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
Next-Generation Guide Extension Catheter Delivers Value During Complex PCI
A new guide extension catheter, CrossFAST, received FDA clearance in December 2024 and has shown improved efficiency and safety in complex percutaneous coronary interventions. Early clinical experience with four patients demonstrated rapid, deep coronary intubation without balloon‑assisted tracking, reducing dissection risk and procedure time. The device’s edgeless transition and microcatheter‑led delivery allowed successful stent deployment in tortuous and calcified lesions where conventional tools failed. Researchers concluded that CrossFAST enables safe, swift device delivery to distal coronary segments.
F.D.A. Opens Door to More Flavored E-Cigarettes
The FDA announced a draft guidance that would permit e‑cigarette flavors such as mint, coffee, tea, and spices while maintaining a ban on sweet and fruity varieties. The shift follows earlier attempts to curb teen vaping with a broad flavor...
Stryker Wins Supply Chain Resiliency Honors From HIRC
Stryker, the world’s fifth‑largest medical‑device maker, has been awarded the first Healthcare Industry Resiliency Collaborative (HIRC) Enterprise Gold Resiliency Badge for its overall supply‑chain performance. The badge, based on a third‑party assessment of demand planning, inventory management, visibility, supplier and...
Accrufer Becomes First FDA-Approved Prescription Iron Therapy for Children 10+
Shield Therapeutics announced that the FDA has approved Accrufer, its ferric maltol oral iron formulation, for children ages 10 and older, making it the first prescription oral iron therapy for this age group. The approval expands the drug’s label beyond...
The Future of Accountable Care
Nick Hut and Katie Gilfillan outline a forthcoming accountable care organization (ACO) model slated for 2027. The proposal calls for deeper financial risk sharing, real‑time analytics, and a stronger focus on patient‑centered outcomes. It builds on recent CMS payment reforms...
Adventist HealthCare to Close Freestanding ER
Adventist HealthCare announced it will close the Germantown Emergency Center, a freestanding ER in Maryland, effective July 1 pending state approval. The decision follows a roughly one‑third drop in patient volume, with many visits for low‑acuity conditions that could be...
The Dismantling of Public Health in America #CareTalk
The latest #CareTalk episode highlights how decades of chronic underfunding have left America’s public health infrastructure fragile. Dr. Stella Safo of Civic Health Alliance warns that essential health‑security institutions are being dismantled and calls on the healthcare sector to defend...
Four-Plaintiff Chicago Trial Opens Against Abbott Over Preterm Infant Formula
A fourth federal trial opened in Chicago alleging Abbott Laboratories' cow‑milk‑based infant formula triggered necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants. The case follows a $495 million Missouri verdict against Abbott and a $60 million Illinois verdict against Mead Johnson, both in 2024. A...
Uterine Immune Cells Differ; Blood Tests Miss Pregnancy Tolerance
Pregnancy is an immunological paradox. Half the baby's DNA comes from someone else. Your immune system should reject it the way it rejects a transplant. But it doesn't. Your body pulls off this precise immune shift where the immune cells...
Coherus Oncology Reports Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Provides Business Update
Coherus Oncology posted FY 2025 revenue of $42.2 million, driven by a 64% year‑over‑year jump in LOQTORZI sales and a $12.4 million Q4 boost. The company cut its debt by more than 90% to $38.8 million and lifted cash reserves to $172.1 million after two...
10 Drugs Expected to Lead US Sales in 2026
Statista projects that the U.S. pharmaceutical market will be led by ten blockbuster drugs in 2026, with Merck’s Keytruda topping the list at $12.7 billion in sales. Four oncology therapies—Keytruda, Opdivo, Imbruvica and Ibrance—are among the top ten, underscoring cancer’s continued...
HIMSS26 Panel Will Examine AI Tools' 'Attitude'
At HIMSS26, CEO Hal Wolf will host a panel examining AI tools' "attitude." Leaders will discuss why understanding both the data provenance and the designer's identity, values, and goals is critical. The session aims to guide healthcare organizations in evaluating...
Why Community Engagement Must Be Matched by Structural Food Policy
Community‑driven programs such as Go for Bold demonstrate measurable weight loss and BMI improvements, but their impact stalls without supportive food‑system policies. Research on national sodium‑reduction laws shows dramatic drops in fractures, heart attacks, strokes and health‑care costs when intake...
Union Pushes to Cut Insurers From Medicaid Home Care Payment System
The 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East union is rallying for the Home Care Savings and Reinvestment Act, which would strip private insurers from New York's Medicaid home‑care payment system and replace them with a state‑run fee‑for‑service model. Proponents claim the change...
Survey Shows Need to Rebuild Trust in Evidence-Based Health Information; Americans More Confident in Career Scientists than Agency Leaders
A new Annenberg Public Policy Center survey reveals a growing trust gap in U.S. health information. About 73% of Americans say they trust physicians and the American Medical Association, while confidence in federal health agencies has slipped. However, career scientists...
APS BioGroup, Inc - 04/05/2018
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning‑letter close‑out to APS BioGroup, Inc. on April 5, 2018, confirming that the company’s corrective actions addressing the July 2017 warning letter were satisfactory. The agency stressed that this closure does not relieve APS BioGroup...
James Findling - 598944 - 12/31/2019
The FDA issued a Warning Letter to Dr. James Findling after a 2019 inspection revealed serious protocol violations in a clinical trial of an investigational drug. The investigator randomized two subjects who had exceeded permitted dose levels and failed to...
Health Pharma USA LLC - 588155 - 12/18/2019
The FDA issued Warning Letter #588155 to Health Pharma USA LLC after a May‑June 2019 inspection uncovered multiple CGMP violations at its Rahway, New Jersey facility. Major deficiencies included a dysfunctional quality‑control unit that released products before review, incomplete batch...
March Healthcare Trends Signal Consolidation, Telehealth Gaps, and AI-Driven Patient Engagement
U.S. health‑care spending nears $5 trillion, while hospital markets become increasingly consolidated under a few large systems. Telehealth, despite high eligibility, is billed for only about 3.8% of services, indicating a behavioral adoption gap. Fee‑for‑service still dominates, covering roughly 40% of...
The Hidden Layer of PBMs: What a Recent Investigation Reveals
A recent Hunterbrook Media investigation uncovered a hidden layer of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM)‑affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs) that channel billions of dollars while maintaining minimal staff and opaque operations. The report shows the three largest PBMs, which already control...
AHA Podcast: AI and the Future of Staffing
The American Hospital Association’s latest podcast explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping staffing in health care. Experts discuss AI‑driven workforce analytics, predictive scheduling, and talent acquisition tools that promise to reduce turnover and improve patient outcomes. The conversation also highlights...
New Circle of Life Hospice House Taking Flight
The Circle of Life Hospice House, a privately‑owned adult family home in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, will open in spring 2026 with four patient beds. Founder Sara Rogers, a former hospice care coordinator with 25 years of social‑work experience, created the...
AHA Celebrates Patient Safety Awareness Week
The American Hospital Association marked Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 8‑14) by highlighting initiatives from leading health systems. Executives from CommonSpirit Health, Hartford HealthCare, and Henry Ford Health detailed programs, technology, and virtual nursing models aimed at reducing errors and improving outcomes....
AATS Wants to Improve Research in the Field of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) has forged a partnership with the NHLBI‑backed Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN) to accelerate practice‑changing clinical trials. CTSN’s existing infrastructure, which has already enrolled about 20,000 patients, will be leveraged to support new,...
Societal Issues Stall US Life Expectancy Growth
Why hasn't life expectancy been increasing in the United States? It's complicated. "The fact that the United States is far from a leader in longevity and that it continues to fall further behind nearly all other high-income countries indicates that there are...
SAMHSA Announces Mental Health, Suicide Prevention Grants
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced on March 6 that it will award $69.1 million in grants for mental‑health and suicide‑prevention programs. The funding is split among three initiatives: $43 million for the Children’s Mental Health Initiative targeting youth...
IFHE World Congress Presenters Share International Approaches to Healthcare Security
The International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) World Congress in New Orleans (Oct 17‑20, 2026) will feature a panel on global healthcare security design led by IAHSS president Anthony Pope and foundation head Bill Navejar. The presenters will showcase practices from the...
Florida District Court Rules Leapfrog Used Deceptive Practices for Hospital Safety Rating System
A Florida district court concluded that Leapfrog Group employed deceptive practices in its hospital safety rating system, finding the organization misrepresented how scores were calculated. The ruling highlighted that several hospitals received inflated safety grades based on opaque criteria. Leapfrog...
CMS Notifies States of Options for Transitioning to 6-Month Medicaid Renewals
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released guidance on March 6 directing states to transition to six‑month Medicaid redeterminations beginning in 2027, as mandated by last year’s budget reconciliation bill. States have two implementation pathways: one that allows them to...
Cost-Effectiveness of Implementing a Home Blood Pressure Telemonitoring Program
Kaiser Permanente Southern California evaluated a home blood pressure telemonitoring (HBPT) program over 12 months in 3,067 patients. The intervention lowered systolic blood pressure by 1.42 mm Hg and diastolic by 1.58 mm Hg, while shifting care from in‑person visits to virtual encounters. Enrollment...
In People with Epilepsy, Sleeping After a Seizure May Trigger More Seizures
A new study of 11 drug‑resistant epilepsy patients found that nights after a seizure are about 24 minutes longer overall, with rapid‑eye‑movement (REM) sleep reduced by roughly 12 minutes and deep slow‑wave sleep intensified. Researchers propose that the brain may...
AI Has Redefined Healthcare Communication — and There’s No Opting Out
Conversational AI tools such as ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare are reshaping how patients and clinicians obtain medical information. OpenAI reports that over 5% of global ChatGPT interactions—about 40 million daily users—are health‑related, while 40% of U.S. healthcare workers use...
Qiagen N.V. (QGEN) Presents at Leerink Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript
Qiagen Inc. presented at the Leerink Global Healthcare Conference 2026, answering questions from analyst Puneet Souda. CFO Roland Sackers confirmed the company remains open to strategic options, including potential M&A, while emphasizing its strong market position and pipeline. He highlighted...
Leave Newborn Vernix On: Natural Protection, No Rush
My midwives never washed the white coating off my babies after birth. They told me to leave it on as long as I could. With all three kids, I delayed the first bath for about a week. That coating is called...
Viral Outbreaks Take a Common Path From Animals to People, Study Finds
Researchers analyzed seven viral outbreaks, including COVID‑19, Ebola and the 2009 H1N1 flu, and found that most pathogens jumped from animal reservoirs to humans without needing extraordinary genetic changes, with the 1977 influenza strain as the sole outlier. By reconstructing...
Moderate Valve Oversizing During TAVR Boosts Survival—Too Much May Be Less Beneficial
A recent study of over 1,800 TAVR patients (2020‑2025) found that moderate valve oversizing of 10 %‑20 % independently reduced all‑cause mortality, while minimal (<10 %) and severe (≥20 %) oversizing showed no survival benefit. Procedural outcomes, including stroke and vascular complications, were similar...
Patients with Cancer View the Term ‘Time Toxicity’ as Negative
Researchers found that cancer patients and caregivers view the term “time toxicity” as overly negative, preferring neutral language such as “time commitment” or “time trade‑off.” Interviews with 45 stakeholders—including 20 gastrointestinal cancer patients, 10 caregivers, and 15 oncologists—revealed that most...
Chair File: Hospital Teams Across the Country Are Advancing Patient Safety
Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 8‑14) highlights the critical role of teamwork in protecting patients from preventable harm. The American Hospital Association’s Patient Safety Initiative, backed by Vizient data, supplies hospitals with benchmarking tools and peer‑learning resources. Highlighted programs—UConn Health’s CHAMP...
Standardized Data Critical to Scaling AI, Healthcare Benefits
At HIMSS 2026, Intermountain Health’s chief strategy officer Dan Liljenquist warned that today’s health‑system model cannot survive mounting workforce shortages and rising demand. He urged leaders to treat interoperability and artificial intelligence as strategic engines, not mere technical check‑boxes. Intermountain...
Pharmaceutical Executive Daily: Vinay Prasad Set to Leave CBER for Second Time
Vinay Prasad has left the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) for the second time in under a year, signaling a notable leadership turnover at a key regulatory hub for biologics, vaccines and gene therapies. In parallel, GlaxoSmithKline...
Maximizing Quality and Reducing Costs
Walmart teamed with Cleveland Clinic to launch a Cardiac Center of Excellence serving over a million employees and families. The collaboration introduced bundled pricing, travel‑enabled specialty care, and protocols that reduced unnecessary surgeries while improving outcomes. By standardizing care pathways,...
Rochester Lounge Collection by Stance Healthcare Features Timeless Silhouette, Purposeful Function
Stance Healthcare has launched the Rochester Lounge Collection, a modular seating line designed for hospitals and care facilities. The series includes single, two‑seat and three‑seat lounges plus a Rochester Sleep Sofa, each featuring integrated clean‑out spaces, nylon glides, and optional...
Estradiol Levels Don’t Guide Effective Menopause Hormone Therapy
More information about the futility of estradiol levels for managing MHT from @professorsusandavis Professor Davis is a true expert here. I’ve linked to this article in my stories.
Bristol Myers Reports Positive Results for Next‑Gen Blood Cancer Drug
Bristol Myers claims success in study of another next-gen blood cancer drug https://t.co/fqPbZ2Szv8 by @gwendolynawu $BMY
RFK, Jr.’s Overhauled Autism Advisory Board Cancels First Public Meeting
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) cancelled its first public meeting since the board’s January overhaul by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who installed 21 new members, several of whom are vaccine skeptics. The cancellation was announced on March 7, the same day...
Plastic Chemical DEHP Linked to Higher Breast Cancer Risk
The link between exposure to DEHP and its metabolite MEHP, found in plastics, and risk of breast cancer in a 20-year prospective study https://t.co/wKEVlMxWHT https://t.co/j5NL5QfTBu
Psoriasis' Immune Activation Reduces Skin Cancer Risk
Chronic inflammation generally poses a higher risk of cancer, so why does psoriasis-like disease have a lower risk of skin cancer. Why? Sustained immune cell activation https://t.co/kcxUHC8Ahk https://t.co/igqNDv5mdj
New Study Examines Psychedelic Use–Schizophrenia Connection
Exciting & important new study from my lab. Have you ever wondered how strong that alleged connection is between psychedelic use and #Schizophrenia? This project aims to point the telescope there & give it a focused look. Please share widely. @AlexaM_Molinaro...
Obesity Raises Risk for Multiple Cancer Types
Obesity and overweight are risk factors for several types of cancer. Why? A @JAMA_current review https://t.co/fn5tfxNnsM https://t.co/caCsAt2vuB
FDA Draft Guidance Streamlines Low‑Cost Biosimilar Approval
New FDA draft guidance outlines important streamlining of path to getting low-cost biosimilars to the market - could reduce cost of pharmacokinetic studies and allow ex-U.S. comparitor products to be used for proving biosimilarity to U.S.-licensed drugs https://t.co/ErjNOga0qo