News from other sources ...

Information technology

Many employers are no longer searching for just doctors and nurses. Now they need chief medical information officers, quality management officers and clinical analysts.

Broward Health data breach released patient information to tax fraud ring | Florida Bulldog

For the second time in three years, a data breach at Broward Health has caused the release of personal patient information in what one district executive called “a ring of thugs.”

Medical devices and equipment

Doctors are legally allowed to use devices and drugs in unapproved ways that they think will benefit patients. The question for the FDA is how far manufacturers should be allowed to go in explaining products for applications the FDA has neither approved nor cleared, a practice known as off-label use.

HIV test on USB stick could be start of consumer revolution in disease monitoring | The Washington Post

The technology, if perfected, could eventually help identify the presence of all sorts of other foreign invaders in your blood, from hepatitis virus to the presence of bacterial or fungal sepsis. Researchers are also testing ways that the gadget might detect if you've become resistant to certain antibiotics — which, if they succeed, would be a major breakthrough in the war against superbugs.

Pharmaceuticals

At a time when access to abortion is being restricted on many fronts, advocates say being able to terminate a pregnancy through telemedicine and mail-order drugs would provide a welcome new option for women. Opponents of abortion find the concept dangerous and deeply disturbing.

Safety, quality and clinical practice

Having a vasectomy doesn't increase a man's risk of developing prostate cancer or dying from it, a Canadian study suggests.

Physicians

Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, says he's still ironing out his role in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, but one thing's certain: He'll have a role in helping craft the replacement plan for Obamacare.