Information technology
How health IT interoperability is driving healthcare M&A | EHR IntelligenceHealth IT interoperability is the aim of current healthcare IT mergers and acquisitions, but that wasn't always the case. Megamergers have abruptly given way to middle-market acquisitions. While this shift is undoubtedly good news for aspiring middle-market M&A targets, there is a catch: today's M&A opportunities are not like those of years past.
Pharmaceuticals
Healthcare and biotech funds come back to life | The Wall Street JournalInvestors interested in health-care and biotech funds know all too well that the sector underperformed in the first quarter of 2016 after making a flashy run before that. Following the awful start to the year, however, the sector is again showing signs of life.
Shortages of emergency-care drugs are increasing | The Washington Post
At some hospitals, posters on the wall in the emergency department list the drugs that are in short supply or unavailable, along with recommended alternatives. The low-tech visual aid can save time with critically ill patients, allowing doctors to focus on caring for them rather than doing research on the fly, experts said.
Valeant offered pharmacy millions in bonuses, contracts show | Bloomberg
Embattled drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. offered tens of millions of dollars in incentives to a pharmacy to sell its products even as the relationship between the two was kept private, according to documents released by a Senate committee.
Physicians
The tangled hospital-physician relationship | Health AffairsTogether, hospital and physician services account for more than half of national health spending. In its 2014 National Health Expenditures estimates, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' actuaries make the hospital (nearly $1 trillion) and physician practice (nearly $600 billion) sectors appear to be independent and non-overlapping. This is an optical illusion. Hospitals and physicians are, in day-to-day practice, hopelessly intertwined.
Safety, quality and clinical practice
New medical schools aim to fix America's broken health care system | StatNew medical schools are launching across the country to address a projected physician shortage. They're promising innovative curriculums that let aspiring doctors spend time doing research, working in community health settings, and following the same patients for months.
How a cancer drug has saved people from going blind | National Public Radio
A decade ago, physicians couldn't do much to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, a disease that wreaks havoc on central vision and limits the ability to read, recognize faces and generally see up close. Now, patients are being offered Avastin, a colon cancer drug, for treatment
