There is a significant risk of spreading infection of influenza-like illness in primary care offices, a new research article shows. The potential for the spread of respiratory illness in healthcare settings has been a primary concern during the coronavirus pandemic. To address this concern, many outpatient clinics closed their doors in the early phase of the pandemic and telehealth expanded tremendously to keep patients and their clinicians safely connected for care.

The new research article, which was published by Health Affairs, is based on information collected from a national electronic health records database for patient visits at more than 6,000 office-based primary care practices from 2016 to 2017.

The coronavirus pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the wellbeing of physicians, a new survey report says. The coronavirus pandemic is one of the most significant public health crises in more than a century. Physicians have been on the frontline of the struggle, working long hours and enduring the emotional toll of losing hundreds of thousands of patients to the virus. The new survey report, which was published this week by The Physicians Foundation, is based on data collected from 2,500 physicians. The survey was conducted from May 26 to June 9, 2021.

The National Alliance of Purchaser Coalitions recently conducted a survey that showed six in 10 employers are considering or already engaged in value-based design approaches, in no small part because of the impact of COVID-19. The new options in comprehensive, advanced analytic platforms that can help track, measure, and drive down cost make this shift increasingly possible. When analytics are combined with proactive care management and coordination through the Center of Excellence model, organizations are finding financial stability not seen during the pandemic.

Conditions like preterm birth, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes impact 45 million women every year across the world. That’s triple the rate of cancer, yet we lack a reliable way to identify patients who are at risk. A team of physicians are working on groundbreaking research into pregnancy-related cell-free RNA (cfRNA) to develop a simple blood test that would enable early detection of these conditions. Drs. Michal Elovitz, Thomas McElrath, and Stephen Quake are working alongside Mirvie on this test, which uses a small blood sample to analyze tens of thousands of molecular transcripts from the mother, baby, and placenta. Made possible with the help of state-of-the-art machine learning, the test aims to help detect conditions earlier and therefore promote better outcomes for mothers and babies.

If you felt aggravated by OSHA’s rush to implement an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect healthcare workers against COVID-19, you are not alone. By late July more than 130 individuals and organizations, representing hospitals and associations, doctor’s offices, health systems, medical clinics, and long-term care facilities, have submitted comments on the interim rule that took up 258 pages when printed in the Federal Register.