Last Word

Low pay for nursing home workers has contributed to high staff turnover. BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images   Two weeks after the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was identified in Snohomish County, Washington, in early 2020, my dad had a stroke at his home just across Puget Sound. More COVID-19 cases were about to surface at a nearby skilled nursing facility, marking the beginning of...

With medical visits picking up again among patients vaccinated against covid-19, health providers are starting to see the consequences of a year of pandemic-delayed preventive and emergency care as they find more advanced cancer and rotting and damaged teeth, among other ailments. Dr. Brian Rah, chair of the cardiology department at Montana’s Billings Clinic, was confused in the early days of...

On March 23, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General issued a favorable ruling to a drug manufacturer looking to provide a free medication to patients in need of a one-time treatment made from their own cells. The drug maker (Requestor) makes the FDA-approved drug for two indications that is meant as a potentially curative treatment. The drug can only be...

The Covid-19 lockdown has changed alcohol habits, but public health researchers face a blurred and incoherent picture of who’s been drinking, and how much Sourdough and baking helped many people cope with 2020, and many have found solace in family Zoom calls. But for millions around the world, the stress of the pandemic and tedium of lockdown life saw them seek the comforting embrace of another,...

Two-year period of mergers & acquisitions within single-specialty gastroenterology sector shows rapid growth and expansion (MIAMI, March 1, 2021) — Gastro Health, a national leading medical group specializing in digestive health, has partnered with Digestive Disease Associates (DDA), a gastroenterology group with two locations based in Catonsville and Columbia, Maryland. This partnership...

In 2011, Germany’s Frankfurt Airport — the country’s busiest — unveiled its fourth runway. The addition sparked major protests, with demonstrators returning to the airport every Monday for years. “It’s destroying my life,” one protester told Reuters a year later. “Every time I go into my garden, all I can hear and see are planes right above.” The new runway also channeled dozens of aircraft...