Advocate creates workforce pipeline with nation’s largest nursing school

 Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health, one of the biggest U.S. health systems with 69 hospitals, is building a workforce pipeline with the nation’s largest nursing school. 

The system is collaborating with Chamberlain University, which is teaching about 40,000 students across 24 campuses, according to a June 29 news release from the university’s parent company, Covista. The university has more than 155,000 alumni practicing in all 50 states, the release said. 

Advocate Health and Chamberlain are collaborating to provide scholarships for Bachelor of Science in Nursing students, as well as clinical experience, a direct employment pathway and loan repayment support at Advocate.

“Our People Forward, Practice Ready strategy is about better attracting, preparing and retaining our nursing teammates,” Advocate’s Betty Jo Rocchio, DNP, executive vice president and chief nurse executive, said in the release. “Chamberlain has the resources and footprint to match a system as large as ours, and their focus on nontraditional, working adults means we can reach students who might otherwise never have entered the nursing profession.”

Recruiting is expected to start in July for the incoming fall 2026 class. Growing over time, the program will serve hundreds of students per year, according to the release. 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nursing/advocate-creates-workforce-pipeline-with-nations-largest-nursing-school/

FDA revamps peptide panel with industry advocates

 The FDA has released the names of panel members who will weigh in on whether seven popular peptides should be more widely available for pharmacy compounding. The new roster mainly includes physicians who run wellness, longevity and regenerative medicine clinics rather than the university researchers who staffed prior panels. 

The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee will meet July 23 and 24 to decide whether seven peptides widely sold by wellness clinics and online retailers — including BPC-157 and TB-500 — should be added to the list of bulk drug substances pharmacies are permitted to use in compounding. The panel’s recommendations are non-binding, but the FDA generally follows them.

Since 2023 previous committees with similar makeups have voted down peptide ingredients on safety and evidence grounds. This year, the FDA has restructured the reviewing panel, and its own staff have already published findings on two of the seven substances under review, both recommending against approval. Here’s what to know: 

1. The panel skews toward peptide promoters, not academics. Eight of the committee’s 12 voting members run private wellness, longevity or regenerative medicine clinics, including physicians from Aether Medicine, a cellular medicine and regenerative therapies clinic in Wayne, Pa., Re-New Institute, a regenerative medicine practice in Omaha, Neb., Makena Health, an internal medicine practice in Wailea, Hawaii, and The Resurge Clinic, a family practice in Weatherford, Texas, among others. 

2. Several panelists have direct financial ties to the peptide and regenerative medicine industry. Haleem Mohammed, MD, is global chief medical officer at Chicago-based Gameday Men’s Health, a clinic chain that sells peptide, vitamin and weight loss injections. Robert Harshbarger III, PharmD, a Tennessee state senator appointed under the committee’s pharmacy expertise seat, is a pharmacist whose family runs a compounding pharmacy business. Gabriel Alizaidy, MD, is scientific director at Maximus Health, a Des Moines, Iowa-based clinic. According to a June 29 report from the Associated Press, he separately promotes peptides including BPC-157 to followers on social media and charges for consultations.

3. FDA staff reviewers recommend against approval for the substances they’ve evaluated so far. Briefing documents released ahead of the meeting concluded the evidence weighs against adding BPC-157 and TB-500 to the agency’s list of bulk drug substances approved for compounding. For BPC-157, reviewed for ulcerative colitis, FDA cited a single small, poorly documented trial and no human data at all for the oral, subcutaneous, nasal or transdermal routes proposed. For TB-500, reviewed for wound healing, FDA found zero human studies of any kind and no nonclinical evidence the substance promotes healing.

4. Both substances under review have characterization and safety gaps. FDA reviewers flagged inconsistent naming conventions, incomplete impurity testing and unclear sterility data for both peptides, along with unaddressed immunogenicity risk from aggregation when delivered by injection. The committee will also review KPV, MOTs-C, Emideltide, Semax and Epitalon at the meeting.

5. The reshaped panel breaks from a pattern of past committees voting down peptides on safety grounds. The committee’s December 2024 meeting, for example, drew voting members from Durham, N.C.-based Duke University, the University of California, Riverside, the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health, the Uniformed Services University and Boston Children’s Hospital, among other academic and federal institutions. Those panels voted against a string of nominated peptide ingredients citing weak evidence. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who told podcast host Joe Rogan he is “a big fan of peptides,” according to the Associated Press, fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June and has since appointed about a dozen new members, many with a history of anti-vaccine rhetoric. 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/glp-1s/fda-revamps-peptide-panel-with-industry-advocates-5-things-to-know/

'5 unlikely AI champions at health systems'

 Health systems’ AI champions — the people who develop novel uses for the technology and sell their peers on its value — don’t always come from the C-suite, or even the IT department.

These are the employees you never would have guessed would be leading the charge on AI. These advocates often include the bedside clinicians who are actually using the technology, such as nurses.

Becker’s asked technology executives who the unexpected AI evangelists are at their health systems. Here are their responses:

Bob Carter, MD. CEO of University of Utah Health (Salt Lake City). Even though he has been here just over 16 months, he has quickly advanced artificial intelligence across our academic health system. What makes Dr. Carter one of the most influential leaders in healthcare AI is his ability to see beyond the technology itself and focus on how it can meaningfully improve patient care, research, education, and operational performance. He has consistently challenged our leadership team to think strategically about AI as an institutional capability and competitive advantage rather than a collection of individual projects.

Dr. Carter was also instrumental in establishing the Technology and Innovation Strategy Group, where he remains an active participant in guiding innovation priorities and investments. Combined with the work of our Digital Enablement Committee, these governance structures have provided the alignment, accountability, and executive sponsorship necessary to move AI from experimentation to enterprise-scale adoption. His leadership has helped unite clinicians, researchers, operational leaders, and technology teams around a shared vision, positioning University of Utah Health as a national leader in the responsible and practical application of artificial intelligence. — Donna Roach, chief digital and information officer

Nicholas DeStefano, RN, Senior Nurse Manager of the Operating Room at AdventHealth Celebration (Kissimmee, Fla.): Nick is not a technologist or data scientist. He is a nurse leader whose career has been rooted in supporting patients and front-line teams, which is what makes his work with AI so remarkable.

Over the past several months, Nick has built what he describes as an AI foundation for his operating room, using AI to create operational briefings that help predict scheduling bottlenecks, summarize meeting discussions, and support staffing and throughput decisions.

What stands out most is Nick’s purpose behind his approach to technology. Nick is focused on reducing administrative and cognitive burden for surgical teams so they can spend more time focused on safe, efficient, patient-centered care.

Nick’s story is one example of how meaningful AI innovations can come from caregivers closest to the work. They understand the daily challenges facing teams and patients, and they’re using AI thoughtfully to create more time for human connection, clinical focus, and compassionate care. — Rob Purinton, chief AI officer of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth

Lindsey Hamlin. IT Portfolio Manager at Denver Health. She is a great example of how perspectives on AI can evolve. She started out very skeptical of AI, but gave herself the space to learn and explore — and now she’s a true believer in the value AI can add. Today, she uses AI across her personal life and her Project Management Office work — from deep research, project charters, RACI [Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed] documents, meeting notes, and employee reviews. She’s also taken it a step further by guiding her team through common scenarios and helping them build confidence with AI prompting.

It’s inspiring to see her go beyond adopting AI to truly championing it, enthusiastically sharing her wins with others. — James Levay, IT AI program manager

LeeAnn Jackson, BSN, RN. Assistant Nurse Manager at Cedars-Sinai Emergency Department (Los Angeles). As a front-line emergency department nurse leader, Ms. Jackson uses AI as a force multiplier to improve operations, reduce administrative burden, and support better patient care. She utilizes a range of AI applications for tasks like creating executive summaries, meeting minutes, and action items from leadership meetings. She also uses digital tools to analyze emergency department operational data to build executive dashboards highlighting throughput, patient flow, boarding, length of stay, and quality metrics, and assisting in workflow redesign initiatives, including front-end patient flow, discharge planning, staffing optimization and quality improvement projects.

As a student in the Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University, Ms. Jackson concentrated on applied artificial intelligence, digital health, health informatics, data analytics, and performance improvement. Throughout the program, she focused on translating AI from theory into practical solutions that improve clinical operations, workflow efficiency, quality, and patient care.

By automating administrative work and accelerating analysis, AI allows clinicians and leaders like Ms. Jackson to spend more time focusing on patients, staff and meaningful operational improvements. — Mouneer Odeh, chief data and AI officer of Cedars Sinai

Vickee Sevillano, BSN, RN. Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse at Mount Sinai Health System (New York City). She came to us with a problem she dealt with every day: spotting earlier which patients were most likely to develop a hospital-acquired pressure injury. We paired her with our AI products team, built a tool around this concept, and it’s now used across several Mount Sinai hospitals.

Vickee’s story is also why we built a way for anyone in the organization to bring us ideas like this, not just the people you’d expect. That’s turned out to be one of the key ingredients in our AI program. The people closest to the work usually see the most useful applications; we just don’t always think to bring them into the room. When we do, the solutions are better, and the team members feel real ownership in what gets built. — Robbie Freeman, DNP, RN, chief digital transformation officer

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/ai/5-unlikely-ai-champions-at-health-systems/

Mayo Clinic pushes past prediction toward AI decision support

 Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is moving beyond predictive AI models toward systems that support clinical decision-making, health system leaders said at its recent AI Research Summit.

More than 750 researchers, clinicians, AI scientists and engineers attended the June 4-5 event in Rochester and online.

“The future of healthcare AI is not simply about building better predictor models, it’s about developing integrated decision-intelligence systems,” Cui Tao, PhD, the Nancy Peretsman and Robert Scully Chair of AI and Informatics at Mayo Clinic, said at the event, per a June 29 news release.

Speakers highlighted multiagentic AI, where several AI agents collaborate on complex tasks, and simulations that use real-world data to test hypotheses faster than traditional research methods. Yong Chen, PhD, of Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania, said clinicians need tools that recommend next steps — such as optimal timing for antiplatelet therapy after a stent procedure — not just risk scores.

Matt Redlon, chair of Mayo Clinic’s AI program and vice president of digital biology, said multiagentic systems could help researchers screen existing drugs for repurposing and run AI-simulated virtual trials to generate early efficacy signals.

Micky Tripathi, PhD, Mayo Clinic’s chief AI implementation officer, said healthcare organizations still need to build governance and infrastructure around AI tools, comparing the work to adding a chassis and steering wheel to an engine.

The summit underscores Mayo Clinic’s position at the center of AI research investment, following the health system’s recent collaboration with Microsoft to build a frontier AI model for clinical use.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/ai/mayo-clinic-pushes-past-prediction-toward-ai-decision-support/

'Some surgical assistants earn 25x more than surgeons: NYT'

 Some surgical assistants are earning 25 times what the surgeons make thanks to arbitration laws, The New York Times reported June 29.

Here is what to know.

1. Surgeons and surgical assistants have been capitalizing on the arbitration rule inside the No Surprise Act. Physicians win more than 85% of arbitrations and the significantly higher payouts. One physician earned $440,000 for a routine breast reduction, the Times found.

2. The 2020 law intended to protect patients from surprise billing by providers not in their insurance plan, and was meant to apply to  emergency and unscheduled care. However, many surgeons and assistants are taking scheduled cases to arbitration, wherein federal contractors review offers from each side and pick one as the fair price.

3. Typically, surgical assistants are paid a standard fee of 16% of the surgeon’s earnings. However, through arbitration some assistants are earning substantially more than the surgeon. In March, a Dallas surgical assistant earned $50,456 through arbitration for a prostate removal operation — meanwhile the surgeon on the case earned $1,843.

4. These surgical assistants are sometimes physicians, but more often they are nurses or physician assistants.

5. Patients are often unaware if their case was taken to arbitration, and pay what they normally would for an in-network provider. But the extra cost is passed onto patients as higher premiums. TeamCare, a health plan that covers half a million union workers, has spent $19 million on arbitration cases since 2022.

6. Physicians group argue that insurers often offer payments too low for physicians managing complex cases. Surgical assistant groups told the Times that health plans often refuse to let them into the networks, leaving them with unpredictable and low payments. 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/hospital-physician-relationships/some-surgical-assistants-earn-25x-more-than-surgeons-nyt/

NEJM retracts study supporting Amgen’s Tavneos amid FDA fight

 The New England Journal of Medicine has retracted the clinical trial publication behind Amgen’s rare disease drug Tavneos after two of the study’s authors requested the retraction over undisclosed changes to how patient outcomes were assessed. 

In a June 29 retraction statement, NEJM said the primary endpoint assessments for nine patients were readjudicated after the trial’s database was locked and unblinded, without the two authors’ knowledge, calling the omission “inconsistent with proper research conduct.”

The retraction is the latest setback in a months-long dispute between Amgen and the FDA over Tavneos, a treatment for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis that Amgen acquired through its $3.7 billion purchase of ChemoCentryx in 2022. The FDA first asked Amgen to voluntarily withdraw the drug from the market in January, citing concerns over how ChemoCentryx had re-adjudicated efficacy data for nine of the 331 patients in the pivotal trial. Amgen declined the request on Feb. 3, saying it was not aware of issues with the underlying patient data and that its own review of clinical findings and real-world evidence continued to support the drug’s effectiveness.

In late March, the FDA tied 76 cases of drug-induced liver injury, including eight deaths, to Tavneos. The agency followed in April with a more serious allegation, saying unblinded study personnel had manipulated the pivotal trial’s results so the drug appeared effective when the original analysis did not support that conclusion, a finding the FDA said it didn’t learn of until more than three years after approval. The agency said it could no longer conclude Tavneos had ever been proven effective.

Amgen has continued to defend the drug, saying patient safety guides every decision the company makes and that it remains confident in Tavneos’s safety and efficacy profile. The company requested a hearing with the FDA June 11 and enlisted the Duke Clinical Research Institute to conduct an independent, fully blinded re-adjudication of the data underlying the drug’s original approval.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/nejm-retracts-study-supporting-amgens-tavneos-amid-fda-fight/

Virtual nurse discharges see 72% cut in readmissions compared to traditional methods

 Patients who received virtual nurse discharges had a 72% relative reduction in readmission compared to traditional, in-person discharges, a recent study found. 

The study, published June 12 in NPJ Digital Medicine, analyzed 4,662 adult patient discharges from inpatient units at nine Southeastern hospitals before and after virtual nursing implementation between 2022 and 2024. Research then compared data to 4,662 traditional in-person discharges using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences analyses.

The study found patients discharged through virtual nursing had a 3.7% 30-day ED readmission rate compared to 13.3% who received traditional discharge care.

Virtual nursing was also associated with lower readmission risk and absolute risk difference, with similar reductions seen in both urban and rural hospitals.

Virtual nursing has gained traction across U.S. hospitals, and health systems have reported improvements in staff satisfaction, quality and patient experience. 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nursing/virtual-nurse-discharges-see-72-cut-in-readmissions-compared-to-traditional-methods/