Latest News

• AMA Reports a Crash in Physician Revenues, Visits Over Summer A second spike in COVID-19 cases may threaten practice viability; AMA president pleads for more federal help.
  Medscape Medical News, October 30, 2020
• HHS Extends Deadline for Patient Access to Your Clinical Notes Just 4 days before a new law on information sharing with patients was to go into effect, the US Department of Health and Human Services gave health organizations more time.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• RN Pay Remains Stagnant; LPNs Fare a Bit Better A Medscape survey reveals that COVID-19 has spurred exodus from the nursing profession and that average annual income for full-time RNs has remained statistically unchanged for 5 years.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• A Skin Test for Parkinson's Diagnosis? A new study has shown high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing Parkinson's from autopsy samples taken from the skin.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• Two COVID-19 Outpatient Antibody Drugs Show Encouraging Results Regeneron's cocktail appeared to reduce viral load and the need for further medical care. Eli Lilly's experimental treatment resulted in reduced viral load and hospitalizations.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• Medtronic to Pay $9.2M Settlement for Kickbacks, False Reports Medtronic agreed to pay $8.1 million to resolve allegations of paying kickbacks to a neurosurgeon and an additional $1.1 million to resolve violations of CMS' Open Payments Program, the DOJ announced.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• Medical Crowdfunding Reasons, Success Differ in Canada, UK, and US Medical crowdfunding campaigns in the US raise more money and focus more on financing routine care than campaigns in the Canada and the UK, a new study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Prolonged Central Line in Preemies Tied to Fewer Needle Sticks, Better Thalamus Growth Premature infants who have central lines maintained for more than 14 days have fewer needle pokes that break the skin and more thalamus growth than infants with lines in place for shorter periods of time, a new study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Depressive Symptoms Common in First 3 Years Postpartum Approximately one in four women have elevated symptoms of depression at one point in time over the first 3 years postpartum, a population-based birth cohort study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• In Utero Exposure to IBD Drugs Doesn't Up Kids' Infection Risk Children exposed in utero to medications used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are not at increased risk of antibiotic-treated infection or severe infection requiring hospitalization, according to new findings.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Corticosteroids Improve Histologic Response Rates in Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis Corticosteroids significantly improve histologic response rates in children with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), according to a new meta-analysis.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Black People Still Less Likely to Get Flu Shots in US Nursing Homes Black nursing home residents continue to be less likely than their white peers to receive influenza vaccinations, mainly due to refusals, according to data from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Sarcopenia Does Not Worsen Survival After Shunting for Refractory Ascites In patients with cirrhosis undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) for refractory ascites, sarcopenia is not associated with increased mortality, according to new research from the UK.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Autoreactive T Cells Present in Healthy Pancreas Preproinsulin-specific CD8+ T cells capable of attacking pancreatic islet cells are abundant in healthy pancreas, researchers report.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Mostly Positive Outcomes After 2018 Adult Heart Transplant Allocation Changes Adult heart transplant policy allocation changes enacted in the US in 2018 have led to mostly positive outcomes, a new study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Chinese Americans Suffer Discrimination Related to COVID-19 Half of Chinese American parents and their children report having experienced an in-person episode of racial discrimination related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  Medscape Medical News, October 29, 2020
• France and Germany Thrust Into Lockdown as Second COVID-19 Wave Sweeps Europe French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered their countries back into lockdown on Wednesday, as a massive second wave of coronavirus infections threatened to overwhelm Europe before the winter.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Peru Reports First Diphtheria Case in 20 Years Amid Low Vaccination Rate Peru reported its first case of diphtheria after 20 years following warnings by international health organizations that the coronavirus pandemic would hamper routine vaccination programs, particularly for children.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Public Transport Seen as Major Culprit for Italy Coronavirus Surge Public transport in Italy is increasingly seen by experts and policymakers as one of the places where the risk of contracting COVID-19 is highest, as the government grapples with a surge in cases.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020
• Health Minister Says Spaniards Right to Be Annoyed After He Attended Awards Ceremony Spain's health minister said on Wednesday Spaniards were right to be angry at him attending an awards ceremony with dozens of other high-profile figures shortly after the country entered a state of emergency to control its second wave of coronavirus.
  Reuters Health Information, October 28, 2020