Ahier
News•Feb 14, 2026
RFK Jr. Taps FDA Policy And Food Chiefs As Senior Counselors To Also Serve On His Immediate Staff, Raising Expectations...
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed FDA policy chief Grace Graham and senior FDA food official Kyle Diamantas as senior counselors who will also serve on his immediate staff. The move follows a broader senior‑level...
By Inside Health Policy
Social•Feb 14, 2026
US Infectious‑Disease Center Halts Pandemic Preparedness Efforts
But this is such treachery. Doesn’t our govt understand pandemic threats? New waves of zoonotic flu, SARS-3 coronavirus; arboviruses from climate change; bioweapons from our enemies: Russia, DPRK, Iran; return of measles, pertussis, soon polio. What’s going on? Exclusive: Key US...
By Peter Hotez
Social•Feb 14, 2026
Flu Kills 66 Kids; 90% Were Unvaccinated
1. Time for a #flu & #measles update. Six more kids have died from flu, bringing the year-to-date total to 66. Sadly there will be more deaths reported but hopefully this year doesn't approach last year's dreadful pediatric death toll. #CDC...
By Helen Branswell
News•Feb 13, 2026
CareTrust Execs on Larry H. Miller Operating Partnership, Nursing Home Sector Upswing, ‘Beefy Coverage’
CareTrust REIT reported a transformative 2025, marking its most active investment year by a factor of five. The REIT completed 14 skilled‑nursing facility acquisitions in Q4 and added six more through a new operating partnership with Larry H. Miller Senior...
By Skilled Nursing News
News•Feb 13, 2026
Measles Outbreak Hits Ave Maria University in Florida
More than 40 measles cases have been confirmed at Ave Maria University, marking the largest campus outbreak in recent memory. The incident follows similar exposures at Clemson, Anderson, the University of Wisconsin‑Madison and the University of Florida, indicating a broader resurgence....
By New York Times – Health
Podcast•Feb 13, 2026•0 min
Will AI Replace Doctors? A Conversation with Physician & NYT Bestselling Author Dr. Bob Wachter About the Digital vs Human...
In this live conversation, Dr. Bob Wachter and Dr. Lucy McBride discuss the fragmented state of electronic medical records (EMRs) and how patients and physicians alike are overwhelmed by multiple, non‑communicating digital portals. They highlight federal efforts to create standardized, interoperable...
By Pattern Recognition
News•Feb 13, 2026
CMS Provides More Leeway to Medicaid State-Directed Payments Before New Limits Kick In
CMS issued new guidance that widens the grandfathering window for Medicaid state‑directed payments (SDPs), allowing states to lock in higher rates through business‑day calculations. The expanded windows—Oct 11 2024 to July 3 2025 and July 7 2025 to March 27 2026—let providers preserve rates above the caps that...
By HFMA – Healthcare Financial Management Association
News•Feb 13, 2026
Providence Cedars-Sinai Nurses Plan 5-Day Strike
Registered nurses and licensed staff at Providence Cedars‑Sinai Tarzana will begin a five‑day strike on Feb. 16, organized by SEIU Local 121RN, which represents more than 11,000 California healthcare workers. The union’s grievances include unsafe staffing levels, poor environmental conditions, workplace harassment,...
By Becker’s Hospital Review
News•Feb 13, 2026
Green Lumber Holding, LLC Issues Consumer Alert on Counterfeit Products Following FDA Findings
Green Lumber Holding, LLC issued a consumer alert after the FDA found undeclared tadalafil in products marketed as Green Lumber. The agency’s testing revealed that a former employee had diverted authentic packaging to distribute counterfeit, adulterated goods. Green Lumber confirmed...
By FDA – U.S. Food & Drug Administration (RSS Feeds)
News•Feb 13, 2026
Sabra CEO: Skilled Nursing M&A Remains Relationship-Driven and Limited in 2026
Sabra Health Care REIT sold seven skilled‑nursing properties for $51 million in Q4, signaling a sharp pullback in nursing‑home M&A for 2026. The REIT’s pipeline will focus almost entirely on senior housing, which represents roughly 95% of its investment opportunities and...
By Skilled Nursing News
News•Feb 13, 2026
CommonSpirit Posts Break-Even Margin in Q2
CommonSpirit reported a break‑even operating margin of 0% in Q2 FY2026, down from a 1.3% margin a year earlier. Total revenue rose to $10.5 billion, matching higher operating expenses and leaving operating income at $2 million. Net income surged to $456 million, driven...
By Becker’s Hospital Review
News•Feb 13, 2026
Mesosil’s Infection-Fighting Dental Tech Gets FDA Clearance
Toronto‑based health‑tech startup Mesosil has secured FDA 510(k) clearance for its antimicrobial dental additive, allowing U.S. dental manufacturers to embed the technology in products such as composites and cements. The clearance follows a four‑year development program and validates the company’s...
By BetaKit (Canada)
News•Feb 13, 2026
How a Virtual ICU Saved a Rural Hospital
WVU Medicine’s virtual ICU program, piloted at Potomac Valley Hospital, used daily remote rounds to connect critical‑care physicians with local staff, preventing patient transfers and boosting occupancy. The low‑cost model required roughly $5,400 in startup expenses and quickly raised daily...
By Becker’s Hospital Review