Happy Washington’s Birthday!
From Washington, DC,
- The House of Representatives and the Senate return to Capitol Hill this week for Committee business and floor voting.
- The President will give his State of the Union address Tuesday night, February 24.
- Roll Call offers more details on this week’s activities on Capitol Hill.
- Per a Department of Homeland Security news release, TSA is closing pre-check and Global Entry lines at airports starting today due to the continuing DHS shutdown. Other steps are identified in the release.
- The Washington Post adds,
- “The Department of Homeland Security reversed course Sunday morning after saying that it would suspend TSA PreCheck because of the partial government shutdown.
- “TSA PreCheck remains operational with no change for the traveling public,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. “As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly.”
- “A DHS official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes, said the change was “based off of conversations the secretary had with the White House and TSA.
- “The Global Entry program, however, will remain paused, according to the official.”
- Healthcare Dive reports,
- “GE HealthCare has won a $35 million U.S. government contract expansion to develop artificial intelligence-enabled ultrasound technology for trauma care, the company said Tuesday.
- “Building on a deal made in 2023, GE HealthCare will develop AI-powered tools to make it faster and easier for people, including non-expert ultrasound users, to diagnose patients.
- “GE HealthCare is jointly funding the latest phase of the project, although it said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will provide most of the money.”
- The GAO Watchblog informs us
- “The federal government makes all kinds of payments each day, everything from Social Security benefits to payments for weapon systems. But sometimes errors occur, including payments to dead people.
- “A pilot program has helped to reduce how often these errors occur. And it was so successful that the president recently signed a law to make it permanent—an action that GAO recommended. While the program helped reduce payment errors, it comes with financial costs that should be addressed.
- “Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on the success of this effort and its costs. “
From the public health and medical / Rx research front,
- The Washington Post reports,
- “The hours you spend tracing countries on a globe or puzzling over a chessboard may add up to more than idle time. According to a new study, such mentally stimulating pursuits are linked to years-long delays in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment.
- “Published this month in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the study is among the largest of its kind, following 1,939 adults with an average age of 80 and tracing their cognitive trajectories alongside a lifetime of reported activities stretching back to childhood.
- “The contrast between the most and least cognitively enriched participants was stark. Those in the top 10 percent developed Alzheimer’s at an average age of 94; those in the bottom 10 percent, at 88. Mild cognitive impairment showed a similar split: 85 in the highest group, 78 in the lowest.
- “Five years’ difference for Alzheimer’s. Seven for mild cognitive impairment.
- “I was positively surprised,” Andrea Zammit, a study co-author and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said.”
- Health Day adds,
- Skip your late-evening snack and wind down for the day with the lights dimmed low.
- That simple shift in your end-of-the-day routine is good for your heart, new research demonstrates.
- “Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health,” said study author Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, a research associate professor of neurology in sleep medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
- The sweet spot is three hours.
- Dimming lights and avoiding food that long before bed resulted in measurable gains in heart and metabolic markers during sleep and the entire next day, she and her colleagues reported Feb. 12 in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
- MedTech Dive relates,
- “Apple Watch’s hypertension notification feature may miss some casesacross different patient demographics, according to a research letter published last week in JAMA.
- “Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Utah applied performance metrics for the feature to U.S. population statistics to estimate its impact. They found about 69% of people who received an alert have hypertension, and about 79% of people who don’t receive an alert do not have hypertension. The feature’s performance varied by age, race and ethnicity.
- “Jordana Cohen, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, wrote in an email that the analysis suggests an alert meaningfully increases the likelihood that a person has hypertension. “However, the absence of an alert provides limited reassurance, particularly in older and higher-risk adults, and routine blood pressure measurement with validated cuff-based devices remains essential,” Cohen wrote.”
- MedPage Today tells us “What to Know About ALS After Actor Eric Dane’s Death.”
- “Actor Eric Dane, known for his role in “Grey’s Anatomy,” died this week at age 53, less than a year after announcing he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- “Dane became an advocate for ALS awareness soon after his diagnosis in April 2025 and was named the recipient of the ALS Network Advocate of the Year Awardopens in a new tab or window last September.
- “Eric’s passing is a huge loss for our ALS advocacy community,” said Evangelos Kiskinis, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neuroscience at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- McKinsey and Co. informs us,
- “GLP-1 therapies are on track to become one of the fastest-growing drug classes in history. Sales are expected to reach $100 billion by 2030. But the real opportunity is bigger than weight loss.
- “Obesity—once seen as an intractable condition—is now widely recognized as a treatable disease and part of a broader metabolic health crisis shaping healthcare costs, workforce productivity, and consumer demand worldwide.
- “Metabolic health is a much bigger notion than just obesity. Overall, I see this as a giant economic and health opportunity. It’s going to disrupt and create opportunities across different industries,” said McKinsey Partner Lars Hartenstein in a recent episode of The McKinsey Podcast.
- “Explore these insights on the interventions, technologies, and opportunities shaping the next era of metabolic health.
- Fierce Healthcare adds,
- “Virtual care company Omada Health is expanding its cardiometabolic care management platform with supports for individuals with high cholesterol.
- “The company said Thursday that while as many as 70% of adults with obesity also have elevated cholesterol levels, many of these individuals never reach healthy levels for their cholesterol, highlighting a key gap for many patients who are managing cardiometabolic conditions.
- “Omada for Cholesterol will bring its artificial-intelligence-powered and human-led coaching approach to cholesterol management and embed it within the broader platform for managing weight, blood pressure and diabetes.”