As a physician, I was taught to appreciate the clinical importance of human touch for our physical and mental health. As a human being, I worry about its loss. And as a dermatologist, I know what that loss may mean for the loneliest and most vulnerable among us.
After an abandoned effort to turn it into a public school, the former St. Joseph's Hospital in South Providence will be put up for sale by real estate developer Joseph R. Paolino Jr., who hopes it will be turned into badly-needed housing. The listing is set to go live tonight through real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, which will conduct an auction. There is no asking price, said Paolino, who is seeking proposals. Paolino thinks a mixed-use development with housing would be the best use of the property, though he's open to other proposals. He originally sought to develop the property himself, but was unable to secure COVID relief funds earlier this year from quasi-public agency R.I. Housing, which administers affordable housing subsidies. He ultimately decided the project needed a developer with more experience in subsidized housing.
While AI has already had a significant impact in the automation of tedious tasks, the less-explored but tremendous potential to perform reliable diagnosis and treatment will face significant challenges in adoption and model reliability.
Federal agents briefly detained former Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre early last week, served him with a search warrant, and seized his phone — the latest sign that a federal corruption probe is focused on the healthcare chain's embattled founder, according to three people briefed on the matter. Another Steward executive, Armin Ernst, a Brookline resident who leads Steward's international entity, was also recently visited by federal investigators and had his cellphone seized, two of the people briefed told the Globe. The searches come on the heels of a Globe Spotlight Team report that revealed several Steward board members had been summoned to answer questions as part of a sprawling grand jury probe into alleged fraud, bribery, and corruption within the now-bankrupt, Boston-born healthcare chain.
Medicare is paying wildly different prices for the same drug, even for people insured under the same plan. As a result, people covered by Medicare can be on the hook for thousands of dollars in additional out-of-pocket costs depending on where they live and which drug plan they choose. Take commonly used generic versions of prostate-cancer treatment Zytiga. They have more than 2,200 prices in Medicare drug plans. The generics ring in at roughly $815 a month in northern Michigan, about half of what they cost in suburban Detroit, while jumping to $3,356 in a county along Lake Michigan, according to a recent analysis of Medicare data.