In a state first, the University of Arizona will open a three-year pathway for medical degrees at two of its medical schools. The program will be offered to students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine—Tucson and the University…

Maine has become the second state in the U.S. to adopt legislation changing the “physician assistant” title to “physician associate.”  The Maine State Legislature passed the bill June 2, and it was enacted June 16. The title change follows a…

A Houston-based Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center team has performed a fully robotic heart transplant. The procedure marks the first fully robotic heart transplant to be performed on an adult patient in the U.S., according to a June 17 news…

HHS’ recent overhaul of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has stripped the organization of valuable institutional knowledge and left the nation’s vaccine program “critically weakened,” according to a June 16 viewpoint published in JAMA. The article was authored by…

Three state nursing associations are speaking out against Medicaid enrollee data being shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yesterday, HHS officials ordered CMS to provide ICE with the personal data of Medicaid enrollees, including immigration status. The order applies to…

Digital innovation has emerged as a frontline strategy in health systems’ efforts to close nurse staffing gaps and improve the delivery of patient care. Leading organizations are investing in AI-powered tools to ease documentation burden among nursing staff, expanding virtual…

A proposed $793 billion cut to federal Medicaid spending is projected to cause 16,642 premature deaths among adults each year as Americans lose coverage, according to a study published June 16 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  The study from…

Patients whose first language is Spanish are more likely to acquire certain hospital-associated infections than those whose first language is English, according to a study by Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente. Infection prevention personnel at Kaiser Permanente reviewed 6,813 publicly reported…

NB.1.8.1 — a new COVID-19 variant tied to a surge in China — now accounts for around 37% of cases in the U.S., according to variant proportion estimates from the CDC.  Four notes: 

Tampa, Fla.-based BayCare Health System reduced nurse burnout by 34% and cut its new hire turnover rate to zero in the first year, thanks to its pilot nurse wellbeing program. BayCare was one of four health systems selected by the…