Healthcare Knuggets
Jan 24, 2026
Email 1:
Subject: 🏥 Key Themes from JPM 2026
Content:
– Specialty businesses dominate healthcare margins; commodity businesses are fading.
– Big players like McKesson, Cencora, and Cardinal focus on owning physician relationships through vertical integration.
– Oncology adjacent specialties and multispecialty areas represent new growth frontiers.
– AI differentiation hinges on proprietary data, platform expertise, and data sophistication; Tempus and Waystar are notable players.
– CMS V28 disrupted companies relying on coding arbitrage, benefiting those focused on genuine care delivery.
– Oral GLP-1 drugs are gaining distribution due to simpler handling needs; manufacturing capacity is concentrated among leading companies.
– Medicaid faces complex state-specific pressures affecting indexed businesses.
– January deals: OpenEvidence raised $250M at $12B valuation; Boston Scientific acquired Penumbra for $14.5B; Kaiser sanctioned $556M for aggressive risk adjustment coding.
– Amazon launched an AI health companion for One Medical members.
– TridentCare acquired DispatchHealth’s imaging unit to bolster mobile diagnostics.
– Bipartisan healthcare proposal includes telehealth extensions, hospital-at-home programs, $5B for FQHCs; PBM reform and ACA subsidies remain unsettled.
– MedPAC recommends a 7% cut to home health payments.
– Venture spotlight: Digital health funding hit $14.2B in 2025, focusing on AI-heavy startups.
– Shadow AI use by clinicians prompts IT governance challenges.
– Recommended reads: Epic vs Health Gorilla lawsuit, Vizient 2026 industry report, McKinsey healthcare trends, Trilliant and Kaufman Hall analyses.
– Winter storm preparedness and cold weather recipe exchange invitation.
– Hospitalogy is building a free community for hospital strategy, finance, and operations leaders. Apply to join.
Email 2:
Subject: 494 MCAT to Med School / The “Wrong Enemy” in Heart Diseases
Content:
– Medical student’s success story overcoming a 494 MCAT score, highlighting resilience over test numbers.
– A physician questions the lipid hypothesis in heart disease, suggesting cholesterol is a marker rather than cause.
– Explanation of “guideline creep,” expanding medical standards leading to overtreatment with statins and DOACs.
– Cloud-based simulation training in dentistry proposed to mirror aviation training for improved skill and patient care.
– Pediatric endocrinologist advocates for Type 1 diabetes screening at back-to-school visits due to asymptomatic cases without family history.
– Emergency medicine posited as a human rights specialty serving all patients without judgment.
– Digital health transforming urology with telehealth and AI improving screening and access.
– Surgeon compares AI’s rise in healthcare to computer chess evolution; calls for doctors to embrace AI collaboration.
– Concern over U.S. reliance on India for generic cancer drugs amid geopolitical tensions with Pakistan.
– A rural Ohio physician recounts maintaining clinic services during 9/11 national crisis.
– Digital mental health platforms currently miss minority populations, losing a $20 billion market; cultural competence is key.
Email 3:
Subject: Negotiating with ‘bullies,’ mixing hormones with weight loss drugs, & no more human fetal tissue research
Content:
– NIH advisory councils’ membership is critically low; only one new member added last year.
– Planned Parenthood CEO refuses to negotiate with GOP leaders she calls ‘bullies,’ standing firm on reproductive rights and Medicaid coverage.
– Top CDC vaccine adviser questions polio vaccine use, emphasizing individual autonomy over public health.
– Emergency medicine physician describes personal experience switching to less effective but affordable medication due to high deductibles.
– Small study shows postmenopausal women using hormone therapy with tirzepatide lose 35% more weight than those without hormones; cardiovascular improvements also seen.
– Trump administration expands prohibition on use of human fetal tissue in NIH research; scientists warn this harms key medical research.
– Discussion of ongoing efforts to limit federal funding for abortion access, including abortion pill restrictions and Hyde Amendment expansion.
Email 4:
Subject: ↪️ Bypassing health insurances
Content:
– Direct-to-consumer healthcare is growing, driven by weight loss drugs like Ozempic not covered by insurance.
– Political debate exists around providing money directly to patients versus premium subsidies.
– Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan emphasizes patient choice and direct drug purchases via TrumpRx.
– Market analysis predicts growing consumer demand for cash-pay and DTC health services, increasing fragmentation.
– Certain drugs (fertility, hormones, wellness) and direct primary care (e.g., One Medical subscriptions) increasingly sold outside traditional insurance.
– Experts caution that bypassing insurance doesn’t solve core affordability for large unexpected bills, like hospital care.
– Direct pay services can be a supplement but are not a full substitute to insurance protection.
– Rising measles cases pose risk to infants under 1 who cannot yet receive MMR vaccine; hospital visits increase exposure risk.
– Most children vaccinated have low risk, but vulnerable infants and immunocompromised remain at heightened risk.
– Parents urged to vaccinate children to reduce measles spread; anxiety remains for infants pre-vaccination age.
Email 5:
Subject: Don’t forget STAT Reports are now 50% off
Content:
– STAT offering 50% discount on all 2025 reports until January 31, 2026, with code ‘2025’.
– Reports cover biotech venture capital rankings, UnitedHealth corporate story, AI opportunities and risks in healthcare, and more.
– STAT Reports assist executives, researchers, consultants, and analysts in navigating life sciences industry trends.
– Option to purchase individual reports relevant to one’s interest.
– Contact and preference management links included.
Email 6:
Subject: Why cancer might protect against Alzheimer’s disease
Content:
– Scientific finding: gut microbial metabolites in breath can predict gut bacteria composition; potential for rapid diagnostics related to microbiome-influenced diseases.
– Research suggests cystatin C protein produced by cancer cells binds to Alzheimer’s brain plaques, attracting immune degradation, potentially explaining inverse cancer-Alzheimer’s relationship.
– Controversial US-funded hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau suspended amidst accusations of harm and undermining trust; debate fueled by anti-vaccine activism within US HHS.
– Ethical concerns raised comparing trial to historic unethical studies; risk of withholding proven vaccine to some infants at high risk.
– Profile of researchers involved in trial and their controversial stances.
– ADHD treatments advancing beyond stimulants, exploring non-addictive medications and non-pharmacological interventions; personalized approaches still distant.
– Coverage of Nature’s science news including Pompeii graffiti discoveries, quantum physics experiments, and recommended science books and podcasts.
– Invitation to subscribe to other Nature newsletters and engage with global scientific community.
Stay Well!
