�������ýҕ�l

Nearly 800 nurses were on a picket line Tuesday in Pennsylvania. The nurses work at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, near Philadelphia, and they say they are walking off the job to fight for their patients. At issue is the hospital’s contract with the nurse’s union. The nurses want a new contract with higher wages and safeguards for patient safety. The nurses say they are caring for more patients during the coronavirus pandemic than they should, and that is putting patients at risk. (11/17)

Harris County health authority Dr. Umair Shah will step down to take a job as Washington state’s health secretary, his office announced Tuesday. As the executive director of Harris County Public Health, Shah has led the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. His last day will be Dec. 18. His departure comes as the pandemic worsens in Harris County. The Houston area reported 1,273 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday, higher than any point since Labor Day. (Despart, 11/17)

When a man in his 40s with Covid-19 and low oxygen saturation arrived at the Boston hospital where Brittany Bankhead-Kendall treated patients in April, he was quickly put on a ventilator, a standard first response at many American hospitals at the time. She relied on WhatsApp messages and video calls from doctors overseas, who were also using trial and error to treat a spreading virus few knew much about. Incoming patients at her hospital were randomly assigned to antiviral and other drug trials to see what might stem the disease. “We were really flying blind,” she said. (Krouse, 11/18)

Manulife Financial Corp. has added gender-affirmation coverage that pays for some surgeries and other treatments for its transgender employees in the U.S. and Canada, putting the insurer in a select group of companies that offer such benefits. The coverage includes surgeries such as Adam’s apple reductions, cheek or breast augmentation and treatments like voice training, the Toronto-based insurer and wealth manager said Tuesday. (Orland, 11/17)

As the coronavirus pandemic collides with flu season, barriers to accessing medical information could undermine not only individual patient care but public health. Our ability to successfully prevent, isolate, and control outbreaks of infectious disease will depend on how we leverage data and technology to track its spread and treat individual patients. (Broussard, 11/18)