Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a widely used method for nanoparticle characterization. A common approach to analysing nanoparticles in solution by SAXS involves fitting the curve using a parametric model that relates real-space parameters, such as nanoparticle size and electron density, to intensity values in reciprocal space. Selecting the optimal model is a crucial step in terms of analysis quality and can be time-consuming and complex. Several studies have proposed effective methods, based on machine learning, to automate the model selection step. Deploying these methods in software intended for both researchers and industry raises several issues. The diversity of SAXS instrumentation requires assessment of the robustness of these methods on data from various machine configurations, involving significant variations in the q-space ranges and highly variable signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) from one data set to another. In the case of laboratory instrumentation, data acquisition can be time-consuming and there is no universal criterion for defining an optimal acquisition time. This paper presents an approach that revisits the nanoparticle model selection method proposed by Monge et al. [Acta Cryst. (2024), A80, 202–212], evaluating and enhancing its robustness on data from device configurations not seen during training, by expanding the data set used for training. The influence of SNR on predictor robustness is then assessed, improved, and used to propose a stopping criterion for optimizing the trade-off between exposure time and data quality.

The Biomedical Imaging and Therapy facility of the Canadian Light Source comprises two beamlines, which together cover a wide X-ray energy range from 13 keV up to 140 keV. The beamlines were designed with a focus on synchrotron applications in preclinical imaging and veterinary science as well as microbeam radiation therapy. While these remain a major part of the activities of both beamlines, a number of recent upgrades have enhanced the versatility and performance of the beamlines, particularly for high-resolution microtomography experiments. As a result, the user community has been quickly expanding to include researchers in advanced materials, batteries, fuel cells, agriculture, and environmental studies. This article summarizes the beam properties, describes the endstations together with the detector pool, and presents several application cases of the various X-ray imaging techniques available to users.

The Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC) in China can also work as an excellent powerful synchrotron light source, which can generate high-quality synchrotron radiation. This synchrotron radiation has potential advantages in the medical field as it has a broad spectrum, with energies ranging from visible light to X-rays used in conventional radiotherapy, up to several megaelectronvolts. FLASH radiotherapy is one of the most advanced radiotherapy modalities. It is a radiotherapy method that uses ultra-high dose rate irradiation to achieve the treatment dose in an instant; the ultra-high dose rate used is generally greater than 40 Gy s−1, and this type of radiotherapy can protect normal tissues well. In this paper, the treatment effect of CEPC synchrotron radiation for FLASH radiotherapy was evaluated by simulation. First, a Geant4 simulation was used to build a synchrotron radiation radiotherapy beamline station, and then the dose rate that the CEPC can produce was calculated. A physicochemical model of radiotherapy response kinetics was then established, and a large number of radiotherapy experimental data were comprehensively used to fit and determine the functional relationship between the treatment effect, dose rate and dose. Finally, the macroscopic treatment effect of FLASH radiotherapy was predicted using CEPC synchrotron radiation through the dose rate and the above-mentioned functional relationship. The results show that the synchrotron radiation beam from the CEPC is one of the best beams for FLASH radiotherapy.

The title compound, [Fe(C4H8O)4(H2O)2][Fe4Ga4(C2H6O2Si)Cl4(CO)15]·4C4H8O, consists of an iron(II) cation octa­hedrally coordinated by two water mol­ecules (trans) with four tetra­hydro­furans (THF) at equatorial sites. Two additional THF mol­ecules are hydrogen bonded to each of the water mol­ecules. The dianion of the title compound is an organometallic butterfly complex with a dimethyl siloxane core and two iron-gallium fragments. The lengths of the iron to gallium metal–metal bonds range from 2.3875 (6) to 2.4912 (6) Å.

The title compound, (C2H10N2)2[(C10H12N2O8)(MoO3)2]·4H2O, which crystallizes in the monoclinic C2/c space group, was obtained by mixing molybdenum oxide, ethyl­enedi­amine and ethyl­enedi­amine­tetra­acetic acid (H4edta) in a 2:4:1 ratio. The complex anion contains two MoO3 units bridged by an edta4− anion. The midpoint of the central C—C bond of the edta4− anion is located on a crystallographic inversion centre. The independent Mo atom is tridentately coordin­ated by a nitro­gen atom and two carboxyl­ate groups of the edta4− ligand, together with the three oxo ligands, producing a distorted octa­hedral coordination environment. In the three-dimensional supra­molecular crystal structure, the dinuclear anions, the organo­ammonium counter-ions and the solvent water mol­ecules are linked by N—H⋯Ow, N—H⋯Oedta and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

The crystal structure of a new 1:1 cocrystal of carbamazepine and S-naproxen (C15H12N2O·C14H14O3) was solved from powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The PXRD pattern was measured at the high-resolution beamline CRISTAL at synchrotron SOLEIL (France). The structure was solved using Monte Carlo simulated annealing, then refined with Rietveld refinement. The positions of the H atoms were obtained from density functional theory (DFT) ground-state calculations. The symmetry is ortho­rhom­bic with the space group P212121 (No. 19) and the following lattice parameters: a = 33.5486 (9), b = 26.4223 (6), c = 5.3651 (10) Å and V = 4755.83 (19) Å3.

The availability of highly accurate protein structure predictions from AlphaFold2 (AF2) and similar tools has hugely expanded the applicability of molecular replacement (MR) for crystal structure solution. Many structures can be solved routinely using raw models, structures processed to remove unreliable parts or models split into distinct structural units. There is therefore an open question around how many and which cases still require experimental phasing methods such as single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD). Here, this question is addressed using a large set of PDB depositions that were solved by SAD. A large majority (87%) could be solved using unedited or minimally edited AF2 predictions. A further 18 (4%) yield straightforwardly to MR after splitting of the AF2 prediction using Slice'N'Dice, although different splitting methods succeeded on slightly different sets of cases. It is also found that further unique targets can be solved by alternative modelling approaches such as ESMFold (four cases), alternative MR approaches such as ARCIMBOLDO and AMPLE (two cases each), and multimeric model building with AlphaFold-Multimer or UniFold (three cases). Ultimately, only 12 cases, or 3% of the SAD-phased set, did not yield to any form of MR tested here, offering valuable hints as to the number and the characteristics of cases where experimental phasing remains essential for macromolecular structure solution.

Highly accurate protein structure prediction can generate accurate models of protein and protein–protein complexes in X-ray crystallography. However, the question of how to make more effective use of predicted models for completing structure analysis, and which strategies should be employed for the more challenging cases such as multi-helical structures, multimeric structures and extremely large structures, both in the model preparation and in the completion steps, remains open for discussion. In this paper, a new strategy is proposed based on the framework of direct methods and dual-space iteration, which can greatly simplify the pre-processing steps of predicted models both in normal and in challenging cases. Following this strategy, full-length models or the conservative structural domains could be used directly as the starting model, and the phase error and the model bias between the starting model and the real structure would be modified in the direct-methods-based dual-space iteration. Many challenging cases (from CASP14) have been tested for the general applicability of this constructive strategy, and almost complete models have been generated with reasonable statistics. The hybrid strategy therefore provides a meaningful scheme for X-ray structure determination using a predicted model as the starting point.

This paper uses deep learning to present a proof-of-concept for data-driven chemistry in single-molecule magnets (SMMs). Previous discussions within SMM research have proposed links between molecular structures (crystal structures) and single-molecule magnetic properties; however, these have only interpreted the results. Therefore, this study introduces a data-driven approach to predict the properties of SMM structures using deep learning. The deep-learning model learns the structural features of the SMM molecules by extracting the single-molecule magnetic properties from the 3D coordinates presented in this paper. The model accurately determined whether a molecule was a single-molecule magnet, with an accuracy rate of approximately 70% in predicting the SMM properties. The deep-learning model found SMMs from 20 000 metal complexes extracted from the Cambridge Structural Database. Using deep-learning models for predicting SMM properties and guiding the design of novel molecules is promising.

The discovery of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), a family of copper-dependent enzymes that play a major role in polysaccharide degradation, has revealed the importance of oxidoreductases in the biological utilization of biomass. In fungi, a range of redox proteins have been implicated as working in harness with LPMOs to bring about polysaccharide oxidation. In bacteria, less is known about the interplay between redox proteins and LPMOs, or how the interaction between the two contributes to polysaccharide degradation. We therefore set out to characterize two previously unstudied proteins from the shipworm symbiont Teredinibacter turnerae that were initially identified by the presence of carbohydrate binding domains appended to uncharacterized domains with probable redox functions. Here, X-ray crystal structures of several domains from these proteins are presented together with initial efforts to characterize their functions. The analysis suggests that the target proteins are unlikely to function as LPMO electron donors, raising new questions as to the potential redox functions that these large extracellular multi-haem-containing c-type cytochromes may perform in these bacteria.

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) was established as the first open-access digital data resource in biology and medicine in 1971 with seven X-ray crystal structures of proteins. Today, the PDB houses >210 000 experimentally determined, atomic level, 3D structures of proteins and nucleic acids as well as their complexes with one another and small molecules (e.g. approved drugs, enzyme cofactors). These data provide insights into fundamental biology, biomedicine, bioenergy and biotechnology. They proved particularly important for understanding the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic. The US-funded Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB) and other members of the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) partnership jointly manage the PDB archive and support >60 000 `data depositors' (structural biologists) around the world. wwPDB ensures the quality and integrity of the data in the ever-expanding PDB archive and supports global open access without limitations on data usage. The RCSB PDB research-focused web portal at https://www.rcsb.org/ (RCSB.org) supports millions of users worldwide, representing a broad range of expertise and interests. In addition to retrieving 3D structure data, PDB `data consumers' access comparative data and external annotations, such as information about disease-causing point mutations and genetic variations. RCSB.org also provides access to >1 000 000 computed structure models (CSMs) generated using artificial intelligence/machine-learning methods. To avoid doubt, the provenance and reliability of experimentally determined PDB structures and CSMs are identified. Related training materials are available to support users in their RCSB.org explorations.

This work focuses on molecules that are encoded by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and that bind self-, foreign- or tumor-derived peptides and display these at the cell surface for recognition by receptors on T lymphocytes (T cell receptors, TCR) and natural killer (NK) cells. The past few decades have accumulated a vast knowledge base of the structures of MHC molecules and the complexes of MHC/TCR with specificity for many different peptides. In recent years, the structures of MHC-I molecules complexed with chaperones that assist in peptide loading have been revealed by X-ray crystallography and cryogenic electron microscopy. These structures have been further studied using mutagenesis, molecular dynamics and NMR approaches. This review summarizes the current structures and dynamic principles that govern peptide exchange as these relate to the process of antigen presentation.

Ultra-intense, ultra-fast X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enable the imaging of single protein molecules under ambient temperature and pressure. A crucial aspect of structure reconstruction involves determining the relative orientations of each diffraction pattern and recovering the missing phase information. In this paper, we introduce a predicted model-aided algorithm for orientation determination and phase retrieval, which has been tested on various simulated datasets and has shown significant improvements in the success rate, accuracy and efficiency of XFEL data reconstruction.

Stimulated by informal conversations at the XVII International Small Angle Scattering (SAS) conference (Traverse City, 2017), an international team of experts undertook a round-robin exercise to produce a large dataset from proteins under standard solution conditions. These data were used to generate consensus SAS profiles for xylose isomerase, urate oxidase, xylanase, lysozyme and ribonuclease A. Here, we apply a new protocol using maximum likelihood with a larger number of the contributed datasets to generate improved consensus profiles. We investigate the fits of these profiles to predicted profiles from atomic coordinates that incorporate different models to account for the contribution to the scattering of water molecules of hydration surrounding proteins in solution. Programs using an implicit, shell-type hydration layer generally optimize fits to experimental data with the aid of two parameters that adjust the volume of the bulk solvent excluded by the protein and the contrast of the hydration layer. For these models, we found the error-weighted residual differences between the model and the experiment generally reflected the subsidiary maxima and minima in the consensus profiles that are determined by the size of the protein plus the hydration layer. By comparison, all-atom solute and solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are without the benefit of adjustable parameters and, nonetheless, they yielded at least equally good fits with residual differences that are less reflective of the structure in the consensus profile. Further, where MD simulations accounted for the precise solvent composition of the experiment, specifically the inclusion of ions, the modelled radius of gyration values were significantly closer to the experiment. The power of adjustable parameters to mask real differences between a model and the structure present in solution is demonstrated by the results for the conformationally dynamic ribonuclease A and calculations with pseudo-experimental data. This study shows that, while methods invoking an implicit hydration layer have the unequivocal advantage of speed, care is needed to understand the influence of the adjustable parameters. All-atom solute and solvent MD simulations are slower but are less susceptible to false positives, and can account for thermal fluctuations in atomic positions, and more accurately represent the water molecules of hydration that contribute to the scattering profile.

Ultrafast, high-intensity X-ray free-electron lasers can perform diffraction imaging of single protein molecules. Various algorithms have been developed to determine the orientation of each single-particle diffraction pattern and reconstruct the 3D diffraction intensity. Most of these algorithms rely on the premise that all diffraction patterns originate from identical protein molecules. However, in actual experiments, diffraction patterns from multiple different molecules may be collected simultaneously. Here, we propose a predicted model-aided one-step classification–multireconstruction algorithm that can handle mixed diffraction patterns from various molecules. The algorithm uses predicted structures of different protein molecules as templates to classify diffraction patterns based on correlation coefficients and determines orientations using a correlation maximization method. Tests on simulated data demonstrated high accuracy and efficiency in classification and reconstruction.

The accuracy of the information in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) is of great importance for the myriad downstream applications that make use of protein structural information. Despite best efforts, the occasional introduction of errors is inevitable, especially where the experimental data are of limited resolution. A novel protein structure validation approach based on spotting inconsistencies between the residue contacts and distances observed in a structural model and those computationally predicted by methods such as AlphaFold2 has previously been established. It is particularly well suited to the detection of register errors. Importantly, this new approach is orthogonal to traditional methods based on stereochemistry or map–model agreement, and is resolution independent. Here, thousands of likely register errors are identified by scanning 3–5 Å resolution structures in the PDB. Unlike most methods, the application of this approach yields suggested corrections to the register of affected regions, which it is shown, even by limited implementation, lead to improved refinement statistics in the vast majority of cases. A few limitations and confounding factors such as fold-switching proteins are characterized, but this approach is expected to have broad application in spotting potential issues in current accessions and, through its implementation and distribution in CCP4, helping to ensure the accuracy of future depositions.

Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients is a key technique in the confirmation of molecular connectivity, including absolute stereochemistry, as well as the solid-state form. However, accessing single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction analysis of an active pharmaceutical ingredient can be experimentally laborious, especially considering the potential for multiple solid-state forms (solvates, hydrates and polymorphs). In recent years, methods for the exploration of experimental crystallization space of small molecules have undergone a `step-change', resulting in new high-throughput techniques becoming available. Here, the application of high-throughput encapsulated nanodroplet crystallization to a series of six di­hydro­pyridines, calcium channel blockers used in the treatment of hypertension related diseases, is described. This approach allowed 288 individual crystallization experiments to be performed in parallel on each molecule, resulting in rapid access to crystals and subsequent crystal structures for all six di­hydro­pyridines, as well as revealing a new solvate polymorph of nifedipine (1,4-dioxane solvate) and the first known solvate of nimodipine (DMSO solvate). This work further demonstrates the power of modern high-throughput crystallization methods in the exploration of the solid-state landscape of active pharmaceutical ingredients to facilitate crystal form discovery and structural analysis by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

A novel o-phenyl­enedi­amine (opda)-based cadmium complex, bis­(benzene-1,2-di­amine-κ2N,N')bis­(benzene-1,2-di­amine-κN)cadmium(II) naphthalene-1,5-di­sulfonate, [Cd(C6H8N2)4](C10H6O6S2), was synthesized. The complex salt crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c. The Cd atom occupies a special position and coordinates six nitro­gen atoms from four o-phenyl­enedi­amine mol­ecules, two as chelating ligands and two as monodentate ligands. The amino H atoms of opda inter­act with two O atoms of the naphthalene-1,5-di­sulfonate anions. The anions act as bridges between [Cd(opda)4]2+ cations, forming a two-dimensional network in the [010] and [001] directions. The Hirshfeld surface analysis shows that the primary factors contributing to the supramolecular inter­actions are short contacts, particularly van der Waals forces of the type H⋯H, O⋯H and C⋯H.

4,4'-(Disulfanedi­yl)dipyridinium chloride triiodide, C10H10N2S22+·Cl−·I3−, (1) was synthesized by reaction of 4,4'-di­pyridyl­disulfide with ICl in a 1:1 molar ratio in di­chloro­methane solution. The structural characterization of 1 by SC-XRD analysis was supported by elemental analysis, FT–IR, and FT–Raman spectroscopic measurements.

The isolation and crystalline structure of N,N'-di­benzyl­ethyl­enedi­ammonium dichloride, C16H22N22+·2Cl−, is reported. This was obtained as an unintended product of an attempted Curtius rearrangement that involved benzyl­amine as one of the reagents and 1,2-di­chloro­ethane as the solvent. Part of a series of reactions of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), this was not the intended reaction outcome. The goal of the course was to engage students as active participants in a laboratory experience which applies the foundational techniques of a synthetic organic laboratory, using the Curtius rearrangement as a tool for the assembly of medicinally significant scaffolds. The isolation of the title compound, N,N'-di­benzyl­ethyl­enedi­ammonium dichloride, the result of the 1,2-di­chloro­ethane solvent outcompeting the Curtius iso­cyanate inter­mediate in the reaction with the nucleophilic amine, confirms the importance of conducting research at the undergraduate level where the outcome is not predetermined. The solid-state structure of N,N'-di­benzyl­ethyl­enedi­ammonium dichloride was found to feature an all-trans methyl­ene-ammonium backbone. Strong N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯Cl inter­actions lead to a layered structure with pseudo-translational symmetry emulating a C-centered setting. Different phenyl torsion angles at each end of the mol­ecule enable a more stable packing by allowing stronger hydrogen-bonding inter­actions, leading to a more ordered but lower symmetry and modulated structure in P21/n.

Predicting crystal symmetry simply from chemical composition has remained challenging. Several machine-learning approaches can be employed, but the predictive value of popular crystallographic databases is relatively modest due to the paucity of data and uneven distribution across the 230 space groups. In this work, virtually all crystallographic information available to science has been compiled and used to train and test multiple machine-learning models. Composition-driven random-forest classification relying on a large set of descriptors showed the best performance. The predictive models for crystal system, Bravais lattice, point group and space group of inorganic compounds are made publicly available as easy-to-use software downloadable from https://gitlab.com/vishsoft/cosy.

Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein has introduced its first...

The graphics in my post about R^2 were produced by an updated version of a sixty-year old program involving the U.S. census. Originally, the program was based on census data from 1900 to 1960 and sought to predict the population in 1970. The software back then was written in Fortran, the predominate technical programming language a half century ago. I have updated the MATLAB version of the program so that it now uses census data from 1900 to 2020.... read more >>

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, leads some of the Biden administration's efforts to expand Medicaid access.; Credit: Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

The Biden administration is quietly engineering a series of expansions to Medicaid that may bolster protections for millions of low-income Americans and bring more people into the program.

Biden's efforts — which have been largely overshadowed by other economic and health initiatives — represent an abrupt reversal of the Trump administration's moves to scale back the safety-net program.

The changes could further boost Medicaid enrollment — which the pandemic has already pushed to a record 80.5 million. Some of the expansion is funded by the COVID-19 relief bill that passed in March, including coverage for new mothers.

Others who could also gain coverage under Biden are inmates and undocumented immigrants. At the same time, the administration is opening the door to new Medicaid-funded services such as food and housing that the government insurance plan hasn't traditionally offered.

"There is a paradigm change underway," said Jennifer Langer Jacobs, Medicaid director in New Jersey, one of a growing number of states trying to expand home-based Medicaid services to keep enrollees out of nursing homes and other institutions.

"We've had discussions at the federal level in the last 90 days that are completely different from where we've ever been before," Langer Jacobs said.

Taken together, the Medicaid moves represent some of the most substantive shifts in federal health policy undertaken by the new administration.

"They are taking very bold action," said Rutgers University political scientist Frank Thompson, an expert on Medicaid history, noting in particular the administration's swift reversal of Trump policies. "There really isn't a precedent."

The Biden administration seems unlikely to achieve what remains the holy grail for Medicaid advocates: getting 12 holdout states, including Texas and Florida, to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income working-age adults through the Affordable Care Act.

And while some of the recent expansions – including for new mothers -- were funded by close to $20 billion in new Medicaid funding in the COVID relief bill Biden signed in March, much of that new money will stop in a few years unless Congress appropriates additional money.

The White House strategy has risks. Medicaid, which swelled after enactment of the 2010 health law, has expanded further during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, pushing enrollment to a record 80.5 million, including those served by the related Children's Health Insurance Program. That's up from 70 million before the COVID crisis began.

The programs now cost taxpayers more than $600 billion a year. And although the federal government will cover most of the cost of the Biden-backed expansions, surging Medicaid spending is a growing burden on state budgets.

The costs of expansion are a frequent target of conservative critics, including Trump officials like Seema Verma, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who frequently argued for enrollment restrictions and derided Medicaid as low-quality coverage.

But even less partisan experts warn that Medicaid, which was created to provide medical care to low-income Americans, can't make up for all the inadequacies in government housing, food and education programs.

"Focusing on the social drivers of health ... is critically important in improving the health and well-being of Medicaid beneficiaries. But that doesn't mean that Medicaid can or should be responsible for paying for all of those services," said Matt Salo, head of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, noting that the program's financing "is simply not capable of sustaining those investments."

Restoring federal support

However, after four years of Trump administration efforts to scale back coverage, Biden and his appointees appear intent on not only restoring federal support for Medicaid, but also boosting the program's reach.

"I think what we learned during the repeal-and-replace debate is just how much people in this country care about the Medicaid program and how it's a lifeline to millions," Biden's new Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, told KHN, calling the program a "backbone to our country."

The Biden administration has already withdrawn permission the Trump administration had granted Arkansas and New Hampshire to place work requirements on some Medicaid enrollees.

In April, Biden blocked a multibillion-dollar Trump administration initiative to prop up Texas hospitals that care for uninsured patients, a policy that many critics said effectively discouraged Texas from expanding Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation.

The moves have drawn criticism from Republicans, some of whom accuse the new administration of trampling states' rights to run their Medicaid programs as they choose.

"Biden is reasserting a larger federal role and not deferring to states," said Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability.

But Biden's early initiatives have been widely hailed by patient advocates, public health experts and state officials in many blue states.

"It's a breath of fresh air," said Kim Bimestefer, head of Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

Chuck Ingoglia, head of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, said: "To be in an environment where people are talking about expanding health care access has made an enormous difference."

Mounting evidence shows that expanded Medicaid coverage improves enrollees' health, as surveys and mortality data in recent years have identified greater health improvements in states that expanded Medicaid through the 2010 health law versus states that did not.

Broadening eligibility

In addition to removing Medicaid restrictions imposed by Trump administration officials, the Biden administration has backed a series of expansions to broaden eligibility and add services enrollees can receive.

Biden supported a provision in the COVID relief bill that gives states the option to extend Medicaid to new mothers for up to a year after they give birth. Many experts say such coverage could help reduce the U.S. maternal mortality rate, which is far higher than rates in other wealthy nations.

Several states, including Illinois and New Jersey, had sought permission from the Trump administration for such expanded coverage, but their requests languished.

The COVID relief bill — which passed without Republican support — also provides additional Medicaid money to states to set up mobile crisis services for people facing mental health or substance use emergencies, further broadening Medicaid's reach.

And states will get billions more to expand so-called home and community-based services such as help with cooking, bathing and other basic activities that can prevent Medicaid enrollees from having to be admitted to expensive nursing homes or other institutions.

Perhaps the most far-reaching Medicaid expansions being considered by the Biden administration would push the government health plan into covering services not traditionally considered health care, such as housing.

This reflects an emerging consensus among health policy experts that investments in some non-medical services can ultimately save Medicaid money by keeping patients out of the hospital.

In recent years, Medicaid officials in red and blue states — including Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland and Washington — have begun exploring ways to provide rental assistance to select Medicaid enrollees to prevent medical complications linked to homelessness.

The Trump administration took steps to support similar efforts, clearing Medicare Advantage health plans to offer some enrollees non-medical benefits such as food, housing aid and assistance with utilities.

But state officials across the country said the new administration has signaled more support for both expanding current home-based services and adding new ones.

That has made a big difference, said Kate McEvoy, who directs Connecticut's Medicaid program. "There was a lot of discussion in the Trump administration," she said, "but not the capital to do it."

Other states are looking to the new administration to back efforts to expand Medicaid to inmates with mental health conditions and drug addiction so they can connect more easily to treatment once released.

Kentucky health secretary Eric Friedlander said he is hopeful federal officials will sign off on his state's initiative.

Still other states, such as California, say they are getting a more receptive audience in Washington for proposals to expand coverage to immigrants who are in the country without authorization, a step public health experts say can help improve community health and slow the spread of communicable diseases.

"Covering all Californians is critical to our mission," said Jacey Cooper, director of California's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. "We really feel like the new administration is helping us ensure that everyone has access."

The Trump administration moved to restrict even authorized immigrants' access to the health care safety net, including the "public charge" rule that allowed immigration authorities to deny green cards to applicants if they used public programs such as Medicaid. In March, Biden abandoned that rule.

KHN correspondent Julie Rovner contributed to this report.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Patrick Doherty volunteered for a new medical intervention of gene-editor infusions for the treatment of genetically-based diseases.; Credit: /Patrick Doherty

Patrick Doherty had always been very active. He trekked the Himalayas and hiked trails in Spain.

But about a year and a half ago, he noticed pins and needles in his fingers and toes. His feet got cold. And then he started getting out of breath any time he walked his dog up the hills of County Donegal in Ireland where he lives.

"I noticed on some of the larger hill climbs I was getting a bit breathless," says Doherty, 65. "So I realized something was wrong."

Doherty found out he had a rare, but devastating inherited disease — known as transthyretin amyloidosis — that had killed his father. A misshapen protein was building up in his body, destroying important tissues, such as nerves in his hands and feet and his heart.

Doherty had watched others get crippled and die difficult deaths from amyloidosis.

"It's terrible prognosis," Doherty says. "This is a condition that deteriorates very rapidly. It's just dreadful."

So Doherty was thrilled when he found out that doctors were testing a new way to try to treat amyloidosis. The approach used a revolutionary gene-editing technique called CRISPR, which allows scientists to make very precise changes in DNA.

"I thought: Fantastic. I jumped at the opportunity," Doherty says.

On Saturday, researchers reported the first data indicating that the experimental treatment worked, causing levels of the destructive protein to plummet in Doherty's body and the bodies of five other patients treated with the approach.

"I feel fantastic," Doherty says. "It's just phenomenal."

The advance is being hailed not just for amyloidosis patients but also as a proof-of-concept that CRISPR could be used to treat many other, much more common diseases. It's a new way of using the innovative technology.

"This is a major milestone for patients," says Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, who shared a Nobel Prize for her work helping develop CRISPR.

"While these are early data, they show us that we can overcome one of the biggest challenges with applying CRISPR clinically so far, which is being able to deliver it systemically and get it to the right place," Doudna says.

CRISPR has already been shown to help patients suffering from the devastating blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. And doctors are trying to use it to treat cancer and to restore vision to people blinded by a rare genetic disorder.

But those experiments involve taking cells out of the body, editing them in the lab, and infusing them back in or injecting CRISPR directly into cells that need fixing.

The study Doherty volunteered for is the first in which doctors are simply infusing the gene-editor directly into patients and letting it find its own way to the right gene in the right cells. In this case, it's cells in the liver making the destructive protein.

"This is the first example in which CRISPR-Cas9 is injected directly into the bloodstream — in other words systemic administration — where we use it as a way to reach a tissue that's far away from the site of injection and very specifically use it to edit disease-causing genes," says John Leonard, the CEO of Intellia Therapeutics, which is sponsoring the study.

Doctors infused billions of microscopic structures known as nanoparticles carrying genetic instructions for the CRISPR gene-editor into four patients in London and two in New Zealand. The nanoparticles were absorbed by their livers, where they unleashed armies of CRISPR gene-editors. The CRISPR editor honed in on the target gene in the liver and sliced it, disabling production of the destructive protein.

Within weeks, the levels of protein causing the disease plummeted. Researchers reported at the Peripheral Nerve Society Annual Meeting and in a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

"It really is exciting," says Dr. Julian Gillmore, who is leading the study at the University College London, Royal Free Hospital.

"This has the potential to completely revolutionize the outcome for these patients who have lived with this disease in their family for many generations. It's decimated some families that I've been looking after. So this is amazing," Gillmore says.

The patients will have to be followed longer, and more patients will have to be treated, to make sure the treatment's safe, and determine how much it's helping, Gillmore stresses. But the approach could help those struck by amyloidosis that isn't inherited, which is a far more common version of the disease, he says.

Moreover, the promising results potentially open the door for using the same approach to treatment of many other, more common diseases for which taking cells out of the body or directly injecting CRISPR isn't realistic, including heart disease, muscular dystrophy and brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.

"This is really opening a new era as we think about gene-editing where we can begin to think about accessing all kinds of different tissue in the body via systemic administration," Leonard says.

Other scientists who are not involved in the research agree.

"This is a wonderful day for the future of gene-editing as a medicine,"
agree Fyodor Urnov, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Berkeley. "We as a species are watching this remarkable new show called: our gene-edited future."

Doherty says he started feeling better within weeks of the treatment and has continued to improve in the weeks since then.

"I definitely feel better," he told NPR. "I'm speaking to you from upstairs in our house. I climbed stairs to get up here. I would have been feeling breathless. I'm thrilled."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: /Rose Wong for NPR/KHN

Claire Lang-Ree was in a lab coat taking a college chemistry class remotely in the kitchen of her Colorado Springs, Colo., home, when a profound pain twisted into her lower abdomen. She called her mom, Jen Lang-Ree, a nurse practitioner who worried it was appendicitis and found a nearby hospital in the family's health insurance network.

After a long wait in the emergency room of Penrose Hospital, Claire received morphine and an anti-nausea medication delivered through an IV. She also underwent a CT scan of her abdomen and a series of tests.

Hospital staffers ruled out appendicitis and surmised Claire was suffering from a ruptured ovarian cyst, which can be a harmless part of the menstrual cycle but can also be problematic and painful. After a few days — and a chemistry exam taken through gritted teeth — the pain went away.

Then the bill came.

Patient: Claire Lang-Ree, a 21-year-old Stanford University student who was living in Colorado for a few months while taking classes remotely. She's insured by Anthem Blue Cross through her mom's work as a pediatric nurse practitioner in Northern California.

Total Bill: $18,735.93, including two $722.50 fees for a nurse to "push" drugs into her IV, a process that takes seconds. Anthem's negotiated charges were $6,999 for the total treatment. Anthem paid $5,578.30, and the Lang-Rees owed $1,270.45 to the hospital, plus additional bills for radiologists and other care. (Claire also anted up a $150 copay at the ER.)

Service Provider: Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, part of the regional health care network Centura Health.

What Gives: As hospitals disaggregate charges for services once included in an ER visit, a hospitalization or a surgical procedure, there has been a proliferation of newfangled fees to increase billing. In the health field, this is called "unbundling." It's analogous to the airlines now charging extra for each checked bag or for an exit row seat. Over time, in the medical industry, this has led to separate fees for ever-smaller components of care. A charge to put medicine into a patient's IV line — a "push fee" — is one of them.

Though the biggest charge on Claire's bill, $9,885.73, was for a CT scan, in many ways Claire and her mom found the push fees most galling. (Note to readers: Scans are frequently many times more expensive when ordered in an ER than in other settings.)

"That was so ridiculous," says Claire, who adds she had previously taken the anti-nausea drug they gave her; it's available in tablet form for the price of a cup of coffee, no IV necessary. "It works really well. Why wasn't that an option?"

In Colorado, the average charge for the code corresponding to Claire's first IV push has nearly tripled since 2014, and the dollars hospitals actually get for the procedure has doubled. In Colorado Springs specifically, the cost for IV pushes rose even more sharply than it did statewide.

A typical nurse in Colorado Springs makes about $35 an hour. At that rate, it would take nearly 21 hours to earn the amount of money Penrose charged for a push of plunger that likely took seconds or at most minutes.

The hospital's charge for just one "IV push" was more than Claire's portion of the monthly rent in the home she shared with roommates. In the end, Anthem did not pay the push fees in its negotiated payment. But claims data shows that in 2020 Penrose typically received upward of $1,000 for the first IV push. And patients who didn't have an insurer to dismiss such charges would be stuck with them. Colorado hospitals on average received $723 for the same code, according to the claims database.

"It's insane the variation that we see in prices, and there's no rhyme or reason," says Cari Frank with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, a Colorado nonprofit that runs a statewide health care claims database. "It's just that they've been able to negotiate those prices with the insurance company and the insurance company has decided to pay it."

To put the total cost in context, Penrose initially charged more money for Claire's visit than the typical Colorado hospital would have charged for helping someone give birth, according to data published by the Colorado Division of Insurance.

Even with the negotiated rate, "it was only $1,000 less than an average payment for having a baby," Frank says.

In an email statement, Centura said it "conducted a thorough review and determined all charges were accurate" and went on to explain that "an Emergency Room (ER) must be prepared for anything and everything that comes through the doors," requiring highly trained staff, plus equipment and supplies. "All of this adds up to large operating costs and can translate into patient responsibility."

As researchers have found, little stands in the way of hospitals charging through the roof, especially in a place like an emergency room, where a patient has few choices. A report from National Nurses United found that hospital markups have more than doubled since 1999, according to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an email, Anthem called the trend of increasing hospital prices "alarming" and "unsustainable."

But Ge Bai, an associate professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins University, says when patients see big bills it isn't only the hospital's doing — a lot depends on the insurer, too. For one, the negotiated price depends on the negotiating power of the payer, in this case, Anthem.

"Most insurance companies don't have comparable negotiating or bargaining power with the hospital," said Bai. Prices in a state like Michigan, where Bai said the UAW union covers a big proportion of Michigan patients, will look very different from those in Colorado.

Also, insurers are not the wallet defenders patients might assume them to be.

"In many cases, insurance companies don't negotiate as aggressively as they can, because they earn profit from the percentage of the claims," she says. The more expensive the actual payment is, the more money they get to extract.

Though Anthem negotiated away the push fees, it paid the hospital 30% more than the average Level IV emergency department visit in Colorado that year, and it paid quadruple what Medicare would allow for her CT scan.

Resolution: Claire and her mom decided to fight the bill, writing letters to the hospital and searching for information on what the procedures should have cost. The cost of the IV pushes and CT scan infuriated them — the hospital wanted more than double for a CT than what top-rated hospitals typically charged in 2019.

But the threat of collections wore them out and ultimately they paid their assigned share of the bill — $1,420.45, which was mostly coinsurance.

"Eventually it got to the point where I was like, 'I don't really want to go to collections, because this might ruin my credit score,'" says Claire, who didn't want to graduate from college with dinged credit.

Bai and Frank say the state of Maryland can provide a useful benchmark for medical bills, since it sets the prices that hospitals can charge for each procedure. Data provided by the Maryland Health Care Commission shows that Anthem and Claire paid seven times what she likely would have paid for the CT scan there, and nearly 10 times what they likely would have paid for the emergency department Level IV visit. In Maryland, intravenous pushes typically cost about $200 apiece in 2019. A typical Maryland hospital would have received only about $1,350 from a visit like Claire's, and the Lang-Rees would have been on the hook for about $270.

Claire's pain has come back a few times, but never as bad as that night in Colorado. She has avoided reentering an emergency room since then. After visiting multiple specialists back home in California, she learned she might have had a condition called ovarian torsion.

The Takeaway: Even at an in-network facility and with good insurance, patients can get hurt financially by visiting the ER. A few helpful documents can help guide the way to fighting such charges. The first is an itemized bill.

"I just think it's wrong in the U.S. to charge so much," says Jen Lang-Ree. "It's just a little side passion of mine to look at those and make sure I'm not being scammed."

Bai, of Johns Hopkins, suggests asking for an itemized explanation of benefits from the insurance company, too. That will show what the hospital actually received for each procedure.

Find out if the hospital massively overcharged. The Medicare price lookup tool can be useful for getting a benchmark. And publicly available data on health claims in Colorado and at least 17 other states can help, too.

Vincent Plymell with the Colorado Division of Insurance encourages patients to reach out if something on a bill looks sketchy. "Even if it's not a plan we regulate," he wrote in an email, departments such as his "can always arm the consumer with info."

Finally, make scrutinizing such charges fun. Claire and Jen made bill-fighting their mother-daughter hobby for the winter. They recommend pretzel chips and cocktails to boost the mood.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Advocates for expanding Medicaid in Kansas staged a protest outside the entrance to the statehouse parking garage in Topeka in May 2019. Today, twelve states have still not expanded Medicaid. The biggest are Texas, Florida, and Georgia, but there are a few outside the South, including Wyoming and Kansas.; Credit: John Hanna/AP

There are more than 2 million people across the United States who have no option when it comes to health insurance. They're in what's known as the "coverage gap" — they don't qualify for Medicaid in their state, and make too little money to be eligible for subsidized health plans on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges.

Briana Wright is one of those people. She's 27, lives near Jackson, Miss., works at McDonalds, and doesn't have health insurance. So to figure out her options when she recently learned she needed to have surgery to remove her gallbladder, she called Health Help Mississippi, a nonprofit that helps people enroll in health insurances.

Because she lives in Mississippi, "I wasn't going to be eligible for Medicaid — because I don't have children [and] I'm not pregnant," she tells NPR. When she had her income checked for Healthcare.gov, it was just shy of the federal poverty line — the minimum to qualify for subsidies. "It was $74 [short]. I was like, oh wow," she says.

Wright's inability to get a subsidized policy on Healthcare.gov is related to how the Affordable Care Act was originally designed. People needing insurance who were above the poverty line were supposed to be funneled via the federal and state insurance exchanges to private policies — with federal subsidies to help make those policies affordable. People who were under the poverty line were to be funneled to a newly-expanded version of Medicaid — the public health insurance program that is jointly funded by states and the federal government. But the Supreme Court made Medicaid expansion essentially optional in 2012, and many Republican-led states declined to expand. Today, there are 12 holdout states that have not expanded Medicaid, and Mississippi is one of them.

So, Wright is still uninsured. Her gallbladder is causing her pain, but she can't afford the surgery without shuffling household bills, and risking leaving something else unpaid. "I'm stressed out about it. I don't know what I'm going to do," she says. "I'm going to just have to pay it out of pocket or get on some payment plan until it all gets paid for."

Hoping to finally find a fix for Wright and the millions like her who are in Medicaid limbo, several teams of Democratic lawmakers have recently been hashing out several options — hoping to build on the momentum of the latest Supreme Court confirmation that the ACA is here to stay.

OPTION 1: Sweet-talk the 12 holdout states

The COVID-19 relief bill passed in March included financial enticements for these 12 states to expand Medicaid. Essentially, the federal government will cover 90% of the costs of the newly eligible population, and an additional 5% of the costs of those already enrolled.

It's a good financial deal. An analysis by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the net benefit for these states would be $9.6 billion. But, so far — publicly, at least — no states have indicated they intend to take the federal government up on its offer.

"If that is not getting states to move, then that suggests that the deep root of their hesitation is not about financial constraint," says Jamila Michener, a professor of government at Cornell University and author of the book Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid Federalism And Unequal Politics.

Instead, Michener says, the reluctance among some Republican-led legislatures and governors to expand Medicaid may be a combination of partisan resistance to President Obama's signature health law, and not believing "this kind of government intervention for these groups of people is appropriate."

What's Next: When asked about progress on this front in an April press briefing, Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki said "the President is certainly supportive of — and an advocate for — states expanding Medicaid," but did not answer a follow up about whether the White House was directly reaching out to governors regarding this option.

OPTION 2: Create a federal public option to fill the gap

Some have advocated for circumventing these holdout states and creating a new, standalone federal Medicaid program that people who fall into this coverage gap could join. It would be kind of like a tailored public option just for this group.

This idea was included in Biden's 2022 budget, which says, in part: "In States that have not expanded Medicaid, the President has proposed extending coverage to millions of people by providing premium-free, Medicaid-like coverage through a Federal public option, paired with financial incentives to ensure States maintain their existing expansions."

But it wouldn't be simple. "That can be quite complex — to implement a federal program that's targeted to just these 2.2 million people across a handful of states," says Robin Rudowitz, co-director of the Medicaid program at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who wrote a recent analysis of the policy options.

It also may be a heavy lift, politically, says Michener. "Anything that expanded the footprint of the federal government and its role in subsidizing health care would be especially challenging," she says.

What's next: This idea was raised as a possible solution in a letter last month from Georgia's Democratic senators to Senate leaders, and Sen. Raphael Warnock said this week he plans to introduce legislation soon.

OPTION 3: Get around stubborn states by letting cities expand Medicaid

Instead of centralizing the approach, this next idea goes even more local. The COVER Now Act, introduced by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, would empower local jurisdictions to expand Medicaid. So, if you live in Austin, Texas, maybe you could get Medicaid, even if someone in Lubbock still couldn't.

The political and logistical challenges would be tough, policy analysts say. Logistically, such a plan would require counties and cities to create new infrastructure to run a Medicaid program, Rudowitz notes, and the federal government would have to oversee how well these new local programs complied with all of Medicaid's rules.

"It does not seem feasible politically," Michener says. "The legislators who would have to vote to make this possible would be ceding quite a bit of power to localities." It also might amplify geographic equity concerns, she says. People's access to health insurance would not just "be arbitrarily based on what state you live in — which is the current state of affairs — It's also going to be arbitrary based on what county you live in, based on what city you live in."

What's next: Doggett introduced the bill earlier this month. There's no guarantee it would get a vote on the House floor and — even if it did — it wouldn't survive a likely filibuster in the evenly divided Senate.

OPTION 4: Change the ACA to open up the exchanges

A fourth idea, Rudowitz says, is to change the law to remove the minimum cutoff for the private health insurance exchanges, since "right now, individuals who are below poverty are not eligible for subsidies in the marketplace." With this option, states wouldn't be paying any of the costs, since the federal government pays premium subsidies, Rudowitz says, but "there are issues around beneficiary protections, benefits, out-of-pocket costs."

What's next: This idea hasn't yet been included in any current congressional bills.

Will any of these ideas come to fruition?

Even with a variety of ideas on the table, "there's no slam dunk option, it's a tough policy issue," Rudowitz says. All of these would be complicated to pull off.

It's possible Democrats will include one of these ideas in a reconciliation bill that could pass without the threat of a Republican filibuster. But that bill has yet to be written, and what will be included is anyone's guess.

Even so, Michener says she's glad the discussion of the Medicaid coverage gap is happening, because it's sensitizing the public, as well as people in power, to the problem and potentially changing the political dynamic down the line. "Even in policy areas where you don't have any kind of guaranteed victory, it is often worth fighting the fight," she says. "Politics is a long game."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Source: Streetwise Reports 10/28/2024

Sernova Corp. (SVA:TSX.V; SEOVF:OTCQB; PSH:XERTA) and its Cell Pouch technology could be the solution to existing challenges involving the delivery of medical treatments to patients, such as the ones described here.

Diabetic patients in resource-limited settings are having to revert back to one of the less favored, alternative ways to take insulin, via syringes or glass vials, because Danish pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO:NYSE), will stop making its insulin pens, The Guardian reported. Patients generally prefer this method for dosing themselves with insulin, as shown in a 2024 survey, because it is more convenient and more accurate.

Type 1 diabetic patients already are being impacted as Novo stopped supplying its insulin pens to certain regions, South Africa for instance. Patients there have switched back to using glass vials.

In a second situation, Novo Nordisk is working to bring stem cell-based therapies to patients more efficiently and, in seeking a solution, formed a partnership with Evotec SE (EVO:NASDAQ) to develop technologies that will achieve this, noted Evotec is a Germany-based global biotech firm with its own cell therapy and partnered cell types all in preclinical development for various indications, including diabetes, oncology, cardiology, and ophthalmology.

Per the agreement, Novo Nordisk is to provide research and development funding and potentially monetary incentives to Evotec, and Evotec is to develop the desired new technologies. Novo has the option to obtain exclusive rights to use, in a predefined medical indication, the product(s) born out of this collaboration agreement. Novo's areas of focus, along with diabetes, are cardiovascular diseases, rare diseases, growth hormone-related diseases, hemophilia, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and weight management.

Safe, Effective Therapeutic Cell Delivery

Sernova Corp.'s Cell Pouch is a vehicle for delivering various types of therapeutic cells to patients, such as donor islet cells to insulin-dependent diabetics.

When used, the Cell Pouch's containment channels are filled with the appropriate therapeutic cells, and then the device is implanted in the patient. In situ, the cells release therapeutic proteins or hormones the patient's body completely or partially lacks. The device creates a vascularized, organ-like environment that protects the therapeutic cells from immune system attacks, keeping them alive and functioning.

"The Cell Pouch is the most advanced encapsulation device in development," Ventum Capital Markets Analyst Stefan Quenneville wrote in a Sept. 12 research report.

Sernova is testing its Cell Pouch in the clinic, specifically in Type 1 diabetes. In its ongoing Phase 1/2 study, the Canadian company is evaluating the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes with donor islets implanted via the Cell Pouch, with added immunosuppression therapy. Study data so far have shown the Cell Pouch to be safe and well tolerated and the treatment, effective, reported Dr. Joseph Pantginis, analyst at H.C. Wainwright & Co., in a Sept. 12 research report.

Seven patients, all six of Cohort A and one in Cohort B, achieved sustained insulin independence, between 5.5 and 50 months in duration, free of hypoglycemic episodes. Their blood sugar levels were controlled in the nondiabetic range (i.e.,) HbA1c less than 6.5%.

"The Cell Pouch is the most advanced encapsulation device in development," Ventum Capital Markets Analyst Stefan Quenneville wrote.

A Cell Pouch removed from one of the study patients showed it still contained functioning insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin-producing cells. No evidence was seen of detrimental fibrotic tissue, too many T-cells, material degradation, or changes in the device architecture.

"We believe the impressive response rates and observed durability support Sernova's strategy and justify further investigation while positioning the technology for potential commercial success," noted Pantginis.

The results add to an expanding collection of evidence that the Cell Pouch is functioning as it should. The data also support the "impressive" results already reported from this study and help derisk future related trials.

"If Sernova is successful in bringing its functional cure for insulin-dependent diabetes to the stage where it can go into commercial production, the global market for it will be massive," wrote Technical Analyst Clive Maund in a Sept. 16 note.

In another of its programs, Sernova, in collaboration with Evotec, is developing an implantable off-the-shelf, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based islet replacement therapy, Maund reported.

"This partnership provides Sernova a potentially unlimited supply of insulin-producing cells to treat millions of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2)," he added.

This partnership was announced on May 17, 2022. You can read more about it in the press release here.

Market Growth Predicted to 2030

The global live cell encapsulation market, encompassing drug delivery, regenerative medicine and cell transplantation, is expected to continue growing through at least 2030, according to Grand View Research. The market's value, US$210.7 million in 2022, is forecasted to increase at a 3.97% compound annual growth rate between that year and 2030.

"If Sernova is successful in bringing its functional cure for insulin-dependent diabetes to the stage where it can go into commercial production, the global market for it will be massive," wrote Technical Analyst Clive Maund.

Along with diabetes, live cell encapsulation is being used to treat neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, The market research firm noted. Further, it has been proven to be a suitable way to deliver treatment for other types of diseases, including cancer, anemia, heart failure and more.

Several factors are expected to keep driving market growth during the forecast period, Grand View noted. A significant one is the increasing use of live cell encapsulation in regenerative medicine to replace disease or damaged tissues. A related contributor is rising public and private funding and investments in cell and gene therapies.

The advantages of live cell encapsulation in controlled drug delivery are boosting the market, too. They include enhanced therapeutic effects, lowered drug dose, reduced cytotoxicity, improved patient convenience and better patient compliance.

Novel new products and technological advancements are expected to add value to the market as well.

The Catalysts: Progress With Programs

Various potential stock-moving events are slated for Sernova, according to its September 2024 Corporate Presentation.

Two catalysts are expected by Sernova in 2025, related to the company's ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial in Type 1 diabetes. One is results for the remaining Cohort B patients. The other is commencement of Cohort C, who will receive, along with the islet cells, an optimized immune suppression regimen.

Several analysts are bullish on Sernova. One of them is Loe, who rates it as a Speculative Buy. His price target on the life sciences firm implies a 455% return from its current share price.

Next year, Sernova plans to start a Phase 1/2 trial of the regeneratively produced islet cells to result from its partnership with Evotec, delivered via the Cell Pouch to Type 1 diabetes patients.

Other catalysts are expected to come as a result of Sernova advancing its preclinical programs. One is a personalized treatment with patient corrected cells via Cell Pouch for hypothyroidism. Another is a Cell Pouch-delivered, ex vivo lentiviral factor VIII gene therapy for hemophilia, being developed in partnership with the European Haemacure Consortium.

Also, through partnerships, Sernova is developing technologies that would eliminate the need for concurrent immunosuppression during Cell Pouch-delivered cell treatment, a "blue sky objective," Douglas Loe, a Leede Financial Inc. analyst, noted in a Sept. 12 research report.

"Any advances in this regard could be incorporated into future Cell Pouch studies," he wrote. "We do not consider the need for such therapy to be relevant to Cell Pouch function itself."

Analyst: Company is "Very Undervalued"

Several analysts are bullish on Sernova. One of them is Loe, who rates it as a Speculative Buy. His price target on the life sciences firm implies a 455% return from its current share price.

According to H.C. Wainwright's Pantginis, the deepening responses of Type 1 diabetes patients in its Phase 1/2 trial continue to "crystallize Sernova stock's possible upside." The upside reflected in Pantginis' price target is 2,122%. The analyst recommends the company as a Buy.

Ventum's Quenneville also has a Buy on Sernova, and his target price reflects an 826% return on investment. In his report, the analyst highlighted the impressive efficacy and tolerability of the Cell Pouch up to five years post-implantation, as shown in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial data.

"This represents the longest-lasting implanted encapsulation device containing functioning islets without fibrosis," Quenneville wrote.

According to Technical Analyst Maund, Sernova is "very undervalued here given its huge potential" in the Type 1 diabetes market, as indicated on the stock charts. The fundamental outlook for the company is improving, and evidence is strong that a reversal to the upside may be happening. SVA may appreciate significantly soon. [OWNERSHIP_CHART-4790]

"Sernova is therefore viewed as a good stock to accumulate in this area, between the current price and recent lows," Maund wrote on Sept. 16. At that time, Sernova's share price was about the same as it is now.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Refinitiv, about 12.96% of the company is held by insiders and management, and 0.05% by institutions. The rest is retail.

Top shareholders include Tomas Angel with 4.91%, Director Steven Sangha with 4.27%, Betty Anne Millar with 1.32%, Brett Alexander Whalen with 0.87%, and Garry Deol with 0.77%.

Its market cap is CA$83 M. Its 52-week range is CA$0.20−0.82 per share.

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Important Disclosures:

1. Sernova Corp. has a consulting relationship with Street Smart an affiliate of Streetwise Reports. Street Smart Clients pay a monthly consulting fee between US$8,000 and US$20,000.
2. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Sernova Corp.
3. Doresa Banning wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor.
4. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.
5. This article does not constitute medical advice. Officers, employees and contributors to Streetwise Reports are not licensed medical professionals. Readers should always contact their healthcare professionals for medical advice.

For additional disclosures, please click here.

( Companies Mentioned: SVA:TSX.V;SEOVF:OTCQB;PSH:XERTA, )

Source: Streetwise Reports 11/05/2024

Treatment.com AI Inc. (TRUE:CSE; TREIF:OTCMKTS; 939:FRA) has announced the release of its newly updated Medical Education Suite (MES). This release aligns with the company's active participation in a major symposium focused on AI assessment in medical education. The Symposium, hosted by the University of Minnesota Medical School,  drew thought leaders and representatives from over 50 medical schools and national education organizations across the United States and internationally.

The updated MES has been designed to leverage Treatment's proprietary Global Library of Medicine (GLM) to help reduce the administration overhead and associated time and costs for medical schools in running key exams, such as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Additionally, this updated version of the MES includes "easy to use" features to further support students in their clinical assessment training and exam preparation. This OSCE exam is seen as a critical evaluation used globally to assess the practical skills of medical students. It is now employed in more than 80 countries, with between 200,000 to 300,000 students participating annually.¹

The MES incorporates various AI-driven features, such as automated case generation for OSCE exams, scripts for simulated patients, and instant scoring with personalized feedback. The Suite also introduces new tools, including AI Patient, which supports students preparing for medical exams, and expanded OSCE case packages, which are expected to grow to a library of 100 cases by the end of Q4 2024. Additionally, the AI Prep Tool offers both non-guided and guided exam-simulated modes, assisting students in honing their clinical reasoning.

Kevin Peterson, MD, MPH, Treatment's Chief Medical Officer, delivered a keynote at the Symposium, joining an impressive lineup that includes presenters from Mayo Clinic and the University of Alberta. The company highlights that this Symposium is a crucial opportunity to demonstrate its MES and showcase its growing influence in the field of medical education.

CEO Dr. Essam Hamza emphasized the significance of this event, stating in the press release, "We are excited to showcase our updated medical education software suite at this landmark Symposium. The opportunity to have a positive impact on the medical training of students and, in turn, introduce them to our range of proprietary AI tools is an important inflection point in the company's commercialization timeline."

AI in Healthcare

On October 10, Microsoft emphasized the importance of multimodal AI models for a comprehensive assessment of patient health. The report highlighted the growing importance of using AI to analyze complex, multimodal health data, such as medical imaging, genomics, and clinical records. The integration of these data sources has enabled more precise diagnostics and treatment planning, illustrating the sector's move toward comprehensive AI applications. The healthcare industry has faced challenges like the need for large-scale, integrated datasets and significant computational resources, but advancements have begun to bridge these gaps. Microsoft noted that these developments would help unlock new insights and improve patient care by accelerating innovation and enhancing clinical decision-making across the sector.

On November 4, Forbes reported that AI-powered healthcare tools were no longer merely experimental but were instead delivering real value across the industry. Examples included enhanced diagnostic accuracy through AI algorithms, like those developed by Google Cloud Healthcare, and improved administrative processes through platforms like Cedar's AI-powered billing system. Forbes noted that these developments were reshaping patient care and reducing administrative burdens, offering measurable benefits.

Also, on November 4, Tech Target highlighted the optimism among healthcare professionals regarding generative AI's potential to alleviate administrative burdens. Over 90% of healthcare workers surveyed expressed confidence in generative AI's ability to simplify tasks like prior authorizations and nurse handoff reports. Aashima Gupta from Google Cloud shared insights on these tools' transformative capabilities, while Tony Farah from Highmark Health cited an 85% reduction in provider administrative costs after automating prior authorizations. Helen Waters from Meditech added, "We believe that gen AI and AI overall is transforming how healthcare professionals access and use information to make powerful decisions confidently," reflecting the positive impact of AI tools on healthcare workflows and decision-making.

Company Catalysts

Treatment.com AI Inc. continues to evolve its medical education platform, incorporating advanced AI technologies that could help revolutionize medical education and training. The company is leveraging its Global Library of Medicine, which offers over 10,000 medical reviews and covers more than 1,000 diseases and associated symptoms. These AI-driven tools aim to enhance clinical decision-making while reducing administrative burdens for healthcare institutions.

The updated MES is projected to impact medical training through its comprehensive and AI-enhanced features, as outlined in Treatment's investor presentation. The presentation details the significant market potential, with the AI healthcare market expected to grow from US$11 billion in 2021 to US$187 billion by 2030, according to Statista. In addition to Treatment's announced new functionality, the company has already begun work on further solutions such as AI Doctor in a Pocket and audio/video analysis tools for clinical scoring and diagnostics. The goal of this expanded portfolio is to position the company to help expedite its aggressive growth plans over the next year.

Analysis of Treatment.com AI

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Sedi.ca, insiders own approximately 8% of Treatment.com AI. Retail investors own the remaining 92%. 

The company has 48.99 million outstanding common shares and has 41.3 million free float traded shares.

As of November 4, the market cap is approximately CA$31.35 million. Over the past 52 weeks, the company traded between CA$0.355 and CA$1.11 per share.

¹Source bodies including: https://www.aamc.org/; https://www.uems.eu/; https://www.nmc.org.in/; Education – GMC (gmc-uk.org)

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Important Disclosures:

1. Treatment.com AI has a consulting relationship with Street Smart an affiliate of Streetwise Reports. Street Smart Clients pay a monthly consulting fee between US$8,000 and US$20,000.
2. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Treatment.com AI.
3. James Guttman wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee.
4. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.
5. This article does not constitute medical advice. Officers, employees and contributors to Streetwise Reports are not licensed medical professionals. Readers should always contact their healthcare professionals for medical advice.

For additional disclosures, please click here.

* Disclosure for the quote from the Clive Maund article published on [Date]

1. For the quoted article (published on [Date]), the Company has paid Street Smart, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports, between US$1,500 and US$2,500.
2. Author Certification and Compensation: [Clive Maund of clivemaund.com] is being compensated as an independent contractor by Street Smart, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports, for writing the article quoted. Maund received his UK Technical Analysts’ Diploma in 1989. The recommendations and opinions expressed in the article accurately reflect the personal, independent, and objective views of the author regarding any and all of the designated securities discussed. No part of the compensation received by the author was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed

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The quoted article represents the opinion and analysis of Mr. Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks cannot be only be construed as a recommendation or solicitation to buy and sell securities.

¹Source bodies including: https://www.aamc.org/; https://www.uems.eu/; https://www.nmc.org.in/; Education – GMC (gmc-uk.org)

( Companies Mentioned: TRUE:CSE; TREIF:OTCMKTS;939:FRA, )

Source: Dr. Douglas Loe 11/05/2024

Leede Financial Inc. analyst Dr. Douglas Loe, in a research report published on November 4, 2024, maintained a Buy rating on Profound Medical Corp. (PROF:NASDAQ; PRN:TSX) with a price target of US$18.00. The report follows Profound's announcement that its TULSA-PRO device will receive a Category One CPT code from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Loe highlighted the significance of the reimbursement update, stating, "We have long viewed device-specific U.S. reimbursement codes for TULSA-PRO to be integral to its broader adoption in urology/oncology markets, and today's update thus solidifies TULSA-PRO's status on that theme."

The analyst emphasized the favorable reimbursement rates, noting, "Hospitals/ASCs will be reimbursed at the Medicare average of US$12,992/US$10,728 per procedure. This is sufficient economic incentive in our view to drive TULSA-PRO installed base and procedure volume growth in F2025 and thereafter."

Regarding growth projections, Loe stated, "Our model assumes that consolidated revenue/EBITDA/EPS in F2025 of US$34.9M/(US$3.9M)/(US$0.20/shr), but then lifting substantially on all metrics to US$59.1M/US$14.7M/US$0.10/shr in F2026 and then to US$95.5M/US$38.1M/US$1.05/shr in F2027."

The report highlighted potential strategic interest, with Loe noting, "We expect urology-focused suitors to show tangible interest in Profound as the annual top-line performance approaches US$100M on a run-rate basis, which our model projects by FH227."

Leede Financial's valuation methodology combines multiple approaches. Loe explained, "Our valuation still based on NPV (20% discount rate) and multiples of our F2027 EBITDA/fd EPS forecasts (US$38.1M & US$1.05/shr, respectively), with our EV calculation incorporating FQ224 balance sheet data (cash of US$34.1M, total debt of US$6.0M) and fully-diluted S/O of 26.0M."

The analyst also noted that while F2024 is a transition year, F2025 is expected to be transformative for U.S. TULSA-PRO adoption rates.

In conclusion, Leede Financial's maintenance of its Buy rating and US$18 price target reflects confidence in Profound Medical's growth potential following the favorable reimbursement update. The share price at the time of the report of US$7.35 represents a potential return of approximately 145% to the analyst's target price, highlighting the significant upside potential as the company advances its commercialization efforts.

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Disclosures for Leede Financial Inc., Profound Medical Corp., November 4, 2024

Important Information and Legal Disclaimers Leede Financial Inc. (Leede) is a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). This document is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security or instrument or to participate in any particular investing strategy. Data from various sources were used in the preparation of these documents; the information is believed but in no way warranted to be reliable, accurate and appropriate. All information is as of the date of publication and is subject to change without notice. Any opinions or recommendations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Leede. Leede cannot accept any trading instructions via e-mail as the timely receipt of e-mail messages, or their integrity over the Internet, cannot be guaranteed. Dividend yields change as stock prices change, and companies may change or cancel dividend payments in the future. All securities involve varying amounts of risk, and their values will fluctuate, and the fluctuation of foreign currency exchange rates will also impact your investment returns if measured in Canadian Dollars. Past performance does not guarantee future returns, investments may increase or decrease in value, and you may lose money. Leede employees may buy and sell shares of the companies that are recommended for their own accounts and for the accounts of other clients. Disclosure codes are used in accordance with Policy 3600 of CIRO.

Dissemination All final research reports are disseminated to existing and potential institutional clients of Leede Financial Inc. (Leede) in electronic form to intended recipients thorough e-mail and third-party aggregators. Research reports are posted to the Leede website and are accessible to customers who are entitled to the firm’s research. Reproduction of this report in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Research Analyst Certification The Research Analyst(s) who prepare this report certify that their respective report accurately reflects his/her personal opinion and that no part of his/her compensation was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views as to the securities or companies. Leede Financial Inc. (Leede) compensates its research analysts from a variety of sources and research analysts may or may not receive compensation based upon Leede investment banking revenue. Canadian Disclosures This research has been approved by Leede Financial Inc. (Leede), which accepts sole responsibility for this research and its dissemination in Canada. Leede is registered and regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). Canadian clients wishing to effect transactions in any designated investment discussed should do so through a Leede Registered Representative.

U.S. Disclosures This research report was prepared by Leede Financial Inc. (Leede). Leede is registered and regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). This report does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities discussed herein. Leede is not registered as a broker-dealer in the United States and is not subject to U.S. rules regarding the preparation of research reports and the independence of research analysts. Any resulting transactions should be effected through a U.S. broker-dealer.

( Companies Mentioned: PROF:NASDAQ; PRN:TSX, )

From left, jazz musician Louis Armstrong in Rome in 1968, Janet Jackson at the Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2018, and Nas at the Essence Festival in 2019. Works by each of these musicians are among 25 recordings being inducted to the National Recording Registry.; Credit: /AP

What do Janet Jackson, Ira Glass, Kermit the Frog, Nas and Louis Armstrong have in common?

These musicians, interviewers, and frogs are behind songs and other recordings to be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry on Wednesday.

The Library of Congress announced the 25 titles picked this year are considered "audio treasures worthy of preservation" based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance to the nation's heritage.

Janet Jackson's album "Rhythm Nation 1814;" Louis Armstrong's performance of "When the Saints Go Marching In;" Patti Labelle's song "Lady Marmalade;" Nas' record "Illmatic," Kool & the Gang's "Celebration;" and Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection" are now part of the collection of more than 550 other titles.

"The National Recording Registry will preserve our history through these vibrant recordings of music and voices that have reflected our humanity and shaped our culture from the past 143 years," Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement Wednesday.

The recordings, stretching from 1878 to 2008, were chosen out of 900 nominations from the public, Hayden said.

"This American Life" is the first podcast to join the registry. The 2008 episode co-produced with NPR News telling the story of the subprime mortgage crisis will be added to the collection.

"When we put this out as a podcast, turning a radio show into a podcast, we did literally nothing to accommodate it," host Ira Glass said in a statement shared by the Library of Congress. "And my theory is that podcasting is most powerful for the same reason that radio is the most powerful. That is, when you have a medium where you're not seeing people, there's just an intimacy to hearing somebody's voice."

The inclusion of Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection" deeply touched the Muppet.

"Well, gee, it's an amazing feeling to officially become part of our nation's history," Kermit said in a statement. "It's a great honor. And I am thrilled — I am thrilled! — to be the first frog on the list!"

The song was included in the 1979 "The Muppet Movie" performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog, and written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher.

Williams said the song is about the "immense power of faith."

"We don't know how it works, but we believe that it does," Williams said. "Sometimes the questions are more beautiful than the answers."

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress selects 25 titles each year that are at least 10 years old.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Actor Charles Grodin, whose comic characters were almost always hapless, and whose serious characters generally gave that trademark haplessness a sinister twist, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Wilton, Conn. He was 86.

His death, from bone marrow cancer, was confirmed to NPR by his son, actor Nicholas Grodin.

He was the obstetrician who gave Rosemary's Baby to a coven of witches, the dog owner who couldn't control his enormous Saint Bernard in the Beethoven movies, and the man who met the girl of his dreams just a little bit late in The Heartbreak Kid. He was, sad to say, on his honeymoon.

Grodin credited Elaine May's direction of The Heartbreak Kid with jump-starting his film career in 1972, though he'd made his debut as an uncredited child actor almost two decades earlier in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He became a familiar face in such comedies as Heaven Can Wait and Midnight Run, in which he played an accountant pursued by Robert De Niro after having embezzled from the mob.

When not working in films, Grodin directed plays on Broadway, including Lovers and Other Strangers in 1968 and Thieves in 1974 with Marlo Thomas. And in 1975, he scored a big success opposite Ellen Burstyn as an annual philanderer in the Broadway romantic comedy Same Time, Next Year (the part went to Alan Alda in the film version).

Grodin once described himself as "low-key, but high-strung," which also described a lot of his characters. And he was so sought after as a talk-show guest on late-night TV (Johnny Carson had him on The Tonight Show 36 times), he ended up hosting a talk show host himself in the 1990s.

His knack for deadpan humor extended to books with titles such as How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Over the last few years Catawba County has implemented many different ways for citizens to receive information and  interact with us.  I titled this Social Media because that term is recognized by everyone on the web.  It would be more appropriate to title it “Citizen Interaction with Catawba County” or just “Communicating” . And note [...]

Are you a self- directed, organized individual who would thrive multi-tasking in a fast paced office environment?  Do you desire to help others who cannot afford the cost of healthcare?   Catawba County Social Services is recruiting for several Eligibility Specialists II roles in Adult and Family Medicaid.  
 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Salary is negotiable for applicants who are fully qualified.  (1 year or more of Income Maintenance experience in Medicaid or Food and Nutrition Services eligibility)
• Applicants must possess one year of experience in income maintenance eligibility in a Department of Social Services in order to be fully qualified. However, trainees may be accepted.   Trainee pay is $39,729.10 per year.  

Colonel Michael W. Gilchrist, Commander of the Highway Patrol, presented the awards to EMT Paramedic and Crew Chief Brad Harris and EMT Paramedic Eric Jones for their role in pulling a person from a burning vehicle.

The Catawba County Board of Commissioners took action at its meeting on February 4, 2013, to dedicate the entrance area of the Catawba County Justice Center in honor of retired Sheriff L. David Huffman and his 32 years of services to the county, including four as a county commissioner and 28 as Sheriff.

Catawba County Public Health has earned reaccreditation from the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board.

Marijuanas active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting, and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials.

Good morning and welcome. There has been unprecedented interest in recent years about whether marijuana or its constituent compounds should be used as medicine. Since 1996, voters in seven states have approved the medical use of marijuana.

Reducing one of the nations leading causes of death and injury – medical errors – will require rigorous changes throughout the health care system, including mandatory reporting requirements.

Welcome to the public release of the latest Institute of Medicine report on the quality of health care in America.

To significantly reduce the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries caused by medical errors every year, health care organizations must adopt information technology systems that are capable of collecting and sharing essential health information on patients and their care, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Use of protective face coverings will be one of many strategies used to slow or prevent transmission of the flu virus in the event of a pandemic, even though scientific evidence about the effectiveness of inexpensive, disposable medical masks and respirators against influenza is limited.

Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

The numerous technical and operational breakdowns that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico suggest the lack of a suitable approach for managing the inherent risks.

A new data network that integrates emerging research on the molecular makeup of diseases with clinical data on individual patients could drive the development of a more accurate classification of disease and ultimately enhance diagnosis and treatment, says a new report from the National Research Council.