Five New Members Join CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel
New members were chosen just days before vaccine advisers to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meet
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Off-Label Drug Helps One Boy With Autism Speak, Parents Say. But Experts Want More Data.
Caroline Connor’s concerns about her son’s development began around his 1st birthday, when she noticed he wasn’t talking or using any words. Their pediatrician didn’t seem worried, but the speech delay persisted. At 2½, Mason was diagnosed with autism. The Connors went on a mission, searching for anything that would help. “We just started researching…
Why Providers Aren’t Happy with CMS’ Outpatient Medicare Physician Payment Proposal
CMS proposed a 2.4% Medicare payment increase for hospitals’ outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers in 2026, along with a new two-tiered physician reimbursement structure based on participation in value-based care models. Provider groups are welcoming the short-term boosts, but they fear the changes don’t go far enough to address their long-term financial pressures. The…
Health care spending makes up 18% of the US Economy
That is according to the 2024 national health expenditure data published in Health Affairs last week (Hartman et al. 2026). Here is the abstract: Health care spending in the US reached $5.3 trillion and increased 7.2 percent in 2024, similar to growth of 7.4 percent in 2023, as increased demand for health care influenced this two-year trend. As…
Big Bets, Long Bets: Investing in the Power of Ideas
With science funding catapulted into the cultural conversation more than ever in the last year, it faces a critical inflection point. There is an opportunity to design a path forward that builds stability in the short term and opens doors in the long term for foundational and transformational science and technology solutions that will benefit…
Long Regulatory Saga for Intercept Pharma Liver Drug Ends a Decade After Speedy FDA Approval
Intercept Pharmaceuticals is voluntarily withdrawing from the market Ocaliva, a drug for the rare liver disease primary biliary cholangitis. While Ocaliva became an important new treatment option when it won accelerated FDA approval in 2016, PBC patients now have new FDA-approved medicines from Ipsen and Gilead Sciences that don’t pose the same safety risks. The…
Apella Lands $80M Series B to Optimize Hospital ORs
Apella raised an $80 million Series B funding round to expand its AI-powered platform designed to help hospitals optimize their operating rooms. The startup’s tool promises to boost surgical volume, reduce clinician burnout and improve patient access without adding new staff or facilities. The post Apella Lands $80M Series B to Optimize Hospital ORs appeared…
Will Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Wellness Appeal to Employers?
Employer advocates said Cost Plus Wellness could help spur more direct contracting and transparency in healthcare, though they questioned whether the model can scale and adequately measure provider quality and outcomes. The post Will Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Wellness Appeal to Employers? appeared first on MedCity News.
The Future of Healthcare Isn’t Just Smart, It’s Human
The industry has thrown tech at the problem, consolidated, and invested in every which way. But we haven’t fundamentally rethought how care is designed, delivered, or sustained. And until we do, no amount of technology will restore what healthcare has lost: its humanity. Here’s how to do that. The post The Future of Healthcare Isn’t…
The Covid ‘Contrarians’ Are in Power. We Still Haven’t Hashed Out Whether They Were Right.
In October, Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya hosted a conference on the lessons of covid-19 in order “to do better in the next pandemic.” He invited scholars, journalists, and policy wonks who, like him, have criticized the U.S. management of the crisis as overly draconian. Bhattacharya also invited public health authorities who had considered his…