Editor's Note US News & World Report released its "Best Medical Schools" rankings with significant changes after a 2-year delay, MedPage Today reported July 23. Medical schools are now grouped into tiers instead of ordinal rankings for both research and primary care. This change follows several top schools, led by…

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Editor's Note Rural hospitals throughout the country are struggling to maintain labor and delivery units amid dwindling numbers of births, KFF Health News reported July 15, noting that more than half lack these services entirely. Nationwide, annual births have fallen from 4.3 million in 1957 to below 3.7 million by…

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Editor's Note The American Medical Association (AMA) annual, nationwide prior authorization survey reveals that over 90% of physicians believe prior authorization negatively impacts patient clinical outcomes. “More telling,” AMA reported July 17, is the fact that 78% of physicians report that this process “sometimes or often” leads to patients abandoning…

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Editor's Note Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health who has been monitoring drug shortages for over 20 years, spoke to AP News in June of her concerns. Currently, the situation is worse than ever, with total active shortages hitting an all-time high of 323 (with 48…

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Editor's Note The latest "Best Hospitals" rankings from U.S. News & World Report have been released with significant updates to methodology in response to recent controversies. MedPage Today reported the news July 16. Among the chief changes this year is the inclusion of Medicare Advantage data in the rankings, a…

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When it comes to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, radiology is leading the charge. As of May 13, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved nearly 900 AI- and machine learning (ML)-enabled devices, and the vast majority of them are in radiology. One example…

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Editor's Note Ascension has restored electronic health records (EHRs) throughout all hospitals and clinics nationwide, according to a June 14 update from the St. Louis-based health system. "Clinical workflow in our hospitals and clinics will function similarly to the way it did prior to the ransomware attack," the statement reads,…

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Editor's Note Personal patient data could have been compromised in the May 8 cyberattack on Ascension, according to the latest update from the St. Louis-based healthcare system. Posted June 12, the update reveals that attackers accessed files from seven out of 25,000 file servers used for routine tasks, potentially containing…

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Editor's Note A June 6 meeting on gun violence prevention at the White House attracted more than 80 top health care executives to lend expertise on mental health, gunshot wounds, and more, Becker’s Hospital Review reports.   Hosted by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, established in 2023,…

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Editor's Note Artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled analysis of electronic health records suggests that clinical guidelines for de-escalating surgery should be extended to younger breast cancer patients. Conducted by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers and published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, the analysis suggests that “surgery involving sentinel…

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