Care Delivery

This channel includes news on cardiovascular care delivery, including how patients are diagnosed and treated, cardiac care guidelines, policies or legislation impacting patient care, device recalls that may impact patient care, and cardiology practice management.

Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats
Private-equity acquisitions of primary-care provider practices neither alter hospitalization rates nor affect acute-care outcomes, according to new research out of Brown University.
How to—and how not to—consult with ‘Dr. ChatGPT’ and its peers
Do: Use large-language AI to help analyze your specific symptoms. Don’t: Ask a chatbot if you should go to the emergency room.
Post-pandemic allowances for telehealth claims have not triggered runaway healthcare spending
If Congress doesn’t act soon, CMS’s flexible funding of telemedicine visits—a temporary holdover from the COVID era—will dry up next year. A new study may help persuade fiscally cautious representatives not to let that happen.
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.
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.

Watchdog’s hospital safety scores show the South standing tall

Last week a business publication reported data showing the Northeast is the best region in the U.S. for healthcare while the South is the worst. Well, what a difference a week makes.

24 weighted metrics in 4 telling categories reveal best, worst states for healthcare

The Northeast is home to seven of the best states for healthcare. The South is that picture’s reverse image, hosting seven of the worst.

US infant mortality takes a turn for the worse

In calendar year 2022, annual infant mortality alarmingly rose in four states while receding to a reassuring degree in just one.

Lawrence Faucette, the pig heart transplant patient who died after six weeks.

Second patient in history to receive a pig heart transplant dies after 6 weeks

Lawrence Faucette, the second patient to ever receive a genetically modified pig heart, died on Oct. 30. “He can never be forgotten," his wife said in a statement.

Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

‘More dangerous than useful’: 1 in 5 coronary stents implanted by cardiologists are unnecessary, wasting $800M per year

A cardiologist-led think tank tracked data from more than 1 million procedures, exploring the clinical and economic impacts of implanting low-value coronary stents.

Nurses weigh in on best and worst hospitals to work for

A new national index showing levels of job satisfaction among nurses has Michigan Medicine and Houston Methodist tied for the top spot overall, at least within the “hospitals and health systems” subcategory.

Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

Care Delivery

Investor-bought PCPs carry on like nothing much has changed—with caveats

How to—and how not to—consult with ‘Dr. ChatGPT’ and its peers

Post-pandemic allowances for telehealth claims have not triggered runaway healthcare spending

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

AATS helps heart surgeons diagnose and manage heparin-induced thrombocytopenia