About 25 percent of adults in the U.S. are not active enough to protect their health, according to the CDC's physical inactivity maps updated Jan. 20. 

The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, there will be 1.4 billion people older than 60 on the planet. Caring for this population will require intensive care from health professionals, but robots might help ease the burden, Nature reported Jan. 19.

The digital health industry raised a record amount of funding, with growth to the sector increasing 79 percent since 2020, according to a 2021 report released by CB Insights on Jan. 20.

Helen Newberry (Mich.) Joy Hospital and Healthcare Center and Midland-based MyMichigan Health joined forces to implement a new Epic EMR system for patients at Helen Newberry.

Gail Boudreaux, Anthem CEO and president, was awarded the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest individual honor: the Theodore Roosevelt Award. 

The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of Academic Health Centers have approved a merger agreement.

The Jump ARCHES program, a partnership between Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, will fund a program to develop technologies and devices to enhance healthcare delivery and medical training.

An estimated 1.27 million people around the world died directly from antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, according to a study published Jan. 19 in The Lancet. Antimicrobial resistance was also a factor in nearly 5 million deaths globally, the estimates show. 

Amid the latest COVID-19 surge fueled by the omicron variant, some Southern California hospitals are facing a bottleneck in their ability to move patients treated in the emergency room to a hospital bed, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 20.

Walgreens and VillageMD said Jan. 20 they will open eight Village Medical at Walgreens locations this year in the metro area of Tucson, Ariz.

The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association launched the Comprehensive Heart Attack Center Certification program on Jan. 19 to advance care for the most complex and severely ill cardiac patients. 

All blood specimen collection tubes were added to the FDA's device shortage list on Jan. 19 amid an increase in demand and recent supply issues.

Ten health systems have posted job listings for supply chain expertise in the last week:

The omicron surge has yet to peak nationwide, but some states are reporting a recent drop in COVID-19 cases or hospitalizations.

Health data has transformed healthcare and with the rise of telehealth, patient data is being acquired quickly, but healthcare facilities must balance healthcare data collection with patient privacy, Raconteur reported Jan. 19.

The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, part of Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, has won a case alleging its name was being used to divert people to a pornographic website. 

After three rejected bids, London-based Unilever is throwing in the towel, stating that it will not raise its $68 billion offer to purchase GSK Consumer Healthcare, the joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 19.

HCA Healthcare, a for-profit hospital operator based in Nashville, Tenn., is facing a federal antitrust case in Florida concerning the orthopedic surgery market. 

The following hospital and health system CEO moves have been reported since Jan. 14:

New daily COVID-19 hospitalization rates in the U.S. have risen 42 percent over the last two weeks, with a daily average of 158,638 virus patients hospitalized, according to HHS data cited by The New York Times.