New clinical trial results on the diabetes and obesity drug tirzepatide have doctors buzzing about its potential to treat heart failure, keep weight off and prevent type 2 diabetes.
The current 44% of U.S. adults who say the quality of healthcare is excellent (11%) or good (33%) is down by a total of 10 percentage points since 2020 after steadily eroding each year. Between 2001 and 2020, majorities ranging from 52% to 62% rated U.S. healthcare quality positively; now, 54% say it is only fair (38%) or poor (16%).
Eighteen months after residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham voted to unionize, about 400 doctors in training protested outside the health system's flagship hospitals Thursday and accused their employer of bargaining in bad faith as the union seeks its first contract. Shouting "shame" and "union power," members of the Committee of Interns and Residents, or CIR, of the Service Employees International Union said MGB has offered raises that fail to keep pace with inflation. Meanwhile, they said, Dr. Anne Klibanski, MGB's president and chief executive officer, earned $6 million in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023, a nearly 12 percent jump over the previous year. Dr. Chris Schenck, a second-year resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and member of the union's bargaining committee, said he sold his plasma to a blood bank for $100 at least half a dozen times last year to help pay his bills. He earned $88,000 in 2023 while working 65-hour weeks, he said. "We chose this work. We love our patients. We love doing this. But frankly it's hard to make ends meet," said Schenck, 26, who lives with his girlfriend in a $3,500-a-month rented apartment in Watertown and is paying off more than $150,000 in loans from medical school and college. Another member of the union's negotiating committee, Dr. Madison Masters, said that after about 20 bargaining sessions, hospital leaders have offered a raise of 2.25 percent for the first year of a contract, less than the rate of inflation. MGB spokesperson Jessica Pastore said the health system is "committed to bargaining in good faith" and that "we have the highest respect for our trainees and value the many contributions they make in the care of our patients." She said the system has actually offered a 2.5% raise in the first year of a contract but that the proposed increases in the following two years would be 2.25%. The union is seeking a raise of almost 20% over three years, retroactive to July 2023, according to Pastore.
Advances in AI have enabled systems to outperform medical experts in tasks like diagnosis, personalized medicine, patient monitoring, and drug development. Despite these advancements, it remains unclear whether improved diagnostic accuracy and performance metrics translate into tangible patient benefits, such as reduced mortality or morbidity.
The researchers found that compared with white men, Asian men, Asian women, Black women, and white women were more likely to be appointed to entry-level positions.
With technology that includes wearables, 3D-printed medication and robot-assisted surgeries, the possibilities are seemingly endless when it comes to innovations that improve human health.