Author: healthadmin

Doctors in Utah are challenging a prescription drug refill system that uses artificial intelligence, saying it risks patient safety. In January, the state partnered with AI physician startup Doctronic to test an AI-powered system that would “automate routine guideline-based prescription renewals” for Utah residents. As Fierce Healthcare reported in January, this marked the first test of AI as an autonomous clinical decision maker under the regulatory moratorium paradigm. Rather than having to wait days or weeks to make a doctor’s appointment to get regular medication refilled, Utahns can chat with an AI agent online and renew their prescriptions almost instantly.…

A systematic review and meta-analysis found that GLP-1-based treatments promote clinically meaningful weight loss primarily through fat loss, but experts caution that muscle maintenance remains essential for long-term metabolic health. Review: GLP-1 agonists and changes in body weight and composition in overweight or obese adults with and without type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Image credit: Love Employee / Shutterstock In a recent study published in International Journal of ObesityResearchers evaluated the effects of a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist (RA) and a dual GLP-1/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) agonist on weight and body composition in overweight or…

Solace Health, a patient advocacy platform, extends coverage to most major health plans, including UnitedHealthcare and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. Solace previously connected Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients to its services, but it is now also available to many commercially insured patients. Other commercial projects with which the company is currently a partner were not specified in the press release. Solace pairs each patient with a dedicated medical advocate to help navigate care. Health care systems are complex, and patients are often required to coordinate their own care, interpret advice, manage records, and resolve billing issues. A 2025 study…

A new U.S. policy recommending that only infants considered to be at risk for neonatal infection be vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine at birth will lead to higher numbers of infected infants and chronic hepatitis B infections in children, generating millions of dollars in extra health care costs, according to two studies published Monday. “Averting increases in neonatal infections under targeted recommendations would require historically unattained levels of maternal (hepatitis B) screening and application of birth doses to infants of unscreened mothers,” researchers from Boston University, the University of Florida, and Johns Hopkins University wrote in one of their studies.…

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared divided Monday on whether to block thousands of lawsuits alleging the makers of the herbicide Roundup failed to warn people it could cause cancer. The case came before the judge after a major lawsuit that included a multibillion-dollar judgment against Bayer, the global pesticide maker that owns Roundup maker Monsanto. Several judges seemed sympathetic to the company’s argument that it could not sue under state law because federal regulators determined Roundup was unlikely to cause cancer. But some went after the lawyers, wondering if it would unfairly block the state’s response to changes in…

Cryopreservation, the process of preserving living tissue by cooling it to extremely low temperatures, often sounds like something out of science fiction. In fact, scientists have been studying and refining this technology for nearly a century. After decades of slow progress, things started to change in 2023 when researchers at the University of Minnesota successfully transplanted a cryopreserved kidney into another rat. This breakthrough demonstrated that frozen organs could one day be used for transplantation into humans. Despite these advances, preservation of larger organs remains a major hurdle. One of the biggest problems is cracking, which can occur if the…

Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).members of United States Supreme Court Lawyers for the former Monsanto Co. faced a barrage of questions Monday over pesticide regulations, arguing over whether federal law preempts state lawsuits that allow consumers to sue companies for not warning them of product risks such as cancer. Monsanto v. Darnell centers on the herbicide glyphosate, which is used in the popular Roundup brand and numerous other herbicide products sold by the former Monsanto Company, now owned by Germany’s Bayer. Chemicals are scientifically linked It has been linked to cancer potential in multiple…

Mundipharma and CorMedix announce the victory of the antifungal drug Rezzayo in preventing invasive fungal disease in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In the Phase 3 ReSPECT study, Rezzayo met its primary endpoint by demonstrating noninferiority to standard antimicrobial regimens (SARs) in keeping stem cell transplant patients alive and protecting them from fungal infections such as Candida, Aspergillus, and Pneumocystis. Patients undergoing allogeneic blood and bone marrow transplants face long periods of immunosuppression to manage graft-versus-host disease, making them more susceptible to these infections. In the study, which included patients at 50 sites in seven countries, Rezzayo…

Mammals once shared the earth with dinosaurs, but a catastrophe 66 million years ago wiped out about 75% of all life on Earth. Still, some species were able to survive. Among them were small mammals that resembled rodents. Simolodon. These animals were part of the Polytuberculata, a long-lived group that first appeared during the Jurassic period and persisted for more than 100 million years before finally becoming extinct. By studying these, scientists can better understand how early mammals withstood mass extinctions and subsequently evolved into the diverse forms we see today. A team led by researchers at the University of…

During an infection, pathogens must quickly adapt to conditions in order to multiply within the body. A research team from the University of Basel in Switzerland has discovered how key proteins switch on machines and Leptospira Pathogens survive and cause disease. This discovery provides new insights into how pathogens regulate their virulence and could open new avenues for therapeutic intervention. Since the late 20th century, diseases transmitted from animals to humans, so-called zoonoses, have been on the rise. One of these is leptospirosis, an infectious disease that is becoming more common due to climate change. Leptospirosis causes approximately 1 million…