With the onset of COVID-19, health care providers implemented telemedicine to safely expand care to patients and comply with public health guidelines. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently acted in the best interests of patients and health care providers by covering telehealth services through 2023. But what will happen to telehealth coverage after 2023?
Author: Praveen Suthrum
World Bank and WHO have agreed that half the world still lacks access to essential health services, while 100 million people are being pushed into extreme poverty because of health expenses. A study has found that “although the quantity rather than the quality of health services has been the focus historically in developing countries, ample evidence suggests that quality of care (or the lack of it) must be at the center of every discussion about better health”. Another study has found that adults in the U.S. are far more likely than those in other countries to go without needed care because of costs and to…
LAVAL, QC, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) “Bausch Health” and its gastroenterology business, Salix Pharmaceuticals (“Salix”), one of the largest specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world committed to the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, today announced the opening of the 2022 Salix Gastrointestinal Health Scholars Program application period. The program will award 10 exceptional students living with GI disease a scholarship of up to $10,000 as they work to pursue their higher education goals.
DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–EvoEndo®, Inc. (“EvoEndo”), a medical device company developing systems for Unsedated Transnasal Endoscopy (TNE), has announced the receipt of 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin marketing and sale of the EvoEndo® Single-Use Endoscopy System. The clearance follows EvoEndo’s distribution agreement with Micro-Tech Endoscopy USA, Inc. (“Micro-Tech”), which will begin a phased distribution of the EvoEndo System into hospitals and ASCs in the United States.
WATERTOWN, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–athenahealth, Inc. (“athenahealth” or “the Company”), a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise software solutions for medical groups and health systems nationwide, today announced that affiliates of Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman have completed their acquisition of athenahealth from Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital for $17 billion.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a fecal wash sample yields more information about histological inflammation than a biopsy sample, and may help inform diagnosis, disease monitoring and treatment selection, researchers say. “Our lab reasoned that the cells that are shed from the gastrointestinal tract could carry information that would report on pathological processes in the gut,” Dr. Shalev Itzkovitz of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, told Reuters Health by email. “We therefore sequenced the mRNA content (the host transcriptome) of fecal washes in inflamed IBD patients and in controls.”
Pre-existing fecal microbiome diversity was unaffected by gluten challenge in patients with celiac disease and nonceliac gluten sensitivity, according to data published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology. “Investigations of celiac disease (CD) have posited a role of the gut microbiome in multiple aspects of disease development and progression,” Yael R. Nobel, MD, a gastroenterology and hepatology fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues wrote. “Certain taxa, including Bifidobacterium and Clostridial species such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, have decreased abundance in patients with active CD or treated CD compared with controls.”
An investigational oral microbiome treatment was 70% more effective than placebo in preventing Clostridioides difficile infection recurrence within eight weeks of treatment in people with multiply recurrent CDI. “In patients with recurrent C. difficile infection, achievement of a sustained clinical response can be made more likely with a two-pronged treatment paradigm of antibiotics followed by a microbiome therapeutic,” the researchers reported (N Engl J Med 2022;386:220-229). Promising phase 2 studies prompted the phase 3 trial, which examined the efficacy of live, purified Firmicutes bacterial spores SER-109 (Seres Therapeutics) in reducing the risk of CDI recurrence up to eight weeks after treatment.
Over the years, Walmart has proven time and again its deep-rooted resilience, ability to adapt, and commitment to innovation. For decades now, the company has been known as a retail powerhouse, consistently managing to provide products at discount prices and great value. Furthermore, Walmart has been able to capitalize on something unique that nearly no other retailer has been able to achieve: deep penetration into the fabric of American society and culture. This reputation has given the company the bandwidth and ability to survive even the toughest battles against online retailers such as Amazon or other large retailers such as…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Colorectal cold-snare polypectomy is safe to perform if direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are withheld on only the day of the procedure, a study from Japan suggests. “No delayed bleeding in colonoscopy with cold snare polypectomy occurred in patients withholding DOACs on the day of cold snare polypectomy,” researchers write in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. “The simplified strategy that withholding of DOACs in cold snare polypectomy for colorectal polyps (10 mm or less) . . . only on the day of the procedure can be recommended.”