Decline of Telehealth During the Pandemic and After

Decline of Telehealth During the Pandemic and After

The pandemic has forced healthcare organizations to rely heavily on telehealth services. In 2020, virtual visits accounted for more than a quarter of all outpatient visits in the U.S., and they’ve been steadily increasing since then. But there is a flip side to this trend. Recent data shows that telehealth is declining in healthcare, which could create a burden for both healthcare systems and patients. Let’s take a look at why this is happening and what can be done about it.
Reasons behind the decline  There are several factors driving the decline in telehealth utilization in healthcare settings. One reason is cost…

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Fatty Liver Disease in Children: Prevalence, Evaluation, & Essential Tools

Fatty Liver Disease in Children: Prevalence, Evaluation, & Essential Tools

Dr. Alisha Mavis, a Pediatric Hepatologist at Duke University where she cares for pediatric patients with liver disease joins eHealth Radio and the Children’s Health & Health News Channels.
Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels and guest Dr. Alisha Mavis discuss the following:
What is the prevalence of fatty liver disease in children, and who should we be screening?
When screening a child for fatty liver disease, what are some of the tools used to evaluate for the disease, and how is the diagnosis of pediatric fatty liver disease made?
What is the natural history of pediatric liver disease, and how does this…

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Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions

Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions

Surgical robotics is dominated by various versions of the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical, a competent but expensive tool that’s become a standard in modern advanced hospitals. It took Intuitive about 30 years to achieve this status, but there are systems from J&J, Medtronic, CMR Surgical, and others that are chipping away at the company’s dominance. All of these systems operate under the “master-slave” concept, which involves a surgeon sitting behind a console, away from the patient, who manipulates the mechanical arms of the robot via some kind of joystick-like device. Thanks to kind support from Biomed Israel, the leading…

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Retrieving Billions in Overpayments by CMS

Retrieving Billions in Overpayments by CMS

Amid swirling accusations that Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) are overbilling the U.S. government and calls for better oversight, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in early February that it would investigate overbilling by those plans. They expect to recoup 4.7 billion dollars through this program.
This article focuses on the relatively young technologies that enable CMS to uncover overbillings, whether they be errors or fraud. The article is based on an interview with Kel Pults, chief clinical officer and vice president of MediQuant. A future article will explain how Medicare Advantage plans are trying to improving data collection and reporting,…

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Community Health Systems reports GoAnywhere hacked

Community Health Systems reports GoAnywhere hacked

Community Health Systems filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was notified by a third-party vendor for secure file transfer of an incident that resulted in unauthorized disclosure of its patient data.WHY IT MATTERS
The GoAnywhere managed file transfer platform first warned about a zero-day remote code injection exploit on February 1, according to the technical bulletin posted by noted security researcher Brian Krebs on Infosec.exchange. 
“The attack vector of this exploit requires access to the administrative console of the application, which in most cases is accessible only from within a private company network, through [virtual private network] or by allow-listed IP…

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Personalized CAR-T Cell Therapy

Personalized CAR-T Cell Therapy

Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a new method to prepare chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T cells) for leukemia patients that could result in more effective treatment. CAR-T cells start life as T cells that are isolated from cancer patients, are stimulated and primed to recognize and attack cancer cells, expanded in number, and then reintroduced to the cancer patient with the goal that the cells will destroy their cancer. However, the technique works better in certain patients, and the researchers behind this latest technique have realized that T-cells from cancer patients do […]…

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Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System – The Musical – Fun Friday

Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System – The Musical – Fun Friday

Satire + Music + Comedy + Healthcare. What’s not to love?
This full-length musical from Sara Kreindler perfectly captures the challenges and frustrations in the Canadian Healthcare System. It tells the story of a eager young healthcare analyst, Larry, who is newly hired by the Canadian government to help “fix” the healthcare system. Comedy and eye-rolling ensues as Larry visits an over-crowded ER and tries to navigate the multiple layers of government and administration involved in healthcare.
Even though the musical is about the Canadian Healthcare System, there are many parts that Americans will find familiar. Episode 4 is where Larry learns the…

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The Adderall Shortage

The Adderall Shortage

The current Adderall shortage is of serious concern to both patients who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and clinicians. This shortage cannot be quickly alleviated by a simple increase in the amount of medication manufactured, unless the upper limit to the amount of Adderall’s active ingredient that can be manufactured in a given year is raised by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The limit has been imposed because the active ingredient can be abused as a recreational drug. It is necessary to control the supply of any medication with abuse liability, but this must be achieved without compromising the legitimate…

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Is Interoperability Tech Worth the Investment? Experts Say Yes for 3 Reasons

Is Interoperability Tech Worth the Investment? Experts Say Yes for 3 Reasons

Editor’s note: This story is based on discussions at Abarca Forward, a conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, hosted by Abarca, a pharmacy benefit manager. MedCity News’ Editor-in-Chief Arundhati Parmar and Senior Reporter Katie Adams were invited to attend and speak at the conference. All travel and related expenses for the team were covered by Abarca. However, company officials had no input in editorial coverage. 
In order for the U.S. healthcare system to operate smoothly, various stakeholders must cooperate with one another and share data seamlessly. But this notion is far from being achieved — the industry is still seriously plagued by…

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