HEALTH EDUCATION: From UCare via Facebook, VERBATIM: “UCare has teamed up with WellShare International and Minnesota Somali Network to provide the Somali community with health education about chronic health conditions.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/41WJojc (SPONSORED: UCare)
POLL: Via APM Research Lab, VERBATIM: “A new poll finds that about half of Minnesotans feel lonely, at least some of the time. More specifically, 13% say they ‘often’ lack companionship and another 35% lack companionship ‘some of the time.’ Results were similar when Minnesotans were asked how often they feel left out and isolated from others.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3DD1hJU
CEO KILLING: Via Associated Press, VERBATIM: “Most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share responsibility for the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO — although not as much as the person who pulled the trigger, according to a new poll. In the survey from NORC at the University of Chicago, about 8 in 10 U.S. adults said the person who committed the killing has ‘a great deal’ or ‘a moderate amount’ of responsibility for the Dec. 4 shooting of Brian Thompson.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/40fwlYW
PSYCHIATRY: Via Psychiatric Times, a survey of readers regarding whether they planned to see patients over the holidays and whether they feel burnt out this time of year. SEE: https://fluence-media.co/4j3cTGu
2025: From Chanhassen-based Life Time via PRNewswire, VERBATIM: “As 2025 approaches, Life Time (NYSE: LTH) has released results from its annual health and wellness survey. More than 1,350 people participated, shedding light on 2025 goal setting and wellness trends for the New Year. Notable findings include: When asked which post-workout recovery practices people are interested in trying – or increasing – in 2025: 69.1% of respondents named using a sauna, while 50% said assisted stretching, and 42.4% chose ice baths or cryotherapy. When asked about GLP-1 drugs, 60.8% believe these medications have the potential to improve overall health.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3DG9bSK
Check out all the episodes of Sunday Take on 830 WCCO. CLICK: https://fluence-media.co/3KsuDrZ
CLOSED: Via Bring Me The News, VERBATIM: “A Burnsville nonprofit clinic that served patients of all ages, regardless of their ability to pay, closed its doors permanently Monday. The Dakota Child and Family Clinic struggled to stay open last year amid financial hardship. In October, the clinic merged with Open Door Health Center, which operates a clinic in Mankato and made the decision to shutter the Burnsville clinic permanently.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4gCbvJf
UNITEDHEALTH: Via The Wall Street Journal, VERBATIM: “Like most doctors, Nicholas Jones prefers to diagnose patients after examining them. When he worked for UnitedHealth Group, though, the company frequently prepared him a checklist of potential diagnoses before he ever laid eyes on them. UnitedHealth only did that with the Eugene, Ore., family physician’s Medicare Advantage recipients, he said, and its software wouldn’t let him move on to his next patient until he weighed in on each diagnosis. The diagnoses were often irrelevant or wrong, Jones said. UnitedHealth sometimes suggested a hormonal condition, secondary hyperaldosteronism, that was so obscure Jones had to turn to Google for help. ‘I needed to look it up,’ he said. The government’s Medicare Advantage system, which uses private insurers to provide health benefits to seniors and disabled people, pays the companies based on how sick patients are, to cover the higher costs of sicker patients. Medicare calculates sickness scores from information supplied by doctors and submitted by the insurers. In the case of UnitedHealth, many of those doctors work directly for UnitedHealth. More diagnoses make for higher scores—and larger payments.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3BUezB8
AI: Via Politico, VERBATIM: “Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize health care by predicting illnesses, speeding diagnoses, selecting effective treatments and lightening doctors’ administrative loads — but only if doctors trust that it won’t harm their patients. The government is struggling with oversight of this rapidly evolving technology. But Dr. Brian Anderson, whose experience working long hours as a family doctor for low-income immigrants in Massachusetts inspired him to work on technology to make caring for patients easier, says he can.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3PlYPKA
MEDICAID: Via Minnesota Department of Human Services, VERBATIM: “Eligible Minnesota children will soon have steady access to Medicaid health insurance until they turn 6. The new policy as of Jan. 1 will support a healthier, more equitable start for the youngest state residents. All children under age 6 who qualify for Medical Assistance will have up to 72 months of uninterrupted coverage. Medical Assistance is Minnesota’s Medicaid program.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4gDMkWq
MAPLE GROVE: From Delane Cleveland via CCX Media, VERBATIM: “Nurses from North Memorial Health — Maple Grove Hospital announced they plan to seek union representation from the Minnesota Nurses Association. The nurses filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board on Dec. 20.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/41ZpODc
RESOLUTIONS: From Sharon Theimer via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “There is a common culprit behind many broken New Year's resolutions and other unrealized goals, and it can influence your thoughts and actions without your awareness, says Safia Debar, M.B.B.S., a general practitioner and resiliency expert at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London. If you are having difficulty achieving goals to exercise more, eat nutritious meals and take other steps toward a healthier lifestyle, it may be worth considering whether a self-limiting belief is to blame, Dr. Debar says.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/40hJII3
EMS: Via Journo Research, VERBATIM: “Personal injury lawyers at Omega Law Group collected EMS response times data for accidents resulting in at least one death across every state in the U.S. from 2018 to 2022. After cleaning and analyzing this data, experts ranked the states based on their average EMS response times and compiled the total number of accidents and deaths during this period. California has the longest average EMS response time on the list: 17.85 minutes. Wyoming secured second place with an average time of 17.54 minutes, 31 seconds less than the first spot. North Dakota takes the third spot on the list, with an average EMS response time of 14.36 minutes. Fourth place goes to South Dakota, a state with an average EMS response time of 13.92 minutes.”
GRANTS: From Vincent Jacobbi via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics (MNP) has announced its four research awardees for 2024. MNP is funded by the State of Minnesota and provides support for innovative research conducted by teams from the University of Minnesota (UMN) and Mayo Clinic. Totaling $3 million, this year's awards support innovative projects on cognitive aging, cardiovascular disease, cancer and pulmonary hypertension.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4j3k4hU
FRESH15: The latest season of Fresh15 includes interviews with new Minnesota House members. So far, five new members have shared their goals, background and fun facts before they take office in a historic session this January.
Rep.-Elect Kari Rehauer
Rep.-Elect Wayne Johnson
Rep. Elect Julie Greene
Rep. Elect Keith Allen
Rep. Elect Peter Johnson
Follow on your favorite podcast platform, or at www.TheDailyAgenda.com/Podcasts. (SPONSORED: Minnesota Telecom Alliance)
BABY NAMES: From Hayley Raatsi via Northern News Now, VERBATIM: “As 2024 comes to a close, the Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth has released the year’s top baby names. Officials say nearly eight babies were born per day at Essentia Health’s Minnesota hospitals throughout the year.” LIST: https://fluence-media.co/3DFLASc
DRUG PRICES: Via Reuters, VERBATIM: “Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 250 branded medications including Pfizer COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, Bristol Myers Squibb's cancer cell therapies and vaccines from France's Sanofi at the start of 2025, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Nearly all of the drug price increases are below 10% - most well below. The median price increase of the drugs being hiked Jan. 1 is 4.5%, which is in line with the median for all price increases last year.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/41TxRkQ
MEDICARE: Via The Hill, VERBATIM: “A key cost-saving provision of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) goes into effect in the new year, limiting annual out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs to $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries. Starting on Jan. 1, 2025, an estimated 19 million Medicare beneficiaries will see their out-of-pocket Medicare Part D spending capped at $2,000 for the year. This annual cap will be indexed to the rate of inflation every year going forward. An interim spending cap of roughly $3,500 was put in place in 2024.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3BVqHSy
WEIGHT LOSS: Via Axios, VERBATIM: “The surging popularity of GLP-1 drugs is beginning to obscure the health consequences if people stop taking them, physicians warn. Why it matters: While many patients can shed up to 20% of their body weight using the injectables, the cost of the drugs and side effects like nausea and vomiting lead many to quit. In most of those cases, their weight returns.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/404dvTt
CARTER: Via The New York Times, VERBATIM: “Jimmy Carter’s five decades of leadership in global health brought a hideous disease to the brink of elimination, helped deliver basic health and sanitation to millions of people and set a new standard for how aid agencies should engage with the countries they assist. It was quiet work and drew relatively little attention because it was focused on afflictions that plague the poorest people in the most marginalized places, but it had enormous impact.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3DH0QhO
NOROVIRUS: Via MDH, VERBATIM: “More than 40 outbreaks of norovirus — sometimes called ‘stomach flu’ — have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) so far this December, almost twice the usual number. Noroviruses cause vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping. Other symptoms can include low‐grade fever or chills, headaches and muscle aches. Noroviruses are very contagious; they are the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in Minnesota and the most common cause of short-term diarrhea/vomiting illness in the United States. Most people will get norovirus about five times in their lifetime.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4gVdS9F
MORE: From Deb Balzer via Mayo Clinic, advice from a pediatric infectious disease specialist on how to avoid norovirus. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4gZNRGo
BIRD FLU: Via Newsweek, VERBATIM: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed it is monitoring for a number of red flags that suggest bird flu could become the world's next pandemic. The first severe human bird flu case in the United States was reported in Louisiana earlier this month. Genetic analysis found the virus had mutated, making it more easily transmissible to humans, the CDC said. The agency called the mutations ‘concerning' and ‘a reminder that A(H5N1) viruses can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection.’” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3W3FwZU
PULSE OXIMETERS: Via Stat, VERBATIM: “Work by device manufacturers to improve the performance of pulse oximeters on people with darker skin has progressed little since the Food and Drug Administration asked manufacturers in 2013 to voluntarily test the devices on more diverse skin tones, according to a study published Monday in JAMA. The study and a related editorial suggest clearer guidance, enforcement, and possibly legal action may be necessary to ensure the devices work well on all skin tones.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3BOHE0Z
FORUM: If you’re interested in having the Fluence Forum host a topic, please contact Blois Olson at bloisolson@gmail.com
MIGRATION: From The Francis Crick Institute via Science Daily, VERBATIM: “Researchers can bring together a picture of how people moved across the world by looking at changes in their DNA, but this becomes a lot harder when historical groups of people are genetically very similar. In research published today in Nature, researchers report a new data analysis method called Twigstats, which allows the differences between genetically similar groups to be measured more precisely, revealing previously unknown details of migrations in Europe.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/49YXUsV
HEART: Via The Hill, VERBATIM: “British researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can identify people at risk of a serious heart condition before symptoms appear, potentially preventing thousands of strokes, the BBC reported. The AI system, developed by scientists at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, analyzes electronic health records to detect warning signs of atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition causing irregular and abnormally fast heart rates, per the BBC.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4fJgjek
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