Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to save the US healthcare economy $150 billion by 2026. Replacing legacy systems and changing standard operating procedures, hospitals are moving to capitalize on technology and the ways it can change a historically hesitant to change sector. The big question is how fast teams are going to implement changes. Healthcare leadership recently reported that their organizations are 60% through their digitalization journey. IT leaders must be leading
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Salignostics Raises $8M for Rapid Saliva-Based Test Kits That Detect Pregnancy, COVID-19, Cardiac Risk, and Malaria
What You Should Know: - Israeli startup Salignostics, the developer and provider of rapid saliva-based tests for early pregnancy detection, as well as COVID-19, cardiac risk, malaria, and other diseases, has closed an $8 million Series A funding round from private investors headed by angel investor Avigdor Orlinsky. - The company has raised $16M to date to support development, commercialization, and marketing efforts for the tests in Israel and overseas. It will also support the launch of
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Why Digital Transformation Is Imperative to Combat Healthcare’s Labor Crisis
As the coronavirus pandemic first spread across the globe, health systems turned to technology and virtual care while focusing their efforts on COVID-19 and its consequences. Physicians deployed digital tools to keep the worried well out of hospitals, to keep beds open for COVID-19 patients, and to support and manage conditions like pregnancy from the safety of patients’ homes. Now the healthcare sector faces a new challenge. The so-called “Great Resignation” is causing workers to leave their
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MLB Taps Cue Health to Expand League-Wide COVID-19 Testing Program for 2022 Season
What You Should Know: - Cue Health Inc. (“Cue”), a healthcare technology company, and Major League Baseball (MLB) today announced a national partnership that expands Cue’s support of the league-wide COVID-19 testing program. - Serving As MLB’s trusted at-home testing solution, Cue will provide Major League Clubs as well as the MLB league office with its integrated care platform, featuring both the portable and reusable Cue Health Monitoring
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Why Telemedicine Isn’t A Temporary Fix — It’s The Future
In March 2020, many office workers packed up their bags under the mandate of their employers, assuming they’d be working from home for a few weeks so the coronavirus could “blow over.” Fast-forward two years: many of those same employees have yet to step foot back into their old offices, and some never will again. A similar trend is playing out in healthcare. When COVID-19 started, many health systems rapidly adopted virtual care models as a matter of necessity to keep as many non-COVID
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Healthgrades Releases Top 24 Hospitals Leading Early COVID Care
What You Should Know: - Healthgrades announced its Leading Hospitals in Early COVID Care list of the top 24 U.S. hospitals that provided exceptional care while treating the highest volumes of coronavirus patients during the first wave of the pandemic. Methodology Background Using inpatient data from CMS for almost every hospital in the country, Healthgrades identified 24 U.S. hospitals that provided exceptional care while treating the highest volumes
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With No End in Sight for COVID, Why Is Congress Not Acting on Telehealth?
Long gone are the days of physicians arriving at a patient’s bedside, medical bag, and stethoscope in tow. The idea of a house call is quaint, like something seen in an old movie. But during the COVID pandemic, this olden idea has received a high-tech upgrade in the form of telehealth. 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 unless Congress acts to expand coverage
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Lucira Health Secures $80M to Expand COVID-19 Test Kit
What You Should Know: - Lucira Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: LHDX), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of transformative and innovative infectious disease test kits, today announced it has secured a debt facility of up to $80M with Hercules Capital, Inc. and Silicon Valley Bank. - Lucira's COVID-19 testing platform produces lab-quality molecular testing in a single-use, consumer-friendly, palm-size test kit powered by two AA batteries. The FDA EUA
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Omicron: Hospitals and Physicians Face High Expenses & Labor Shortages
What You Should Know: - The nation’s hospitals, health systems, and physician groups closed the second year of the pandemic amid ballooning expenses exacerbated by nationwide labor shortages and global supply chain challenges. Many providers ended 2021 in a stronger financial position relative to the first year of COVID-19 in 2020, as they learned to better navigate pandemic volatility. Yet overall performance remains down compared to pre-pandemic levels,
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Pfizer, BioNTech Launches Clinical Trial for Omicron-Specific COVID-19 Vaccine
What You Should Know: - Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) announced the initiation of a clinical trial study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of an Omicron-based vaccine candidate in healthy adults 18 through 55 years of age. - The study will have three cohorts examining different regimens of the current Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or an Omicron-based vaccine. The study will draw upon some participants from the companies’ Phase 3 COVID-19
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