MUNICH — A randomized clinical trial demonstrated the limits of rapid testing to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of gram-negative bacteria that are causing bloodstream infections.
The study of more than 800 hospitalized adults and children in four countries found that rapid blood culture testing was not more likely to result in desirable clinical outcomes compared with standard antibiotic susceptibility testing, researchers reported.
However, rapid testing did have some benefits. It lowered the rate of long hospital stays for patients with carbapenem-resistant infections — a novel

This month’s Healio Exclusive addresses not merely a gap in care for children with rheumatic disease, but what can only be described as a national failing: a health care system that is not meeting the needs of some of its most vulnerable patients.
I want to thank Dr. Ekemini Ogbu for her forthright and deeply informed commentary, which lays bare both the scope and urgency of this crisis. Equally important is her leadership, along with that of the American College of Rheumatology, in mobilizing coordinated efforts with key stakeholders to confront these challenges with creativity and resolve.
At

The National Kidney Foundation Council of Advanced Practice Providers conducts a biannual survey of all nephrology nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the U.S., regardless of NKF membership status.
The survey seeks to gain a better understanding of the critical advanced practice provider (APP) workforce in nephrology, including demographics, work location, compensation and duties, to guide practices in hiring and sustaining equitable compensation and benefits for APPs.

The 2025 survey had 159 respondents, a 24% reduction from the 2023 survey. The majority (67%) were nurse

In patients with advanced heart failure, left ventricular assist device implantation was linked to better 2-year survival than heart transplantation when wait-list time was accounted for, researchers reported at Heart Failure 2026.
However, the transplantation group had a higher survival rate at 2 years than the LVAD group when survival was measured from the time of treatment, according to the study, which was simultaneously published in JACC: Heart Failure.
The researchers analyzed survival and adverse events in patients with advanced HF who were middle-aged (aged 50-64 years) or older (aged

A once-weekly triple receptor agonist conferred up to 28.3% weight loss at 80 weeks for adults with overweight or obesity, according to topline results from a phase 3 trial.
As Healio previously reported, retatrutide (Eli Lilly), an injectable GIP/GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist under investigation for the treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardio-renal-metabolic disorders, was associated with up to 28.7% weight loss at 68 weeks for adults with overweight or obesity and knee osteoarthritis in the TRIUMPH-4 trial. In the phase 3 TRIUMPH-1 trial, 2,339 adults with overweight or

Two bills were recently proposed in the U.S. Senate to cap out-of-pocket insulin spending at $35 per month for Americans with commercial health insurance.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Susan Collins, R-Maine, John Kennedy, R-La., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., introduced the Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act on March 25. The legislation includes four provisions that would lower the cost of insulin by capping out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month for patients with commercial insurance, institute pharmacy benefit manager rebate reforms, ease access to

CHICAGO — Pediatric patients with stroke often had psychiatric concerns even if they did not have an active diagnosis, and most did not receive treatment, according to a poster presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.
“They have new deficits that they’re navigating,” Sofia Schlozman, a student at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, told Healio. “They’re very young. They had no other major medical things going on. And then this thing happened.”
Schlozman and colleagues said that pediatric hemorrhagic stroke

CHICAGO — Insulin resistance markers and BMI were more effective in detecting steatotic liver disease among adolescents and young adults compared with glycemic and lipid measurements, according to study results.
The data, presented at Digestive Disease Week, showed that BMI, estimated glucose disposal rate (eGDR) and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were associated with earlier detection of steatotic liver disease (SLD) than HbA1c, total cholesterol and LDL.
“Adult-derived diagnostic thresholds may not perform optimally in younger patients and can miss early