September 2024

Five Barriers to a digital health future: Barriers 1 and 2

September 25, 20248 min

BY Aloha McBride, Global Health Leader, & Heather E. Meade, Principal, Washington Council, Ernst & Young As the challenges of health care affordability, staffing and access continue across the US, the rise of technology presents a significant opportunity to unlock more responsive care that better addresses patients’ health and social needs while alleviating provider burden and reducing costs. The question is, will US policymakers take action to capture this potential? Our work...

Legal Affairs

The seven elements of a compliance program

September 25, 202410 min

BY Phuong D. Nguyen, Esq. and Michael R. Alexander, Esq., Brown & Fortunato, P.C. In November of last year, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) published revised General Compliance Program Guidance “CPG.” While much of the content of the revised CPG will be familiar, the format has been significantly revised with a few updates along the way. The OIG intends to publish industry segment-specific CPGs later...

Integrative Medicine

Helping patients deal with grief

September 25, 20249 min

BY Samuel Mathis, MD, MBA Lately, I have had numerous patients present with symptoms surrounding grief. This is either due to the loss of a loved one or even loss in their personal life due to pain or disability. When we see these patients, it can be a challenge to identify therapies or strategies to help them overcome or engage with their grief in a healthy way. It is well documented, that morbidity...

THA

Clearing the pipeline: Workforce shortages still haunt Texas hospitals

September 25, 20248 min

Special to Medical Journal – Houston By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Earlier this month, the Governor’s Task Force on Health Care Workforce Shortages held its final meeting ahead of a report it’s scheduled to issue by Oct. 1. The task force is aimed at addressing workforce shortages in our industry, identifying additional pathways to grow our supply of needed professionals and removing existing barriers in the state’s health educational programs. Here at THA,...

Moving On Up

Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital welcomes new primary care sports medicine physician

September 25, 20243 min

Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Haris Vakil, primary care sports medicine physician, to its team this month. He joins the leading specialists at Houston Methodist Orthopedics & Sports Medicine at Clear Lake, bringing specialized care tailored to meet the diverse needs of patients in Clear Lake area and surrounding communities. Vakil’s personal experience as a former student athlete fuels his dedication to managing orthopedic conditions and...

Hospital Headlines

MD Anderson receives over $21.4 million in CPRIT funding to support research and launch new core facilities

September 25, 20246 min

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was awarded nine grants totaling over $21.4 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in support of two new core facilities, faculty recruitment and groundbreaking cancer research across all areas of the institution. “We are enormously appreciative of CPRIT’s support of impactful cancer research initiatives at MD Anderson,” said Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “These new core facilities will help advance...

Hospital Headlines

Protein expression atlas covers almost all cancer hallmarks

September 25, 20241 min

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) provide DNA and RNA data from approximately 11,000 patient samples across 33 cancer types and 1,000 cancer cell lines, but limited protein information is available. Researchers led by Han Liang, Ph.D., Rehan Akbani, Ph.D., and Jun Li, Ph.D., previously generated protein expression data for approximately 200 proteins but did not include many cancer-related pathways. In a new study, the researchers characterized expression of nearly 500...

Hospital Headlines

Immunological features predict treatment response for advanced solid tumors

September 25, 20242 min

Immune checkpoint therapy stimulates tumor infiltration by CD8 T cells to facilitate an antitumor response, but many advanced solid tumors do not respond to treatment. In the AMADEUS trial, researchers led by Padmanee Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., aimed to identify biomarkers that predict treatment response in patients with advanced solid tumors. The trial enrolled 39 patients who were divided into two groups based on pre-treatment levels of CD8 T cells. Those with low CD8 levels received a...

Hospital Headlines

Novel targets overcome treatment resistance in triple-negative breast cancer

September 25, 20242 min

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive subtype, currently have limited options and generally face a poor prognosis. Researchers led by Khandan Keyomarsi, Ph.D., Mi Li, Ph.D., and Amriti Lulla, Ph.D., discovered that increased levels of low molecular weight cyclin-E (LMW-E) and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK1) phosphorylation are associated with poor outcomes following chemotherapy. High levels of LMW-E and CDK1 predicted the poorest treatment responses, suggesting they serve as potential biomarkers of chemotherapy resistance. The study showed that LMW-E upregulates...

Hospital Headlines

NK cells expressing interleukin-21 show promising antitumor activity in glioblastoma cells

September 25, 20245 min

Natural killer (NK) cells engineered to express interleukin-21 (IL-21) demonstrated sustained anti-tumor activity against glioblastoma stem cell-like cells (GSCs) both in vitro and in vivo, according to new research published today by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The preclinical findings represent the first evidence that engineering NK cells, a type of innate immune cell, to secrete IL-21 resulted in strong activity against glioblastoma, a cancer type in need of more effective treatment options. “Our research uncovered a previously unknown...

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