Becker's Hospital Review: Kaiser Lays Off 51 IT Workers
Kaiser Permanente has laid off 51 employees from IT positions in Pleasanton, Calif., the health system confirmed to Becker's. Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser eliminated 33 IT positions in April and 18 in May. According to the health system, these positions do not provide direct patient medical care. (Diaz, 7/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: UC Davis Health Names 2 Physician Execs
Sacramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health has named Joseph Galante, MD, chief medical officer of its flagship UC Davis Medical Center, and Debbie Aizenberg, MD, was selected to serve as ambulatory chief medical officer. The academic health system announced the leadership appointments in a July 1 post on LinkedIn. (Carbajal, 7/1)

Axios: Biden Administration Invests In Geriatric Care Training
The Biden administration is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to train primary care clinicians to better serve older adults, officials announced Monday. America faces a shortage of geriatricians, who specialize in health care for patients over 65 years old. (Goldman, 7/2)

The 19th: Nursing Parents Are Suing Employers To Get PUMP Act Accommodations
When Jasmine Emery wasn’t driving the #400/405 bus, she’d use her short breaks to gingerly attach her breast pump under her uniform and hope passengers wouldn’t barge in or hear its suctioning over the hiss and clatter of metro Detroit. The milk went into a cooler, tucked under a frozen water bottle. There was nowhere to clean her pump when she was done. It was 2021, and Emery was just back from maternity leave after the birth of her third child. (Carrazana, 7/1)

Modern Healthcare: AMA’s Dr. Bruce Scott To Prioritize Physician Burnout
Dr. Bruce Scott, the new president of the American Medical Association, has a one-year term to make a difference and has already identified a priority: making the industry less reliant on non-physician providers. In an interview, the Kentucky-based otolaryngologist said he is concerned about the increase in providers who have not attended medical school, and one way to slow that trend is by addressing physician burnout. He also is targeting prior authorization. (DeSilva, 7/1)

Military.com: Express Scripts' Tricare Pharmacy Contract Could Be Costing Military Families Money, Lawmakers Warn 
Two dozen Democrat and Republican lawmakers have raised issues about Express Scripts, the company that oversees the U.S. military's pharmacy program, charging that the benefits manager engages in tactics that squelch competition and raise prices. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., wrote Defense Department leadership last week questioning the DoD's sole-source contract with Express Scripts, which manages the Tricare retail pharmacy network and prescription home delivery programs. (Kime, 7/1)

KVPR: Harmful Algae Found At Lake Isabella, Public Asked To Use Caution
The public is being asked to take caution around Lake Isabella. The Kern County Public Health Department says it has found harmful algae. Of 17 water samples taken from around the lake, results from the Hanning Flat area came back with cautionary levels of toxic blue-green algae. (Rodriguez-Delgado, 7/1)

ABC News: High Levels Of Bacteria In Water Lead To Multiple Beach Closures Across The US 
At least three beaches in Coronado, California – located on a peninsula in San Diego Bay – have been closed since June 26 because "[b]acteria levels exceed health standards." San Diego County's Department of Environmental Health and Quality said such closures are usually due to sewage or chemical spills. (Kekatos, 7/1)

Stat: Drag Queen AI Chatbot Offers Advice, Education On HIV And STIs
AIDS Healthcare Foundation is rolling out an AI chatbot with a drag queen persona to make testing and treatment less scary. (Ravindranath, 7/2)

Los Angeles Blade: 20th Anniversary Of Legal Same-Sex Marriage In The United States
Two decades after Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, a new study reveals both significant progress and ongoing challenges for married LGBTQ+ couples in America, with a growing sense of insecurity about the future of their rights. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law surveyed 484 married same-sex couples from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The study, released Monday, marks the 20th anniversary of legal same-sex marriage in the United States. (Masters, 7/1)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Population Is Aging Fast. Here’s How It’s Dramatically Transforming The City
Despite its image as a magnet of youth, Los Angeles County is aging fast. The region is getting older thanks to a series of demographic shifts, including slowing immigration, declining birth rates and unaffordable housing that is pricing out young people on a budget. “We’ve never been top heavy like this before,” with a lack of young people to support older generations, said Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC. “We’re still figuring out how to deal with it. (Castleman, 7/2)

Capital & Main: Healthy Food Choices Need More Than New Recipes
Most of the attention on programs like Recipe4Health has been on making fresh produce available to low-income residents with chronic conditions. But just as important as providing the fresh foods is teaching patients how to prepare them. Exercise instruction is also key. As Sacramento legislators consider the future of the state’s food-as-medicine pilot program, it is vital to recognize that losing the program’s classes will take away the chance to give people life-changing knowledge and skills. (Sanchez-Tello, 7/1)

CIDRAP: Salmonella Outbreak From Backyard Poultry Expands To 38 States 
In a new update on a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to backyard poultry—first announced in May—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 86 more illnesses and 9 more affected states, raising the national total to 195 cases from 38 states. (Schnirring, 7/1)

Stat: Prosthetic Leg Performance Enhanced By Electrode-Implant Surgery
A novel surgical technique could dramatically improve walking for people with below-the-knee amputations and help them better control their prosthetics. A study published Monday in Nature Medicine showed that trial participants who received the procedure could walk faster, were more stable on uneven terrain, and had an increased spatial awareness, or proprioception, in their residual limb. Phantom pain in their limbs lessened, too. (Broderick, 7/1)

The Washington Post: FTC Opens Investigation Into Teva, Escalating Patent Fight With Pharma Industry
The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Teva Pharmaceuticals, citing the company’s refusal to take down about two dozen patents for its asthma and COPD inhalers, according to confidential agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The FTC last week sent a civil investigative demand — effectively a subpoena — ordering Teva to provide internal communications, analysis and financial data related to the contested patents listed in a federal registry known as the Orange Book. The agency has argued that pharmaceutical companies such as Teva have wrongly made minor tweaks to their products to keep patents in the Orange Book and fend off generic competition. Teva charges hundreds of dollars for inhalers in the United States that the company sells for a fraction of the price overseas. (Diamond, 7/1)

USA Today: Drug Coverage Changes Put Americans In A Medical (And Monetary) Bind
Paying more for less is a recurring theme for Americans these past few years, and it’s even true in health care, a new study shows. Health insurers are covering fewer drugs, putting more restrictions on their drug coverage, but still raising costs for consumers, prescription drug comparison site GoodRx found after reviewing more than 3,700 Medicare Part D plans from 2010 to 2024. (Lee, 7/1)

WGCU: Potassium Chloride Capsules Recalled For Potentially Deadly Medical Risk
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is voluntarily recalling 114 batches of potassium chloride extended-release capsules because of failed dissolution. Information from the Mahwah, N.J., company posted on the PR Newswire said the failed dissolution of the capsules may cause high potassium levels, also known as hyperkalemia, which can result in irregular heart beat that can lead to cardiac arrest. (7/1)

CNN: In New Criteria For Alzheimer’s, Some See Much-Needed Progress While Others Fear Profit May Be Driving ‘Diagnostic Creep’ 
With another pricey Alzheimer’s disease treatment expected to receive an approval decision soon, the nonprofit Alzheimer’s Association has published the final version of its new diagnostic criteria for the disease. And for the first time, the criteria call on doctors diagnosing the disease to rely on biomarkers — pieces of beta amyloid and tau proteins picked up by lab tests or on brain scans — rather than pen-and-paper tests of memory and thinking. (Goodman, 7/1)

ProPublica: The Failure To Track Data On Stillbirths Undermines Efforts To Prevent Them
From a public health perspective, fetal death certificates provide essential data that helps shed light on stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more of pregnancy. They serve as the underpinning for much of the research on stillbirth, as well as an evaluation of care in pregnancy and delivery. Tracking the cause of death is key to understanding how to prevent stillbirth, which research shows may be possible in nearly 1 in 4 stillbirths. ProPublica, which has spent the past two years reporting on stillbirths, has found that state and federal health agencies, lawmakers and local hospitals have failed to prioritize data collection needed to accurately track and understand stillbirth or provide parents with that critical information. (Hwang, Chou and Eldeib, 7/2)

Politico: ‘A Battle To The Death’: The Next Abortion Cases En Route To The Supreme Court 
The Supreme Court’s decision to sidestep key legal questions in its abortion decisions this term sets up another showdown as early as next year. And the next wave of lawsuits around the procedure — including challenges targeting the ability of patients to cross state lines for abortions, the regulation of abortion pills, and minors’ ability to get an abortion without parental consent — is already moving toward the high court. (Ollstein, 7/1)

Reuters: Scientists Wary Of Bird Flu Pandemic 'Unfolding In Slow Motion' 
Scientists tracking the spread of bird flu are increasingly concerned that gaps in surveillance may keep them several steps behind a new pandemic, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen leading disease experts. Many of them have been monitoring the new subtype of H5N1 avian flu in migratory birds since 2020. But the spread of the virus to 129 dairy herds in 12 U.S. states signals a change that could bring it closer to becoming transmissible between humans. Infections also have been found in other mammals, from alpacas to house cats. (Steenhuysen and Rigby, 7/2)

Bloomberg: Bird Flu Shot Hopes Dim As Tracing Woes Undercut Covid Lessons
US scientists haven’t gotten a handle on how to effectively track bird flu, three months after a Texas dairy worker was diagnosed with the virus. That’s impeding the ability to create a vaccine to protect against the spread among people. Bird flu’s health risk to the general public remains low, according to US officials. But if the virus becomes more dangerous, it’s unclear we’ll have a shot that works, according to Kate Broderick, a vaccine developer at Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, who’s helped develop shots against Ebola and Zika. (Smith and Nix, 7/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Mini-Strokes, Gut Problems: Scientists See Links to an Old Bout of Covid
Scientists suspect that one culprit behind your new illness might be the infection you got a couple of years ago. The link between new health problems and your past health history appears to be particularly prevalent with Covid. A new Nature Medicine study found that health problems stemming from even mild Covid infections can emerge as many as three years afterward. The study found a greater risk three years later of problems in the gut, brain and lungs, including irritable bowel syndrome, mini-strokes and pulmonary scarring. This is different from what most people think of as “long Covid,” the debilitating chronic condition that can include fatigue, brain fog and racing heartbeat. (Reddy, 7/2)

USA Today: COVID 2024: Current Guidelines On Vaccines, Symptoms, Isolation Period
As cases of COVID-19 are on the rise and with a new variant of the disease emerging this summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending updated vaccines ahead of the fall and winter virus season. "Make a plan now for you and your family to get both updated flu and COVID vaccines this fall, ahead of the respiratory virus season," CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement Thursday. (7/1)

CIDRAP: New ADHD Diagnoses Doubled During COVID-19, Study Suggests 
New diagnoses of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Finland doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the largest increase in females aged 13 to 30 years, University of Helsinki researchers report in JAMA Network Open. The team analyzed nationwide data on new ADHD diagnoses, prevalence, and medication use among 5.6 million participants from registries in 2015, 2020), and 2022. The average participant age was 44.1 years, and 50.6% were female. (Van Beusekom, 7/1)