Metabolic management for one year improved thyroid function, blood glucose levels and insulin resistance in patients with poorly controlled diabetes, according to a study in the Journal of Diabetes. The research was based on 2,000 participants in China.
Flash glucose monitoring can increase the time within target range for blood glucose levels among patients with type 2 diabetes on sulfonylurea or insulin treatment who experienced acute coronary syndrome, compared with self-monitoring of blood glucose. The findings, presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes virtual meeting, also revealed that flash glucose monitoring shortens the time spent in hypoglycemia, compared with SMBG.
A study in the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology found that patients with acute diverticulitis and diabetes had a higher rate of diverticular bleeding, but lower rate of colectomy, abscess and obstruction, compared with patients with acute diverticulitis without diabetes. The findings also revealed that complicated diabetes coexisting with acute diverticulitis was not tied to higher mortality rates or diverticulitis-related complications, compared with uncomplicated diabetes.
Former Microsoft executive Terry Myerson on Thursday introduced his startup Truveta, which will work on data innovations to improve patient care. Myerson said the company would focus on data privacy, and regulatory filings link it to Providence Health & Services, which has a $300 million venture capital fund for early and mid-stage companies.
Community Health Network, Eskenazi Health and Indiana University Health declared racism a public health crisis and pledged to create a "culture of inclusion" and work to reduce health disparities and inequity. Leaders of the three systems said their boards were diverse but they would add members from the Black, Latino and Native communities.
Israel Rocha Jr. has been hired to be the CEO of the $2.8 billion public hospital system in Cook County, Ill. Rocha, CEO of Elmhurst and Queens hospitals at the New York City Health + Hospitals system, outlined revenue-generating strategies: focusing on patient safety, providing easy access to physician appointments, seeing if uninsured patients qualify for a program to help cover their costs, and looking for new services to offer.
The final debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden included clashes on handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, potential COVID-19 vaccines and the future of the Affordable Care Act. Trump said he wanted to eliminate the ACA and would replace it with a better, but unspecified plan, while Biden said if the law is struck down by the Supreme Court, he would create a new program he called "Bidencare" that would be the ACA with a public option.
EHRs can both enhance patient safety and increase the risk for harm, and the Joint Commission should require hospitals to conduct safety audits and establish an IT error reporting system as conditions for accreditation, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, MedStar Health and the University of Utah School of Medicine. The partners sent a framework to the Joint Commission outlining best practices for health IT use, governance, training, hazard identification and clinical decision support.
About an hour of every primary care physician's day is spent managing EHR inbox messages, and a significant proportion of that time is usually outside of scheduled work hours, according to a study of more than 1,200 physicians' EHR inbox usage. The researchers analyzed time spent on various inbox tasks and found that redesigning EHR interfaces to reduce the need for switching between windows could improve efficiency.
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder are more likely to receive hospital care during their first year than children without either disorder, and tracking babies' hospital utilization may help identify children who would benefit from early interventions, according to a study in Scientific Reports. Distinctive patterns of health care utilization begin early in these children's lives, and early detection and intervention can improve language and social skills, researchers said.