A new digital health care marketplace has a good amount of Amazon in its DNA. General Medicine, with $32 million in funding, came out of stealth with three former Amazon employees as co-founders and investors, a business model that could compete with Amazon's One Medical — and behind the scenes, a current senior Amazon executive. The former employees, including the founders of PillPack — the pharmacy company that Amazon bought in 2018 for about $750 million and grew into Amazon Pharmacy — bill General Medicine as a 'one-stop shop for expert care' that connects patients to its own telehealth medical practices and to outside care. Sunita Mishra, Amazon Health Services' CMO, is the physician owner of one of those practices and advised the company early on.
Phelps Health has constructed an $8 million EMS base that will put its ambulance and helicopter crews in the same facility and allow for expansion in the coming years. The new building includes a helipad, training rooms, a dispatch center and bunk rooms for the EMS drivers and flight nurses who work 24-hour shifts.
The number of nursing facilities in the United States has declined sharply despite a rapid growth in the country's ageing population. More than 820 nursing facilities closed across the U.S. between 2015 and 2024, according to the hospital bed company Opera Beds. It revealed that 45 out of 51 states saw a reduction in nursing facilities despite a nationwide increase in the older population.
CMS sent letters this week to hospitals that provide transgender care services to children, demanding data on their quality standards and finances. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz sent letters to 'select hospitals,' giving them 30 days to provide specific information on 'medical interventions for gender dysphoria in children.'
Massachusetts health authorities completed their reports this week and found no evidence of a link between Newton-Wellesley Hospital and staffers who developed benign brain tumors. One report was conducted by the Massachusetts General Brigham Occupational Health Services and the other was by the state Department of Public Health. Both entities determined the hospital environment is safe and there's nothing to suggest a common cause to the tumors.