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participants were volunteers who could exit the study or switch to an N95 at anytime. The findings have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM). “The surgical masks were not statisti- cally less effective than N95s in preventing COVID-19 infections in healthcare provid- ers looking after patients with COVID-19,” said lead author Mark Loeb, professor of McMaster’s Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and a Hamilton infec- tious disease physician. Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21291740


Joint Commission reviews and revises accreditation requirements The


Joint Commission previously announced that it would review accredi- tation requirements that are above and beyond the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoPs). This initiative aims to help our customers address the many challenges that health care is facing by elimi- nating requirements that do not add value to accreditation surveys so that health care organizations and surveyors can focus on other strategies and structures that support quality and safety.


The review began with hospital elements


of performance (EPs) that met all of the fol- lowing criteria: · The EP does not support a CMS CoP or state regulation.


· The EP has been in effect for at least three years.


· The EP has been scored five times or less during full triennial surveys between 2017 and 2019 (the three years prior to the COVID-19 public health emergency). Staff across multiple divisions reviewed each of the selected EPs and reported the possible reasons why scoring was low, including organizations are compliant with the requirement because they have adopted it as a standardized practice, the EP is redundant to another requirement, and the EP is difficult to assess compliance objec- tively and consistently during surveys. As a result of this review, 56 hospital EPs were identified for deletion, and 4 EPs needed minor revisions to make them more effec- tive. Many of these EPs were also accredita- tion requirements for other programs, and these were deleted or revised from those programs as well. Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21290778


Novel blood test identifies Alzheimer’s disease biomarker A group of neuroscientists led by a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researcher developed a test to detect a novel


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marker of Alzheimer’s disease neurodegen- eration in a blood sample. A study on their results was published in Brain. The biomarker, called “brain-derived tau,” or BD-tau, outperforms current blood diagnostic tests used to detect Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration. It is specific to Alzheimer’s disease, and correlates well with Alzheimer’s neuro- degeneration biomarkers in the cerebro- spinal fluid (CSF). “At present, diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease requires neuroimaging,” said senior author Thomas Karikari, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Pitt. “Those tests are expensive and take a long time to schedule, and a lot of patients – even in the U.S. – don’t have access to MRI and PET scanners. Accessibility is a major issue.”


Currently, to diagnose Alzheimer’s dis- ease, clinicians use guidelines set in 2011 by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association. The guidelines, called the AT(N) Framework, require detection of three distinct components of Alzheimer’s pathology—the presence of amyloid plaques, tau tangles, and neu- rodegeneration in the brain—either by imaging or by analyzing CSF samples. Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21291717


An increased focus on medical misinformation in academia While Kim Lundeen was serving as a resi- dent doctor in the Minneapolis area early in the pandemic, a patient asked her about a remedy rumored to cure COVID. The patient, who had tested positive for the virus, said she had heard advice circulat- ing through her community that collect- ing and drinking her own urine would help her recover. The patient wanted to know whether Lundeen recommended the treatment.


Lundeen was prepared for this sort of conversation and the balancing act of accu- racy and openness it would require. She had taken one of the University of Minnesota’s first classes on misinformation. It taught her to spot, research, and counter false advice and faulty sources. Misinformation courses, like the one Lundeen took, have been popping up in medical schools since the pandemic, which ushered in a myriad of conspiracy theories challenging doctors’ reputations as trusted health experts. Equipping young doctors to spot misinformation and effectively edu- cating the public and their patients is now integral to a successful medical practice, several medical educators told Medscape Medical News. Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21291717


February 2023 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com


Important insights into COVID’s assault on sense of smell The reason some people fail to recover their sense of smell after COVID-19 is linked to an ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells, a team of scientists led by Duke Health report. The finding, publishing online Dec. 21 in


the journal Science Translational Medicine, provides an important insight into a vex- ing problem that has plagued millions who have not fully recovered their sense of smell after COVID-19. While focusing on the loss smell, the finding also sheds light on the possible underlying causes of other long COVID- 19 symptoms -- including generalized fatigue, shortness of breath, and brain fog – that might be triggered by similar biologi- cal mechanisms. “One of the first symptoms that has typi- cally been associated with COVID-19 infec- tion is loss of smell,” said senior author Bradley Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Duke’s Department of Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology. Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21291130


UNM Children’s Hospital receives enhanced medical support from HHS The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), deployed a National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) team to the University of New Mexico (UNM) Children’s Hospital – providing much needed support to an overwhelmed emer- gency department.


With the UNM Children’s Hospital at over 100 percent capacity, ASPR worked closely with the New Mexico Department of Health to quickly evaluate and grant their request for federal medical assistance. The Biden-Harris Administration has committed to supporting states as they face a conflu- ence of respiratory illnesses this winter and has already taken a series of actions to help states address the increased strain on hospi- tals and heightened demand for medications that treat seasonal illnesses.


Secretary Becerra sent a letter to Governors on December 2 outlining supports and resources available to them from HHS, including federal medical personnel such as from the National Disaster Medical System, and last week the Agency increased access to Tamiflu through the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Read on: https://hpnonline.com/21291130


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