To expedite the COVID-19 vaccination pace and make more shots available to the public, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the federal government is changing its vaccine allocation method by prioritizing states that can quickly administer the vaccines and the size of the over-65 population, rather than focusing on the size of the population in total. The administration will also begin distributing all reserved COVID-19 vaccine doses and encourage states to give vaccines to people ages 65 and older, as well as anyone under 65 with underlying health conditions.

Operation Warp Speed officials said over half of the more than 641,000 monoclonal antibody treatments allocated for outpatients with COVID-19 have not been used because of concerns about best practices. Committees from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the NIH have said more evidence is needed on the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatments and which patients may benefit most.

A national expansion of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model that was recently proposed by the HHS could generate around $6.3 billion in savings over a 10-year period, according to estimates from research firm The Moran Company. Federal statistics showed that even the limited HHVBP Model implementation helped improve home health agencies' quality scores by 4.6% and saved Medicare an average of $141 million per year.

Left-handed trainees are a minority cohort in US cardiovascular fellowship programs but they can face challenges performing common procedures because most are set up for the right-handed majority, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "We hope that acknowledgement, support, and minor modifications in work flow will allow a lot of young trainees in the early part of their career to stay on course and realize their full potential in this procedural specialty," said researcher Dr. Prashant Patel, who is left-handed.

HHS announced Tuesday that it will ask hospitals to report how many health care professionals and patients have received COVID-19 vaccines weekly. Senior HHS officials said the vaccination data will help federal agencies anticipate the need for protective equipment and ensure COVID-19 shots are distributed equally.

Texas family physician Tim Irvine, M.D., says value-based payment contracts offer a reliable revenue stream. Joe Nicholson, D.O., of the consulting firm CareAllies, says practices should gradually transition to value-based payments by increasing the percentage of revenue tied to risk-based contracts over time.

The HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $6.5 million to the National Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center to implement the Telehealth Broadband Pilot program in rural areas of Alaska, Michigan, Texas and West Virginia. The HRSA also awarded $1.5 million to the University of Arkansas' Telehealth-Focused Rural Health Research Center to serve as a resource on telehealth for rural communities nationwide.

A study in PLOS Medicine, based on 90,211 participants who wore fitness-tracking devices, found incidence of cardiovascular disease decreased as the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity increased, with no upper limit. A study in the journal Heart found exercise may reduce some of the higher risk for adverse cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality linked to controlled hypertension.

A study in the European Heart Journal linked alcohol consumption of as little as one drink per day with a higher risk of atrial fibrillation. The risk was found regardless of age or other cardiovascular risk factors.

An updated ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway provides guidance and recommendations on streamlining clinical care to achieve optimal outcomes for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The document, published Jan. 11 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is an update to the 2017 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway For Optimization of Heart Failure Treatment. Led by Chair Thomas M. Maddox, MD, MSc, FACC, and Vice Chair James L. Januzzi, Jr., MD, FACC, the Pathway aims to address 10 "pivotal" issues that remain unresolved in clinical guidelines related to implementing guideline-directed medical therapy; addressing specific challenges like referral, care coordination, specific patient cohorts, etc.; and managing areas of increasing complexity, comorbidities, and palliative care. Read more.

Discover how to create and align strong leadership with up-to-date business strategies to improve cardiovascular care and patient outcomes at Cardiovascular Summit Virtual, Feb. 12 and 13. Hear from Anthony S. Fauci, MD, on public health and scientific challenges related to COVID-19. Also, get the latest information on topics like quality program metrics and dashboards, team-based care, dyad leadership and transitioning to ambulatory surgery centers. Groups of five or more are eligible for discounted registration rates. Register today.