Concerns about deadly fungal infections are growing nearly as fast as the outbreaks themselves. From popular television shows to recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, the attention has been swift and breathless. Unfortunately, lost in the scramble to highlight their potency and develop a cure has been any agreement on an effective strategy for cutting into their spread. Over centuries of fighting diseases, humanity has developed a
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Public Health
Ozempic: From Diabetes Management to Potential Weight Loss Miracle
You've probably heard about Ozempic, especially if you're one of the millions who regularly scroll through TikTok or browse other social media platforms. It's the drug that influencers are lauding as a revolutionary aid for weight loss, making it a hot topic of conversation. While Ozempic was initially developed to manage Type 2 diabetes, its emerging potential for weight loss is captivating medical professionals and the public alike. How Ozempic Works: The Basics Ozempic is a
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5 Ways Federated Computing Can Reshape Public Health
Unlocking data silos using Federated Computing (FC) has the potential to achieve a positive impact across the healthcare industry, ranging from clinical care quality improvement and accreditation to population health management, precision public health and equitable drug development. We define FC as the leverage of federated learning and edge computing technologies to enable federated data access, enabling analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), using linked, but not co-located, data. In
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How to Solve The Talent Shortage in Healthcare, Whether It’s Urban, Suburban or Rural
One of the most pressing issues in healthcare today is the growing talent shortage of qualified medical professionals. These critical staffing talent shortages could jeopardize communities’ access to care and result in dire consequences. The staffing shortage existed before the pandemic, but it’s only worsened during the past few years. According to government reports, 23% of hospitals are experiencing a significant staff shortage. Since February 2020, hospital workforces have been reduced
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State of Texas Develop Flu Tracking Dashboards for Prediction & Response
What You Should Know: Texas Department of State Health Services (TX DSHS) has partnered with SAS to develop new public health dashboards for tracking influenza data across the state, unifying multiple flu surveillance sources into a central visualization platform. The flu data visualizations and analytics will be instrumental for Texas DSHS in anticipating regional surges in cases and allocating state resources to the areas with the most testing and vaccination needs while keeping
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Workplace Collaboration Linked to Positive Employee Mental Health
What You Should Know: TELUS Health today released its monthly Mental Health Index which revealed that workers who collaborate with others in the workplace have a better mental health score than those who work exclusively independently. The Index also showed that the mental health scores of workers who do not feel supported in their mental health and wellbeing by their employers scored 10 points below the national average. Collaboration aligns with better mental health Nearly
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Combating Hospital Waste to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
With the growing concern around the current climate crisis, industry leaders everywhere seek new ways to reduce their carbon footprint. The healthcare industry alone accounts for 8.5% of emissions in the United States, with medical devices and products contributing to a significant portion of the 5.9 million tons of healthcare waste each year. However, healthcare leaders are ready to make a change. In 2022, 61 of the largest U.S. hospital and health sector companies joined the Health Sector
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CDC Launches Fentanyl Dashboard to Monitor Nonfatal Overdose Trends
What You Should Know: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently released its Fentanyl Study Dashboard, an innovative tool that utilizes data from the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC), to track and monitor nonfatal overdose trends associated with fentanyl. The dashboard, “Fentalog Study: A Subset of Nonfatal Suspected Opioid-Involved Overdoses with Toxicology Testing” went live in May of 2023 aims to provide vital insights to healthcare
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The End of One Health Crisis Must Not Lead to a New One
Three years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the Public Health Emergency (PHE) enacted in the United States came to an end this May. As much as we would like to go back to normal, it seems that simply turning the page on the PHE without carrying forward what we learned during Covid will leave millions of Americans scrambling for healthcare and disengaging from essential preventive health services. The result will be a devastating impact on those with chronic
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FWA Is Increasing. Healthcare Costs Are Spiraling. Now There’s A New Generation Of AI Technology To Take Back Control
In 2020, the Department of Justice estimated that fraudulent, wasteful, and abusive (FWA) billing practices account for more than $100 billion of the nation’s healthcare expenditures.1 Today, the National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) conservatively estimates that healthcare FWA costs the nation about $68 billion annually, representing 3% of the nation's $2.26 trillion in healthcare spending.2 FWA estimates from commercial health plans range as high as $230 billion annually, or
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