DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ People Can't Get Ozempic, New Weight-Loss Drugs Because of Broken Healthcare System
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Wegovy is just one of a wave of revolutionary weight-loss drugs, which also includes the buzzy Ozempic, that represents a watershed moment for obesity treatment. Demand for weight-loss drugs is surgingDoctors and healthcare professionals searched for a healthy, safe, and effective weight-loss solution for years before the drugs, known collectively as GLP-1 agonists, exploded on the scene. If there is one key that could unlock access to expensive weight-loss drugs for Americans, it's Medicare. Expanding coverage for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs for just a small segment of the population could cost Medicare up to $26.8 billion a year. Patients lose outYears from now, patients may have an easier time getting their hands on weight-loss drugs.

☆ 10 ways Tasers and stun guns can damage your body and brain, from twisted testicles to temporary memory loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Kelly Burch | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Tasers, AKA stun guns, cause your muscles to seize up, which can make them sore for days after. Police and law enforcement have been using Tasers, known generally as stun guns, since 1974 as a safer alternative to guns. Put another way, all Tasers are stun guns, but not all stun guns are Tasers. Stun guns make your muscles seize up like a Charley horseA police officer's painful reaction to being tasered during a training course on stun guns. Rarely, stun guns can severely harm kidney functionVery rarely, stun guns can cause a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis, AKA rhabdo, which can be fatal.

☆ FDA advisors recommend GSK's RSV vaccine for older adults, but flag potential safety risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ten of the FDA advisors said the safety data on GSK's vaccine was adequate, while two said it was not. The panel reached a similar conclusion in a narrow 7 to 4 vote Tuesday on Pfizer's application to clear its RSV vaccine. While the advisors erred toward recommending approval, they also raised concern over a possible link to Guillain-Barre syndrome. Both companies have asked the FDA to approve their RSV shot for adults ages 60 and older. The FDA said the cases are possibly related to either GSK's RSV vaccine or the flu shot that was administered with it.

☆ Pfizer, GSK face FDA panel review in race for RSV vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Manas Mishra | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 28 (Reuters) - The frontrunners in a crowded race to develop the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine - Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and GSK (GSK.L) - will face scrutiny from a panel of experts to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week. Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N), Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) are conducting trials of their own RSV vaccines. Pfizer and GSK grabbed a lead last year after data from separate late-stage studies showed their shots prevented respiratory disease caused by RSV. GSK's vaccine was 82.6% effective in preventing lower respiratory tract disease in people aged 60 and over, and 94.1% effective in preventing severe disease. Dr. Schaffner expects a positive vote on the vaccines when the advisory panel discusses Pfizer's vaccine on Feb. 28, and GSK's vaccine on March 1.

☆ FDA advisors recommend Pfizer RSV vaccine for older adults, despite possible Guillain-Barre risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The vote followed concerns at the FDA and among advisory committee members about two cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome among about 20,000 vaccine recipients. The FDA has asked Pfizer to conduct a safety study on Guillain-Barre syndrome, which the company has agreed to do. There currently is no approved RSV vaccine for the elderly. Pfizer's vaccine contains both strains of RSV, which circulate at the same time during fall and winter. Dr. David Kaslow, a senior official in the FDA's vaccine division, said safety monitoring will be "critically important" if Pfizer's RSV vaccine is approved.

☆ I make 6 figures as a hospital pharmacist. Here's why it's a great career, and my advice to anyone who wants to pursue it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Gabrielle Reeder | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Her hospital and pharmacy is open 24/7, and she works 8-hour shifts including Sundays at times. Rummana said the job is always fast-paced, but she's grateful and loves being a hospital pharmacist. I started working at CVS and then transitioned into hospital pharmacy at St. Joseph's Wayne Hospital in Wayne, New Jersey. I started working at Hackensack in January 2021 as a hospital pharmacist, and I make $71.60 an hour. Seeing people leave the hospital and lead happier, healthier lives can be translated into a career as a pharmacist.

Emergency room visits related to three of the most disruptive viruses — the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and Covid — are falling nationwide. "We were really curious to see what this year would look like" following several years of almost no flu, Thomas said. Flu hospitalizations for very young children in Tennessee have already reached peak levels seen in other bad flu seasons, at 12.6 per 100,000, the new study found. While most flu cases so far have been A strains of the virus, B strains tend to pop up by spring. "I do suspect that we will have more bumps in the road this respiratory viral season," Passaretti said.

☆ With over 100 anti-LGBTQ bills before state legislatures in 2023 so far, activists say they're 'fired up'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

So far, Texas has taken the lead with 36 such bills, according to Equality Texas, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group. Four states — Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Arizona — have enacted restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for minors, though federal judges have blocked them from taking effect in Arkansas and Alabama. State Sen. David Bullard, the Republican sponsoring the bill, told The Oklahoman that gender-affirming medical care is a “permanent change in your body that cannot be reversed. Accredited medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — have supported gender-affirming care for minors. Advocates and doctors who treat trans youth have said many of the health care restrictions proposed by state legislators mischaracterize what gender-affirming care is.

☆ Nurses set to strike at 2 of NYC's largest hospitals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Nurses at two facilities within Mount Sinai's health care system tentatively agreed to contracts Sunday, according to an announcement from the New York State Nurses Association, the largest union representing registered nurses in the state, but negotiations continued at its flagship hospital. The New York State Nurses Association had threatened to strike at all of the affected hospitals at the same time, but other hospitals reached agreements with the union ahead of the deadline. The New York State Nurses Association and Mount Sinai did not immediately respond to overnight requests for comment. "This exact wage proposal has also been offered to NYSNA for nurses at The Mount Sinai Hospital. "We hope they will similarly rescind their strike notice at The Mount Sinai Hospital."

☆ Amid negotiation gridlock between Mount Sinai Hospital and the nurse's union, newborns in intensive care are caught in the middle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Celina Tebor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A NICU nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital told CNN that families of patients in the unit have been deeply concerned about moving their sick infants from one hospital to another. As of Saturday, negotiations across New York’s hospitals were continuing at Montefiore Bronx and the Mount Sinai Morningside and West campuses, according to the nurse’s union. But the president of the nurse’s union told reporters Saturday the main Mount Sinai Hospital complex left the bargaining table late Thursday and no further bargaining sessions have been scheduled since. A Mount Sinai Health System spokesperson told CNN that hospital management is “waiting for the union to come back to us” to resume negotiations. Tentative agreements have also been reached with union nurses at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island.

New York CNN —Famed Manhattan hospital Mount Sinai is moving newborns in their intensive care unit to other hospitals ahead of a planned New York nursing union strike. The impact is great.”But the union says management from the main Mount Sinai hospital campus walked away from the negotiating table just after midnight Friday — and also canceled bargaining sessions scheduled for the day. The union said it doesn’t know if Mount Sinai management plans to negotiate over the weekend. The five New York City hospitals set for the nursing strike Monday are Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Montefiore, BronxCare and Flushing Hospital Medical Center. The Mount Sinai spokesperson did not comment on Hagan’s statement about management walking away from talks.

☆ More nurses reach tentative contract agreement, but negotiations at five hospitals continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Samantha Beech | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

The tentative agreements are in addition to that reached Sunday for union nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. More than 1,300 nurses at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn have reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract, according to a statement from the NYSNA. A tentative deal has also been reached at the Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, the union said. Negotiations continue at BronxCare Health System, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Montefiore Bronx, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West. Mount Sinai announced it is starting to postpone some elective surgeries and appointments in preparation of the nurses strike.

☆ Damar Hamlin showing signs of 'remarkable improvement,' the Bills say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Erika Edwards | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"Damar has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours," the Bills tweeted. Hamlin, 24, has been in intensive care after collapsing on the field from cardiac arrest during "Monday Night Football" on Jan. 2. There has been no official statement about what caused Hamlin's cardiac arrest. It is in this exact moment, experts say, that a blow to the chest in the exact right place can launch an otherwise healthy person into cardiac arrest. Thursday morning, Hamlin's teammate Kaiir Elam said in a tweet, "Our boy is doing better, awake and showing more signs of improvement."

A potential cause of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's jarring collapse and cardiac arrest — witnessed in real time by millions of viewers watching "Monday Night Football" — was immediately recognized by heart experts who also happened to be watching the game. In a statement, the Buffalo Bills has only said that Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest, when the heart stops beating properly, and is now in critical condition. While there are several potential causes for Hamlin's cardiac arrest, cardiologists suggested that a rare phenomenon called "commotio cordis" was to blame. It is in this exact moment, experts say, that a blow to the chest in the exact right place can launch an otherwise healthy person into cardiac arrest. But there are several other reasons a person may go into cardiac arrest.

More young children are getting sick from inadvertently eating marijuana edibles, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics. Eating too much can lead to serious health problems in young children, including confusion, hallucinations, fast heart rate and vomiting, experts said. Nearly a quarter of the children were admitted to the hospital, 8.1% of whom who needed intensive care, the study found. Wang called for regulation of how marijuana manufacturers can advertise their products, including regulations that ensure the advertising doesn't appeal to children. Osterhoudt went a step further: "The safest thing for a parent of young children to do would be not to bring edible THC products into their homes."

Covid hospitalizations are rising in the United States, even as hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus and the flu continue to fall. For the week ending Dec. 24, around 18,800 people were hospitalized with flu, down from around 20,700 hospitalizations the week prior. RSV hospitalization rates have fallen significantly since their peak in mid-November of 5.1 hospitalizations per 100,000 people. The seven-day average of daily Covid hospitalizations reached 42,140 on Friday, an increase of 4.2% from two weeks ago, according to an NBC News tally. The CDC recommends up-to-date Covid vaccines for everyone ages 6 months and older, as well as annual flu shots.

☆ Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +43 min

A Canadian health provider said it couldn’t participate, citing recent threats to hospitals offering youth gender care. But as Reuters found, hard evidence on long-term outcomes for the rising numbers of people who received gender treatment as minors is very weak. Dr Marianne van der Loos, the Dutch study’s lead author, is a physician at Amsterdam University Medical Center’s Center for Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, a pioneer in gender care for adolescents. For those who also received medical treatment, detransitioning typically includes halting the hormone therapy they otherwise would receive for years. One is Max Robinson, who was 16 when she sought gender care at Kaiser in 2012.

More adults in the U.S. expect to be more stressed in 2023 than at this time last year, but they also say they're more willing to take steps to tackle that stress, a survey released Wednesday finds. And about 37% of adults (nearly 2 out of 5) rated their mental health as “fair or poor” this month, up from 31% a year ago. Young adults, low-income adults and parents were most likely to rank their mental health as fair or poor. At the same time, more adults say they plan to take steps to improve their mental health next year, such as journaling or going to therapy, the survey found. McKernan said other ways people can take care of their mental health include paying attention to signs of stress.

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company negotiates directly with drugmakers. So far, that's been the strategy for the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. In October, Cost Plus Drug Company announced a partnership with Capital Blue Cross. Cuban said he wanted Cost Plus Drug Company to be as transparent as possible on pricing. Cost Plus Drug Company is considering a test program for insulin that would offer a 90-day supply of insulin, or a total of 12 vials, for $170.

The updated Covid booster shot is proving to be effective at keeping people — especially older adults — out of the hospital, according to two new studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemicBoth studies looked at the impact the updated Covid booster shot has had since it was first recommended by the CDC on Sept. 1. Those who had received the updated booster were 84% less likely to be hospitalized with Covid, compared with people who had never had the Covid vaccine. The effectiveness was nearly identical — 83% — for people who had their last Covid shot more than a year ago. "There are 28 million people over the age of 65 that are eligible for this updated booster shot but haven’t gotten it," Link-Gelles said.

☆ Fact Check-There is no proof ultrasounds harm babies or mothers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

There is no evidence to suggest that ultrasound examinations during pregnancy are dangerous to fetuses, as some social media posts have falsely said. Experts contacted by Reuters said there were no signs of any increases in deaths or distress among babies or mothers who had standard ultrasounds or the more powerful Doppler ultrasound under medical supervision. A Doppler ultrasound also uses sound waves, but can also check blood flow. “Animal studies cannot be used as evidence as the ultrasound effects cannot be scaled and a small animal will suffer from much greater effects than human babies,” he said. Studies of ultrasounds used in human pregnancies have not found evidence of danger to the health of babies or mothers.

The vast majority are either unvaccinated or have received just one of the two recommended doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to City of Columbus Public Health. The outbreak, the largest in the U.S. since 2019, is happening as resistance to school vaccination requirements is spreading across the country. The percentage of parents who said they were against vaccination requirements for school was even higher. "As I think about the challenges that we have to public health vaccine, misinformation is among the biggest threats," she said. "Here in Ohio, we have some pretty active anti-vaccine groups," said Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health.

☆ POTS, a debilitating heart condition, is linked to Covid and, to a lesser degree, vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Berkeley-Lovelace-Jr.Jpg | Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Research published Monday has confirmed a link between a Covid infection and a debilitating heart condition called POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, that has been diagnosed in some patients with long Covid. POTS was also linked, to a lesser degree, to Covid vaccination with an mRNA vaccine, according to the new study. He also said that the link between POTS and Covid vaccination needs to be confirmed with further studies. Other vaccines have also been linked to POTS in early accounts, but further research did not establish a causal link. The link between an infection — including Covid — and POTS, however, is more well-established.

☆ Fact Check-Viral video promotes baseless vaccine depopulation theory
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

However, there is no evidence that mortality rates have surged or that stillbirths have increased as a result of COVID-19 vaccines. News reports about cardiac arrests and unexpected deaths are then shown on screen and are baselessly attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. There have been 55 deaths involving COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in England between March 2020 and October 2022. While stillbirth rates remain constant, global birth or fertility rates, including in the U.S., have been declining for decades (here, here, here, here). The film does not provide evidence that the global elite are depopulating the world through COVID-19 vaccines.

☆ Face masks come back to forefront amid triple threat of Covid-19, flu, RSV
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Local officials mulling over masksThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers specific guidance on when masking is recommended based on its Covid-19 community levels. The agency says that people may choose to wear masks at any time but that a “high-quality mask or respirator” is recommended for everyone when a county has a “high” Covid-19 community level. As of Thursday, about 5.66% of US counties have high community levels, including some places in Arizona, Wyoming, Oregon and the Dakotas. Even without a mandate, she emphasized community efforts like wearing masks inside when possible and getting Covid-19 vaccines or boosters. “We do know that 5% of the population is living in places with a high Covid-19 community level.

Search resuls for: "University Medical"

25 mentions found