Bana Jobe

In the case of a cardiac event, every minute that passes is precious, and any amount of time that is wasted — whether due to a delayed diagnostic workup or faulty ECG interpretation — can risk lasting damage to muscles and organs. And yet, many cardiologists spend those initial minutes pursuing diagnoses that end up being wrong.

“I'm always thinking about the patient and how to help them get access to their medication," says Ashley, a field reimbursement and access specialist (FRAS) at Xcenda. “That's the one thing that really drives me to do what I do."

Enthusiasm to adopt electronic benefit verification (eBV) services has been swift and widespread. Many medically covered therapy brands use eBV technology to remove barriers and increase speed to therapy. And as technology continues to advance with automation, there are new opportunities to provide a comparable level of detail for electronic pharmacy benefit verification.

Technology planning for hospital equipment is anything but simple. And yet, a data-centric approach can help demystify the process to make optimal decisions about when to maintain assets and when to retire them from service.

Health systems have long wrestled with Herculean financial and staff shortage pressures, but COVID-19 has exacerbated those headaches atop other concerns, like dwindling patient volume amid fears of contracting the virus in a hospital environment. These new developments have brought to light a challenge unlike any other: In-house biomedical and clinical engineers have had to act quickly to bolster equipment productivity and increase patient throughput while reducing exposure risks.

Though ALI experimentation has been vital in researching multiple respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it's extremely critical now as scientists explore the respiratory underpinnings of the novel coronavirus.

Spring was a quiet time for labs. Experiments were put on pause. Researchers went home. Science seemed to precariously depend on local and state stay-at-home orders. Now, researchers are slowly returning to the lab, but there's some (socially distant) ramp-up work ahead.

According to the American Cancer Society, 40 percent of men and 39 percent of women are at risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. Many researchers appreciate the ability to contribute to a field that has touched so many lives, especially when they can take part in translational research and apply lab learnings to the clinic.

Cellular research has always needed a space dedicated to keeping cultures alive and experiments on track. But many new considerations have entered the fray in the wake of COVID-19, such as social distancing, increased hygiene measures, and contamination control.

Cancer wouldn't be able to spread if its cells couldn't independently detach, invade other areas of the body, and establish new cellular colonies. So it tracks, then, that targeting cellular motility could stop metastasis—an application that could offer new hope to millions of cancer patients.

Organoid applications have virtually limitless potential, but they're much more complicated than 2D cultures or 3D spheroids. Don't let that complexity intimidate you from diving into this emerging research field, though.

Best practices and recommendations have necessarily shifted amid the pandemic, with new precautions being implemented to protect both patients and providers, but heart problems haven't stopped for COVID-19. Whether patients contract the novel coronavirus or not, many still need specialty care.

As manufacturers navigate new and looming health policy changes, distributors can help them adapt and thrive.

As evidence of COVID-19's involvement in cardiac complications continues to emerge, the literature has introduced the need for ongoing surveillance among patients who have recovered from known and suspected infections — even when those infections were mild and occurred months ago.

In many areas of cardiology, the sex-based disparities in diagnoses and outcomes are well-known—but the underlying causes of these differences are still being interpreted and understood.