Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

A new report from Reuters is fueling speculation that healthcare payment software maker Waystar is exploring strategic alternatives, including a potential sale that could take the company private. Citing seven sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported Tuesday that the company is exploring options. The company hired investment bank Evercore to advise on the process, Reuters reported, citing two people speaking on condition of anonymity. The process is in an early stage, Reuters reported, with sources telling the media outlet that plans could change and a sale may not materialize. Waystar declined to comment on the report. Reuters did not…

The public inquiry into the Lucy Letby case may have reserved the strongest criticism for the Countess of Chester Hospital and its management, but there are big questions for the wider NHS to answer too.The Thirlwall inquiry’s final report said there was a “complete failure” to protect babies on the neonatal unit where Letby murdered seven and attempted to murder seven more.But a third of the report was given over to the wider role played by the health system in England – and make no mistake, it was found lacking.Across more than 200 pages, inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall set…

Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, today announced Longevity Vaccines, a research initiative developing treatments that direct a patient’s own immune cells to eliminate the earliest cellular drivers of age-related disease. This initiative expands the company’s dual-purpose, aging-oriented discovery strategy from small molecules into RNA-encoded, in vivo cell engineering. We built Insilico to treat aging and disease together, and to prove that AI can design medicines that deliver real patient impact. Longevity Vaccines initiative extends that same rigor to preventive medicine—delivering programmable, single-dose therapies that clear the root-cause cells of age-related disease, starting with…

In two Indigenous communities living pre-industrial lifestyles in the Bolivian Amazon, dementia is remarkably uncommon. However, a new longitudinal study reveals why earlier estimates told only part of the story. Among the Tsimané and Mosetén communities, dementia incidence, or the rate of new cases, didn’t dramatically differ from rates in U.S. and northern European populations, especially for individuals under 80 years old. Shorter survival after dementia develops appears to play a significant role in why dementia prevalence – the total proportion of people living with the disease at a given time – in the Tsimané and Mosetén populations is unusually low.…

The idea of a humanoid robot folding laundry, loading the dishwasher or vacuuming once sounded like a scene from “The Jetsons.” Now, as robotics companies race to develop machines that can navigate everyday environments and handle household tasks, the prospect of a robot taking over our chores feels increasingly real.But just because robots can do the work, that doesn’t mean people are ready to welcome them into their homes.Live Science recently polled readers on whether they would want a humanoid robot doing their household chores, and the results reveal just how appealing the idea of a robotic housekeeper really is.As…

A new study has revealed why some people with Huntington’s disease develop symptoms 10 to 12 years earlier and experience a more aggressive form of the disease. The research published today in the journal Neuron shows how a genetic variant can dramatically accelerate Huntington’s disease by driving runaway DNA changes inside the brain’s most vulnerable neurons. People with this genetic variant have dramatically hastened onset of disease, but we didn’t know why. This work answers that question and provides dramatic evidence that repeated expansion of the mutation is an important driver of Huntington’s disease and a potential treatment target.” …

The saying that “all roads lead to Rome” may be famous, but a new study finds it’s far from true. Extensive new research of the Roman Empire’s road system reveals that several other Roman cities were better connected than the Eternal City was during antiquity.Major cities like Antioch, Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) and Byzantium in what is now Turkey, as well as Corinth in Greece, were “better located than Rome” for those traveling by land, the team wrote in a paper published Tuesday (Sept. 15) in the journal Nature Communications.At its height in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire covered almost 2.1…

Providence announced Tuesday that it received a $1.1 billion philanthropic commitment to support the system’s flagship Oregon medical center, expand cardiovascular care services and establish the state’s first women’s hospital.  The gift comes from billionaire Nike founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny, who have already contributed $200 million to the Providence Heart Institute over the past decade.  “Penny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people willing to take on the toughest challenges,” Phil Knight said in the nonprofit system’s announcement of the gift. “Providence has shown that kind of ambition in cardiovascular care, and we…

Has your partner ever woken you up at night with their coughing? Has your coughing ever woken them up? New research suggests it could be due to air pollution levels in your area, even if those levels are low. Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University and the sleep technology company Sleep Cycle analyzed coughing sounds from 32 cities in 12 countries over 500 days, and found that higher daily air pollution levels were strongly linked to nighttime coughing levels, even where local pollution levels were below the World Health Organization’s recommended daily exposure limit. The researchers used cough…

Member trust in insurers is on the decline among Gen Z and Millennials, down 10.5% between 2023 and 2026, new research from Accenture found. This trust gap, according to analysts, could cost $3 billion in future member lifetime value for the largest commercial payers over the next decade.  “When members don’t trust their health plan, they don’t just disengage; they route around it,” said Bracken Flynn, Accenture’s Health industry principal director, in a statement. “Our data shows that younger consumers aren’t asking for less from their insurer. They want more. They’re looking for a partner that helps them navigate care, understand…