Walgreens Continues Expansion into Primary Care as VillageMD Acquires Starling Physicians Group with 30 Locations in Connecticut

Expect there to be more clinical laboratory testing at pharmacies as retail pharmacy chains expand their primary care offerings Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) of Deerfield, Illinois, continues to expand its primary care footprint with VillageMD’s latest acquisition of Starling Physicians, a multi-specialty physicians group with 30 locations in Connecticut, according to a VillageMD news release. Walgreens is the majority owner of VillageMD, which now has more than 700 medical centers,...

Orlando Health’s New Hospital-in-the-Home Program Brings Quality Healthcare to Patients in the Comfort of their Homes

New federal funds likely to spark additional growth in hospital-at-home programs across the US while creating need for clinical laboratories to serve these homebound patients In one of the latest examples of health systems’ providing acute care to patients outside of traditional hospital settings, Orlando Health announced its launch of the Orlando Health Hospital Care at Home program serving central Florida. Clinical laboratory testing is included in the program, which is currently being...

Military’s Fifth Health System Market Cuts Costs by Keeping Pathology Services ‘On-base’

Even US military clinical laboratories strive to cut costs, protect quality, and improve outcomes Defense Health Agency (DHA), a part of the federal Department of Defense (DOD), recently launched a plan to consolidate healthcare facilities within certain geographical regions and to unify and integrate the military’s clinical laboratory operations in those areas. The goal is to streamline efficiencies and lower costs while maintaining quality lab testing services.  The DOD operates a nationwide...

Teladoc Reports $13.7B Loss for 2022, Just Two Years after Livongo Acquisition

Loss could indicate an industrywide slowdown in digital health adoption and suggests medical laboratories will want to continue developing a virtual care strategy Only two years after Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) completed acquisition of Livongo, a data-based health coaching company, the virtual healthcare provider reported a 2022 net loss of $13.7 billion, a company press release announced. The loss, which has been described as “historic,” is “mostly from a write-off related to the plummeting...

US News and World Report Ranks Clinical Laboratory Technician 17th Best Healthcare Support Job

High demand for medical laboratory technicians that exists throughout the country motivates some colleges to create training programs to meet this need Clinical laboratory technicians will be interested to learn that US News and World Report (USNWR) recently ranked their work the 17th Best Healthcare Support Job and 86th of 100 in the magazine’s list of Best Jobs in 2023. The position also ranked “average” in upward mobility and flexibility, but “above average” in stress level. This squares...

Cedars-Sinai Researchers Determine Smartphone App Can Assess Stool Form as Well as Gastroenterologists and Better than IBS Patients

Artificial intelligence performs BSS assessments with higher sensitivity and specificity than human diagnosticians In a recent study conducted by scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, researchers evaluated a smartphone application (app) that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess and characterize digital images of stool samples. The app, it turns out, matched the accuracy of participating gastroenterologists and exceeded the accuracy of study patients’ self-reports of...
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