Editor's Note Northwestern Medicine has partnered with robotic technology firm Vitestro to test and validate the safety and effectiveness of autonomous blood draw technology, according to a March 20 announcement from the health system. The multi-year collaboration centers on Aletta, billed as the world’s first Autonomous Robotic Phlebotomy Device (ARPD),…

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Editor's Note A large-scale study of over 50,000 ambulatory surgery center (ASC) procedures shows a strikingly low rate of 24-hour unplanned postoperative hospital admissions, offering a benchmark that other ASCs can strive to match, General Surgery News March 26 reports. Over a 7-year period from 2016 to 2022, researchers at…

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Editor's Note HST Pathways’ most recent industry report, discussed on the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast by HST CEO David Thawley and Bill Prentice, CEO of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA), offers insights into cardiology and orthopedic procedures done in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in 2024, Ambulatory Surgery Center News…

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Editor's Note Subtle risk factors—such as low BMI and hidden tumors—could lead to unexpected airway management difficulties, according to research published on March 17 in Nature: Scientific Reports. The case-control study analyzed 672 surgical patients who required endotracheal intubation between 2015 and 2020. Researchers compared 168 patients who experienced difficult…

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Editor's Note A newly refined 7T MRI imaging technique may significantly improve outcomes for people with hard-to-treat focal epilepsy by revealing tiny brain lesions that standard imaging methods often miss, HealthDay March 26 reports from a new study published in the journal Epilepsia. Researchers achieved this advance by implementing “parallel…

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Editor's Note A new study led by Leticia Nogueira, PhD, MPH, scientific director of Health Services Research at the American Cancer Society indicates, found that exposure to wildfires may influence how long patients remain in the hospital after undergoing surgery for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Cancer Network March 26…

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Editor's Note A wearable smart t-shirt that remotely monitors vital signs helped patients go home earlier and feel safer after robot-assisted urological cancer surgery, according to a March 21 article in Medical Xpress. The article details a pilot study, presented at the European Association of Urology Congress in Madrid, Spain,…

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Editor's Note A retrospective review of 14 hospitals over 7 years found that robotic cholecystectomy costs were, on average, 2.5 times higher than laparoscopic cholecystectomy ($1,447 vs. $669 per case). Findings were published on March 19 in the journal Surgery. Disposable instrument choices also impact costs. Despite the rising adoption…

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Editor's Note Ten hospitals have reportedly closed 3 months into the year, with five shuttering in February alone—a stark escalation compared to the 25 closures reported in 2024 and 14 in 2023, Becker’s Hospital Review March 21 reports. This troubling trend raises questions about the mounting difficulties hospitals face, from…

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Editor's Note Olympus Corp has introduced an AI-driven surgical planning tool designed to enhance precision in liver, lung, and kidney procedures by converting CT and MR scans into real-time 3D models. Meanwhile, the 16-year partnership between GE HealthCare and NVIDIA has evolved to focus on automating routine imaging tasks, such…

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