Cardiac sonographers at Pauley help capture the true picture of heart health
(VCU Health – February 19, 2025)

When you go to the cardiologist, you aren’t seeing just a cardiologist; you’re being cared for by a team of professionals trained in all aspects of heart health care – nurses, imaging specialists, technicians and other support staff. One team member you will likely encounter at your cardiologist’s office is a cardiac sonographer, also known as an echocardiographer.  An echocardiogram — a procedure that uses sound waves to create pictures of the heart— allows a cardiologist to see how a patient’s heart pumps blood, which is critical for evaluating symptoms and diagnosing heart disease. Echocardiograms are a form of sonography, meaning they do not use any radiation, are painless and come with virtually zero side effects. An echocardiogram is often the first tool a cardiologist will use to gather an understanding of a patient’s cardiovascular health.

Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, appointed senior vice president and chief research officer
(Children’s National Hospital – February 20, 2025)

Children’s National Hospital has appointed Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, as the senior vice president and chief research officer of the Children’s National Research Institute. In this role, she will lead efforts to grow basic and translational research programs as well as strategic planning for research and external relationships. “After over seven years of leading the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, I look forward to building on our groundbreaking research and continuing to drive the development of innovative therapies,” Dr. Bollard said. “The research institute team is poised to take our work to the next level and make an even greater impact in the fight against childhood diseases.”

Discovery Reveals Potential Key to Reversing Hair Loss
(UVA Health – February 19, 2025)

A surprising discovery from the School of Medicine is transforming our understanding of hair growth and could set the stage for new approaches to cure hair loss. Researchers led by UVA’s Lu Q. Le, MD, PhD, have discovered that a previously under-appreciated stem cell population in the upper and middle sections of the hair follicle is essential for hair growth. When these cells are depleted, hair growth stops. That suggests that replenishing or activating these stem cells could restore hair growth, the researchers report. These malleable stem cells in the upper- and mid- hair follicle region are early ancestors of our hair, Le’s team found. That upends the long-accepted belief that hair growth begins with stem cells in an area near the bulbous base of the follicle technically known as “the bulge.”

Donna Anthony, MPH, appointed chief strategy officer for Children’s National Hospital
(Children’s National Hospital – February 20, 2025)

Children’s National Hospital has appointed Donna Anthony, MPH, as its new senior vice president and chief strategy officer. Prior to this, Anthony served as the vice president and chief of staff at Children’s National, playing a critical role in managing executive priorities and driving progress on strategic and operational initiatives. “Donna has consistently demonstrated strong leadership skills through engaging a broad range of stakeholders in decision-making processes,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, MHA, FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Children’s National. “Her ability to drive progress and foster collaboration has been and will continue to be instrumental in our success.”

‘Don’t go outside, you’ll catch a cold!’ Or will you?
(WRIC – February 19, 2025)

The snowfall blanketing Central Virginia Tuesday night into Wednesday morning has created all sorts of problems for residents, but illness is not one of them — at least not directly. 8News spoke with local and state health experts to clear up some common misconceptions about cold weather and being sick. At some point in your life, you have likely been told, “Don’t go outside — you’ll catch a cold.”

Facing higher risk, here’s what Black Americans should know – and do – about their heart health
(VCU Health – February 20, 2025)

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, but Black Americans are more susceptible than other ethnic groups. They are 30% more likely than white Americans to die from heart disease, and Black men have a 70% higher risk of developing heart failure than white men. Research has revealed that rates of heart disease in Black Americans is not due to race itself, but rather to a combination of social determinants of health (nonmedical factors such as environment, income and social context) and lifestyle factors (habits and choices such as diet, exercise and sleep).

Helping Hands for Andrea after Helene
(Centra Health – February 19, 2025)

Andrea Beaudry, RN, MSN, can pinpoint the exact moment during Hurricane Helene she knew her family was in trouble. “Our power went out around 5 am, which luckily woke us up,” said Andrea, who works remotely with Information Technology (IT) as clinical informatics manager. “We went to the most sheltered room in our basement to ride out the storm. Within an hour of relocating, a tree came through the bedrooms we were just sleeping in, caving in about one-third of the upper floor of our house.” Hunkered down in their basement, Andrea, her husband, 5-year-old daughter and their pets remained tense as they heard tree after tree falling — some directly on their house and others on their 1-acre mountain property.

Kaine pushing support for rural hospitals
(News on the Neck – February 20, 2025)

Senator Tim Kaine is co-sponsoring The Rural Hospital Support Act, an effort aiming to prevent rural hospital closures by extending and modernizing Medicare programs that are deemed critical to the facilities’ survival. One of the program’s the bill is focused on is the Medicare-Dependent Hospital (MDH) program created in 1989 to support hospitals with a high percentage of Medicare patients.

Mary Washington Healthcare Leads the Region with the Most da Vinci 5 Robots, Reinforcing Commitment to Patient Care
(Mary Washington Healthcare – February 20, 2025)

Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC) has emerged as a leader in surgical innovation, now holding the highest ratio of Intuitive’s da Vinci 5 (DV5) robotic surgical systems per operating rooms across Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This milestone underscores MWHC’s unwavering commitment to investing in the most advanced medical technology to enhance patient outcomes. Since the introduction of the DV5 at MWHC in October 2024, the health system has demonstrated measurable improvements in surgical efficiency. Surgeons utilizing the DV5 have achieved a 14.8% reduction in operative time, which translates to less time under anesthesia for patients—improving safety, recovery times, and overall patient experience.

Understanding Cholesterol
(Centra Health – February 19, 2025)

Understanding your cholesterol levels can be key to maintaining your heart health and helping reduce heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. In this article, we talk with Dr. Meyer from Centra’s Heart & Vascular Institute to learn what cholesterol is, the different types of cholesterol and lifestyle changes that can promote good cholesterol for your heart health. What is Cholesterol, and how do you test for it? Cholesterol is a waxy fat-like substance made in the body to help build cells to make vitamins and hormones. In excess, it can lead to disease. The primary diseases that we worry about are coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

Divided Idaho House passes bill critics say will repeal Medicaid expansion
(Idaho Capital Sun – February 19, 2025)

A bill that could repeal voter-approved Medicaid expansion narrowly cleared its first chamber of the Idaho Legislature. After an hour and a half of debate Wednesday, the Idaho House on a narrow 38-32 vote passed a Medicaid expansion reform-or-repeal bill. House Bill 138, by Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, requires Idaho to enact 11 Medicaid policy changes or repeal Medicaid expansion — a policy that lets more low-income Idahoans be eligible for the health insurance assistance program.

Since the expiration of COVID-19 related health care guarantees, public insurance coverage in California has dropped by over 850,000. The nationwide “disenrollment,” or “unwinding,” process that began last year has seen Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment in the Golden State fall from around 14.3 million to just over 13.4 million over the 18 months leading up to October 2024, according to KFF, a health policy research nonprofit.

Map Shows States With Medicaid Work Requirements as Change Possible
(Newsweek – February 19, 2025)

In a renewed push under the Trump administration, states across the U.S. are revisiting the controversial topic of Medicaid work requirements. Georgia is the only state actively enforcing these requirements. Arkansas is making a significant push to reintroduce work requirements alongside several other states that are also considering the implementation of similar policies. Medicaid work requirements are a hotly debated issue. Proponents argue they encourage personal responsibility and reduce government spending, while critics claim they restrict access to necessary healthcare and complicate the lives of low-income individuals—potentially increasing the uninsured rate.

New Jersey Removes 500k People From Healthcare Plan
(Newsweek – February 20, 2025)

Since the expiry of COVID-related healthcare safeguards, public coverage in New Jersey has dropped by nearly 500,000. According to health policy research group the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrolment in New Jersey has fallen by 486,135, from over 2.2 million to under 1.8 million between March 2023 and October 2024. While seeing a less steep decline than states such as Florida and Texas, the 22 percent drop in enrolment is far ahead of the national average of 16 percent, raising questions about why fewer New Jerseyans were able to retain their coverage following the end of the pandemic-era protections.

Texas mental health licensing board gives initial OK to remove training requirement associated with DEI
(The Texas Tribune – February 19, 2025)

The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to give preliminary approval to remove language that requires cultural competency as part of continuing education requirements for several licensed mental health professions. This move has prompted support from those who are against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and opposition from mental health providers who say it will hurt the experience for patients, particularly those of color. However, officials with the state’s mental health licensing authority say people have misunderstood their motives, as political discussions surrounding DEI have turned a simple rule change into something more.

10 top reasons for hospitalization for older adults
(Becker’s Hospital Review – February 20, 2025)

Sepsis ranked as the most common reason for hospitalization among older adults, a KFF report found. The report is based on data from the American Hospital Association annual survey, the American Medical Association physician practice benchmark survey, the Census Bureau delineation files and population estimates, the healthcare cost and utilization project national inpatient samples, RAND hospital data and other sources.

2025: AI enhances personalized care; caregiver experience in the spotlight
(Healthcare IT News – February 20, 2025)

Valerie Reich, vice president of healthcare strategy at Hero Digital, a customer engagement and process optimization firm, believes three primary changes will occur in the healthcare industry this year. First, AI, thus far known in healthcare for creating efficiencies, will begin to play a big role in accelerating medical advancements and enhancing personalized care – without adding any burden to those providing the healthcare. Second, patients will be looking for health systems that support them holistically as they increasingly understand the power of their health data, both in terms of its predictive capabilities and its ability to personalize treatment plans.

Global warming’s deadly toll on hospitals
(Axios – February 20, 2025)

Heat waves can gum up hospitals enough to bring deadly consequences even beyond patients directly afflicted, a new study finds. Why it matters: It’s the first estimate of extreme heat that “unpacks the direct from the indirect effects that arise due to hospital congestion,” it states. The big picture: The working paper released via the National Bureau of Economic Research uses Mexican health care datasets to explore mortality at different temperature ranges. It covers ER and hospital admissions from 2012–2019 at facilities under Mexico’s Ministry of Health.

Healthcare was most breached sector in 2024: report
(Healthcare Dive – February 19, 2025)

Data breaches hit the healthcare sector more than other industries last year, according to a report published this week by financial and risk advisory firm Kroll. In 2024, the healthcare industry accounted for 23% of data breaches handled by the advisory, compared with just 18% in 2023. The sector was battered by cyberattacks last year — including the major incident at claims processor Change Healthcare — and the industry operated with “fairly immature” incident response practices, wrote Denyl Green, global head of breach notification at Kroll, in the report.

Hospital air cleaners may boost aerosol spread of viruses in some areas
(CIDRAP – February 19, 2025)

Built-in mechanical ventilation and portable air cleaners (PACs), used by hospitals to help mitigate the spread of viruses, may actually spread viruses and other pathogens in some instances, according to new research from scientists at the University College London (UCL). The findings were recently published in Aerosol Science and Technology. The authors of the study constructed an experiment tracking airborne particles around UCL hospital (UCLH) outpatient clinic during a number of simulated scenarios. The researchers used aerosol generators dispersing saline solution in certain rooms, with particle detectors in other rooms to track the movement of particles around the clinic, including the nursing stations, waiting rooms, and corridors.

New calculation method estimates 380,000 US flu hospitalizations in 2022-23
(CIDRAP – February 19, 2025)

In the 2022-23 respiratory virus season, 379,300 people in the United State were hospitalized for influenza, with median cumulative state rates of 23.2 to 249.0 per 100,000 people, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led research team reports. The aim of the study, recently published in the American Journal of Public Health, was to develop a way to use hospital-based surveillance to estimate hospitalizations for flu by state, age, and month and, ultimately, improve flu burden estimation. The team analyzed Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET) data to estimate monthly hospitalization rates and compared the results with those from other sources.

Reports describe good maternal RSV vaccine, drug uptake in their first season
(CIDRAP – February 19, 2025)

A study today in JAMA Network Open from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), shows a high uptake of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine and the RSV-preventing monoclonal antibody nirsevimab among pregnant women seen during the 2023-24 season, the first RSV season the vaccine and drug were available. A second study, also published today in the same journal, looked at patients seen at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and found a lower uptake of maternal RSV vaccine and nirsevimab (Beyfortus) during the same initial season, but more than half of infants studied were protected.

Scientists warn of increased mpox transmission
(CIDRAP – February 20, 2025)

Genetic analyses of clade 1b, first detected in September 2023 in Kamituga, DRC, show that this variant has since undergone mutations making it more easily transmissible between humans. Scientists have identified three new subvariants, one of which has spread beyond Kamituga to other cities in the DRC, neighbouring countries, and even internationally to e.g. Sweden and Thailand. The new data may also suggest that clade 1b entails a high risk of miscarriage. This new research has been published as an accelerated scientific publication in the journal Nature Medicine.

Teen survives 18-hour heart surgery, celebrates turning 15
(Good Morning America – February 19, 2025)

A Texas teen is celebrating turning 15 after surviving an 18-hour surgery to repair a rare congenital heart condition. Matthew Perez, who celebrated his 15th birthday on Feb. 18, was at a school event last September when he collapsed unexpectedly. “Me and my friends were playing around and I was running, but then I started to feel very tired and off,” the ninth-grader from Houston recalled to “Good Morning America.” “It was like, I was gonna pass out. I could hardly breathe. My hearing was kind of muffled and all I could [see] was, like, this purple kind of haze.”

US Warned of 2032 Hospital Crisis
(Newsweek – February 19, 2025)

U.S. hospitals are on track for a crisis come 2032 that may lead to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths each year. This is the warning of a study by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who found that hospitals are not only fuller now than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic—but are on track to exceed the critical threshold of 85 percent hospital occupancy within just seven years. “For general hospital beds that are not ICU-level, many consider a bed shortage to occur at an 85 percent national hospital occupancy, marked by unacceptably long waiting times in emergency departments, medication errors and other in-hospital adverse events,” said paper author and UCLA professor of medicine Richard Leuchter in a statement.

Why this flu season is so severe
(Becker’s Hospital Review – February 19, 2025)

After a moderate influenza season last year, flu has returned with a vengeance this winter. The CDC estimates flu has killed between 16,000 to 79,000 people  (including 68 children),  infected between 29 million and 51 million people, and hospitalized up to 820,000 since Oct. 1. This season is now being regarded as the most severe flu season in the U.S. in 15 years.

Dr. Oz vows to sell healthcare stocks once confirmed to run CMS
(Fierce Healthcare – February 19, 2025)

Mehmet Oz, M.D., says he will divest from insurers, providers and drugmakers if he earns confirmation from the Senate to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), new ethic disclosure filings show. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and onetime television host who mounted an unsuccessful run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, holds stock in UnitedHealth Group, HCA Healthcare, Abbvie, Eli Lilly, Cencora, Danaher and McKesson. He also holds stock in tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia as well as healthcare startups. Disclosures from his Senate campaign run showed Oz once owned up to $500,000 in UnitedHealth Group stock and up to $100,000 in CVS stock.

HHS issues guidance recognizing only 2 sexes in one of Kennedy’s first moves at health agency
(Fierce Healthcare – February 19, 2025)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will define sex as an “immutable biological classification” and only recognize two sexes, male and female, according to guidance issued Wednesday. The guidance builds on President Donald Trump’s executive order that instructed the federal government to officially recognize only a person’s sex at birth and to stop recognizing the concept of gender identity. The HHS released the guidance to the U.S. government, external partners and the public. “The guidance recognizes there are only two sexes: male and female. HHS will use these definitions and promote policies acknowledging that women are biologically female and men are biologically male,” officials said Wednesday in a press release issued by HHS.

Trump administration yanks CDC flu vaccine campaign
(NPR – February 19, 2025)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stopping a successful flu vaccination campaign that juxtaposed images of wild animals, such as a lion, with cute counterparts, like a kitten, as an analogy for how immunization can help tame the flu. The news was shared with staff during a meeting on Wednesday, according to two CDC staffers who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, and a recording reviewed by NPR. During the meeting, leadership at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases told CDC staff that the Department of Health and Human Services had reviewed the campaign and advised that it would not continue.

Trump Backs House GOP Bill Slashing $1 Trillion From Medicaid and Food Stamps
(Truthout – February 19, 2025)

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump endorsed a House Republican budget plan that would impose hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, a healthcare program jointly funded by federal and state money, which helps provide coverage for Americans with lower incomes, including pregnant women, children and people with disabilities, among others. Trump endorsed the plan over another Senate proposal, which sought to pass much of his legislative agenda through two separate bills. Trump, who had previously said either plan was fine with him, said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that the House plan was better, in his mind, because it puts most everything he wants into “one big beautiful bill.”

Trump blindsides staff, Congress with conflicting Medicaid messages
(Politico – February 19, 2025)

President Donald Trump surprised some of his own staff Wednesday when he endorsed a House budget that would gut Medicaid, hours after pledging that the safety net program “isn’t going to be touched.” The comments sent aides scrambling to figure out what Trump meant and which Medicaid cuts he would be willing to accept, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the action happening behind closed doors. The potential Medicaid reductions — an option to help pay for Trump’s wide-ranging tax, energy and border agenda — are triggering a backlash from Republican lawmakers whose constituents rely on the program.

Trump cuts long COVID, health equity committees in new EO
(Fierce Healthcare – February 20, 2025)

President Donald Trump has terminated two advisory committees within the Department of Health and Human Services, one on long COVID and another on health equity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The advisory committees were cut in an executive order released late Wednesday night, Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” that broadly seeks to cut “unnecessary” programs to decrease government waste and lower inflation. The order targets advisory committees and programs across federal agencies.