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Four in ten Americans say they know someone who has been hospitalized or died after contracting COVID-19, a new poll shows. The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center in August. The survey includes responses from 13,200 Americans. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they know someone who has been hospitalized or died as a result of having COVID-19, up from 20 percent who said the same in a Pew Research Center conducted in late April and early May. (Vaidya, 9/14)

When Nancy Storino was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a week following a stroke, she didn’t expect the best medicine to be the strains of a viola. But over the course of several days the 72-year-old found herself listening to a violist play songs from her favorite artists. Sometimes she sang along. Other times she fell asleep. “It was very soothing,” says Ms. Storino, who is now back home in Lansing, Ill. “It helped with the pain, it relaxed me and put me to sleep. I really, really enjoyed it. It’s very comforting for people when they’re sick.” (Reddy, 9/14)

Uninsured and underinsured patients like [J.R.] Rivera often get turned away when they seek nonemergency treatment at leading hospitals. The unequal treatment is rooted in a financial model that favors patients with well-paying private coverage. As a result, low-income patients—many of whom are minorities—find themselves excluded from many of the area's top hospitals. (Goldberg, 9/11)

Telehealth has been gaining ground as a breakout star of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while much of the recent attention has focused on using it to treat patients at home, the practice has also been vital to keeping clinical staff members safer as providers revamp emergency departments to curb the risk of infection. Telehealth played a major role when Renown Health set up a medical tent during the early days of the pandemic to expand its ED’s triage capacity for patients with COVID-19 symptoms. (Cohen, 9/12)

An app in Fitbit's latest smartwatch has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to detect atrial fibrillation, the wearables company said Monday. The FDA granted the electrocardiogram app in Fitbit's Sense smartwatch, which the company launched last month, 510(k) clearance for its ability to take a point-in-time reading of the wearer's heart rhythm, which the app analyzes for signs of an irregularity known as atrial fibrillation. The smartwatch retails for $329.95. (Cohen, 9/14)

Cambridge-based Biogen is launching a $250 million initiative to eliminate fossil fuels from its global operations by 2040. The multi-national biotech company will also invest in research to study air pollutants produced from the burning of oil, gas and coal. (Gellerman, 9/14)

Hospitals and health care companies are increasingly tapping experimental artificial intelligence tools to improve medical care or make it more cost-effective. At best, that technology has the potential to make it easier to detect and diagnose diseases, streamline care, and even eliminate some forms of bias in the health care system. But if it’s not designed and deployed carefully, AI could also perpetuate existing biases or even exacerbate their impact. (9/15)