This month’s episode of “News You Can Use” on HealthcareNOWRadio features news from the month of January 2025
News You Can Use with your Hosts Dr Craig Joseph and Dr Nick van Terheyden
The show that gives you a quick insight into the latest news, twists, turns and debacles going on in healthcare with my friend and co-host Craig Joseph, MD (@CraigJoseph) Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Consulting Partners and myself, where every diagnosis comes with a side of humor. We hope you stay curious, stay engaged, and keep seeking the truth in healthcare in a world that thrives on information.
Buckle up as we dive into the ER of excitement, the ICU of irrationality, and the waiting room of wacky wisdom in this month’s show that features a review of:
- Change Data Breach
- Pregnant mothers and RSV
- Stargate and AI
- Target AI Screening for suicide
- WHO and NIH
When Bots Need Bigger Batteries
Welcome to January’s healthcare hilarity with Dr. Nick and Dr. Craig, the dynamic duo making sense of medical madness. This week, we tackle everything from AI collaborations to data breaches that left half of the U.S. feeling a little too exposed. The recently announced massive AI venture, dubbed “Stargate” (cue sci-fi jokes), promises data centers galore, although we ponder it might end up being about NIMBY than starry-eyed tech progress. Meanwhile, Change Healthcare’s data breach grew from “bad” to “worse” – now affecting nearly 200 million people. “If you’re not part of the breach club, let us know your secret!” And we added a PSA to check your credentials on “Have I Been Pwned” (not what it sounds like).
WHO Knows? America’s Global Health Ghosting
Speaking of questionable decisions, the U.S. government’s distancing from the World Health Organization sparked concerns. We lament that COVID taught us that ignoring global health isn’t exactly a winning strategy, so why make this step now? Meanwhile, a temporary freeze on federal health data reports has public health experts fidgeting. Imagine a world where epidemiologists don’t get their weekly dose of dry but vital CDC updates. Spoiler alert we are not fans. Amid all this, a silver lining emerged from Epic’s massive health database, showcasing how RSV vaccines given to pregnant moms significantly protect newborns. As Craig says, “They’re basically born vaccinated – a win for tiny humans everywhere!”
With healthcare news feeling like an endless whirlwind of breaches, bureaucracy, and breakthroughs, we remind ourselves to laugh through the absurdities while staying informed. Whether it’s AI that promises the moon or vaccines that deliver real-world impact, we will keep dissecting the chaos, one quip at a time.
We hope you enjoy our take on the latest news and developments in healthcare and want to help you keep untangling the web of information, dodging the sensational pitfalls, and emerging victorious, albeit a little dizzy, on the other side. In the end, the stories we uncover, and the discussions we ignite, all shape the narrative of our shared future. We want to hear from you especially if you have topics covered or questions you’d like answered. You can reach out directly via the contact form on my website, or send a message on LinkedIn to Craig or me.
Until next month keep solving healthcare’s mysteries before they become your emergencies
Listen live at 4:00 AM, 12:00 Noon or 8:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday for the next week at HealthcareNOW Radio. After that, you can listen on demand (See podcast information below.) Join the conversation on Twitter at #TheIncrementalist.
Listen along on HealthcareNowRadio or on SoundCloud
Raw Transcript
Nick van Terheyden
Welcome to the month of January. I’m Dr Nick and I’m Dr Craig. This week we’ll be dissecting the latest healthcare news, unraveling the twists and turns and making sense of at least some of the debacles.
Craig Joseph
Just remember, life’s a lot like a breaking news story. Unpredictable, often absurd, and occasionally leaves you wondering if it’s all just a cosmic prank.
Nick van Terheyden
This week we’ll be taking a look at the Change Data Breach and Pregnant Mothers and RSV.
Craig Joseph
And we dive into Target, AI screening for suicide, WHO, the NIH.
Nick van Terheyden
struck Dr. Necti. Shenanigans going on. So a joint venture apparently with OpenAI. Oracle I know is in there. They’re talking about 500 billion and I think pretty much out the gate there was already some controversy. But ultimately the desire here is to create a AI institution I guess. I mean, look, let’s be clear. We talk about this technology every single month. It is absolutely providing value. Is it the secret source for everything? Absolutely not. But it suddenly delivers value. Any thoughts on the why of this? mean, what do you think the thinking is it’s going on behind the scenes?
Craig Joseph
I think the why is that it’s the amount of compute that is needed. Insatiable so open AI gets most of their computing power from Microsoft. I’m not I’m sorry from yeah from Microsoft and And they’re they’re running out of or having trouble or some political issues You know with Microsoft who’s also doing its own thing in addition to working with open AI And so I think this was an attempt to say like well we can have multiple sources for this computing power that we need and Oracle which is a huge player in everything to help you know has and health care Oracle’s behind the times and they need to catch up. And so this was a Little way of saying with a little bit of a wink from the government government’s not really that involved but Say hey, we’re gonna we’re gonna shore up and we’re gonna build bunch of data centers which are already being built
Nick van Terheyden
Because they’re not in my backyard, I think, isn’t that the case?
Craig Joseph
NIMB. They take a lot of power, but it’s pretty impressive.
Nick van Terheyden
Noise, power, you name it.
Craig Joseph
They’re all consuming pretty much. Yeah, well, it’s an arms race, and that’s what this Stargate project is kind of proving to us once again that there’s just a lot. The need is never-ending.
Nick van Terheyden
Do you think it’s going to make a difference? mean, it just felt like an announcement and a blur, and I’m just going say it again. Why? Why pick that name? Of all names, just from my personal…
Craig Joseph
Well, it’s a gateway to the stars, Dr.
Nick van Terheyden
NIMB, of course.
Craig Joseph
it really? No. No, it’s not. It’s just a lot of money to build a dozen data centers. Yeah, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem all of that futuristic.
Nick van Terheyden
pretty sure the guy… It way to the stars is right around, isn’t it around Saturn or something? There’s a interstellar Stargate over there.
Craig Joseph
That’s what you’re referencing, right? Of course.
Nick van Terheyden
I’m just going to say the music from that movie. Well, soul searching stuff, really interstellar, this is. But I digress, as usual.
Craig Joseph
I love it.
Nick van Terheyden
I’ve listened to his music, never even knew that this was, and he’s in such demand right now that they can’t keep up and he is touring the world plus writing more schools. What a guy. What a guy. right, so moving on. Let’s talk about change, because we’ve talked about this one, and I think the news here was, Oh, by the way, it’s bigger than your thought.
Craig Joseph
Change healthcare, we’re talking about.
Nick van Terheyden
United, as it is, which is owned by United.
Craig Joseph
healthcare group. Yeah, they had a little data problem, a little leakage. And I think the original number was about a hundred million. Somewhere in the 100 million Americans had their data, at least some part of their data exposed. And then they came back recently with saying, oh, it’s bigger. And so now it’s, I forgot the total number, but I see one ninety a hundred. Oh, so we were only off by a factor of two.
Nick van Terheyden
No, no, you were saying that it was a hundred in the original.
Craig Joseph
Yeah, so now it’s a hundred. That’s a hundred.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah. There were others.
Craig Joseph
Yeah, they were all up to 200 million. That’s a lot of people. I’m in that group. Yeah, yeah.
Nick van Terheyden
so, so am I want to know who’s not.
Craig Joseph
That’s really my interest.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, how did manage to not be and change.
Craig Joseph
If anybody knows, anybody didn’t get the notification, please explain to us. Send us a note. Tell us what you did.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, what did you do so that we can do it as well? So what are they? So that’s 50% of the US population is now breached. If you haven’t been to the Have I Been Pawn site, that’s certainly worthwhile. You should register your email addresses, you’ll get notifications.
Craig Joseph
Let’s just be clear, because with that accident of yours, sounded like you said something that I don’t think you intended.
Nick van Terheyden
Have I been pwned? Have I been pwned?
Craig Joseph
And just so, because I’ve looked this up, I’m not inherently cool, although a lot of people think I am inherently cool, but I’m here to say no. This is like a techie way of saying that someone’s taken advantage of you. You have been owned. But at some point, someone missed. the O for the P the right next to each other on the keyboard and it and it said that you’ve been pwned P-W-N-E-D and that just become a funny thing so that’s what yes have I been pwned is a website yes it is and you can put in your and it’s not banned in Texas just to be clear no it’s legal on all 50 states and most us territories because I think we were confusing it with another pwned well I wasn’t but I was afraid that I was right yeah so you can go thank you for that clarification you can go to this website and everyone should and put in your your email address or various email addresses and it will look through publicly available data to tell you where your email address has shown up with associated passwords right and you can also put in a password right and that’s an interesting thing so put it in passwords that you think are secure and it will tell you whether they have shown up
Nick van Terheyden
in any of the breaches, which I know intellectually you think, well, wait a second, then I’m giving them that password. But actually, if you follow Troy Hunt, who started this, has followed this, he actually has thought through that whole issue and has created a mechanism for the life of me. I don’t think I fully understand it. But essentially, you are not submitting or losing control of that password. It’s actually very informative. Go pick some of your old passwords and see how bad it is. And actually, he’s developed an API so that that’s really the way that institutions, businesses, that’s what they should do for password policies. Check the password that you’re using and say, oh, no, this is in the database. You can’t use it rather than, oh, you must change your password every month, every three months. Anyway, I’m on my hobby haul, sorry. But back to change, let’s talk about them for a second, because they authored two years of credit monitoring. And I’m sorry, I just went whoop-de-do, although I did sign up for it. I think, you know, you should do, but not sure that’s really very valuable in part because I don’t think it’s a great coverage. I’m doing that anyway myself. And importantly, what happens at the end of two years? If I had all of that data, I’d just say, okay, put this to one side for two and then start using it.
Craig Joseph
There you go. That’s completely fine. That’s completely fine. Yeah, I also have personal, know, I pay to have a third party lookout for my social security number and other things. But I signed up as well because I figured, hey, I’d like to know. what you, you know, it’s helpful in that you get a text and an email and a push notification when someone applies for credit. or when a new account is opened with that, with your information that you give it.
Nick van Terheyden
I tell you I’m missing a key point and I’m going to give you credit here because you were very early to this. That couldn’t possibly happen because your credit on all three agencies should be locked.
Craig Joseph
As I know yours is because I keep trying and I can’t get any. Yeah, I know it’s true. It should be. It should be your 100% correct. So I’ve gone to the three big credit agencies and for free, it wasn’t always for free, but now it’s for free. You can go in, identify yourself with a bunch of information so they know you. And then just say, lock my credit. And then whenever anyone tries to do a credit check because they want someone’s applying for a loan or a new credit card or something like that, they will get back nothing and you will not that person will not get the credit card or the loan. So you’re right. shouldn’t need that. I just don’t. I like to have backup plans.
Nick van Terheyden
You just like paying extra money for additional services.
Craig Joseph
I do.
Nick van Terheyden
I still like paying extra money. Yes. And ironically, yet another car was breached over the weekend that I had to cancel. One of those small little niggling charges showed up going, let’s see if this one works. And by the way, it was in person and I’ve got all of the cards in my possession. But anyway, I digress. Let’s move on to the WHO and NIH and it feels like an eternity that we’ve been going through some of these changes. the current administration has essentially started the process to remove the United States from the WHO, the World Health Organization. funding recently. and importantly we’ve already seen notification, at least I have, of publications that are now having to be pulled by journals that were expected to be published because of this particular policy. I’m not sure how it’s going to play out. I’ve got to say, is WHO perfect? Well, certainly not, like most things in life, I haven’t found anything that is, but it does a phenomenal job. We’ve been part of it for a long time. It was part of huge amounts of progress, particularly in very underdeveloped countries with all sorts of diseases. And the same with the NIH and all the research and is it efficient? I can’t answer that, but it does great things. I’m a little bit shocked, little bit despondent, I’ll be honest.
Craig Joseph
Yeah, well, first of all, all of this is supposed to be temporary, excluding the WHO. missed that. All of yeah, you know, they the it’s impossible to so currently today the CDC and I’m not sure when this is being when you’re hearing this with this will be the case but the CDC the FDA all of the agencies under the federal government are not allowed to put out any communication to the public. Just so the morbidity and mortality weekly report the MMWR was the CDC put and that it’s a if you’ve read these reports I’ve tried I’ve tried they are so incredibly dry they’re they’re really meant for epidemiologists and did during COVID I read those yeah they’re they’re written in public health department but basically those are those are articles from the CDC saying to physicians and public health experts this is what’s happening this is these are data points that only the federal government really has access to and here it is all So these are not opinions. These are just facts and to help us do our jobs as physicians and public health experts and epidemiologists and all of that hold temporarily. It has to be temporary because otherwise we can’t do I mean it’s not possible to even contemplate. It’s supposed to be temporary until administration, presidentially appointed administration folks are in place to review the information before it goes out. All administration do this to some extent but not to this extent for this long. And you know so like things like the MMWR that that weekly report that CDC put out that’s been in publication since the I think the 60s and it’s never missed a beat until now. It’s there. It just can’t be put out because there’s no one to approve it yet. Well, I’m assuming, again, because I can’t fathom the idea that the federal government would have this data and not share it, the whole point is to share, that’s why the government exists. With regard to the World Health Organization, yeah, I think we’re going to miss out.
Nick van Terheyden
First of all, we’re a major funder, U.S.
Craig Joseph
and the funder of it. And, you know, again, there are pros and cons to everything, but we are, we have now, if anyone thought that it was okay to stick your head in the sand and expect that you’ll be fine, because you don’t have, you know, you’re not looking outward. Just remember that COVID thing, that didn’t start in the U.S. That started elsewhere, and we need to know what’s going on terms of infections and other health concerns around the world, because there all an airplane ride away from us. And so, yeah, it seems like it’s not a move in the right direction.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, it’s well, I’ll take a little bit of positive news that it’s not permanent, but, you know, there’s no timeline. And we’ll have to watch this space closely for sure. All right, so I know you’re always looking at the research. I think you saw something interesting on pregnant mothers and RSV.
Craig Joseph
Is that right in the Cosmos research? Yeah, so we talk about this every now and Epic is one of the biggest electronic health record vendors in the United States. And they have access to a lot of data that gets theoretically de-identified. We’ll assume that for the purposes of this conversation. So they basically have a big. database of millions, tens of millions of patients that are seen using their electronic health record. This is data that has been donated by the hospital or health care system who’s a customer of Epic. so they have these huge databases and what they like to do is put out what they really not research articles per se because they’re not peer reviewed, but just kind of to start conversations about things that they’re seeing that they’re seeing in the data. And this was very impressive to me. Basically, RSV vaccine that is given to pregnant women. We already knew.
Nick van Terheyden
Respiratory synchcytial virus.
Craig Joseph
Respiratory. My respiratory. No, well, we’re in America.
Nick van Terheyden
So we say respiratory. How do you know? I could be in England right now.
Craig Joseph
That is accurate.
Nick van Terheyden
I’m in it. Yeah, I’m in America.
Craig Joseph
I’m going to call it respiratory synchcytial virus.
Nick van Terheyden
It was 20 years before I knew I was pronouncing it differently.
Craig Joseph
It’s a common infection in children, almost all children get it. And most do fine with it, just a bad cold, but sometimes, especially kids who are premature of other health problems, cardiac respiratory problems, they can get into serious, serious problems. Anyway, vaccinating the moms before while they’re carrying their infant, the fetus. Those babies, once they’re born, are protected significantly.
Nick van Terheyden
Because crosses the placenta. Correct. Well, I know they’ve immunity crosses. They’re basically, they’re born, they’re born vaccinated.
Craig Joseph
And so, yeah.
Nick van Terheyden
Hey, that gives me an idea. Maybe we should load up on a few more. You give pregnant women as many vaccines.
Craig Joseph
Yeah, well, you know, you do it for flu.
Nick van Terheyden
I mean, you think it through, right? Exactly. But you could do that safely. That would be a great way to actually. be, protect the newborn infants that are at greater risk, especially in the first six months.
Craig Joseph
It doesn’t work for all antibodies.
Nick van Terheyden
No, I know. Yeah, it’s not the catch-up.
Craig Joseph
Well, obstetricians have recommended that pregnant women get flu shots forever. certainly it’s to protect them from getting sick, but also protect the fetus. So that once the baby’s born, they get some protection. Again, these are diseases that we think of as not that serious. Most of us get the flu and are fine, although we all know that there are people who get the flu and die. But children, little babies are especially at risk. And so anything we can do to help them out is something we should do. And this study, again, I put study in air quotes, but Epic has access in this cosmos database to so much data, and just so significant. 60 to 80% decrease in disease by vaccinating pregnant women.
Nick van Terheyden
As I say, it’s cool. And, you know, to be flippant about the idea of putting lots more vaccine, but, you know, that principle where you could tell raises an interesting opportunity to be explored, at least, I mean, not without sort of careful understanding. But, you know, as a parent, that would be absolutely interesting and something I would want to consider. All right. So, rounding out the discussion, we saw something about targeted AI screening for suicide, which I thought was very interesting and, you know, entirely relevant. We have a big problem with that, as you and I both know, what was going on here?
Craig Joseph
Well, you know, the idea is that when patients are coming to see their doctor generally, like, checkup or a physical exam that there’s a lot of screening that’s recommended. There’s there’s 10s, 20, 30 questions that one could ask of everyone. And that’s theoretically what you’re supposed to do as a physician screen for all of the screen, depression, screening, suicide, and it gets to be too much. So that oftentimes some of these screening just don’t happen because there’s only so much time and limited attention span. And so what these researchers did was to say, hey, can we use AI, use an AI to predict who will respond to this suicide screening?
Nick van Terheyden
Who’s at highest risk, in other words?
Craig Joseph
And we really should spend the time to screen them as opposed to other people who are at very low risk and we won’t use that time. And what they found is that they could predict which patients would should be screened for suicide, most likely to benefit from that screening. And again, the ideal world is everyone screened for everything all the time, but that’s never going to happen. So I thought it was just an interesting way of going about it to maximize the opportunity that you have when there’s a patient in front of you, or even virtually.
Nick van Terheyden
Look, I mean, from my perspective, I mean, I visit my primary care physician and I get bombarded with the questions that I’ll be honest, you know, quite often a bit non-productive, asking me my family history every time doesn’t seem to be a smart part move. The idea of taking that down, and this for me is a perfect example of AI being used intelligently, which is not replacing individuals, but replacing or elevating everybody to focus on the things that really matter and you know where you’ve got some surety and you can find and identify and if there’s any uncertainty then you are on the side of you know being cautious and saying well I’m not sure that we can see or not see so therefore we should conduct that particular review so I really like those kind of approaches I think it’s the the way of the future of adding technology to elevate people you know to the top of their license so that we could do the things that we really need want to do I read something interesting recently you know I was talking about programming and you know folks that did programming in the era that I did you know learn languages like Cobol and Fortran and the reality was when it moved to other things much harder to move to those new areas and that’s true today for folks that are programming today the next set of languages are entirely different and what you need is help in that whole process and That’s where I think AI really offers, you know, an elevation for folks. Unfortunately, as we do each and every week, we find ourselves at the end of another episode exploring healthcare’s mysteries before they became your emergencies. Until next time, I’m Dr.
Craig Joseph
Nick and I’m Dr. Craig.
