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
412. (With Audio) TATTOOS ARE FILTHY WITH TOXINS, A HEALTH RISK, AND A MARKER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE AND SOCIAL DECAY
The episode examines the rapid rise of tattoos in the U.S., now covering roughly a third of adults, and details the health hazards associated with modern ink, including toxic heavy metals, chronic inflammation of lymph nodes, and an elevated risk of lymphoma and skin cancer. It highlights scientific studies showing pigment migration to lymphatic and organ systems, the lack of FDA regulation on ink composition, and the psychological correlations between extensive tattooing and disorders such as BPD and substance abuse. The host also critiques the costly, incomplete nature of laser removal, which can further disperse toxic fragments. Throughout, the discussion frames tattoos as both a public‑health concern and a cultural marker of social decay.
Quanterix Corp (QTRX) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Quanterix (QTRX) reported FY 2025 revenue of $16.1 million, down $11 million from the prior year, driven by steep declines in collaboration and contract‑manufacturing income. R&D spending fell modestly to $140.7 million, while SG&A rose to $65.5 million due to higher professional fees for...
Cerus Corp (CERS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Cerus Corp reported record total revenue of $233.8 million in 2025, a 16% increase year‑over‑year, driven by strong product sales and robust growth in EMEA. Product revenue rose 14% for both the quarter and full year, with IFC kit sales...
Combining Neurobiological Markers and a Sociodemographic Risk Score to Predict Adolescent Depression – An IDEA RiSCo Prospective Cohort Study
Researchers integrated inflammatory cytokines, kynurenine pathway balance, and amygdala reactivity with the IDEA‑RS sociodemographic risk score to predict adolescent depression over three years. The composite model (IDEA‑BIO‑RS) raised predictive accuracy from a 0.715 AUC to 0.889, correctly classifying 82.2% of...
Xeris Biopharma Holdings Inc (XERS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Xeris Biopharma reported record Q3 2025 product revenue of $74.1 million, a 40% year‑over‑year increase driven primarily by Recorlev’s 109% revenue jump. The company posted its first quarterly net income and an adjusted EBITDA of $17.4 million, reflecting strong operating leverage and...
A Crowdsourced Megastudy of 12 Digital Single-Session Interventions for Depression in US Adults
The researchers conducted a crowdsourced megastudy that tested 12 digital single‑session interventions (SSIs) for depression among a large U.S. adult sample recruited online. Using a preregistered design, three of the SSIs produced statistically significant reductions in depressive symptoms, with effect...
Uniqure NV (QURE) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
UniQure reported a regulatory setback as the FDA now deems the Phase 1/2 external‑control data for AMT‑130 insufficient for a Biologics License Application, creating uncertainty around the U.S. filing timeline. Despite this, the high‑dose AMT‑130 achieved a statistically significant 75% slowdown...
Urogen Pharma Ltd (URGN) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
UroGen Pharma reported over $127 million in cash at the end of Q4 2025, affirming sufficient liquidity to reach profitability if current plans hold. The company highlighted steady month‑over‑month growth in Zasturi enrollment, with community treatment share now around 35‑40% and institutional...
Senseonics Holdings Inc (SENS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Senseonics reported a 60% jump in full‑year revenue to $35.3 million and lifted gross margins above 50% after a year of selling the Eversense 365 implantable CGM. The company completed a full transition of commercial operations from Ascensia, eliminating revenue‑sharing and gaining...
Surgery Partners Inc (SGRY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Surgery Partners reported Q4 2025 net revenue of $821.5 million, a 6.6% year‑over‑year increase, and adjusted EBITDA of $136.4 million, up 6.1% with a 16.6% margin. The company revised full‑year revenue guidance to $3.275‑$3.30 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $535‑$540 million, citing delayed capital...
Japan's Hospitals Expand Foreign Patient Care
Japan’s healthcare system is rapidly expanding multilingual services as inbound tourism surges, with 2,500 hospitals and clinics now listed as foreign‑patient friendly—a 1.6‑fold rise over six years. The Hakuba International Clinic exemplifies the trend, handling 40‑50 walk‑ins daily, 80% of...
NMN Restores NAD, Shields Heart via SIRT3
According to ITOA, NAD declines with age, causing epigenetic changes & disease susceptibility In 2010, we showed NAD-dependent enzyme, SIRT3, protects the heart 🐁 New study says NAD precursor NMN protects the heart via SIRT3 in mice fed a Western diet https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316626000842
What Chess Taught Me About Clinical Reasoning and Humanism
Medical students Jay Pendyala and Jonathan Berg compare chess strategy to clinical reasoning, highlighting how assessing a patient mirrors evaluating a board position. They argue that diagnostic algorithms serve as openings, but flexibility is required when cases deviate from textbook...
Physician Free Speech Rights Under Fire: The DOJ Vs. Patient Education
The Department of Justice is appealing a ruling that blocked a subpoena targeting a queer‑owned clinic providing gender‑affirming care, arguing that the clinic’s patient‑education materials should be treated as drug labeling under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. By...
Why Compliance Failures Are Costing MedTech Manufacturers Millions
Compliance failures are now costing MedTech manufacturers millions, as regulators require deeper traceability, faster reporting, and unified post‑market oversight. Gaps in ERP and QMS integration lead to delayed approvals, recalls, and costly litigation, turning compliance into a direct revenue driver....
Treating Methamphetamine-Associated Dental Disease in Safety-Net Clinics
Dr. Charan Teja Bobba recounts treating a patient with meth‑associated dental disease in a MassHealth safety‑net clinic. Methamphetamine caused extensive enamel loss, xerostomia, and rapid decay, demanding complex restorative procedures over several visits. By involving the patient in every step and building...
Survey Indicates Preferences for Needle-Free Epinephrine Options
A cross‑sectional survey of 210 anaphylaxis patients and caregivers revealed that 90% prefer needle‑free epinephrine delivery, while 89% value devices that are small and easy to carry. Respondents also expressed strong concerns about temperature effects on epinephrine stability. The study...
Reproductive Care for Rare Diseases: The Missing Playbook
Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare estrogen‑sensitive lung disease, highlights the absence of standardized reproductive care for women with rare conditions. While FDA‑approved therapies have extended patients' lives, guidance on pregnancy, contraception, and menopause remains fragmented. The author’s personal journey—freezing embryos and...
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Industry Report: Healthcare Q1 2026 [Peakstone]
Healthcare M&A activity moderated in 2025, dropping to 898 transactions after a pandemic‑driven surge. Despite fewer deals, the median transaction value jumped to $151 million, the highest in 25 years, while EV/EBITDA multiples held steady near 12.5×. Public‑market returns diverged, with...
GoodRx Launches Employer Program to Help Subsidize High-Cost Brand Drugs
GoodRx introduced GoodRx Employer Direct, a new service allowing employers to directly subsidize the manufacturer‑sponsored price of high‑cost brand medications such as GLP‑1 drugs without adding them to health‑plan formularies. The model, first piloted with retailer Hy‑Vee, lets employers contribute...
Among Jesse Jackson’s Key Legacies Was Raising Awareness Around HIV/AIDS
Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died last month, is remembered not only as a civil‑rights icon but also as an early champion of HIV/AIDS awareness. In the 1980s he publicly tested for HIV, urging Black clergy and marginalized communities to confront...
The Hunger Code: Rethinking Weight Loss Without Counting Calories
Checking out the humanoid robots with Jason Fung at the Tesla Diner as we celebrate the release of his remarkable new book, The Hunger Code—a bold rethinking of obesity and weight loss. The Hunger Code is poised to help thousands lose...
Microplastics Detected in Human Brains, Linked to Dementia
I never once mentioned microplastics in 20 years of teaching at medical school. Now they've been found inside human brains — and at significantly higher concentrations in people with dementia. A Frontiers in Neurology review lays out the damage: Microplastics cross the...
Consumer Price Index Isn’t Properly Accounting For Healthcare Costs
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) omits key out‑of‑pocket healthcare expenses, masking true inflation for many Americans. While the CPI shows a modest 3% rise since President Trump’s second inauguration, premiums on the ACA marketplace have...
The Myth of Cancer Overdiagnosis: Why Screening Saves Lives
A new commentary challenges the notion that cancer overdiagnosis undermines screening, arguing that population‑wide programs have consistently reduced mortality for the five most screened cancers. Critics point to rising incidence without proportional mortality as evidence of overdiagnosis, yet recent trial...
Why Telehealth Skills Belong at the Core of Clinical Education
Telehealth is moving from an optional service to a routine component of clinical practice, forcing health‑care educators to rethink curricula. The 2024 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Workforce Research Recap highlights soaring telehealth utilization and a skills gap...
Letters to the Editor: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Challenges and Treatment Approaches
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors revolutionized mood‑disorder treatment but often cause sexual side effects. A subset of patients experiences post‑SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), where libido loss, erectile problems and orgasmic difficulties persist months or years after discontinuation. The underlying neurochemical mechanisms...
Letters to the Editor: Responding to Correspondence on “Burnout and Ethical Awareness in Mental Health Professionals: A Correlational Study”
The authors respond to critiques of their correlational study linking burnout and ethical awareness among mental‑health professionals in Lahore, Pakistan. They acknowledge the purposive, non‑probability sampling limits generalizability but argue it was necessary given fragmented service delivery. Findings showed age...
Exploring Anticholinergic Burden in a Psychiatric Inpatient Population
A retrospective study of 250 psychiatric inpatients measured anticholinergic toxicity scores (ATS) at two seasonal points, finding an average total ATS of eight. Approximately 75% of patients in both winter and spring cohorts exceeded the clinically significant threshold of five,...
Gut Microbiota as a Therapeutic Target for Chronic Pain Disorders
The article reviews emerging evidence that gut microbiota modulation could treat chronic pain disorders such as fibromyalgia, IBS, and temporomandibular joint disease. It links central neurobiological changes—reduced medial prefrontal white matter and altered default‑mode network connectivity—to dopaminergic dysfunction. Dysbiosis, especially...
Early-Stage Medical Device Innovation: How to Discuss Untested Ideas
The article argues that early‑stage medical device ideas require a balanced communication approach that avoids both silence and hype. It highlights the tension trainees and researchers feel when sharing untested concepts and proposes focusing discussions on problems, trade‑offs, and unknowns...
The AI Medical Services Act: What It Gets Right, Where It Falls Short, and Why It Matters for the Next...
The AI Medical Services Act (AMSA) creates a new licensure category for AI-driven clinical tools, mandating tiered risk oversight, physician supervision, and a regulatory sandbox for limited deployments. It embeds bias monitoring, adverse‑event reporting, and a framework for Medicaid and...
Weekly Reads: Longevity Hype Vs. Cool Research, Losing Your Y, FDA Maelstrom
This week’s coverage juxtaposes longevity hype with emerging science, highlighting David Sinclair’s bold claim that aging could be reversed within 10‑20 years, a new Nature paper confirming adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and research showing men lose the Y chromosome as they...
Member Spotlight: Anna Aslanian on Finding the Right Therapist and Building a Strong Therapeutic Relationship
GoodTherapy’s Member Spotlight features licensed therapist Anna Aslanian, who emphasizes the importance of matching clients with therapists who specialize in their specific concerns. She advises first‑timers to prioritize expertise and personal comfort, noting that a strong therapeutic bond is essential...
Redefining Healthcare Supply Chain Performance, From Spend Control to Strategic Value
Healthcare supply chains are evolving from back‑office cost centers to strategic assets that influence operating rooms, pharmacies, and executive decision‑making. Hospitals now align supply metrics with labor and revenue data, exposing cross‑functional savings that were previously siloed. Objective analytics and...
Primary Care Gets Just Five Cents per Dollar
Primary care receives only five cents of every health care dollar [PODCAST] http://dlvr.it/TRD584 Podcast #PrimaryCare
Vaccine Policy Shifts Spark Resurgence of Deadly Diseases
But also it’s not only measles, pertussis (whooping cough) is also returning, and based on latest ACIP (or what used to be ACIP) stunts, we’ll see rotavirus, meningococcal meningitis, HBV liver cancer, return after that. A public health disaster built...
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Primary Care Receives only Five Cents of Every Health Care Dollar [PODCAST]
The KevinMD podcast features family physician Jonathan Bushman highlighting that primary care receives only about five percent of total health‑care spending while addressing roughly ninety percent of patient health issues. Bushman contrasts the modest financial return for primary‑care physicians with...
‘Dementia Village’ in Wisconsin Will House Patients in ‘Main Street USA’ Setting
Agrace Hospice is developing a $40 million, six‑acre Dementia Village in Madison, Wisconsin, modeled after the Dutch Hogeweyk community. The project will feature eight one‑level homes, each housing eight residents, plus a day‑club for 40‑50 non‑resident participants and on‑site housing for...
The Strategic Consolidation of Patient Engagement: Assessing the Viability of the Third Party Portal Market Amidst the Expansion of the...
The NHS is consolidating patient engagement by expanding the NHS App as a national digital front door, aiming for 95% of appointment bookings by 2028 and targeting £11 million in annual savings from phasing out third‑party patient portals. The Wayfinder programme...
Rural Maternity Care in Crisis: 5 Solutions to Save Local OB Units
Rural maternity care across the United States is collapsing as hospitals shutter labor and delivery units, leaving many counties without obstetric services. The article identifies five actionable solutions: expanding cross‑trained clinician workforces, implementing obstetric‑ready nursing models, forging collaborative transfer networks,...
Smartphone Photos May Be Misleading Doctors and Putting Patients at Risk: New Research
Remote consultations now rely heavily on patient‑generated smartphone photos, but new research shows that automatic image processing and compression often distort clinically relevant details. Color shifts, loss of fine texture, and lighting inconsistencies can cause doctors to miss or misinterpret...
SNL’s Will Forte On How Huntington’s Disease Has Become A Family Issue
Actor Will Forte, famed for SNL’s “MacGruber,” is leading the “Honestly HD” campaign with Teva Pharmaceuticals to spotlight Huntington’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects roughly 41,000 Americans. The effort is personal, sparked by his brother‑in‑law Doug Modling’s diagnosis...
One-Question Screen May Flag Hoarding in Alzheimer's and Other Dementias
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz introduced a one‑question screening tool, the Single‑Item Hoarding Screen (SIHS), to detect hoarding behaviors in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In a study of 135 clinic patients, 23 % of caregivers reported...
Humana Offers Scholarships for Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine to Boost Physician Workforce
Humana has launched a $3 million endowment to provide full‑tuition scholarships for incoming students at Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine (XOCOM). The fund targets high‑achieving candidates facing financial hardship and requires recipients to practice in Louisiana, focusing on primary care, internal...
Epic's First Pharma Deal
Epic Systems announced its first pharmaceutical customer, Eli Lilly, for the newly launched Epic Discovery platform. The deal marks the inaugural sale of a Health Grid product to a life‑sciences firm, allowing Lilly to streamline clinical trial creation, site identification, activation,...
Comprehensive CT Metabolic Scan: Heart, Liver, Bones Nationwide
Complete Metabolic Heart Scan * CT Coronary Artery Calcium Score� * CT Calculated Arterial Age� * CT Liver Fat Quantification� * CT Bone Mineral Density� (available anywhere in the US) https://www.innerscopic.com/
Welireg Poised to Broaden Reach per GU26 Data
$MRK Welireg could be about to expand its reach at last. #GU26 data via @ApexOnco with relevance to $RCUS -> https://t.co/k59284INdK
Alabama Hospital Price Transparency: Only 54% Offer A Cost Calculator
A recent study of all 106 non‑psychiatric hospitals in Alabama found that while every facility technically complies with the CMS Hospital Price Transparency rule, only 54 % provide a user‑friendly online cost calculator. More than half of the calculators demand personal...
Mont. Hospital System Brings 24/7 Ambulance Service to Rural County
Intermountain Health will begin providing 24/7 emergency medical services to eastern Yellowstone County, Montana, starting July 1. The partnership with Yellowstone County and the Worden and Shepherd fire districts includes purchasing two ambulances and hiring ten paramedics and EMTs. It addresses...