Today is the 11th anniversary of the ACA.
For a recap on its impact, read:
11 Years On, the Affordable Care Act Defies Opponents and Keeps Expanding
About Covid-19
AstraZeneca vaccine faces another setback after independent board questions trial data:
”On Tuesday, an independent review board of experts appointed by the National Institutes of Health said the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company may have only used partial data when it announced the results from its vaccine trial…
The company said it would “immediately engage” with health officials to discuss the most up-to-date efficacy data and promised a more detailed analysis within 48 hours of the vaccine it developed with Oxford University.”
IDSA updates treatment guidance for COVID-19, including monoclonal antibodies: “The Infectious Diseases Society of America has updated its treatment guidelines for COVID-19 for several therapies, including tocilizumab, ivermectin and bamlanivimab with etesevimab.
After an assessment of eight randomized trials, the guideline panel now recommends that tocilizumab should be used in hospitalized patients who are sick enough to have progressive, severe or critical COVID-19.”
Women's Experiences with Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the KFF Women's Health Survey: A really good summary of this topic from the KFF. “Women are more likely to have gone without health care during the pandemic compared to men, and women with health and economic challenges prior to the pandemic have experienced worsening health conditions as a result of skipping health care services during the pandemic.”
Regeneron and Roche's antibody cocktail shown helping in COVID-19 cases: “New late-stage trial data show Regeneron and Roche’s antibody cocktail against COVID-19 cut hospitalisation or death by 70% versus a placebo in non-hospitalised patients, the Swiss drugmaker said on Tuesday.
The shot, consisting of casirivimab and imdevimab antibodies developed by Regeneron with financial help from the U.S. government, also met all key secondary endpoints in the phase III trial with 4,567 participants, including reducing symptom duration to 10 days from 14, Roche said.”
About healthcare technology
Alexa, do I have an abnormal heart rhythm? UW researchers use AI and smart speakers to monitor irregular heartbeats: “Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a form of contentless monitoring, allowing smart speakers to identify and monitor individual heartbeats using sonar technology. Machine learning (ML) makes this technology possible. The UW researchers published the findings on March 9 in the journal Communications Biology.”
About pharma
Post-Visit Patient Understanding About Newly Prescribed Medications: “Many patients correctly identified information related to directions for taking a newly prescribed medication, even without physician counseling, but when physicians failed to convey potential medication side effects, many assumed that a medication had no side effects. It may be sufficient for physicians to provide written information about medication directions and dosing, and tailor their limited time to discussing medication side effects.”
Democrats see a pathway for their ambitious drug pricing bill: “For example, a bipartisan group of senators are releasing a bill today that requires drug manufacturers to disclose and provide more information about planned drug price increases, [emphasis in the original] including research and development costs.
It would require manufacturers to notify HHS 30 days before they increase the price of certain drugs. The requirement would apply to drugs costing at least $100, whose prices are increasing by more than 10 percent in one year or 25 percent over three years. Manufacturers would have to provide a justification for each price increase.”
About health insurance
DOJ Asks for Clean Slate or Clarity in Medicaid Work Rule Fight: The high court canceled oral argument but justices could still hear case…
”The court should clarify in any ruling on the merits that the Health and Human Services Secretary can allow states to try out new measures—like alternative ways to deliver care—that indirectly advance Medicaid’s main goal of providing low-income people health insurance, the Justice Department said in a brief Monday.”
About healthcare professionals
Estimated Effect on Life Expectancy of Alleviating Primary Care Shortages in the United States: “Persons living in counties with less than 1 physician per 3500 persons in 2017 had a mean life expectancy that was 310.9 days shorter than for persons living in counties above that threshold. In the low-density counties (n = 1218), increasing the density of PCPs above the 1:3500 threshold would be expected to increase mean life expectancy by 22.4 days (median, 19.4 days [95% CI, 0.9 to 45.6 days]), and all such counties would require 17 651 more physicians, or about 14.5 more physicians per shortage county.”
Past studies on thresholds for health professional/population ratios and per capital health spending tend to show that below a certain threshold, healthcare declines. However, above those cutoffs, the returns rapidly diminish. Such studies like this one need to take into account the structure and availability of the healthcare systems as well as per capita spending before making blanket recommendations about essential targets for personnel.