Telehealth leader Teladoc to buy Livongo in $18.5B deal
Fiercehealthcare.com – Telehealth giant Teladoc is acquiring virtual care company Livongo in a deal valued at $18.5 billion.
The deal would combine one of the leaders in the telehealth market with a growing digital health firm that targets chronic disease management.
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Response To COVID-19 Pandemic Launches New Era Of Telemedicine
by: Laura Carabello, Principal, CPR Strategic Communications and Publisher, www.medicaltraveltoday.com and Michael Gorton, MS, JD, Teladoc founder and telemedicine thought leader
Pandemictechnews.com – Because of the social distancing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care physicians have not been able to offer in-office appointments in all but the most urgent cases, putting a severe strain on resources and operations.
The results are dire: about 20% of primary care practices predict they will be forced to shut down, and one expert predicted that the United States could lose 50% of primary care practices.
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Neck gaiters, bandanas more harmful than not wearing a mask, Duke study suggests
by Mackenzie Bean
Beckershospitalreview.com – Wearing bandanas or neck gaiters as face coverings to protect against COVID-19 may actually do more harm than not wearing a mask at all, a study published in Science Advances found.
Researchers at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University analyzed the effectiveness of 14 face coverings ranging from bandanas to N95 masks.
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Why Johnson & Johnson is investing in this niche telehealth startup
Fiercehealthcare.com – Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is investing in direct-to-consumer telehealth company Thirty Madison.
New York City-based Thirty Madison offers telehealth visits and online prescriptions for drugs for hair loss, migraines and acid reflux.
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The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) and the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Physicians (MA ACP) are pleased to support S.3599/H.R.6788, the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, which increases the number of visas available for international medical graduates (IMGs). The legislation is a much-needed step in increasing the capacity of our health care system to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and provide care for disadvantaged communities.
The bill “recaptures” employment-based immigrant visas from previous fiscal years to make up to 15,000 available for physicians and 25,000 for nurses. Due to an ageing population and physician retirements, the country was already seeing a shortage of physicians prior to COVID-19, with many physicians coming out of retirement to provide care during the pandemic. Physicians falling ill to COVID-19 further depletes the health care workforce and amplifies the need to address dangerous staffing deficiencies. exacerbates the need to increase health care system capacity. This bill would address the physician shortage by making visas available to international medical graduates (IMGs) to practice in the U.S.
This legislation is also important because IMGs play an essential role in caring for vulnerable and at-risk populations since physicians trained outside of the U.S. are more likely to practice in disadvantaged and lower-income communities than those trained in the U.S.
MMS and MA ACP have long supported policies that would ease barriers for IMGs seeking licensure, as IMGs can provide critical capacity for our health care system. We commend the bipartisan group of lawmakers championing this bill and hope to see it become law.