About the business of healthcare
20 largest healthcare companies in the world for 2021: “Forbes released its 19th annual list of the 2,000 largest public companies in the world, with 20 healthcare companies in the top 200.”
The largest healthcare company on the list (at 21st place) is UnitedHealth Group with a market value of about $370B.
About Covid-19
CDC says fully vaccinated Americans no longer need masks indoors or outdoors in most cases: “Americans who are fully vaccinated can go without masks or physical distancing in most cases, even when they are indoors or in large groups, federal officials said Thursday, paving the way for a full reopening of society.”
COVID-19 far from under control in Americas, says PAHO: “Nearly 40% of all global deaths from COVID-19 reported last week happened in the Americas, and nearly 80% of the region's intensive care units are filled with COVID-19 patients, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.”
Effects of different types of written vaccination information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial: This study highlights the importance of customizing the message to the stakeholder.
“In the approximately 10% of the population who are strongly hesitant about COVID-19 vaccines, provision of information on personal benefit reduces hesitancy to a greater extent than information on collective benefits. Where perception of risk from vaccines is most salient, decision making becomes centred on the personal. As such, messaging that stresses the counterbalancing personal benefits is likely to prove most effective. The messaging from this study could be used in public health communications.”
CMS requires nursing homes to report COVID-19 vaccination rates: ”The goal of the requirement included in an interim final rule announced Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is to identify facilities that could need more help to respond to the pandemic.”
Early data suggest mixing COVID-19 vaccines leads to more reactions: “Preliminary results from a UK trial testing a "mix and match" approach to COVID-19 vaccines indicate that volunteers who received one dose of AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria followed by Pfizer/BioNTech's BNT162b2, or vice versa, were more likely to develop reactions, compared to those who got the same vaccine for both prime and boost. Findings from the University of Oxford-led Com-COV trial, which began in February, were published Wednesday in The Lancet as correspondence and focused only on initial reactogenicity and safety data.”
CDC says it's OK to get a Covid-19 vaccine alongside other vaccines: “The American Academy of Pediatrics also said Wednesday it supports giving routine childhood vaccines together with coronavirus vaccines.”
About the public’s health
THE PUBLIC’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM: Key findings from a poll conducted for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:
—”There is broad public support for substantially increasing federal spending on public health. About seven in ten adults (71%) favor substantially increasing federal spending on improving the nation’s public health programs, while 27% are opposed.
—A large majority of the public (72%) believes the activities of public health agencies are extremely or very important to the health of the nation.
—The public’s rating of the nation’s public health system and medical system have changed over time, with positive ratings of the public health system declining from 43% to 34% from 2009 to 2021, and positive ratings of the medical system increasing from 36% to 51% from 2009 to 2020.
—In terms of overall trust in the recommendations made to improve health, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, the public currently trusts nurses, healthcare workers, and doctors more than public health institutions and agencies.
—In both 2009 and 2021, the public rated the job performance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) higher than the nation’s public health system overall. In 2021, 54% of the public gave the CDC positive job performance ratings (excellent or good), while 59% did in 2009.”
Ovarian cancer population screening and mortality after long-term follow-up in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS): a randomised controlled trial: Yet another study showing the futility of ovarian cancer screening.
”The reduction in stage III or IV disease incidence in the MMS [multimodal screening] group was not sufficient to translate into lives saved, illustrating the importance of specifying cancer mortality as the primary outcome in screening trials. Given that screening did not significantly reduce ovarian and tubal cancer deaths, general population screening cannot be recommended.”
About pharma
Feds stop sending Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 cocktail to Illinois on concerns of P.1 variant: “Eli Lilly's COVID-19 antibody bamlanivimab already lost its solo FDA authorization as viral variants cropped up. Now, the company's two-antibody combo is running into trouble.
Federal officials are pausing shipments of the bamlanivimab-etesevimab cocktail to Illinois because of worries about one specific variant called P.1.
In a notice last week, authorities raised concerns about the combo's effectiveness against that variant, first identified in Brazil. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response said it is pausing distribution of the antibody cocktail, plus etesevimab alone, in the state.”
Amazon Pharmacy launches new prescription services: “The first feature, the Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit, allows Prime members to search for their medications and compare costs at Amazon Pharmacy and more than 60,000 other retail pharmacies.
Amazon cited a national survey that found that only 11 percent of customers shopped online for better prices when faced with higher than anticipated costs for prescriptions.
Amazon Pharmacy said its Prime prescription savings benefit offers up to 80 percent discounts on generic drugs and 40 percent off brand-name drugs when paying without insurance.
The second new feature allows Amazon Pharmacy customers to check their insurance co-pay before ordering their medication. Customers can enter their insurance and prescriber information and then request an expected copay price from the medication information page.”
About healthcare IT
Big Tech's health IT moves: 23 acquisitions from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft & Google: An interesting timeline of these companies’ activities starting with Microsoft’s founding in 1975.
200,000 VA patients' health records found exposed online: “A database containing medical records of almost 200,000 U.S. military veterans was recently discovered to have been exposed online by a vendor contracted by the Veterans Administration.”
About healthcare systems
Health system financial results for Q1: Eight systems’ financial performance for Q1. For several, note the importance of non-operating income contribution to the net.
Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente to scale up hospital-at-home efforts with $100M investment into Medically Home: “Medically Home installs a suite of communications devices, remote patient monitoring devices, emergency response systems and other supplies such as durable medical equipment in a patient’s home so that providers can treat high-acuity patients outside of the costly hospital setting.
Providers use these integrated tools to coordinate care from a “command center” that allows continuous monitoring and on-demand communication with patients around the clock. Should the patient require additional support, such as a delivery of oxygen, the startup’s rapid-response logistics system can also ensure patients receive additional support—for instance, delivering oxygen—to their home within hours rather than days.”
About healthcare quality and safety
Patient Safety Excellence & Outstanding Patient Experience: Awards from from Healthgrades.
Association Between Anesthesiologist Volume and Short-term Outcomes in Complex Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery: If volume-quality relationships exist, are they related to the surgeon or hospital or both? This article emphasizes the importance of other healthcare professionals as part of the “team.”
”This study found that, among adults who underwent complex gastrointestinal cancer surgery, those who received care from high-volume anesthesiologists had a lower risk of adverse postoperative outcomes compared with those who received care from low-volume anesthesiologists. These findings support organizing perioperative care to increase anesthesiologist volume to optimize patient outcomes.”