Patient Care

This page includes news coverage of various aspects of patient healthcare, including new technology innovations, what is working, what is not, personalized medicine and remote and telemedicine delivery. Find specific news in the areas of Care DeliveryDigital TransformationPrecision MedicineRemote Monitoring and Telehealth.

doctor notes

AI course-of-care notes help doctors, pose little risk of harm to patients

Agentic large-language models can draft hospital discharge summaries that are safe, useful and demonstrably effective at helping to curb physician burnout, according to research conducted at Stanford University.

Subhasis Chatterjee, MD. FACS, FACC, FCCP, Associate Professor of Surgery, Director Thoracic Surgical ICU and ECMO Program, Texas Heart Institute at CHI Baylor St. Lukes, explains the new 2026 expert consensus on heparin induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) released at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) 2026 annual meeting. #AATS #AATS2026 #AATS26

AATS helps heart surgeons diagnose and manage heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia after heart surgery is a major concern, but prior guidelines were developed without much feedback from actual cardiac surgeons.

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PSMA PET imaging’s proliferation produces uptick in aggressive treatment for prostate cancer

First approved by the FDA in 2021, providers have rapidly adopted this clinical innovation, which offers greater accuracy in detecting prostate cancer. 

GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RAs) have become the wonder drug not only of weight loss, but also for improving cardiovascular health in a growing number of positive cardiovascular trials. The latest study of more than 13,000 patients presented at Heart Rhythm 2026 this week showed the GLP-1 reduce atrial fibrillation (AFib) and survival, even after accounting for the drug’s impact on weight loss.

CMS unveils $50 GLP-1 prescriptions for Medicare patients

The agency said the new program, made possible by Medicare Part D, begins on July 1 and will extend until the end of 2027. For $50 a month, Medicare beneficiaries will be able to access popular weight loss drugs, in hopes they will improve overall health.

emergency department

Analysis: The public may not be wrong to think of the ED as the ‘front door’ of the hospital

The perception is probably more pronounced in community hospital EDs than their academic counterparts. 

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Iowa hospital sued after allegedly extracting patient’s organs without family consent

In a lawsuit, the daughters of a deceased patient accuse Alegent Health-Community Memorial Hospital of Missouri Valley of medical malpractice and negligence, alleging donations were harvested without proper consultation. It’s alleged that their father was not registered as an organ donor.

Video of Makoto Hashimoto, MD, PhD, professor and director of robotic cardiac surgery at Florida International University, Baptist Health, who presented a study on robotic surgery outcomes and costs at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) 2026 annual meeting this week. While the costs of these minimally invasive robotic procedures is higher that traditional surgical procedures, he said costs overall can be reduced in terms of faster patient recovery, shorter length of stays.

Upfront costs of robotic heart surgery are high—but it may be a smart investment

Makoto Hashimoto, MD, PhD, said robotic procedures are associated with a faster recovery time and many other potential benefits.

Computer frustration

What’s eating healthcare AI? Not healthcare AI itself

When AI fails to thrive in healthcare, the problem is usually not with an algorithm. It’s with something deeper. Three unrelated opinion pieces authored by far-flung subject matter experts hit on this theme just this week.