Today's Healthcare Pulse
FDA greenlights durvalumab combo for high‑risk bladder cancer
The FDA approved durvalumab (Imfinzi) combined with Bacillus Calmette‑Guerin for BCG‑naïve, high‑risk non‑muscle invasive bladder cancer. The POTOMAC trial enrolled 1,018 patients and showed a 32% reduction in disease recurrence risk (hazard ratio 0.68, p=0.015). Durvalumab is given at 1,500 mg IV every four weeks for up to 13 cycles.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Apogee Therapeutics raises $1.3B royalty financing
Measles Is on the Rise. Have You Reviewed Your Vaccine Policies Since Covid?
Measles cases in the United States are climbing sharply, with 2025 recording over 2,200 infections—the highest in two decades—and 2026 already reporting nearly 1,500 cases across 27 states. The CDC has identified 14 new outbreaks this year, and the nation faces the prospect of losing its measles‑elimination status. OSHA treats workplace‑acquired measles as a recordable illness, triggering reporting, PPE, and general‑duty obligations. Employers are urged to review vaccine policies, consider voluntary MMR vaccinations, and establish outbreak response plans.
AI Bias in Healthcare: When Algorithms Erase Black Professionals
Physician executive Seleipiri Akobo recounts how generative AI rendered her as a white woman, and when her race was added, as a stereotypical Black superhero. The incident illustrates how AI models default to white norms and treat Black identities as...
Latent-Y: The Autonomous AI Agent for Drug Design at Scale
Latent Labs unveiled Latent‑Y, an autonomous AI agent that designs therapeutic antibodies from natural‑language prompts. Powered by the Latent‑X2 generative model, the platform compresses weeks of expert work into hours and can run multiple design campaigns in parallel. In three...
STAT+: Insmed Drug Benefits Patients with Rare, Bacterial Lung Disease, Study Shows
Insmed announced that a Phase 3 trial showed adding its inhaled antibiotic Arikayce to standard therapy significantly improved respiratory symptoms and boosted culture conversion rates in patients with newly diagnosed mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung infection. The study met its primary...
Staten Island Boasts Best Numbers Among Troubling NYC EMS Response Times
The Independent Budget Office report shows Staten Island achieved the fastest advanced life support (ALS) EMS response in New York City in 2024, with 82% of calls answered within ten minutes. Across all boroughs, response times have slipped over the...
Avalo Therapeutics Reports 2025 Financial Results and Recent Business Updates
Avalo Therapeutics announced its 2025 financial results, reporting $98.3 million in cash and short‑term investments that should fund operations into 2028. Research and development expenses jumped to $50.1 million, driven by the Phase 2 LOTUS trial of abdakibart (AVTX‑009) for hidradenitis suppurativa. The...
Daymark Health Builds Clinical Advisory Board
Daymark Health, a Philadelphia‑based cancer‑care platform, announced the creation of a Clinical Advisory Board to steer its value‑based, full‑risk care strategy. The board brings together leading oncologists, health‑policy experts, patient advocates and former government officials, including Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel and...
Frontline Nurses Demand Safety Amid Collapsing ER System
Healthcare is the only industry where you can be assaulted on the job and still be expected to finish your shift. Emergency nurse Kristen Cline has spent 20 years on the front lines. In a recent conversation on The Podcast by...
STAT+: Pfizer’s Lyme Vaccine Shows Efficacy, but Misses Key Statistical Hurdle
Pfizer and Valneva’s experimental Lyme vaccine cut the risk of infection by more than 70% in a late‑stage trial, offering a promising preventive tool for a disease that affects roughly 476,000 Americans annually. The study, however, missed its primary statistical...
CT Bill Would Expand Healthcare Access as Republicans Push 100,000 Off Medicaid
Connecticut Democrats advanced Senate Bill 3, a $200 million health‑care initiative aimed at expanding tax credits after the ACA subsidies lapsed. The bill extends premium subsidies to families earning up to 600 % of the federal poverty level and creates a state‑run...
One Company’s Million-Dollar Gambit to Turn the Healthcare Crisis Into a Gold Mine
HealthEquity, the largest U.S. health‑savings‑account administrator, announced record HSA sales and expanding margins in its March earnings call. The company credited the Trump‑era "One Big Beautiful" bill for broadening HSA eligibility, adding roughly 10 million new potential participants. Shortly after, HealthEquity...
STAT+: Apogee Therapeutics Data Show Long-Acting Eczema Drug Induced Relief with Less Frequent Injections
Apogee Therapeutics reported that its experimental long‑acting eczema biologic, zumilokibart, achieved sustained skin‑clearance in a mid‑stage trial. Seventy‑five percent of patients receiving the drug every three months and 85 % of those dosed every six months maintained an EASI‑75 response after...
IntraBio Reports the US FDA’s sNDA Submission of Aqneursa for Ataxia-Telangiectasia
IntraBio has filed a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) with the U.S. FDA seeking approval of Aqneursa (levacetylleucine) for Ataxia‑Telangiectasia (A‑T). The filing is supported by a Phase III trial that met its primary and key secondary endpoints and demonstrated a...
This Serial Entrepreneur Wants The FDA To Approve His AI Doctor
Serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky is launching Certuma, a startup aiming to create the first FDA‑approved AI doctor. The company raised $10 million in seed funding at a $60 million valuation and is targeting 25 low‑risk conditions such as UTIs and sore throats....
Advancing Patient-Centred AI with Adaptive Machine Learning
The paper highlights that fragmented, inequitable health‑care data hampers patient‑centred AI, limiting personalization and equity. It critiques three existing AI pathways and proposes Adaptive Machine Learning (AML) as a fourth, continuously updating models with real‑world, context‑sensitive data. AML rests on...
Examining Clinical, Public Perceptions of Hospice, Palliative Care
Recent research highlights three critical fronts in hospice and palliative care: a Community Hospice and Palliative Medicine (CHPM) fellowship at the University of Colorado is boosting mid‑career physicians' skills and confidence to address national workforce shortages; the Canadian PEACH program...
PointClickCare Launches Next-Gen EHR for Practice Groups
PointClickCare unveiled a next‑generation electronic health record tailored for practice groups, tightly integrated with its flagship post‑acute care platform used by over 30,000 organizations. The solution embeds AI‑driven Ambient Scribe and clinical risk insights directly into physician workflows, promising measurable...
NHS Supply Chain Commits to Adoption of Value Based Procurement
NHS Supply Chain has formally committed to applying a new value‑based procurement methodology, co‑created with the Department of Health and Social Care, to all its purchasing activities. The framework, developed over three years, will be rolled out across England and...
Resmed’s Global Sleep Survey Reveals Sleep Is One of the Top Health Priorities, but Quality Rest Remains Out of Reach
Resmed’s sixth Global Sleep Survey of 30,000 respondents across 13 countries shows that 53% now rank sleep as the most important health behavior, ahead of diet and exercise. Yet more than half of participants report getting quality sleep only four...
“Mid-Life Health Crisis” Hits Millennials and Gen-Xers as Private Scans Soar
Britain’s mid‑life adults (30‑59) now account for 56% of all private diagnostic scans, a six‑fold increase since 2022, driven largely by chronic pain and preventive health concerns. With NHS waiting lists exceeding two million and delays over six weeks, private...
Ex-NFL Player Convicted in $328M Genetic Testing Fraud as Medicare Scrutiny Intensifies
A Dallas federal jury convicted former NFL player Keith J. Gray of orchestrating a $328 million Medicare fraud scheme that billed for unnecessary cardiovascular genetic tests. Gray, who owned Axis Professional Labs and Kingdom Health Laboratory, was found guilty of conspiracy,...
What an End-to-End Model Changes for Patients
CareTria is launching an end-to-end patient support model that acts as a single point of contact, promising one‑call resolution and uninterrupted therapy access. The strategy blends AI‑driven automation with human interaction to handle routine tasks while preserving empathy for complex...
How Do Recent Actions From FDA Provide Insight to the Agency's Enforcement Posture?
The FDA’s Rare Disease Evidence Principles (RDEP) introduce flexible trial designs, allowing sponsors to use natural‑history data and novel biomarkers as endpoints. These guidances aim to accelerate approvals for rare‑disease therapies while maintaining safety as a top priority. However, analysts...
Licensing and Credentialing Nonsense with Assured | Out-Of-Pocket
Assured offers a software platform that combines AI‑driven automation with credentialing experts to streamline provider licensing, credentialing, and payer enrollment across multiple states. The service automates data collection, screen‑scrapes portals, and manages follow‑up, charging a base SaaS fee plus usage‑based...
When Voters Worry About ‘Affordability,’ Many Point to Health Care
Voters who cite affordability as their top worry are overwhelmingly pointing to health‑care costs, according to recent polling. The trend has prompted Democrats to reframe their health‑care narrative around price rather than access, using the issue to energize their base....
Galderma Receives U.S. FDA Approval for Restylane® Contour™ for the Correction of Temple Hollowing
Galderma announced that the U.S. FDA has cleared Restylane Contour for the correction of temple hollowing in adults over 21, extending its existing cheek and mid‑face indications. Clinical studies demonstrated a 91% responder rate at three months, with efficacy persisting for...
Nominee for Ambassador to Hungary Co-Owns a Nursing Home That’s Suing the Trump Administration Over Medicare Payments
Benjamin Landa, a nursing‑home owner nominated by Donald Trump for U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is facing a lawsuit from his own facility, Pinnacle Multicare Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which seeks to block a HHS audit that identified at least $31.2 million...
Risk, Readiness and Resilience
Life‑sciences firms are confronting compressed validation timelines, tighter regulatory oversight and fragile supply chains, prompting a shift from cost‑driven to confidence‑driven site selection. Middlesex County, New Jersey, offers that confidence through a highly educated talent pool, continuous university‑backed research, and deep...
Even With Dental Insurance, You Still Could Face a Large Bill
Even with dental insurance, many Americans still face sizable out‑of‑pocket bills. The article follows 65‑year‑old Russell Anthony, who expects to spend about $2,000 on dental care despite having coverage, illustrating the common "100/80/50" rule and annual benefit caps of $1,000‑$2,000....
ProPublica Adds Ownership Search to Nursing Home Inspect Database
ProPublica has upgraded its Nursing Home Inspect database with a searchable owner, manager, and officer function, letting users trace ownership across more than 14,000 facilities. The new tool reveals that a single individual can be linked to over 100 nursing...
HUTCHMED Initiates P-III Trial of HMPL-760 + R-GemOx for R/R Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in China
HUTCHMED has launched a Phase III trial of HMPL‑760 combined with R‑GemOx in relapsed/refractory diffuse large B‑cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients in China, dosing the first patient on March 20, 2026. The study will enroll approximately 240 patients who have failed first‑line therapy and...
How to Build Patient Trust in Medical AI
A JAMA Network Open study of 3,000 U.S. adults examined trust in AI‑assisted medical visits for a moderate‑risk rash. Participants favored AI that outperformed specialists, increasing visit preference by 32.5%, while doctor presence only added 18.4%. FDA approval and other...
Robots Handle Routine Tasks, Not Replace Surgeons
Developing humanoid robots to help with mundane tasks such as sterilizing surgical devices all day is one thing. But saying these robots could "help in the operating room" sends the wrong message that they might replace surgeons, which couldn't be...
A Dynamic Yolk–Shell P–N Heterojunction With Coupled Shear Stress‐Triggered Tribo‐/Piezoelectric Effect for Catalytic Thrombolysis
Researchers introduced a yolk–shell BFO@tBT‑C nanoparticle that exploits shear stress at clot sites to trigger coupled tribo‑ and piezoelectric effects, generating reactive oxygen species for thrombolysis. The dynamic p–n heterojunction yields potentials 3.6‑ and 2.1‑fold higher than isolated triboelectric or...
Dizal Reports the P-III (WU-KONG28) Trial Results on Zegfrovy (Sunvozertinib) in EGFRm NSCLC
Dizal announced topline results from its Phase 3 WU‑KONG28 trial, comparing oral once‑daily Zegfrovy (sunvozertinib) to platinum‑based chemotherapy as first‑line treatment for advanced NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations. The study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in...
US Weight Loss Drugmakers Slash Prices in Fight to Win Customers
U.S. weight‑loss drugmakers are slashing GLP‑1 prices to win cash‑pay customers as insurers balk at coverage. Eli Lilly reduced Zepbound’s monthly cost by $50‑$100, bringing it to $299, while Wegovy now sells for $149 a month, far below its $1,600 launch...
Which Critically Ill Patients Are More Susceptible to the Adverse Effects Associated with Feeding Intolerance? A Secondary Analysis of a...
A secondary analysis of the multicenter NEED trial found that feeding intolerance (FI) in critically ill patients receiving early enteral nutrition was linked to higher 28‑day mortality after multivariable adjustment (adjusted OR 1.37). FI also resulted in longer ICU stays, fewer...
Professional Perspectives on PN Among Registered Dietitians in Saudi Arabia: A Mixed-Methods Assessment
The study surveyed 88 registered dietitians in Saudi Arabia to assess attitudes and readiness for personalized nutrition (PN) and multi‑omics technologies. Adoption of PN technologies was low at 16%, with work experience showing a modest positive correlation to perceived usefulness,...
Clinical Implications of Malnutrition in Huntington's Disease Progression: Evidence From a Chinese Cohort and Mendelian Randomization
Researchers evaluated nutritional status in 113 Chinese Huntington’s disease patients using CONUT, GNRI, and PNI scores and compared them with matched healthy controls. Malnutrition was markedly more common in HD, especially by CONUT (34.5% vs 13.3%) and GNRI (8% vs...
Associations of Inflammation-Related Nutritional and Metabolic Status Indices CAR and CTI with 90-Day Unfavorable Functional Outcomes in Patients with Acute...
A Korean stroke registry of 1,484 acute ischemic stroke patients examined whether the C‑reactive protein‑to‑albumin ratio (CAR) and the CRP‑triglyceride‑glucose index (CTI) predict 90‑day functional outcomes. After multivariable adjustment, higher CAR (OR 1.25) and higher CTI (OR 1.38) were independently associated with...
Powering the Next Wave of Cell Therapy: From iPSC-Derived Cells to In Vivo Reprogramming
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are being engineered into diverse therapeutic cell types, while in vivo reprogramming aims to convert resident cells directly within patients, eliminating traditional cell‑manufacturing steps. Both strategies depend on precise recombinant growth factors, cytokines, extracellular matrix proteins...
Reinforced Biotubes: Readily Available Regenerative Vascular Grafts
Researchers Cheng, Zhi and Midgley have unveiled reinforced biotubes—bioengineered vascular grafts that combine living cells with nanofibrous reinforcement—to address durability and availability limits of current grafts. The tubes are fabricated in bioreactors, seeded with smooth‑muscle and endothelial progenitor cells, and...
Gene Therapies for Hearing Loss Strike an Encouraging Note in Embattled Modality
Gene‑therapy candidates for hereditary hearing loss are gaining traction as safety concerns ease with localized delivery. Regeneron’s DB‑OTO and Eli Lilly’s AK‑OTOF have each demonstrated clinically meaningful hearing improvements in early‑stage trials, positioning them as frontrunners for the first approved deafness...
Bayada Nonprofit Executive Director On The At-Home Care Medicaid Squeeze, Industry Consolidation
Sue Chapman Moss, Bayada’s senior vice president of payer strategy and new executive director of Hearts for Home Care, warned that state Medicaid reimbursement is tightening after the One Big Beautiful Bill, pressuring home‑based providers with lower rates and reduced...
The Ultimate Guide to Women’s Sexual Health, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) & Menopause
In this episode, Mel Robbins talks with Dr. Rachel Rubin, a board‑certified urologist and sexual health specialist, about the full spectrum of women’s hormonal and sexual health—from puberty, pregnancy, and breastfeeding to perimenopause, menopause, and hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Rubin...
Are There Disadvantages of Knee Replacement Surgery?
Knee replacement remains one of the most common orthopaedic procedures, with roughly 800,000 surgeries performed annually in the United States. Advances such as cementless implants, robotics and refined soft‑tissue balancing have improved precision and reduced recovery time, making about half...
Social Media’s Growing Role in Healthcare Decisions | Behind the Numbers
In this episode, senior digital health analysts Beth Snyder and Rajiv Leventhal discuss the expanding role of social media in shaping healthcare decisions, highlighting how 55% of American adults turn to platforms for health information, especially younger adults and people...
Chinese Surgery Robot Outperforms Humans, Cuts Brain Imaging Time by 29%
Chinese researchers unveiled the YDHB‑NS01 cerebrovascular intervention robot, which cuts brain angiography time by roughly 29%, shaving nine minutes off a standard 38‑minute procedure. In a head‑to‑head trial at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the robot matched manual methods with...
9 Months In, FDA’s New Priority Voucher Program Still Clouded With Uncertainty
The FDA’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program, launched in June 2025, promises to cut drug review times from 10‑12 months to just one or two months for products that meet defined national priorities. Early successes include Johnson & Johnson’s Tecvayli/Darzalex...