Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) and Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC) have launched a shared patient portal. The portal is powered by InterSystems Personal Community and enables patients to securely access selected health information held across both organisations through a single digital service. It is integrated with the existing shared care record used across the Birmingham and Solihull health and care system and provides patients receiving care from both trusts with a single view of key information across mental health and community services. James Reed, chief clinical information officer at BSMHFT, said: “Giving patients…

Older adults are far more likely to develop severe illness from flu or COVID, and new research from UC San Francisco offers an explanation. The study shows that aging lung cells can trigger an overly aggressive immune response, which can turn even mild infections into serious conditions. These findings provide new insight into age-related inflammation and help explain why something as simple as a cough can sometimes lead to hospitalization in older individuals. Aging Lung Cells and Inflammation To explore what changes in older lungs, researchers focused on fibroblasts, the structural cells that help maintain lung tissue. In experiments with…

Experts from UCL and the University of Cambridge warn that many people prescribed newer weight loss medications may not be receiving enough nutrition guidance to support safe, long-term weight loss. As a result, some users could face preventable risks such as vitamin and mineral deficiencies and loss of muscle mass. The concerns come from new research published recently in Obesity Reviews. Led by Dr. Marie Spreckley of the University of Cambridge, the study found limited high-quality evidence on how nutritional advice affects calorie intake, body composition, protein intake, and patient experiences while using these medications. How GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Work…

Elevance Health is suing the feds over its recent recalculations for the 2026 Medicare Advantage star ratings. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services revealed in late June that it would recalculate the latest round of star ratings following a court victory for MA insurer Clover Health. CMS said it would only update scores for plans that would see an increase. In the new lawsuit, filed last week in a Georgia court, Elevance argues that CMS refused to recalculate its scores with the same methodology that was applied to Clover. In Clover’s case, the courts rejected 20 measures, and Elevance…

H5N1 avian influenza, often called bird flu, was first identified in the United States in 2014. Since then, the virus has moved beyond wild birds, spreading into farm animals and eventually infecting people. More than 70 human cases have been reported in the U.S. since 2022, including two deaths. Because the virus is still circulating widely among animals, scientists warn that it has ongoing chances to adapt in ways that could allow it to spread more easily between humans, raising concerns about a future pandemic. To reduce the risk of widespread transmission, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in…

“There’s no need for more protein in a heatwave,” says Aisling Daly, senior lecturer in nutrition at Oxford Brookes University.But if you fancy it, most protein will need cooking (like meat, chicken and fish) and that can be off-putting in the heat. Even an outdoor BBQ can be too hot to handle.Enter the air fryer. Cooking a chicken leg or a potato in the worktop device uses less than half the energy of a conventional oven, according to Radio 4’s Sliced Bread. And because they are smaller and speedier, they also pump less heat into your kitchen.But experts say don’t…

Receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine shortly before or at any point during pregnancy is not linked to autism or other developmental disorders in children, according to research presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) 2026 Pregnancy Meeting. The findings provide new data on the long term health of children whose mothers were vaccinated around the time of pregnancy. In the United States, two types of COVID-19 vaccines are recommended: the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine and a protein subunit vaccine. Both are considered safe during all stages of pregnancy and are recommended to help safeguard both maternal and infant…

Nonprofit hospitals’ substantial securities holdings have yielded substantial year-to-year swings in reported investment income, and through 2023 have become increasingly concentrated in non-publicly traded vehicles like private equity, hedge funds, venture capital or other closely held companies, according to a new study of nearly 2,400 nonprofits’ tax returns.  In 2023, the nonprofit hospitals had investment portfolios totaling $296 billion, well above the $189 billion of 2010 (adjusted for inflation) but down from a high of $374 billion in 2021, reflecting a “surge in financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic [that] then declined during the 2022 market downturn,” researchers from the…

For people who committed to an unprocessed food diet as a New Year’s resolution, research suggests the change may guide food choices in a surprising way. Instead of gravitating toward higher calorie whole foods such as rice, meat, and butter, people naturally tend to eat much larger amounts of fruits and vegetables. That shift alone may help support weight loss without deliberate calorie restriction. A study led by researchers at the University of Bristol, with contributions from leading US nutrition experts, found that participants who ate only unprocessed foods consumed more than 50 percent more food by weight than those…

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have identified a key factor that may help colorectal cancer spread to the liver. Their findings suggest that losing GATA6, a transcription factor that helps control which genes are turned on or off, can push cancer cells into a more primitive and adaptable state that makes metastasis possible. Understanding how this transformation occurs could lead to new strategies for preventing one of the deadliest aspects of colorectal cancer. GATA6 normally serves as a molecular “identity keeper” in the cells that line the intestine, helping them maintain their specialized functions.…