About Covid-19
Brii Biosciences Announces Positive Data Demonstrating its Long-Acting COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Therapy, Amubarvimab/Romlusevimab Combination, Retains Neutralizing Activity Against Live Omicron Virus BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 Subvariants The headline is the story.
Moderna vaccines better protect long-term care home residents “The research team found 17 percent of almost 1,000 LTC residents had a confirmed post-vaccine Omicron infection between Dec. 15, 2021 and May 3, 2022. The majority of infections (68 percent) occurred in people who had three Pfizer shots, while people who had had at least three Moderna jabs or a combination of any three mRNA shots were less likely to have infections. Importantly, having had any fourth dose reduced the risk of infection.
The study has been published by the preprint server medRxiv…”
Texas School Mask Mandate Ban Upheld by Federal Appeals Court “A three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday said that a group of disabled students failed to show that their allegedly increased risk of contracting Covid-19 due [to] the mask mandate ban was an injury the courts could address.”
Another crazy Texas outcome.
About health insurance
The Latest Legal Challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Guarantee “Despite the importance of prevention to good health, a new lawsuit, Kelley v. Becerra, threatens to upend these gains. Filed by a group of employers and individuals who object to providing certain kinds of preventive care or simply don’t want to pay for preventive care they feel they don’t need, the suit argues that the ACA’s requirement for insurers and health plans is unconstitutional. If it succeeds, millions of Americans could lose access to all preventive care guaranteed by the ACA or be forced to pay out of pocket for these vital services.”
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. The specious political/”Constitutional” arguments are a travesty.
Humana's Q2 profits grow nearly 20% year over year to $696M “In the second quarter of 2021, the insurer reported $588 million in profit for an increase of 18.4%, according to its earnings report released Wednesday. Humana also brought in $23.7 billion in revenue for the quarter, an increase of 14.6% from the $20.6 billion reported in the second quarter of 2021.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
429 hospitals with 5 stars from CMS: 2022 CMS updated its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings for 2022, giving 429 hospitals a rating of five stars.
CMS assigned star ratings to hospitals nationwide based on their performance across five quality categories. This year:
192 hospitals received a one-star rating
692 hospitals received a two-star rating
890 hospitals received a three-star rating
890 received a four-star rating
429 received a five-star rating
Here are the hospitals that received a five-star rating from CMS, broken down by state, as listed on the Hospital Compare website.”
About pharma
GSK boosts annual guidance, led by demand for Shingrix See the article for a breakdown by product.
About the public’s health
Long-Term Leisure-Time Physical Activity Intensity and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Prospective Cohort of US Adults “The 2018 physical activity guidelines for Americans recommend a minimum of 150 to 300 min/wk of moderate physical activity (MPA), 75 to 150 min/wk of vigorous physical activity (VPA), or an equivalent combination of both. However, it remains unclear whether higher levels of long-term VPA and MPA are, independently and jointly, associated with lower mortality…
[This study found that the] nearly maximum association with lower mortality was achieved by performing ≈150 to 300 min/wk of long-term leisure-time VPA, 300 to 600 min/wk of long-term leisure-time MPA, or an equivalent combination of both.”
Turning users into ‘unofficial brand ambassadors’: marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok “This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, to examine marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok. Videos posted by top food brands frequently feature branding, product images, engagement and celebrities/influencers. Engagement includes instigation of branded hashtag challenges that encourage users to create content featuring brands’ products, brands’ videos and/or branded effects. User-generated content from these challenges collectively receives millions—and sometimes billions—of views, frequently features branding and product images and mostly portrays a positive sentiment.
Given evidence of the impact of food marketing on food preferences, purchasing, requests and consumption, our findings reinforce the urgent need for policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing on social networking platforms.”
Patient-level factors influencing adherence to follow-up imaging recommendations “Patients with Medicaid had over four times lower odds of completing follow-up imaging compared to patients with commercial insurance (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.06–0.88, p = 0.032). Age, gender, race/ethnicity, smoking history, primary language, BMI, and neighborhood socioeconomic status were not independently associated with differences in follow-up imaging completion.”
Sometimes insurance does not account for payments. Recall that Medicaid patients have no premiums or out-of-pocket expenses. In other words, unlike privately insured patients who have copays or deductibles, the follow-up is free to Medicaid patients. The reason for this finding requires further investigation.
About healthcare IT
Baxter Healthcare Corporation Recalls Abacus Order Entry and Calculation Software for Risk of Medication Label Errors “Abacus is a software application that performs calculations for compounding liquid doses of medications. When connected to a compounder that mixes these doses according to the calculation, the Abacus software can translate a physician’s order into a compounded solution ready to be given to a patient…
Baxter Healthcare Corporation is recalling the Abacus software application due to a risk that final printed bag labels for compounded mixtures may contain incorrect information. The issue may occur if a user unintentionally or incorrectly modifies a label template that is used to provide clinical care.”
AmerisourceBergen launches tech to help docs dispense digital therapeutics to patients “AmerisourceBergen plans to launch DTx Connect, a fully integrated ordering, dispensing and fulfillment platform that aims to facilitate patient access to physician-ordered digital therapeutics and diagnostics…
The platform, which seamlessly integrates with electronic medical record (EMR) systems, enables physicians to easily access and order prescription and non-prescription DTx through their e-prescribing workflow and subsequently monitor patient fulfillment, according to the company.”
Johns Hopkins sepsis alert tool reduced patient deaths, studies find “Three studies published in Nature by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and machine learning startup Bayesian Health found that a sepsis early detection tool reduced relative deaths from sepsis by 18.2%…
The prospective studies, which took place across five hospitals, found that Bayesian’s machine learning platform identified 82% of sepsis cases, and 38% of alerts were confirmed by a doctor. When an alert was confirmed by a doctor within three hours, patients received antibiotics nearly two hours faster than patients whose alert was addressed later, dismissed or never confirmed.”
Digital Biomarkers Market Revenue to be Worth $21,986.2 Million by 2030, says P&S Intelligence “According to the latest market research report published by P&S Intelligence, the digital biomarkers market accounted for around $1,850.8 million revenue in 2021, which is on the way to hitting $21,986.2 million by 2030, at a massive compound annual growth rate of 31.6% from 2021 to 2030. During the pandemic, the emergence of mHealth applications, integration of AI into the wearable technology, and rise of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring devices drove the market.”
How much does a data breach cost in 2022? IBM’s annual report.
”Data breach average cost increased 2.6% from USD 4.24 million in 2021 to USD 4.35 million in 2022. The average cost has climbed 12.7% from USD 3.86 million in the 2020 report.
The share of organizations deploying zero trust grew from 35% in 2021 to 41% in 2022. Organizations that don't deploy zero trust incurred an average USD 1 million greater breach costs compared to those with zero trust deployed.
Stolen or compromised credentials were responsible for 19% of breaches. Phishing was responsible for breaches 16% of the time. Cloud misconfiguration caused 15% of breaches.”
The average costs of healthcare breaches increased by nearly $1 million since the 2021 report, to $10.1 million, making this sector the costliest among industries for the 12th consecutive year.
Patient survey shows unresolved tension over health data privacy “More than 92% of patients believe privacy is a right and their health data should not be available for purchase, according to a survey released today by the American Medical Association (AMA)…
The survey found an overwhelming percentage of patients demand accountability, transparency, and control as it relates to health data privacy. More than nine out of ten (94%) patients want companies to be held legally accountable for uses of their health data. A similar majority of patients (93%) want health application (app) developers to be transparent about how their products use and share personal health data. To prevent unwanted access and use of personal health data, patients want control over what companies collected about them and how it is used:
Almost 80% of patients want to be able to opt-out of sharing some or all their health data with companies.
More than 75% of patients want to opt-in before a company uses any of their health data.
More than 75% of patients want to receive requests prior to a company using their health data for a new purpose”
About health technology
The Next Blood Pressure Breakthrough: Temporary Tattoos “The thin, sticker-like wearable electronic tattoos can provide continuous, accurate blood pressure monitoring, the researchers report in their new study.”
The next step in continuous ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
About healthcare finance
Illumina's quest for Grail potentially blocked for good, as EU jacks up legal pressure: report “After extending yet another olive branch to the European antitrust regulators adjudicating its premature acquisition, Reuters reports that the $8 billion deal is likely to be vetoed.
Earlier this month, the DNA sequencing giant had offered to give its rivals royalty-free access to certain global patent licenses and pledged a three-year truce on patent litigation against its Chinese competitor BGI. However, the European Commission's concerns remain, and the watchdogs aren't convinced that the latest proposal would boost competition…”