Medical Journal January 2022 Digital Edition
January 18, 20221 min
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The increase of fake vaccination cards and what it means for healthcare employers
January 18, 202214 min
By Alexa R. Hanlon, Associate, Fisher Phillips From the advent of the COVID-19 vaccine to the present, the use of fraudulent vaccine cards by employees and consumers alike has markedly proliferated. The growth, resulting in a robust online black market for fake cards, is widespread and impacts both domestic and international industries. As a vulnerable industry already inundated with sick patients, the healthcare community is not immune from the scammers; therefore, companies should be vigilant...
Medical devices 2030
January 18, 20227 min
By David Walsh, Associate Director, Healthcare & Life Sciences Strategy, KPMG Stake your claim in the medical device value chain of the future and avoid the commodity trap. While the outlook for medical device companies appears positive, unsustainable healthcare costs and new competitive forces threaten to alter the future industry landscape. If today’s manufacturers fail to stake their claim in the evolving value chain, they risk being caught in the middle and becoming commoditized. The...
U.S. Appellate Court upholds HHS’s refusal to void an NPDB report
January 18, 202210 min
By Allison Shelton and Beth Anne Jackson, Brown & Fortunato On December 3, 2021, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Long v. HHS, No. 19-5358, upholding the dismissal of a physician’s claim that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to appropriately review his dispute concerning a report filed in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Despite a somewhat bizarre series of facts, the case provides insight into HHS’s...
Medical use of cannabis: Federal legislative reform is needed now
January 18, 20229 min
By Victor S. Sierpina, MD With 36 states having legalized medical marijuana and 18 allowing it for recreational use, we hear precious little on data for its benefits and harms. We also don’t see any reports of massive upticks in marijuana addiction, overdoses, deaths, except for some cases of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome and reports of impaired driving. A recent article in The American Family Physician, “Cannabis Essentials: Tools for Clinical Practice” delves into the clinical...
Despite workforce challenges, frontline workers bravely tackle another surge
January 18, 20226 min
By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Hope was on the horizon as we inched closer to the end of 2021. Powerful tools like vaccines, masks, boosters, and testing capabilities were ubiquitous, and the general public was deeply educated about how to protect themselves. A new year brought hope for a new health care environment that perhaps would largely leave COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. But, as the holidays unfolded, so did another serious wave...
UT System appoints new CEO for University Lands
January 18, 20225 min
University of Texas System Chancellor James B. Milliken announced that William R. “Billy” Murphy, Jr., vice president, and executive officer of King Ranch, Inc., will be the new CEO of University Lands. Murphy has more than 15 years of legal and land management experience, including in the oil, gas, and mineral sector, as well as renewable resources. At King Ranch, he manages the sustained development of roughly 1 million acres that includes the largest privately-owned...
Blood test helps predict who may benefit from lung cancer screening
January 18, 20226 min
A blood test, combined with a risk model based on an individual’s history, more accurately determines who is likely to benefit from lung cancer screening than the current U.S. recommendation, according to a study led by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A personalized lung cancer risk assessment, combining a blood test based on a four-marker protein panel developed at MD Anderson and an independent model (PLCOm2012) that accounts for smoking history, was more sensitive and...
Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital introduces innovative technique for brain surgery
January 18, 20226 min
Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital in Fort Bend County is using an innovative, minimally invasive technique to treat chronic subdural hematomas, serious bleeding in the membrane between the skull and the brain caused by head trauma. Board-certified neurosurgeon Tsz Yeung Lau, M.D., recently performed a successful meningeal artery embolization (MAE) to stop a patient’s bleeding. The patient – a woman in her 80s – was on blood thinners for a heart condition and had recently...