VITAS Banks on Length of Stay, Referral Mix Management
VITAS Healthcare eliminated its Medicare cap liability in Florida by shifting admissions toward hospital referrals, which generate shorter stays. In Q1 2026 the company posted $420 million in revenue, a 3.1% year‑over‑year increase, with admissions up 6.9% and average daily census rising 2.2%. Average length of stay fell to 102.7 days from 118.7, while hospital‑based admissions reached 43.8% of the mix, meeting the firm’s target range. CEO Joel Wherley said the strategy positions VITAS for sustainable growth beyond 2026.
FDA Clears Tandem Control-IQ+ for Type 1 Diabetes During Pregnancy: First AID System to Earn Indication
The FDA has cleared Tandem Diabetes Care’s Control‑IQ+ system for use in pregnancies complicated by type 1 diabetes, making it the first automated insulin‑delivery (AID) platform with a pregnancy indication in the United States. The clearance covers both the t:slim X2 pump...
Too Many Prescriptions, Too Many Fatal Falls
U.S. seniors are facing a surge in fatal falls, with 41,000 deaths recorded in 2023, while the proportion taking multiple prescriptions has climbed dramatically. Four in ten older adults now use five or more drugs, and more than 7.5 million are...
Auxira Health and St. Luke’s University Health Network Partner to Expand Virtual Cardiology Support
St. Luke’s University Health Network has teamed with Auxira Health to embed virtual cardiology support teams within its Heart & Vascular network. The pilot launches with 24 cardiologists, each paired with nurse practitioners, medical assistants and registered nurses who handle...
NEJM Catalyst Study Validates No Barrier’s Hybrid AI-Human Model for High-Stakes Surgical Communication
A NEJM Catalyst study at Mass General Brigham independently evaluated No Barrier’s AI‑powered medical interpretation platform alongside remote video interpretation (RVI). The research used a modified technology acceptance model with 23 Spanish‑speaking surgical patients, finding RVI preferred for emotionally sensitive...
The Hidden Costs of Supply Chain Disruptions in Healthcare
Healthcare supply chains are increasingly fragile, with regulatory hurdles, just‑in‑time inventories, and limited visibility exposing hospitals to costly disruptions. The pandemic highlighted that only about 6% of U.S. health systems can see beyond Tier 1 suppliers, leading to frequent shortages. Financial...
CureVac Takes Moderna to Court over mRNA Vaccine Patents
CureVac has filed a lawsuit against Moderna alleging infringement of its mRNA‑stabilisation and delivery patents that underpin Spikevax. The case, backed by BioNTech after its 2025 acquisition of CureVac, seeks a share of the multibillion‑dollar revenues from COVID‑19 mRNA vaccines....
FDA’s Need for Speed Could Strain Small Biotechs. Here’s How They Can Keep Up.
The FDA is accelerating drug approvals through the National Priority Voucher pilot, which can shrink review timelines from ten months to as little as two, and a new plausible mechanism pathway for niche therapies lacking large trial data. While the...
Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs And Humana In Deal To Take On Employer Drug Costs
Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company has partnered with Humana’s CenterWell Pharmacy to create end‑to‑end employer prescription solutions. The deal leverages Cost Plus’s low‑price model and its SwiftyRx digital platform alongside CenterWell’s distribution network and more than 500 pharmacists. While financial terms...
Care Home Manager Struck Off over 'Horrific' Restraining of Disabled Person
A tribunal in Ayrshire stripped care home manager Janette Donnelly of her nursing licence after she forcibly restrained a disabled resident to administer a COVID‑19 vaccine through the resident’s clothing. The panel described the restraint as "horrific" and found Donnelly...
RFK Jr. Vows to End ‘Illusion’ of Lower Premiums Under ACA
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the House Ways & Means and Education & Workforce committees, arguing that the Affordable Care Act’s subsidy structure creates an illusion of lower premiums while actually benefiting insurers....
Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Speed up Prior Authorization in Medicare Advantage
Congress introduced the bipartisan Medicare Advantage Improvement Act to cut prior‑authorization delays. The bill mandates health plans to complete standard authorizations within 72 hours and publish timing data. It also requires real‑time, EHR‑integrated approval systems and limits extensions to seven...
Radiologists Among Docs Most Optimistic About Profession’s Short-Term Future
Radiologists lead physician specialists in short‑term optimism, with 69% viewing the next three years positively, according to Medscape’s 2024 survey of 177 radiologists. That confidence evaporates for the long term, where only 42% remain optimistic—a 27‑point drop that places radiology...
Motif Neurotech Receives FDA IDE Approval to Initiate RESONATE Trial of Motif XCS System in Treatment-Resistant Depression
Motif Neurotech has secured FDA Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to launch the RESONATE early feasibility study of its Motif XCS System in patients with treatment‑resistant depression who have failed at least two medications. The trial will monitor 12‑month safety, symptom...
Kingstec Advances Real-Time Medical Asset Tracking
Kingstec Technologies announced the rollout of Technology Trace Inc.’s trevii real‑time medical asset tracking platform at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. A year‑long pilot delivered a 100% reconciliation rate and 98% floor‑level location accuracy, demonstrating the system’s reliability. Kingstec acted as the...
Cell, Gene And Specialty Drug Costs Intensify For Health Plans
A new Pharmaceutical Strategies Group survey of 228 benefits executives shows 43% of health plans rank controlling specialty drug costs as their top priority, ahead of total cost of care. Specialty medicines now consume more than half of prescription spending,...
STAT+: Veradermics’ Hair Loss Drug Succeeds in Late-Stage Trial
Veradermics announced that its oral hair loss drug VDPHL01 met primary endpoints in a Phase III trial. Over six months, participants taking the pill grew 30‑33 hairs per square centimeter versus seven in the placebo group. Patient‑reported improvement reached 79‑86%, and...
Zepbound’s and Ozempic’s Greatest Benefit May Be Their Anti-Inflammatory Power
GLP‑1 drugs such as Ozempic and Zepbound are gaining recognition for anti‑inflammatory effects that go beyond weight loss and glucose control. Clinical data show semaglutide reduces C‑reactive protein by about 40% independent of weight loss and improves liver inflammation in...
AstraZeneca Reports FDA Approval of Saphnelo for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted approval for AstraZeneca’s Saphnelo autoinjector (anifrolumab, 120 mg weekly) for adult patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) when used alongside standard of care. The decision follows the Phase III TULIP‑SC trial, which enrolled 367...
Novartis Secures Pair of Regulatory Wins for Skin Disease and Malaria Treatments
Novartis won two regulatory milestones: the European Commission approved its oral BTK inhibitor Rhapsido for adults with chronic spontaneous urticaria who have failed antihistamines, and the World Health Organization granted prequalification to Coartem Baby, an artemether‑lumefantrine formulation for infants weighing 2‑5 kg....
Leiden’s Sensor-Free Microrobots Move Like Living Organisms
Researchers at Leiden University have created soft, chain‑like microrobots that move and adapt without sensors, software, or external control. Each 5 µm segment is linked by 0.5 µm joints and powered solely by an electric field, allowing the robot’s shape to dictate...
New NIHR-Funded TRC for Parkinson’s Disease
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has launched the Parkinson’s disease Translational Research Collaboration (PD‑TRC), the first of eight UK TRCs dedicated to Parkinson’s. Backed by NIHR and four major charities, the hub links 17 centres of...
Lilly Falls on Slower Start for Foundayo versus Wegovy
Eli Lilly’s oral GLP‑1 agonist Foundayo launched in early April with modest uptake, recording 1,390 prescriptions in week 1 and 3,707 in week 2, far below Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy, which logged over 3,000 fills in its first days and 18,410 in the second...
As Coordination Grows More Complex, Intelligent Care Is Reshaping the Response
Intelligent care is emerging as a strategic framework that synchronizes people, processes, and technology across health systems. As patient flow becomes increasingly complex, many organizations still lack a unified, real‑time view of capacity, with only 17% reporting enterprise‑wide data visibility....
Florida Delays Children’s Health Insurance Expansion as Uninsured Rate Rises
Florida lawmakers approved a KidCare expansion in 2023 that would extend coverage to more than 40,000 additional children by raising the income threshold to 300% of the federal poverty level. Despite federal approval, the DeSantis administration has not implemented the...
Epic Controls 42% of the US EHR Market. Does that Help or Hurt Interoperability?
Epic controls 42.3% of the 2024 acute‑care EHR market, covering roughly 55% of U.S. hospital beds. The vendor’s open‑API strategy now supports over 2,500 third‑party apps and processes 252 billion transactions annually, while its Care Everywhere network moves 27 million charts each...
The Help That Many Older Americans Need Most
Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly deployed in rural Oregon and Washington to address non‑medical needs of frail older adults, from transportation to housing assistance. A 90‑day pilot program, Connected Care for Older Adults, costs $1,500 per patient and has...
Why Health Plans Are Missing One of Their Most Costly Care Categories
Preference‑sensitive surgeries such as spine fusions, cataract procedures and hip replacements now represent roughly 30% of health‑plan medical spend and are growing 4‑6% annually. Up to 30% of these operations are medically inappropriate, costing commercial plans about $39 million and Medicare...
BrioHealth Secures FDA Approval to Launch BrioVAD System Trial
BrioHealth Solutions received conditional FDA approval to launch the Brio4Kids trial, testing its BrioVAD left ventricular assist device in children with advanced heart failure. Enrollment in the U.S. study is slated for mid‑2026, with initial data expected in the fourth...
Kyowa Kirin and Kura Initiate Phase II Trial of Ziftomenib for AML
Kyowa Kirin and Kura Oncology have opened a Japanese Phase II registrational study of the oral menin inhibitor ziftomenib in adults with relapsed or refractory NPM1‑mutated acute myeloid leukaemia. The single‑arm, open‑label trial will measure a composite complete remission rate (CR + CRh) as...
Review Questions Benefits of Anti-Amyloid Alzheimer’s Drugs
A Cochrane review of 17 clinical trials involving 20,342 patients with early Alzheimer’s disease found that anti‑amyloid drugs provide no clinically meaningful benefit on cognitive decline or dementia severity. The analysis also highlighted an increased risk of brain swelling and...
Sanofi Reports the CHMP Positive Opinion for Cenrifki (Tolebrutinib) to Treat Non-Relapsing SPMS
Sanofi’s oral BTK inhibitor Cenrifki (tolebrutinib) received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for treating secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) without relapses in the past two years. The recommendation is...
Why “More Doctors” Won’t Fix the Provider Shortage
The United States faces a health‑care provider shortage, but adding more physicians alone won’t solve it. The article argues that regulatory and reimbursement structures limit the contributions of nurses, counselors, community health workers, and other allied professionals who are already...
AI in Single-Cell Analysis: Solving the Interpretation Gap
Single‑cell omics drives drug discovery but interpreting cell‑state annotations remains a bottleneck. Nygen Analytics introduced CyteType, an AI‑augmented platform that adds a traceable interpretation layer to existing pipelines, converting raw clusters into biologically meaningful labels. By combining marker‑gene analysis, literature...
Invest in the Future of Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment
Cancer incidence is rising as populations age and obesity increases, prompting a shift toward proactive diagnostics. Researchers are advancing liquid‑biopsy technologies, especially multi‑omics MCED tests, to detect tumors earlier and with greater specificity. Simultaneously, AI‑enhanced imaging is slashing MRI scan...
Exclusive Human Milk Diet Benefits Very Low Birth Weight Infants
A phase III randomized controlled trial in Japan demonstrated that an exclusive human milk diet markedly improves growth velocity and reduces serious complications in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants compared with mixed feeding regimens. The study eliminated bovine‑based protein fortifiers,...
Feature: Strengthening Patient Understanding Through Digital Consent and Patient Information
Radar Healthcare’s Digital Consent platform replaces paper‑based forms with regulated, electronic workflows, delivering consistent, auditable patient consent. The solution pairs with EIDO Patient Information, a standardized library endorsed by the High Court and Royal Colleges, to provide clear, multi‑language content....
Novartis’ Itvisma Receives the CHMP Positive Opinion for Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Novartis’ gene‑replacement therapy Itvisma (onasemnogene abeparvovec) received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for treating patients aged two years and older with 5q spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The recommendation is...
Disruptions in Medicare Advantage Coverage in 2026
A new study reveals that forced disenrollment from Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will spike to about 10% in 2026, affecting roughly 2.9 million beneficiaries nationwide. In Vermont, 92% of MA enrollees are already facing plan exits, the highest state concentration. The...
NIHR Innovation Programme Offers Funding for Preventative Technologies in Community Care
The NIHR Invention for Innovation Funding at the Speed of Translation (FAST) programme is offering grants of £50,000‑£100,000 (≈$62,500‑$125,000) over six to twelve months for preventative technologies in community care. The funding targets solutions that can be integrated into neighbourhood...
Smart T-Shirt Piloted at Leicester to Support Diagnosis of Breathing Pattern Disorders
A pilot in Leicester is testing Atride’s Anasa® Smart Shirt, a wearable t‑shirt that embeds nanotech sensors to continuously monitor breathing patterns. The device’s data will be benchmarked against the current gold‑standard motion‑capture photography to assess accuracy for diagnosing breathing...
Evonik: €80m for Biopharma CDMO Capacity in Slovakia
Evonik Industries is allocating roughly €80 million (about $87 million) to expand its fermentation plant in Slovenská Ľupča, Slovakia. The investment adds downstream capacity for pharmaceutical active ingredients and creates around 50 new jobs. The site, already a biotech hub producing spider‑silk protein...
Home Blood Pressure Checks Could Reduce Risks After Hypertensive Pregnancy
Researchers at Oxford found that daily home blood‑pressure monitoring combined with rapid medication adjustments improves arterial health in new mothers who experienced hypertensive pregnancies. In a trial of 220 women, those using a home monitor and app showed less arterial...
San Juan Launches ‘Ligtas Tigdas’ Drive for World Immunization Week 2026
San Juan City marked World Immunization Week 2026 by launching the “Ligtas Tigdas” drive, vaccinating roughly 250 residents with routine, HPV and tetanus‑diphtheria shots. The campaign targeted infants, Grade IV students, pregnant women and families needing catch‑up doses, and featured health‑education booths to...
EClinicalWorks Launches Healow CCM Specialist Service to Automate Monthly Patient Outreach and Documentation
eClinicalWorks has launched the healow Chronic Care Management (CCM) Specialist Service, a specialist‑as‑a‑service model that embeds certified clinicians into ambulatory practice workflows. The service handles monthly outreach, prescription follow‑ups and care‑plan reviews, automatically documenting calls in the EHR for Medicare...
Turn Health Data Into Impact: Browns University's Online Master in Biostatistics & Health Data Science
Brown University has launched an online Master’s in Biostatistics with a concentration in Health Data Science, delivered through its School of Public Health and School of Professional Studies. The 20‑month, five‑semester program comprises nine courses and a capstone project that...
Antibiotics for Acne: How Much Is Too Much?
Antibiotics can be effective for moderate‑to‑severe inflammatory acne, but they are intended for short‑term use. Oral agents such as doxycycline are typically limited to two or three months, while topical antibiotics may be used longer when combined with other therapies....
In the Land of the Unblind: Are Psychedelics Really Better than Antidepressants?
Recent meta‑analysis comparing psychedelic‑assisted therapy (PAT) with open‑label antidepressant trials finds no clinically important difference in depression outcomes. While early PAT studies suggested larger effects, the analysis shows that functional unblinding limits any advantage, and open‑label antidepressants marginally outperform blinded...
Multimorbidity Patterns Linked to Elderly Mortality Risk
A new BMC Geriatrics study of over 5,000 Shenzhen seniors links specific multimorbidity clusters to markedly higher mortality risk. Researchers used big‑data analytics and cluster‑analysis to identify patterns, finding that combinations of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory illness produce...
Murata Launches Ultra-Low Power AMR Sensors to Boost Battery Life in Healthcare and Wearables Devices
Murata Manufacturing has begun mass production of two new anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) sensors, the MRMS166R and MRMS168R. The MRMS166R achieves a record‑low average current draw of 20 nA while operating from a 1.2 V supply, and the MRMS168R provides up to 12 mA...