TEMP: From Susan Perry via MinnPost, VERBATIM: “The average normal body temperature has fallen since the middle of the 19th century, most likely because of improvements in public health, according to a study published in the journal eLife. Forget about that old touchstone of health — a thermometer reading of 98.6°F. After poring over more than 650,000 temperature measurements taken during the past century and a half, the authors of the new study have concluded that the average normal body temperature has dropped almost a full degree, to 97.9°F. ‘Our temperature’s not what people think it is,’ says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, the study’s senior author and a professor of medicine and of health research and policy at Stanford University, in a released statement. ‘What everybody grew up learning, which is that our normal temperature is 98.6, is wrong.’” READ: http://bit.ly/2Tn1R5f (SPONSORED: UCare)
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CYANIDE: Via University of Minnesota, VERBATIM: “The University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Windgap Medical have received a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a new device to quickly administer a recently developed antidote for cyanide poisoning. Under the grant, researchers from the University’s Center for Drug Design, College of Pharmacy, and Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company Windgap Medical are collaborating to design an autoinjector. The collaboration’s goal is to develop a valuable tool for first responders to use in saving victims of cyanide poisoning.” PATTERSON: “The risk of cyanide use in a terrorist attack is such that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identifies cyanide among the highest priority chemical threats,” said Steven Patterson, a professor in the Center for Drug Design. “Current antidotes are not well-suited for use in a mass-casualty setting. We have long recognized that a device to deliver a cyanide antidote as rapidly and easily as epinephrine would be extremely useful.” READ: http://bit.ly/36UlDJo
MEDMAR: Via Office of the Legislative Auditor, a financial audit of the Minnesota Department of Health’s medical cannabis program. VERBATIM: “The Minnesota Department of Health did not verify for all new patients that the license of their health care practitioner was active and in good standing; The Minnesota Department of Health did not keep valid documentation of the eligibility of parents or legal guardians for the medical cannabis program; The Minnesota Department of Health did not adequately reconcile some medical cannabis patient fees or ensure employee separation of duties when handling these payments; The Minnesota Department of Health did not ensure that each of the two medical cannabis manufacturers had a formal contract with a testing laboratory; The Minnesota Department of Health did not have adequate controls to ensure manufacturers accurately tracked and tested medical cannabis prior to sale; The Minnesota Department of Health did not have adequate controls to help prevent and timely detect diversion or loss of medical cannabis by a manufacturer . . . The Minnesota Department of Health charged some medical cannabis patients a lower registration fee than permitted in state statutes; The Minnesota Department of Health did not ensure that each of the two medical cannabis manufacturers had a formal contract with a testing laboratory.” READ: http://bit.ly/2FOfNNJ
UOFM/MAYO: In a second audit released today, the Office of the Legislative Auditor looked at Regenerative Medicine Minnesota, a partnership between the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic. VERBATIM: “RMM partners use their funding primarily to issue grants. The partners awarded 125 grants, totaling $17.44 million, from the inception of the program through the end of our audit scope, February 2019. The Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) conducted this audit in response to allegations of mismanagement within the RMM partnership . . . OLA found that internal controls over the areas in our audit scope were generally not adequate to safeguard assets and ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements . . . OLA found that RMM provided accurate information in its biennial reports to the Legislature. However, RMM awarded 58 grants that were not authorized in state law. We also found one instance where grant evaluators did not comply with RMM’s conflict of interest policies.” READ: http://bit.ly/2TjomIq
OPIOIDS: From John Lundy via Duluth News Tribune, VERBATIM: “Opioid overdoses increased by 64% in Duluth last year from 2018, according to Duluth Police Department data. Fourteen people died from overdoses. ‘Around the state, overdoses are dropping,’ said Jess Nickila, opioid program technician for the Duluth Police Department. ‘But we’re kind of in a pocket.’ The number of overdoses in Duluth increased from 106 to 174, and the number of fatalities increased from eight to 14, Nickila reported. For all of St. Louis County, overdoses increased by 52%, from 151 to 230, and fatalities from 13 to 21.” READ: http://bit.ly/36VbETZ
MENTALHEALTH: From Alisa Roth via Minnesota Public Radio, VERBATIM: “Like in other places, the emergency department at the Rainy Lake Medical Center is where people come if they think they’re having a heart attack or have broken their arm or find themselves in a mental health crisis. But unlike some hospitals, there’s no special emergency department for people in crisis and no inpatient beds for psychiatry patients in International Falls, Minn., a city of 6,000 people near the Canadian border. The shortage of mental health care in rural areas means patients in need of inpatient psychiatric care are often waiting days to be transferred to beds far from home. It’s a situation that’s challenging for patients, families and health care providers, one with no obvious solution. At the hospital, you can see how providers have to make do. Instead of a psychiatric emergency department, there’s a room next to the nurse’s station, which can be retrofitted to make it safe if people are experiencing psychosis or threatening to hurt themselves. ‘We can remove all the cords from the room,’ said Cherrie Belanger, the hospital’s nursing director. ‘There are no curtains or anything hanging that they can harm themselves with.’ But that’s about all she can offer in an emergency.” LISTEN: http://bit.ly/3a5VAkr
VAPING: From Lauren Etter via Bloomberg, VERBATIM: “Juul Labs Inc. received roughly 2,600 complaints about adverse health effects related to its e-cigarette during its first three years in operation, with customers citing issues such as burning sensations in the lungs, blistered lips, and vomiting, according to an internal Food and Drug Administration report. The report, released to Bloomberg News under the federal Freedom of Information Act, contains few details about the anonymous complaints or health outcomes. It cites only one ‘serious adverse event’: A woman reported that her throat bled after she used a Juul product. The rate of complaints received per Juul pods sold ‘is very low,’ said Austin Finan, a company spokesman. ‘We take product safety very seriously and implement stringent quality-control measures to ensure the safety of all our products.’” READ: http://bit.ly/2FNKliF
BAN: From Nathaniel Weixel via The Hill, VERBATIM: “More than 30 Senate Democrats on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s new vaping ban for exempting menthol flavored e-cigarettes and any e-liquids that are not in a cartridge.
In a letter to newly appointed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, the 31 Democrats, led by Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), said the omissions in the policy will place millions of children at risk of addiction. ‘The newly announced e-cigarette flavors policy, which represents an alarming reversal from what the Administration promised, is weak and unlikely to have a meaningful impact on e-cigarette use by youth,’ the Democrats wrote.” READ: http://bit.ly/2FLMA62
MORE: Via U.S. Senate, the letter which was signed by, among others, Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. READ: http://bit.ly/30jC53v
MAYO: From Duska Anastasijevic via Mayo Clinic News Network, VERBATIM: “Mayo Clinic announced the Clinical Data Analytics Platform as the first venture under the Mayo Clinic Platform, a strategic initiative to improve health care through insights and knowledge derived from data. The Clinical Data Analytics Platform will apply advanced data analytics on deidentified data from Mayo Clinic and other organizations, as well as the vast information in the scientific literature to advance medicine and improve the health of patients. Clinical Data Analytics Platform is based on a federated architecture, which enables multiple participants to build a common, robust artificial intelligence and machine learning model without sharing datasets, thus addressing critical issues such as data privacy, security and access rights to heterogeneous sources of data.” READ: https://mayocl.in/2NrwMJZ
SURVEY: From Nathan Eddy via Healthcare IT News, VERBATIM: “Healthcare providers are failing to integrate digital data platforms into their IT infrastructure, and analytics into their clinical and operational workflows. This despite widespread availability of the technology – and a definite need for it, given the demands of value-based reimbursement. Those were among the findings of a Black Book survey of 748 providers organizations, which found utilization of advanced analytics was described as ‘negligible’ by a whopping 80% of respondents. Meanwhile, 84% of the C-suite execs and board members polled said their health systems only used analytics to a ‘limited or minimal extent to generate commercial or outcome insights,’ according to the survey. Even while the market for healthcare data analytics booms and provider access to such tools has risen sharply in past years, multiple factors, ranging from a lack of strategic direction to the absence of internal data scientists, have sharply curbed usage.” READ: http://bit.ly/30vudfr
2020ELECTION: From Peter Sullivan via The Hill, VERBATIM: “President Trump on Monday lashed out at former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg, defending his administration's health care record. ‘Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising,’ Trump tweeted. ‘I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare,’ he continued, adding that he would ‘always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!’ . . . The tweets from Trump come as Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, has spent more than $125 million dollars in ads.” READ: http://bit.ly/2QQPDQO
FACTCHECK: From Hope Yen via Associated Press, VERBATIM: “President Donald Trump made a striking claim Monday, insisting it was he who ensured that people with preexisting medical problems will always be covered by health insurance. He wasn’t . . . THE FACTS: People with preexisting medical problems have health insurance protections because of President Barack Obama’s health care law, which Trump is trying to dismantle . . . One of Trump’s major alternatives to Obama’s law — short-term health insurance, already in place — doesn’t have to cover preexisting conditions. Another major alternative is association health plans, which are oriented to small businesses and sole proprietors and do cover preexisting conditions.” READ: http://bit.ly/374kNKl
DRUGPRICES: From Jacqueline Thomsen via National Law Journal, VERBATIM: “A federal appeals court appeared poised Monday to rule against a Trump administration rule requiring that drug manufacturers include the price of prescription drugs in television ads. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, appointed by presidents from both parties, heavily questioned Department of Justice attorney Ethan Davis on how the requirement is tied to the Department of Health and Human Services’ administration of Medicaid and Medicare. Davis said imposing the requirement on manufacturers who participate in the health care programs will lead to more transparency around drug prices, and can lead to conversations between patients and doctors about what other prescriptions are available at a lower cost. But the judges weren’t buying the argument that the Trump administration has the power to enact the measure.” READ: http://bit.ly/30jHMye
REIMBURSEMENT: From Jared S. Hopkins via The Wall Street Journal, VERBATIM: “Drugmakers are experimenting with new ways to get paid for their most expensive medicines, as resistance to escalating prices builds and the collection and analysis of patient data improves. Now that six-figure price tags are common, drug companies are finding creative ways to get reimbursed, from installment plans and subscriptions to more complex value-based contracts that tie payment to when a drug helps a patient. For years, pharmaceutical companies would typically set a price for a drug and then get paid per pill sold at that price, after any negotiated rebates . . . The drug-reimbursement innovation comes as cries for relief mount. Congress is considering plans to lower drug costs, while the Trump administration has proposed importing drugs from Canada. Earlier this month, drugmakers raised prices of hundreds of prescription medicines, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, health plans are controlling costs by restricting prescriptions for certain high-price medicines to a narrow set of patients.” READ: https://on.wsj.com/2QWojAR
From Litchfield, a new Beers with Blois podcast out this morning featuring CD7 candidate for Congress fmr. Lt. Gov. Michelle Fischbach. LISTEN: http://bit.ly/beerswblois15 (SPONSORED: MN Corn Growers and the North Central Carpenters Union)
MEDTRONIC: From Sean Whooley via Mass Device, VERBATIM: “Medtronic announced today that it received CE Mark approval for its InterStim Micro neurostimulator and InterStim SureScan MRI leads. The medtech giant plans to make the products available on the market on Jan. 15 to expand access to sacral neuromodulation (SNM) therapy for European patients, according to a news release. InterStim Micro is a rechargeable device designed to deliver SNM therapy for the treatment of overactive bladder, fecal incontinence and non-obstructive urinary retention. It is made to be 80% smaller than the already-existing InterStim II neurostimulator and is touted to have a life span of 15 years with its Overdrive battery technology.” READ: http://bit.ly/2uMs3vT
ALLINA/OPTUM: From Rachel Popa via Becker’s ASC Review, VERBATIM: “ASC operator Optum finalized a partnership with Allina Health System in Minneapolis in December, paving the way for the potential development of up to a dozen new surgery centers in the next five years, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Through the partnership, Optum and its subsidiary, Surgical Care Affiliates, will become equity partners in new ASCs developed with Allina. Optum also will begin managing Allina's ASCs at the Plymouth, Minn.-based West Health medical campus in February.” READ: http://bit.ly/3acUhA7
6,000+: Over 6,000 people have downloaded the Fluence Forum, an hour-long deep dive a critical issue of our community. The topic of the first one was the Enbridge Line 3 Replacement. Joined by labor, business and Native community leaders we discussed the impact the $2.6 billion project will have on Minnesota. You can listen to the forum here. LISTEN: http://bit.ly/2PIjBUR
NEXT: If you’re interested in having the Fluence Forum host a topic, please contact Blois Olson at bloisolson@gmail.com
CHILDREN’SMN: From Children’s Minnesota via PRNewswire, VERATIM: “Children's Minnesota received a $30,000 grant from PetSmart Charities to support the health care system's Pets Assisting with Healing program in 2020. The grant will help fund program-related expenses including staffing, pet acquisition, training costs, equipment and supplies . . . Pets Assisting with Healing is a volunteer service offered at both the Children's Minnesota hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The program aims to normalize the hospital environment by supporting a human-animal bond; encouraging conversation and interaction; and simply brightening the days of patients, families and staff. The program also helps motivate kids with their occupational, speech or physical therapy goals.” READ: https://prn.to/384QdA5
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DHS: via Peter Callaghan at MinnPost in an interview with Gov. Tim Walz, EXCERPT: “PC: Well then we’ll segue right into this: Is DHS better off than it appears — or worse off than it appears? TW: I think we’re still trying to find that out. I think it is what it is. It’s an agency that delivers incredibly important services, thousands of employees going every day and doing it very, very well and getting outcomes in terms of health outcomes and in children’s outcomes that are as good as any place in the country. But we did not have the processes in place to make sure that we’re following rules. Now some of those rules are complex and maybe archaic. But that’s no excuse for not doing them. And I think there was certainly — and it became very apparent — there’s friction between our folks who are key partners in this, like the counties and the tribal governments. So I think that’s the reason that I’m asking for and requested a deep dive. I want outside eyes of experts on this. I want Republican, Democratic legislators, business, nonprofits, to be part of this. And I think it goes without saying that there’s going to be a different looking DHS by the time we’re done. And the goal with that is, is not different looking for the sake of different looking. Different looking because the world has changed. These state agencies have remained stagnant over 30 years. World’s changed. Delivery of services changed. Needs have changed. Demographics have changed. PC: Broken up? TW: Potentially. I think again, the politically expedient thing people would see is to pull off direct care and treatment. Maybe pull that off. We’re looking at other states. This is another case, going back to your insightful question, most other states have gone through these growing pains. … As we started to look out, and we can provide examples of this, other states have gone through many of these exact same things. I think what we need to do is get better data before we start tearing it apart. But my guess is yes, in almost every other instance in every other state, dividing this has happened.” READ: http://bit.ly/2t66ypC
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TACTILE: From Minneapolis-based Tactile Systems Technology via Globe Newswire, VERBATIM: “Tactile Systems Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: TCMD), a medical technology company focused on developing medical devices for the treatment of chronic diseases at home, today reported preliminary revenue results for the full year and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019, introduced revenue expectations for the twelve months ended December 31, 2020 and announced that Gerald R. Mattys has communicated his intention to retire as Chief Executive Officer of the Company in 2020 . . . Full year 2019 total revenue is expected to be in the range of $188.4 million to $188.8 million, representing growth of approximately 31% year-over-year . . . Fourth quarter 2019 total revenue is expected to be in the range of $56.0 million to $56.4 million, representing growth of approximately 21% to 22% year-over-year.” READ: http://bit.ly/2RjeWd4
UNH: Via UnitedHealth, VERBATIM: “UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) will release its fourth quarter and full year 2019 financial results on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, before the market opens, and will host a teleconference at 8:45 a.m. ET to discuss the results with analysts and investors.” READ: http://bit.ly/2EyqenV
PUERTORICO: From UnitedHealthcare via Business Wire, VERBATIM: “UnitedHealthcare and Optum, the health benefits and services companies of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), are taking action to help people who may be affected by the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico. Support includes assisting health plan participants who may need to make alternate arrangements to access care and early prescription refills, as well as offering a free emotional-support line to help people who might be affected.” READ: https://bwnews.pr/2RaQwmk
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