Editor's Note Regenerative medicine practices that incorporate biological materials such as platelets, stem cells, and exosomes to stimulate natural healing can be a “powerful addition to the orthopedic toolkit,” according to an orthopedic and spine surgeon based in New York and quoted in a December 10 article in The Financial.…

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Editor's Note Joint Commission has posted its updated Survey Process Guides (SPGs) for hospitals and critical access hospitals on its website, according to the December 10 issue of Joint Commission Online. The SPGs, which are effective January 1, 2026, represent a major revision that replaces the Survey Activity Guide for…

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Editor's Note This year has been busy for smoke evacuation legislation, with several states including North Carolina and Delaware signing mandatory surgical smoke evacuation into law. Work in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Michigan recently shared about in an AORN legislative update provides a snapshot of what it can take to educate…

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Editor's Note Technologies continue to advance for effective, efficient, and safe surgical smoke evacuation. And healthcare organizations are reaping the rewards, including improved employee health and productivity. A surgical smoke expert recently explored the current state of regulatory, legislative, and technology developments to reduce surgical smoke exposure in Today’s Medical…

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Editor's Note Findings from a physician survey developed by the American Medical Association and applied with physicians in a large medical group in Texas, showed that while satisfaction was high, so was burnout at a rate of 33% overall and 42.9% among physicians with less than five years’ experience, according…

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Editor's Note Recent findings from the TRACTION study in which patients undergoing higher-risk non-cardiac surgery received tranexamic acid (TXA) or a placebo, demonstrated that patients who received TXA, a generic drug that promotes blood clotting, needed significantly fewer blood transfusions and saw no increase in potentially life-threatening blood clots after…

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Editor's Note While artificial intelligence (AI) tools can inspire innovation and efficiency, they also pose safety risks, especially in a healthcare setting. Therefore, balancing centralization versus decentralization for AI oversight requires the right approach, according to research findings in a December 10 article in Harvard Business Review. The investigators sought…

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Editor's Note Care can be highly variable across outpatient settings for patients receiving follow-up care for traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as for skull fracture repair and shunt placement. Inadequate follow-up care after initial injury is a key factor in the potential for poor TBI outcomes. A new clinical practice…

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Editor's Note New research led by an orthopedic spine surgeon shows that 360° spine fusions, which are the most complex spinal fusions representing significant cost in inpatient settings, can be performed safely and effectively in an outpatient setting when the center has the right infrastructure and team in place, according…

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Editor's Note Several ASC leaders recently shared the financial threats they are most concerned about in 2026, including staffing costs and the changing payer landscape, in a December 5 news story in Becker's ASC Review. For example, staffing costs are a top concern for an ASC administrator at a surgery…

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