El Centro Regional Medical Center and Brawley Pioneers Memorial Hospital's merger into one unified health care system, Imperial Valley Healthcare District, is in its final stages. 'While we initially aimed for a January closing, transactions of this magnitude often take on a life of their own,' Katherine Burnworth, president of IVHD's Board of Directors stated, shedding light on the merger's status. 'We are currently waiting on the final technical step of obtaining consent from bondholders to transfer ECRMC's financial obligations to the new district.' As the merger is underway and the legal paperwork is being finalized, both hospitals are already operating as a unified system.
A 2024 survey found there are at least 1,800 mobile teams nationwide. But financial support for them is often inadequate and inconsistent, so many communities are struggling to find ways to keep the teams operating.
After helping turn personal health tracking into a mass habit at Fitbit, James Park and Eric Friedman are betting the next big shift is shared health, tapping AI to help ease the heavy mental load of caregiving.
Lotus is building an AI doctor that functions like a real medical practice, equipped with a license to operate in all 50 states, malpractice insurance, HIPAA-compliant systems, and full access to patient records. The key difference is that the majority of the work is done by AI, which is trained to ask the same questions a doctor would.
Trust in healthcare does not come from branding or inspiration. It comes from repeated proof that technology understands clinical work and behaves consistently under changing conditions. Clinicians want AI that respects the pace of the workday, adapts to the unpredictable rhythm of patient care, and reduces cognitive burden rather than adds to it. Above all, they want systems that behave predictably.
Many healthcare systems talk about three main pillars of care for treating cancer patients: medical, surgical and radiation oncology. It turns out that having state-of-the-art radiation technology can not only help heal patients, it can also be beneficial to a hospital system's bottom line. A high-stakes dispute among three major hospital systems in the Triangle — Duke Health, UNC Health/Rex and WakeMed — has revealed just how financially advantageous such equipment can be. The clash also gives a glimpse into how certificate of need, or CON, laws can be used to try to stifle competition — and provides insight into the lengths major healthcare systems will go to try to maintain a competitive edge in the specialized care market.