TOP STORIES
Despite criticizing Planned Parenthood after the fetal tissue sample scandal, GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson apparently conducted research using such samples, and his former colleagues have now published details on the subject. But Carson challenges the direct comparison.
“You have to look at the intent,” Carson told The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel before he began a campaign swing through New Hampshire. “To willfully ignore evidence that you have for some ideological reason is wrong. If you’re killing babies and taking the tissue, that’s a very different thing than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it.”
LIFE SCIENCES
Zyga Technology, a company that focuses on treatment of lumbar spinal conditions, has won 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its Simmetry sacroiliac joint fusion system.
“In the operating room, surgeons need as many options as possible to effectively treat each individual. This new Simmetry technique allows me to offer patients a single, 1-inch incision and to adapt the surgery to their individual anatomy and condition,”Dr. David Greenwald, M.D. of St. Augustine’s Flagler Brain and Spine Institute said in a press release.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
What are five of the biggest obstacles nurses face today?
Through nine months of its fiscal year, Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health reported consolidated operating income of $50.9 million, up from $18.6 million for the same period a year ago. Here are some of the details.
TECH
Scripps Health has launched a new, eponymous app for iOS and Android devices that allows patients and visitors to find information about Scripps physicians, hospitals, and clinics.
POLITICS
Alabama and Louisiana could be violating federal law by terminating Medicaid’s contracts with Planned Parenthood, according to HHS.
“By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings,” an agency spokesman tells PULSE.
— Politico
A LITTLE BIT EXTRA
Facebook announced that it will open-source all of its software development kits (SDKs) for Parse, the mobile backend service that it acquired in 2013.
“Our SDKs are widely used by the mobile development community — in fact, Parse SDKs now power more than 800 million active app-device pairs,” Facebook Parse engineer Nikita Lutsenko wrote in a blog post on the news today. “They’re a critical part of our platform, enabling developers to get up and running with Parse in minutes. Today we’re excited to show developers what’s under the hood for the first time.”
