HEOR News
AWS Launches New Healthcare-Focused Services, Powered by Generative AI (TechCrunch)
Amazon has expanded its range of health-focused apps and services with the launch of HealthScribe, a platform that offers artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help clinicians transcribe and analyze their conversations with patients. The platform creates transcripts, extracts details, and creates summaries from doctor-patient discussions that can be entered into an electronic health record system.
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Research Method Reveals Health Impacts of Heat and Air Quality (Open Access Government)
Researchers from the University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University collaborated on an innovative data collection method to understand the implications of rising temperatures and declining air quality. The study published in Environmental Research revealed that even moderate temperature increases, such as nighttime temperatures starting at 18.4o Celsius, can trigger a surge in hospital visits and fatalities, especially among older adults and individuals with cardiorespiratory conditions.
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More Evidence Needed to Recommend Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Tirzepatide (NICE)
NICE issued a draft guidance against the recommendation of Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro (tirzepatide) injection for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, with experts saying while clinical trial evidence showed that any dose of the once-weekly injected drug resulted in better glucose control and lower weight compared with semaglutide or insulin therapy, they want Lilly to provide more data to address the uncertainties in the clinical evidence when compared to all relevant alternative treatments.
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Early OxyContin Marketing Linked to Long-Term Spread of Infectious Diseases Associated With Injection Drug Use (Health Affairs)
A study evaluating the effects of exposure to initial OxyContin marketing on the long-term trajectories of injection drug use–related outcomes in the United States found that OxyContin marketing decisions from the mid-1990s increased viral and bacterial complications of injection drug use and illicit opioid–related overdose deaths 25 years later.
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WHO Endorses Landmark Public Health Decisions on Essential Medicines for Multiple Sclerosis (World Health Organization)
The new editions of the Model Lists of Essential Medicines (EML) now include cladribine, glatiramer acetate, and rituximab—3 medicines that can delay or slow the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). The inclusion of these drugs is aimed at facilitating improved access to treatment for people living with MS around the world.
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The Rise and Fall of Underemployment: Implications for Workers’ Health (Health Affairs)
Underemployment—particularly in the form of working part-time involuntarily rather than voluntarily—is associated with reduced self-reported general health and antecedents to it, such as greater work stress, work-life imbalance, and financial insecurity.
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Africa CDC, WHO, and RKI Launch a Health Security Partnership to Strengthen Disease Surveillance in Africa (World Health Organization)
The intent of the partnership, which will initially be launched in The Gambia, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, and South Africa, is to strengthen Africa’s health security capabilities in the areas of biosecurity, integrated disease surveillance, event-based surveillance, genomic surveillance, and epidemic intelligence.
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A New Vision for US Healthcare (MIT News)
In her new book, We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care, MIT Professor Amy Finkelstein and her coauthor, Liran Einav, posit that the solution to address the United States’ patchwork health insurance system is to provide free, basic healthcare for everyone, with automatic enrollment, no charges for basic care, and no losing insurance with a job switch or climbing above the poverty line.
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Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Announces Leadership Transition (ICER)
Steven Pearson, MD is stepping down from the organization after 17 years. Sarah K. Emond, MPP, most recently executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ICER, is being promoted to serve as president-elect. Following the transition, Pearson will remain at ICER as an advisor through the end of 2024.
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How Healthcare May Be Affected by the High Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling
US doctors are concerned that the Supreme Court’s affirmative action will have far-reaching effects not only on the diversity of doctors and other care providers in training but ultimately also on patient care, with an analysis of bans in 6 states finding that medical school enrollment of students of color who were members of underrepresented groups fell roughly 17% after the bans were instituted.
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