INDUSTRY NEWS
Why Medical Tourism Is Drawing Patients, Even in a Pandemic
By Ceylan Yeginsu
NYTimes.com—On a cold February morning last year, as she lay curled up in a fetal position on her kitchen floor, Melissa Jackson called her manager at a New Jersey beauty salon to ask for some unpaid time off.
It was the sixth consecutive week that the 39-year-old beauty technician was unable to work full time because of the debilitating pain in her pelvis caused by endometriosis, a chronic condition triggered by the growth of uterine tissue outside of the uterus.
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JPM: Alector, Annexon, Athira on what aducanumab approval could mean for Alzheimer’s R&D
By Amirah Al Idrus
FierceBiotech.com—All eyes are on Biogen’s aducanumab as the FDA’s decision date for the controversial Alzheimer’s drug looms.
FDA staff found the drug’s data package “highly persuasive” in briefing documents published in November, but a panel of outside experts disagreed, panning it in multiple votes.
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For Health Care Workers, The Pandemic Is Fueling Renewed Interest In Unions
By Aneri Pattani
NPR.org—In September, after six months of exhausting work battling the pandemic, nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., voted to unionize. The vote passed with 70%, a high margin of victory in a historically anti-union state, according to academic experts who study labor movements.
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CDC to expand Covid vaccination guidelines to everyone 65 and older
By Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
CNBC.com—The Trump administration on Tuesday will issue new guidelines that expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility to everyone age 65 and older, a senior official told CNBC.
The states’ focus on vaccinating health-care workers and nursing homes has created a bottleneck, the administration official said.
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While Less Talked-about These Days, Opioid Addiction Remains Worrisome, An Ongoing Scourge
By Mark Morris
HealthcareNews.com—Gabriel Quaglia says many people who struggle with opioid addiction face a surprising hurdle: they don’t own a telephone.
“One of the important services we provide at Tapestry is allowing people to use our phones so they can access other services they may need,” said Quaglia, post-overdose engagement coordinator for Tapestry Health, who works with clients in opioid-use recovery.
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When will primary care docs get the COVID-19 vaccine? Many still in the dark
By Heather Landi
FierceHealthcare.com—While front-line health workers across the country began receiving the COVID-19 vaccine last month, many primary care doctors and their staff members are left in the dark about their turn in line.
“Generally speaking, unaffiliated community practices are having tremendous challenges obtaining vaccines for the physicians and care teams at those sites,” Shawn Martin, executive vice president and CEO for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), told Fierce Healthcare.
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