Hippocratic AI Raises $53 Million Series A at a $500 Million Valuation
Company Releases First Product: Generative AI-Powered Staffing Marketplace for Healthcare and will use Funds to Accelerate Further Product Development and Conduct Phase Three Safety Testing for its LLM Hippocratic AI, the company building the first safety-focused Large Language Model (LLM) for healthcare, today announced the close of a $53 million Series A funding round at a $500 million valuation, bringing total funding to $120 million. Today, the company also released its first product for phase three safety testing: a staffing marketplace for healthcare where health systems, payors, and others can “hire” generative ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 22, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT a16z Andreessen Horowitz Bio Health Capsule Cincinnati Children’s ELNA Evernow Fraser Health General Catalyst Guidehealth HarmonyCares Health IT Funding Health IT Fundings Health IT Investmen Source Type: blogs

Gen Z ’s Mid-Life Crisis
By KIM BELLARD These are not happy times in America. Now, I’m not thinking about the increasing cultural wars, the endless political bickering, the troubles in the Med-East or Ukraine, the looming threat of climate crisis, or the omnipresent campaigning for the November 2024 elections, although all those play a part. I’m talking about quantifiable data, from the latest World Happiness Report. It found that America has slipped out of the top 20 countries for the first time, falling to 23rd – behind countries like Slovenia and the U.A.E. and barely ahead of Mexico or Uruguay. Even worse, the fall in U.S. score...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 27, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Happiness Kim Bellard Mental Health Social Media Source Type: blogs

Developing a Reproductive Justice Approach to Regulating Formal and Informal Sperm Donation
Naomi Cahn (University of Virginia), Sonia M. Suter (The George Washington University), Developing a Reproductive Justice Approach to Regulating Formal and Informal Sperm Donation (Va. Pub. L. and Legal Theory Rsch. Paper No. 2023-78) (2023): This essay explores the regulation... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - February 1, 2024 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs

My Cancer Story  
By JEFF GOLDSMITH On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.  I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs

Patients are Not “Consumers”: My Cancer Story 
By JEFF GOLDSMITH On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.  I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs

How Patient Activation Made It Possible to Thrive with Kidney Disease
By DAVE WHITE It had been 10 years since I’d seen a doctor when I arrived at the Emergency Room at George Washington University Hospital in October 2009. I was able to climb the first flight of stairs, but after I froze on the second, they brought me in on a wheelchair. That was the first time I heard the dreaded words, “Your kidneys aren’t working.” I was put on dialysis immediately, and my life transformed into a series of tests and procedures. But even after three weeks at the hospital, it didn’t sink in that there was no cure. I checked most risk factors for kidney disease: I ate the wrong foods, smo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy chronic kidney disease Dave White Patient Activation Measure Patient Activism patient advocacy Source Type: blogs

Turnarounds are Talent Magnets: University of Chicago Medical Center
By JEFF GOLDSMITH Like birds of a feather, talent in healthcare management often gathers in flocks. The University of Minnesota, University of Michigan and University of Iowa healthcare management programs are all justly famous for graduating, over many decades, an exceptional number of future transformative healthcare leaders. But sometimes, talent comes from the “street”- challenging healthcare turnarounds that attract risk-taking leaders who, in turn, gather young talent around them. The University of Chicago’s urban academic health center has been one of these places. The U of C was (and remains) the la...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 13, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Jeff Goldsmith talent University of Chicago Source Type: blogs

Delegated Agency Authority to Address Chemicals of Emerging Concern: EPA ’s Strategic Use of Emergency Powers to Address PFAS Air Pollution
Robert L. Glicksman (George Washington University), Johanna Adashek (George Washington University), Delegated Agency Authority to Address Chemicals of Emerging Concern: EPA ’s Strategic Use of Emergency Powers to Address PFAS Air Pollution, 48 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. (2024): PFAS are a... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - November 10, 2023 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs

Optimizing Healthcare IT: Four Innovative Ways to Use QR Codes
The following is a guest article by Ravi Pratap, Co-Founder and CTO at Beaconstac Technology provides the foundation of modern healthcare, with the potential to generate $410 billion in annual revenue by 2025. Efficient IT solutions in healthcare organizations ensure optimal patient care and seamless operational functionality. One such technology professionals often overlook is the QR code. And in an era where over six billion people have smartphones, incorporating the tool in healthcare makes sense. The following article shows four practical use cases for QR codes within the healthcare IT landscape. Managing Medical Equip...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 3, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Ambulatory Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System IT Infrastructure and Dev Ops LTPAC Beaconstac Healthcare Asset Tracking Information Access IT Assets Medical Equipme Source Type: blogs

Faculty and Student Perceptions of Unauthorized Collaborations
In this study, it was clear students do recognize the need for individual accountability and that their individual competence will be assessed, but they also recognize that they are encouraged to work with each other and that throughout their careers they will be working with colleagues in the clinical settings and for the rest of their lives. That gets at some of the tension, and we create some of that tension in the curriculum because we foster students working together in small groups and we embrace them supporting each other and helping each other learn. Then that comes up against the individual demonstration of compet...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - October 24, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: amrounds Tags: AM Podcast AM Podcast Transcript Academic Medicine podcast faculty learning environment medical students RIME Source Type: blogs

Questions grow about the validity and usefulness of direct-to-consumer blood tests for Alzheimer ’s Disease
For the first time, people worried about their risk of Alzheimer’s disease can go online, order a blood test, and receive results in the privacy of their homes. This might seem appealing on the surface, but the development has Alzheimer’s researchers and clinicians up in arms. The Quest Diagnostics blood test, AD-Detect, measures elevated levels of amyloid-beta proteins, a signature characteristic of Alzheimer’s. Introduced in late July, the test is targeted primarily at people 50 and older who suspect their memory and thinking might be impaired and people with a family history of Alzheimer’s or genetic risks for t...
Source: SharpBrains - October 19, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Judith Graham at Kaiser Health News Tags: Brain/ Mental Health AD-Detect Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s biomarker amyloid-beta proteins brain health brain pathology cognitive cognitive-symptoms mini-strokes neurology neuropsychologist Quest Diagnostics sleep apnea Source Type: blogs

Language Barriers: Protecting Your Organization From A Hidden HIPAA Threat
The following is a guest article by Bill Young, Director of Healthcare & Life Sciences at SYSTRAN Keeping patient data confidential and secure remains a major healthcare challenge today, more than 25 years after the introduction of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act or HIPAA. HIPAA is regulatory guidance to ensure Patient Health Information (PHI) is protected in specific entities, mainly healthcare facilities, and healthcare admin support institutions, for the transfer and flow of health information. How has the HIPPA management challenge increased? To review, in 2021, the US Department of H...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 28, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Administration AI/Machine Learning Ambulatory Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Regulations Security and Privacy Bill Young Data Breaches Health Data Translation Healthcare Translation HIPAA HIPAA B Source Type: blogs

Ensuring Fairness in Medical Education Assessment
This study takes a first step in centering the margins as we as medical educators grow our understanding of the dynamics of promoting fairness in assessment. Future studies should explore feedback with intentional inclusion and involvement of diverse students, teachers, and researchers at every stage of the research process from conceptualization through dissemination and application of the new learning. We thank our participants for their time and candor discussing this sensitive topic and the Group on Educational Affairs for funding our work. Thank you for your time and attention and the focus that you’ll put on th...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - September 18, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: amrounds Tags: AM Podcast AM Podcast Transcript Academic Medicine podcast assessment equity Macy Foundation medical education Source Type: blogs

Device for Rapid COVID-19 Breath Testing
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have developed a COVID-19 breathalyzer test. The technology requires someone to breathe into it just once or twice, and it can then provide an indication if the person is infected with SARS-CoV-2 in as little as one minute. The device could be very useful fo screening large numbers of people prior to access to an indoor event, for instance, or in community clinics to quickly determine if people are infected. Moreover, the technology could be adapted to detect other viruses, which may be useful for future outbreaks. The system involves blowing into a straw, which direc...
Source: Medgadget - September 7, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Medicine Public Health wustl WUSTLmed Source Type: blogs

Hopes and Questions raised by Alzheimer ’s drug Leqembi (lecanemab)
The FDA has approved Leqembi, the first disease-modifying treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s and a precursor condition, mild cognitive impairment. Medicare has said it will pay for the therapy. Medical centers across the country are scrambling to finalize policies and procedures for providing the medication to patients, possibly by summer’s end or early autumn. It’s a fraught moment, with hope running high for families and other promising therapies such as donanemab on the horizon. Still, medical providers are cautious. “This is an important first step in developing treatments for complex neurodegenerative disea...
Source: SharpBrains - August 17, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Judith Graham at Kaiser Health News Tags: Brain/ Mental Health cognition early-stage Alzheimer’s Eisai FDA lecanemab Leqembi Medicare mild-cognitive-impairment Source Type: blogs