Treatments

Early steroid use for severe COVID-19 tied to fewer deaths CIDRAP

JAMA Network Open has published a new US national cohort study demonstrating that early administration of the steroid dexamethasone was associated with significantly reduced odds of mortality or discharge to hospice in those requiring supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation and/or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

The effect was not seen, however, in patients who did not require supplemental oxygen or noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation.

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U.S. spending $5 billion to speed up development of new COVID vaccines The U.S. government is spending over $5 billion on an effort to speed up the development of new COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson and a Biden administration official said on Monday. Reuters Reuters

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A Progress Check on Hospital Price Transparency Hospitals are facing mixed reviews regarding their efforts to comply with a federal requirement that they post information about prices related to nearly every health care service they provide. khnkit Kaiser Health News

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“As hospitals continue to post incomplete files with swaths of missing prices, patients are unable to accurately compare prices across hospitals and across plans to make the best health care decisions and protect themselves from overcharges,” Fisher said. Such hospitals were considered noncompliant in the PRA analysis.

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