Mark Rosenblatt, MD, PhD, is set to serve as interim CEO of Chicago-based University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics.

I am sure many of you are watching with curiosity the furor in the press over academic institutions, specifically law schools and medical schools, exiting the rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Recent news articles and commentaries have provided various perspectives. The issues to the public must seem arcane at best, but a little deeper view highlights some of the culture wars taking place in our country today.

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health has launched Culmination Bio, a biotech company that plans to help analyze millions of data points to predict, prevent and treat disease.

California has entered a 10-year contract with nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx to manufacture insulin and cap costs at $30 per vial, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during a March 18 press conference. 

A physician at Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health faces a federal charge of possession of child pornography and allegations of recording patient exams after an earlier arrest due to a related state investigation.

The FTC issued a deep dive on pixel tracking technology and how the tools can negatively impact healthcare and consumer data. 

Two Arkansas health systems face a total of eight federal lawsuits over recent cyberattacks, Arkansas Business reported March 20.

DDoS attacks in healthcare are increasing with healthcare organizations suffering between 40 to 60 attacks daily in February, according to a March 17 blog post from Microsoft. 

Mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000 for use in ending early term pregnancies, has been banned by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon ahead of a federal ruling on the drug pending in a Texas court. 

Utah has become the first state to adopt the Physician Assistant Licensure Compact through legislation.

Americans are knee-deep in medical debt and most of that debt is owed to hospitals, with minority and low-income patients dealing with a disproportionate amount of it, according to a March 18 Washington Post report.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM have installed the first healthcare quantum computer at the health system, SDxCentral reported March 20.  

At least five states have introduced legislation this year to cap patients' out-of-pocket costs for EpiPens and other generic epinephrine autoinjectors. 

Researchers have discovered new data around the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and WHO is calling on China to be transparent about their research and data, Science reported March 17.

Oracle Cerner plans to lay off some employees and bring others back to the office full time, the Kansas City Business Journal reported.

Seattle Children's built an app for kids and their families to do Zoom-powered virtual visits, access their MyChart patient portal and navigate the hospital. But its creators told Becker's they want to keep pushing to create the "ChatGPT" or "Google Calendar" of digital front doors.

About 40 hospitals across five states have filed a lawsuit against HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, alleging that yearslong delays in correcting Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments have cost them "tens of millions" of dollars.

Joseph Cacchione, MD, CEO of Jefferson Health, told the audience at the Philadelphia Business Journal's Healthcare CEO Summit that the system expects to end the 2023 fiscal year with an $80 million loss as labor and supply costs continue to increase. But things are moving in the right direction.

Montana, South Dakota and Idaho are the top three places for physicians to practice in the U.S., according to a WalletHub ranking published March 20. The worst places to practice this year are Hawaii, Rhode Island and Alaska. 

Nuance Communications, a software and conversational artificial intelligence company owned by Microsoft, launched Dragon Ambient Experience Express, a clinical documentation application that uses OpenAI's newest model, GPT-4.