The Radiological Society of North America announced that the theme of its 2021 annual meeting will be "redefining radiology" and also named the plenary speakers joining RSNA President Dr. Mary Mahoney for the five-day event. Eligible meeting content will also be viewable online.

A study in the European Heart Journal found heart failure patients taking statin drugs had 16% lower risk of developing cancer than nonusers of statins during an average four years of follow-up, and the risk continues to decline with continued use. Researchers examined data from over 87,000 Hong Kong residents with no cancer history, and they found the risk of death from cancer and any cause were 1.4% and 38% lower, respectively, among heart failure patients taking statins than among nonusers during 10 years of follow-up.

Black and Hispanic individuals were more likely to report symptoms of cognitive decline such as memory loss and confusion earlier in life -- between ages of 45 and 54 -- compared with white people, who were more likely to report such symptoms at age 65 or above. The findings, based on data from 179,852 US adults from 2015 to 2018, were published in BMC Public Health.

Eli Lilly and Co. plans to submit an accelerated approval application this year to the FDA for its experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab, which was recently granted breakthrough therapy designation by the agency. The company said the application will be based on Phase 2 trial data that showed donanemab slowed the rate of cognitive and functional decline.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., spoke with AHIP CEO Matt Eyles about legislative priorities for health care, including telehealth access to mental health services and measures to reduce maternal mortality, during the AHIP Institute & Expo 2021. Cassidy also discussed a proposal to lower the age of Medicare eligibility to 60, noting Republicans are concerned about the program's solvency if more people are covered, so Democrats would have to use the reconciliation process to make the change.

An analysis of CDC data shows fully vaccinated people accounted for 0.1% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 0.8% of COVID-19 deaths in May. More than 853,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 and over 18,000 died from the disease in the US last month, but fewer than 1,200 of the hospitalizations and about 150 of the deaths involved people who had been vaccinated.

New CDC data show that more than 10% of people did not get their second COVID-19 vaccine dose, even though the vaccines are more effective against the highly transmissible delta variant when both doses of the two-dose vaccines have been administered. As of Thursday, nearly 320.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had already been administered, and more than 151 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

Genentech's Actemra has been authorized for emergency use by the FDA to treat adults and children hospitalized with COVID-19 who are being treated with systemic corticosteroids and supplemental oxygen, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or invasive or non-invasive mechanical ventilation. It cannot be used for non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

A cross-disciplinary group of investigators found a 47.3% rate of burnout among surveyed nurses as measured by a score of 27 or more on the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Medical Personnel. "Assisting nurse managers in identifying the signs of emotional exhaustion and understanding their role in minimizing these effects can constructively impact the development of that positive, nurturing culture in a way that benefits the nurse employee, and by extension, the patient for whom they provide care," said lead study author Kelli Whittington, nursing program director at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Researchers examined 312 COVID-19 survivors ages 16 and older and found that 61% of patients reported persistent symptoms at six months. The findings in Nature Medicine also showed that of the 61 patients between ages 16 and 30 who had mild illness, 52% continued to have symptoms at six months, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, memory problems, impaired cognition and trouble breathing.