Editor's Note The United States recorded more than 1.5 million excess deaths in 2022 and 2023 alone—avoidable fatalities that would not have occurred if US death rates matched those of other wealthy nations, according to a May 23 article in CIDRAP reporting on a Boston University–led study published in JAMA…

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Editor's Note Copeptin levels surge during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), marking it as a potential biomarker for physiological stress in cardiac surgery, according to a May 13 article in Medical Dialogues. The article details a prospective cohort study, published in the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, involving 61 adult patients…

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Editor's Note German health technology startup Medical Decision Alliance (MDA) has raised €3.3 million in seed funding to teach AI systems to think like top surgeons, leveraging human-like clinical intuition to guide OR teams. Tech Funding News reported the development May 22. As detailed in the article, which is focused…

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Editor's Note AI systems are only as secure and reliable as the data that powers them. That’s the central message of a guidance sheet jointly issued May 22 by the NSA, CISA, FBI, and cybersecurity agencies from Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The document outlines best practices for securing…

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Editor's Note Nearly two-thirds of healthcare organizations expect increased revenue from value-based care (VBC) arrangements in 2024, signaling growing confidence in the model despite concerns over financial risk and infrastructure gaps, according to a May 19 report in Healthcare Finance. The findings are based on a nationwide survey of 168…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has gone largely silent under new federal oversight, stalling disease alerts, halting newsletters, and freezing social media updates even as outbreaks and chronic health issues persist across the US. NPR reported the news May 21. As detailed in the article,…

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Editor's Note OpenAI has launched an open-source benchmark designed to test the safety and effectiveness of large language models in healthcare, according to a May 13 report in Fierce Healthcare. Called HealthBench, the dataset evaluates AI performance in real-world medical scenarios, moving beyond outdated exam-style questions and incorporating feedback from…

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Editor's Note The first study to evaluate percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in Medicare beneficiaries treated at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) found similar short-term safety outcomes as hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). As detailed in an announcement from The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI), the research was presented on May…

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Editor's Note Terry A. Bohlke, MSHA, CPA, CMA, CASC, emphasized that Rocky Mountain High Surgery Center is a pseudonym “to protect the innocent,” but the numbers he presented at the 2025 Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) Conference & Expo in Denver last week were real enough. Based on actual scenarios…

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In the OR, precision and focus can mean the difference between life and death. However, surgical patient outcomes hinge on more than the competence of those working in these inherently intense environments. Every procedure also depends on the laborious, behind-the-scenes efforts of the people responsible for ensuring every surgical instrument…

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