About healthcare quality
2023 Sentinel Event Data Annual Report “The most prevalent event types identified in 2023 include the following:
Falls (48%)
Wrong surgery (8%)
Unintended retention of foreign object (8%)
Assault/rape/sexual assault/homicide (8%)
Delay in treatment (6%)
Suicide (5%)
These event types comprised 83% of all reported sentinel events in 2023. The majority of these events – 96% (1,358) – were voluntarily self-reported to The Joint Commission by an accredited or certified entity.”
About health insurance/insurers
UnitedHealth's investments in affordable housing top $1B “UnitedHealth Group's investments in affordable housing have topped $1 billion, with the program a keystone in its overarching strategy to address health equity and disparities.
The company has made investments in housing since 2011 and, in that time, has supported the development of affordable and mixed income units across 31 states and the District of Columbia, creating more than 25,000 homes for people and families who face housing insecurity.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
42 health systems ranked by net income FYI
About pharma
Wegovy could bankrupt US health system, Sanders says in new report “Blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy could bankrupt the U.S. health care system unless the price drops, according to a staff report released Wednesday from the office of Senate Health Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Unless prices dramatically decline, Wegovy and weight loss drugs could push Americans to spend $1 trillion per year on prescription drugs, the report concluded.”
Lilly’s weekly insulin works as well as daily products, new studies show “Eli Lilly reported Thursday that its experimental weekly insulin worked as well as daily basal insulin products in two late-stage studies, paving the way for the drug to compete with a similar weekly insulin developed by Novo Nordisk.
In a 52-week trial of type 2 diabetes patients using insulin for the first time, those on the weekly insulin, called efsitora alfa, had a 1.34% reduction in blood sugar levels, while people on the comparator daily insulin degludec, sold as Tresiba by Novo, had a 1.26% lowering. That resulted in patients having blood sugar levels, known as A1C readings, of 6.87% and 6.95%, respectively.”
About the public’s health
AI predicts vape flavours can break down into potentially harmful compounds when heated “An artificial intelligence-based approach has predicted hundreds of harmful compounds that could form when e-cigarette flavour chemicals are heated in vaping devices. The research adds to mounting evidence concerning the safety of vaping, finding that many of the predicted pyrolysis products from flavours are classed as either acutely toxic, health hazards or irritants. What’s more, their impact on health might take years to emerge, say the researchers.”
About healthcare IT
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Enabled Medical Devices FYI: “he FDA is providing this list of AI/ML-enabled medical devices marketed in the United States as a resource to the public about these devices and the FDA’s work in this area.”
About healthcare personnel
Association between anaesthesia–surgery team sex diversity and major morbidity “Care in hospitals with greater anaesthesia–surgery team sex diversity was associated with better postoperative outcomes. Care in a hospital reaching a critical mass with over 35% female anaesthetists and surgeons, representing higher team sex-diversity, was associated with a 3% lower odds of 90-day major morbidity.”