Category: Medical

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) this week claimed it had canceled 30 leases for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) facilities nationwide, including a facility in St. Louis, MO, which is crucial to the agency’s drug testing operations. The department claims the cancellations will save almost $9M over the next year and at least $29.6 million in total.

The White House and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond to Focus’s inquiries about when the leases expire and whether any FDA staff at those facilities will lose their jobs or be reassigned. FDA, however, directed Focus’s questions to the General Services Administration (GSA).

According to Howard Sklamberg, a partner at Arnold & Porter and a former FDA deputy commissioner for global regulatory operations and policy, the cuts could have long-term consequences for the safety and efficacy of the products the agency regulates. He told Focus FDA has more than 200 offices in the US and worldwide that vary in size, including the facility in St. Louis that is critical to the agency’s oversight drug quality.

“That laboratory is FDA’s most important pharmaceutical lab in the country,” said Sklamberg. “That laboratory performs most of the testing program overseen by FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research… [and] is an important part of the postmarket surveillance of drugs.”

“The drug supply is quite safe, but in the medium- and long-term, [closing the facility] increases the risk of drugs that are unsafe or not effective,” he added.

Drug manufacturers are required to conduct their own testing, but FDA also inspects manufacturers’ laboratories and third-party labs. Furthermore, the agency does its own drug testing to ensure it conforms to regulatory standards, much of which is done at the St. Louis facility.

“Any significant cut in that lab would put a big gap in FDA’s drug testing program, which is an important part of ensuring the safety and efficacy of drugs,” said Sklamberg. “It is a very important lab that has some very talented scientists in it who perform an incredibly important service for the public.”

Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf also raised concerns about the lease at the St. Louis facility being terminated.

“This facility was critical to solving life and death issues like the adulteration of heparin that caused a lot of death and illness till it was solved and the nitrosamine adulteration situation that has been an ongoing issue,” Califf told Focus. “Pharmaceutical quality is essential to FDA’s mission and with current facilities, it’s really an oversight function for the industry that is expected to adhere to quality standards.”

“Taking that away could easily lead to a regrettable direct impact on serious harm to unsuspecting and vulnerable patients,” he added.

Califf also noted that FDA had already developed a plan long before last year’s elections to optimize the agency’s lab functions, and he’s not opposed to including the physical footprint of the labs in that discussion. However, he said it has been hard to include that in past discussions due to congressional oversight since it may affect jobs for constituents.

“What’s missing is the full plan and evaluation—it needs to be publicly vetted and all the benefits and risks should be laid out,” said Califf.

When asked about the facility leases, a GSA spokesperson told Focus that acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian’s vision for the agency includes reducing deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of stronger private and government partnerships in managing the federal workforce.

“GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization,” said the spokesperson. “A component of our space consolidation plan will be the termination of many soft term leases.”

“To the extent these terminations affect public facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space,” the spokesperson added. “In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”

GSA also emailed a statement that its Public Buildings Service (PBS) has identified federally owned assets that are not considered core to government operations, some of which belong to FDA. It said many of the 440 non-core assets, primarily consisting of office space, have become functionally obsolete and unsuitable for the federal workforce.

“GSA will consider non-core assets for divestment from government ownership in an orderly fashion to ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space, or the significant maintenance costs associated with long-term building ownership — potentially saving more than $430 million in annual operating costs,” said the agency.

After this article was first published, GSA removed some buildings from its non-core assets list, including some FDA buildings, and eventually removed the entire list from its website. The GSA website now states that such a list is “coming soon” and that the administration is in the process of identifying non-core government properties for disposal.

In the opening weeks of the Trump Administration, DOGE has acted to make broad cuts across the federal government in its stated goal of reducing federal spending. Sklamberg noted that he worked for FDA for seven years, much of that time in senior positions, and it took him a long time to understand the complexities of the agency’s operations and how things are prioritized.

“It’s hard for me to see how a small number of people in a very short amount of time can have the information needed to prioritize what FDA does from a public health perspective,” said Sklamberg.

“FDA’s budget is comparatively quite small, it’s about $7B, half of which is paid by companies in user fees,” he added. “When cutting FDA’s budget, one has to be very careful that they’re not jeopardizing functions that could create a risk to people’s health and lives.”

Stephen Grossman, an FDA regulatory consultant and author of FDA Matters, agreed with the sentiment.

“There are well-established protocols for downsizing the federal government,” Grossman told Focus. “It requires evaluation of needs, identification of priorities, and establishment of a plan that leaves the remaining government services viable.”

“Instead, both lay-offs and shuttering of facilities are being done by fiat,” he added. “For employees that has meant callbacks and for facilities that will ultimately mean re-openings. It’s much better to have a plan and do it right from the beginning.”

The New York Times on Monday reported that DOGE has, once again, revised its estimate of savings down, this time to the tune $4 billion after erasing or altering more than a thousand federal contracts it had eliminated on its website that accounted for 40% of all contracts listed on its site. Its initial claims of $16B in savings have been whittled down to $9B so far, which is a far cry from the $2 trillion that the Trump administration has stated it wants to cut.

The following is a list of the 30 FDA field offices where DOGE has ended the leases and their estimated costs and savings from its website:

Location	Annual Cost	Total Savings
ATLANTA, GA	$         446,286	$                      –
DAVENPORT, IA	$           12,312	$             36,936
SOUTH BEND, IN	$           28,745	$             11,977
WICHITA, KS	$           46,863	$             74,200
BOYLSTON, MA	$           56,349	$             98,610
WARWICK, RI	$         107,126	$           276,743
EAST PROVIDENCE, RI	$           59,161	$           211,993
NASHVILLE, TN	$         388,552	$           777,105
MEMPHIS, TN	$         323,607	$           701,149
IRVING, TX	$         115,742	$           414,741
TEMPE, AZ	$         151,150	$       1,410,731
ONTARIO, CA	$         140,262	$           128,573
PEORIA, IL	$           19,026	$             33,295
COLUMBUS, OH	$         121,125	$           262,436
BALTIMORE, MD	$           77,572	$           213,324
SAN CLEMENTE, CA	$         699,986	$           933,314
SAN JOSE, CA	$         220,598	$           110,299
WILMINGTON, DE	$           95,385	$           310,002
PLANTATION, FL	$         414,703	$           691,172
TALLAHASSEE, FL	$           39,290	$           288,124
ST. LOUIS, MO	$      2,457,367	$     19,249,372
MADISON, WI	$         121,221	$           272,746
SALT LAKE CITY, UT	$           95,124	$           475,620
GREENSBORO, NC	$           24,855	$             16,570
NEWARK, NJ	$         633,783	$       2,112,611
WAUWATOSA, WI	$         187,375	$           499,666
LONG BEACH, CA	$         952,904	$                      –
SAN DIEGO, CA	$         454,339	$                      –
LOUISVILLE, KY	$         101,765	$                      –
OMAHA, NE	$           34,357	$                      –
Total	$     8,626,930	$    29,611,309

RAPS.org

Apollo Hospitals, one of India’s biggest hospital chains, has announced a new partnership to further develop its AI tool for predicting cardiovascular disease risks.

It will collaborate with 3M spinoff Solventum Health Information Systems to use its patient classification and quality methodologies to enhance cardiovascular care. Specifically, Solventum’s tools will be integrated with Apollo’s AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk technology.

They will later work to assess the effectiveness of their combined solution on population health and resource efficiency metrics, including mortality, lengths of stay, complications, and readmissions.

“The project aims to evaluate opportunities to deliver high quality care in the most cost-effective way by leveraging the potential of diagnosis related groups, case mix index, and the severity of illness, and by increasing the efficiencies in resource utilisation,” their media release read.

Why it matters
The partnership zeroes in on cardiovascular diseases, the leading causes of premature death and morbidity in India. Given its growing burden (cardiovascular diseases account for over a quarter of deaths in the country) alongside the continuing severe cardiologist shortage – now at one cardiologist per 250,00 people, the use of predictive analytics has become more critical to bridge this gap, they said.

The enhancement of Apollo’s predictive analytics tool is expected to boost Apollo’s capability to identify patients at great risk of adverse outcomes and further hospitalisation.

The larger context
Apollo introduced its Cardiovascular Disease Risk tool in 2021. Built using data from more than 400,000 patients, the tool takes into account lifestyle attributes and vital signs to predict an individual’s risk of cardiovascular diseases.

The following year, the predictive tool was integrated into ConnectedLife, a healthcare application and a Fitbit partner in Singapore.

Besides predictive analytics for cardiovascular care, the hospital chain has pursued various AI projects over the past years. Most recently, Apollo Hospitals has reportedly planned to adopt AI copilots from Microsoft as part of a new partnership to support its AI roadmap implementation.

On the record
“This powerful union enables us to pinpoint high-risk patients more accurately and deliver timely, personalised care. This breakthrough is leading to a dramatic reduction in complications and hospital stays while fundamentally transforming patient outcomes and broadening access to the high-quality care every individual deserves,” Apollo Hospitals co-managing director Dr Sangita Reddy said.

“We believe this collaboration can help us more accurately identify patients who are at high risk of adverse outcomes that may need additional services. We anticipate improved patient access, operational efficiency, and clinical outcomes as a result of our joint efforts,” added Dr Sandeep Wadhwa, global chief medical officer at Solventum HIS. Healthcare IT News

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, Dr Jay Bhattacharya, told a US Senate panel he plans to focus the agency on chronic diseases, improve research integrity, and foster scientific dissent.

Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor who was a vocal critic of Covid-19 lockdowns, is expected to be confirmed for the role. His five key goals also include supporting innovative biomedical research and regulating high-risk studies.

“American health is going backwards,” Bhattacharya told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, citing rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and chronic illnesses.

He also waded into the debate being fueled by his likely future boss, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose response to a growing measles outbreak in Texas has underscored his decades-long anti-vaccine views.

Committee chairman Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician, questioned Bhattacharya over his stance on investigating a potential link between autism and childhood vaccinations, an issue long debunked by scientific evidence that had been embraced by Kennedy.

“I don’t generally believe there is a link, based on my reading of the literature,” Bhattacharya said. “But we do have a sharp rise in autism rates, and I don’t think any scientist really knows the cause of it. I would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that.”

Cassidy pushed back, emphasizing that the alleged connection between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism has been exhaustively studied and disproven.

“If we keep plowing over ground that has already been plowed, we waste limited resources,” Cassidy said. “We have a responsibility to address real health concerns, like chronic disease, rather than appease misinformation.”

A growing measles outbreak in Texas, in which one unvaccinated child has died and nearly 20 others have been hospitalized with serious complications, marks the first major test for Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic.

“It’s a tragedy that a child would die from a vaccine-preventable disease,” Bhattacharya said. “I fully support children being vaccinated for diseases like measles that can be prevented with vaccination efforts.”

Covid critic
Once confirmed by the full Senate, Bhattacharya will lead the nation’s premier medical research agency, overseeing a nearly $50 billion budget and funding for thousands of scientific projects.
He is set to face immediate challenges, including legal battles over Trump’s proposed cuts to federal research funding. A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the cuts.

Bhattacharya gained prominence as a leading critic of lockdowns and widespread Covid-19 restrictions. He co-authored the 2020 Great Barrington Declaration, advocating “focused protection” for the vulnerable while reopening society.

He later sued the government, claiming officials pressured social media to censor his views.

His positions often clash with mainstream public health leaders whom he argues suppress dissenting views.

“Over the last few years, top NIH officials oversaw a culture of cover-up, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differed from theirs,” he said on Wednesday.

The NIH has long been in Kennedy’s crosshairs, and Democrats pressed Bhattacharya on the recent and any planned future cuts to agency staffing, part of Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s firing of thousands of federal employees as they shrink the US federal bureaucracy.

Bhattacharya said that if confirmed, he would assess funding allocations and work to ensure research efforts continued.

Democratic US Senator Patty Murray from Washington challenged him on the administration’s push to cap indirect NIH grant costs at 15%. “Stanford, your own institution, would lose about $160 million annually,” she said.

Bhattacharya acknowledged that indirect costs funding support critical infrastructure, but called for greater transparency. “People distrust how that money is used,” he said. Reuters

As many as 15 health tech companies have integrated with the government’s digital health mission, with their apps helping patients access health records and other digital healthcare services to cut down long queues at clinics and hospitals.

Companies partnering the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) include Driefcase, Aarogya One, Bajaj Health, Practo, and Ambula Technologies.

As one of the key services of ABDM is the faster OPD registration service for the patients via ABHA’s QR code share based ‘scan and share’, patients can now use any of these ABDM enabled apps application to share their profile with the hospital and doctors.

The ‘scan and share’ facility is running in more than 18,000 health facilities across all states and UTs.

The idea is to minimize the problems of standing in long queues for registration at the hospital and eliminate the chances of medical errors, ensuring continuity of treatment and do away with hard prescription copies.

It also facilitates creating and maintaining health records of a patient and empowering individuals to manage and share their health information with doctors after the consent of the patient.

Taking it forward, the National Health Authority (NHA), which implements ABDM, has now directed all the states/UTs to actively encourage citizens to use these apps.

“Some of the private PHR applications companies are also providing assistance, by way of manpower support, to assist the patients in registering using the ABHA based QR registration services,” the NHA said in a communication to the Mission Directors in the States/UTs.

Abhinav Lal, co-founder and CTO, Practo said, “By integrating with ABDM, patients can use the app to create their ABHA registration and utilize the benefits of the national digital health ecosystem. This will enable them to utilize features like Scan and Share, to identify facilities that fit their needs, facilitate informed decisions, and improve outcomes.”

“We believe that a strong partnership between private platforms and public initiatives is essential for building a robust and inclusive digital healthcare future for India,” Lal said.

ABDM has three components–Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), a digital health ID for each person, and Health Facility Registry (HFR).

Notably, the government’s Digital India initiative has given a push to the digital health sector. With greater accessibility of internet across the country, the ABDM, launched in September 2021, will lead to equitable healthcare and connecting the last link to universal health coverage in an accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely, and safe manner.

“DRiefcase was the first private PHR app to be approved by NHA. We have the highest share in ‘Scan and Share’ OPD registration among PHR apps. DRiefcase has tirelessly worked with NHA and state governments to successfully reduce patient waiting times by hours, significantly enhancing their experience. This is just the beginning. The future use cases of ABDM like record sharing, Universal Health Interface (UHI) and National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX) can make Indian healthcare experience the best in the world,” said Sohit Kapoor, founder, DRiefcase.

Other firms mentioned above could not be contacted. LiveMint

In the background of a chaotic legislative session, several bills designed to strengthen legal protections for medical providers, health care systems and insurance companies faced with malpractice claims are sailing smoothly through committee votes and floor debates on their way to the governor’s desk.

The proposed changes to Montana’s malpractice legal landscape are backed by powerful players in the health care industry. One of the most prominent measures would stop medical malpractice cases and insurance payouts from being automatically reported to the state licensure board. Another would limit how juries can assess damages in malpractice cases.

Another bill aims to prevent the Montana Supreme Court from finding the state’s $250,000 cap for non-economic damages in malpractice cases — one the lowest limits in the country — unconstitutional.

The proposals would alter the state’s complex legal framework of health care oversight and recourse for injured patients. But they have received little to no public testimony from people outside the health care or legal fields during the first two months of hearings. Proponents have argued the legislation will help hospitals and providers weather expensive malpractice lawsuits and cut unnecessary bureaucratic oversight processes.

In a legislative session filled with lightning-rod issues — including property tax reform and Medicaid expansion — the industry-backed medical malpractice bills have mostly flown under the radar. A major exception has been bills that make it easier to sue doctors who provide gender transition-related care for trans minors and add a 25-year statute of limitations to pursue damages, proposals that have advanced despite receiving vocal opposition from members of the public and health industry advocates.

The other, lesser-known bills could bring about far-reaching consequences for health care oversight in Montana and patients seeking remedies for medical damages.

Closing a route for license complaints
The Montana Medical Legal Panel (MMLP), a group of providers and lawyers convened by the Montana Medical Association, is the first step required by law for medical malpractice cases.

There, patients, providers and insurance companies appeal to panelists to determine whether the case could indicate malpractice or patient injury, though the findings don’t prevent a person from suing later in district court or agreeing to an out-of-court settlement. Over the last decade of cases from 2014 to 2023, the panel reports receiving an average of 215 complaints per year. An annual average of 18% of those claims proceed to a lawsuit.

Separately, state licensing boards oversee the professional licenses of medical practitioners. Those boards investigate claims of unprofessional conduct and can suspend or rescind a person’s license. The state Board of Medical Examiners, which monitors the licenses of more than 16,000 physicians, physician assistants and other Montana health professionals, took adverse action against six licenses in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available.

By law, the two avenues for oversight converge only briefly after the MMLP makes a decision. A copy of that finding must be shared with the professional licensing board, which can choose to investigate further if it sees fit.

House Bill 442 would strike that mandatory referral from state law. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Valerie Moore, R-Plentywood, would also repeal a legal requirement that insurance companies report medical negligence claims and settlements to licensing boards.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees the Board of Medical Examiners and other medical licensing boards, testified in favor of the proposal, describing it as a way to cut unnecessary procedures and clear out red tape.

“Unnecessary complaints are a regulatory burden that we don’t need,” Commissioner Sarah Swanson said during a February committee hearing for HB 442, arguing that the referral system was “redundant and duplicative,” despite the two groups serving different oversight purposes.

Another bill proponent, a hospital administrator, said the change would protect providers from being dragged through licensure investigations when someone files a frivolous malpractice complaint.

“This type of automatic escalation does not serve patients, providers or the licensing system well,” said Nick Dirkes, the administrator at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow.

But other doctors involved in the oversight process have voiced misgivings about the proposed changes, though not through testimony before lawmakers.

During a January meeting of the Board of Medical Examiners, one member said he was considering testifying about HB 442, though as a private citizen rather than as a board member.

“By removing that requirement, it may delay the board being aware of and processing malpractice actions and substandard care by years,” said Dr. James Guyer, a family medicine practitioner from Billings, in comments to other board members. “And we’ve seen that. We’ve seen cases that come up eight years after [the] initial injury.”

Guyer did not testify during the bill hearing last month before the House Business and Labor Committee and did not reply to an emailed request for comment from Montana Free Press about his personal stance on the bill.

Without hearing from any opponents, the committee passed the bill unanimously. It cleared the House chamber in late February by a 97-2 margin.

After supporting the end to automatic referrals, Swanson appeared before the same committee again in February to propose opening a route for license complaints when former patients have already settled a malpractice claim.

House Bill 563 prohibits malpractice settlements from dissuading or prohibiting licensure complaints. Backers say it will allow former patients to seek professional accountability for a medical provider in addition to financial damages.

Swanson and her staff told the legislative committee that the idea behind the bill originally received pushback from hospital and insurance lawyers. She maintained that HB 563 would help licensure boards protect the public from bad actors.

“This is part of what makes [HB 442] OK,” testified Quinlan O’Connor, a labor department attorney, referencing the earlier bill to strike reporting requirements for the MMLP. “We’re gonna get it from people who are individually hurt. We don’t need somebody else reporting it to us.”

Changes to ‘the cap’ for malpractice damages
Another proposal en route to Gianforte’s desk would gradually increase the state’s $250,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases over the next four years and create an inflationary increase after that.

Critics of the cap, which has been in place since the 1990s, have long said that it is unconstitutional to limit how much juries are able to award claimants for emotional pain and suffering. Economic damages, such as medical bills and lost future wages, remain uncapped in Montana, creating a system that some plaintiff’s attorneys say allows wealthy claimants to recoup more for medical injuries than low-income people.

But the constitutionality of the cap has never received a legal determination from Montana courts. Cases that have gotten close to the question in recent years have ended in settlements. Jurors are not allowed to know that the non-economic damages they award are subject to a cap.

House Bill 195, sponsored by Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, would increase the non-economic damages cap to $500,000 by 2029 in an effort to account for inflation. The bill was originally drafted by the Montana Medical Association, according to the public bill drafting file, with input from other health care industry lobbyists and defense attorneys.

Mercer, a private practice attorney who has defended health care entities, told MTFP his main motivation in bringing the bill is to defend the cap’s legitimacy and avoid it being deemed unconstitutional by state courts.

“The motivation is much more a concern of the medical provider community that they want a viable cap and they’re worried that the cap will be taken down,” Mercer said in an early February interview.

The bill has received broad bipartisan support in recent committee hearings, even as some legislators maintain that any cap violates Montanans’ right to recoup damages and have a fair jury trial.

“If you have a jury who heard all of the facts, heard all of the damages and decided to award more than this amount, then their decision is nullified,” said Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula. “Their time spent, their considerations were overruled.”

Olsen, also a practicing lawyer, ultimately voted in favor of the bill, noting that raising the cap at all was better than keeping it at its current amount.

Another piece of legislation sponsored by Mercer and drafted by the MMA and industry defense attorneys would restrict what juries can be instructed to consider in medical malpractice cases.

The bill is a direct response to a 2023 ruling by the Montana Supreme Court that allowed a jury in a medical malpractice case to consider the risk of procedures when assessing whether a provider exercised adequate caution.

Almost a year after that case, Camen v. Glacier Eye Clinic, P.C., defense attorneys and the Montana Medical Association began drafting legislation to legislatively reverse the Supreme Court finding. As outlined in House Bill 342, juries would be prohibited from calculating malpractice damages based on anything other than the standard of care as described by expert testimony.

In email exchanges attached to the bill drafting file, attorneys for hospitals, medical providers and insurance companies debated the breadth and scope of the possible changes.

“An attempt to fix what our Supreme Court did in Camen with respect to the greater danger/risk = greater care required, is important,” said Sean Goicoechea, a Montana-based attorney who represented Glacier Eye Clinic in the 2023 case, in a message to an attorney for Curi, a major medical insurance company. “However, we all need to understand our Legislature can be a bit unpredictable and, in my opinion, distractible. So, I favor keeping this clean and simple.”

The lawmaker who requested the bill, Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, also an attorney, approved the language near the end of the drafting process.

The bill passed consideration by the House, though by narrower margins than other medical malpractice reform bills. It is now awaiting hearings in the Senate. Montana Free Press

The eradication of polio as a global health threat may be delayed unless US funding cuts – potentially totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over several years – are reversed, a senior World Health Organization official has warned.

The WHO works with groups such as UNICEF and the Gates Foundation to end polio. The planned withdrawal of the United States from WHO has impacted efforts, including stopping collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, UNICEF’s polio grant was terminated as the State Department cut 90% of USAID’s grants worldwide to align aid with President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy.

In total, the partnership is missing $133 million from the US that was expected this year, said Hamid Jafari, director of the polio eradication programme for the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region. The area includes two countries where a wild form of polio is spreading: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“If the funding shortfall continues, it may potentially delay eradication, it may lead to more children getting paralyzed,” he said, adding that the longer it took to end polio, the more expensive it would be.

He said the partners were working out ways to cope with the funding shortage, which will largely impact personnel and surveillance, but hoped the US would return to funding the fight against polio.

“We are looking at other funding sources … to sustain both the priority staff and priority activities,” he said.

He said vaccination campaigns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan would be protected.

UNICEF did not respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation reiterated that no foundation could fill the gap left by the US Saudi Arabia gave $500 million to polio eradication last week.

The partnership already faces a $2.4 billion shortfall to 2029, as it accepted last year that it would take longer, and cost more, to eradicate the disease than hoped. Reuters

The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal to raise $11.2 million to help fund Uganda’s response to an Ebola outbreak that has killed two people, after the country’s health budget was strained by U.S. cuts to foreign aid.

Uganda declared the outbreak of the highly infectious and often fatal haemorrhagic disease in January in the capital Kampala after the death of a male nurse at the East African country’s sole national referral hospital.

A second Ebola patient, a four-year-old child, died last week, the World Health Organization said, citing the country’s health ministry.

Uganda’s 10 confirmed cases have been linked to Ebola’s Sudan strain which does not have an approved vaccine.

In a statement sent out on Tuesday, the UN said the funds would cover the Ebola response from March to May in seven high-risk districts.

“The goal is to rapidly contain the outbreak and address its impact on public health as well as associated social-economic life of affected people,” said Kasonde Mwinga, Uganda representative for the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency.

Uganda has traditionally relied heavily on the U.S. for its health sector funding.

During the last Ebola outbreak in 2022-2023, the United States provided $34 million to fund case management, surveillance, diagnostics, laboratories, infection prevention and control among other activities, according to a U.S. Embassy report.

But President Donald Trump’s administration imposed an aid freeze and U.S. funding to Uganda’s health sector has been slashed, hitting the country’s public health budget, according to government officials.

Uganda’s Health Ministry spokesperson, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dr Janet Diaz from the World Health Emergencies programme told a Geneva press briefing after a trip to Uganda that the agency was already having to temporarily take on aspects of the Ebola response previously done by other groups due to the U.S. cuts. These include deploying surveillance teams at border points and the handling of biological samples.

Ebola symptoms include fever, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue. Reuters

Arva Health has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding, led various investors including All In Capital, iSeed, Bharath Founders Fund, and Galaxy. Currently, fertility care in India islargely fragmented, expensive, and weighed down by stigma.

However, Arva Health is creating a new standard in fertility care with its expert medical care, diagnostics, and personalised support under one roof. The start-up is founded by Dipalie Bajaj, and Nidhi Panchmal. Its first flagship clinic in Bengaluru’s Whitefield will provide fertility testing, consultations, egg freezing, and IVF in a modern setting.

“We are not in the business of diagnosing infertility but in the business of helping people have babies. By improving access and experience, we can dramatically improve outcomes for millions of people,” said Dipalie Bajaj, co-founder and CEO of Arva Health.

The start-up, in an official statement, claims that the funding will fuel the launch of India’s first network of tech-enabled fertility clinics, beginning in Bengaluru. The aim is to make reproductive care affordable, accessible, and free from stigma.

All In Capital founder Kushal Bhagia said, “We invested in Arva Health because infertility is becoming a huge problem in India. We believe that Arva Health represents the future of reproductive care tailored to contemporary women and couples-delivering healthcare that today’s patients deserve.”

Arva’s Fertility Care model
Unlike traditional fertility centers, Arva offers patient-first reproductive care. From at-home fertility testing and expert consultations to IVF, egg freezing, and fertility coaching, the start-up supports individual and couples at every stage of their fertility journey.

Arva Health cofounder Nidhi Panchmal believes that fertility care in India need a rebrand because people feel lost, rushed, or judged in this process. “We are building clinics that put patients first — where they feel heard, supported, and empowered every step of the way.”

Since its launch last year, Arva has helped over 4,000 women navigate their fertility, built a 40,000-member community, and scaled at 60% month-over-month. The healthcare start-up plans to open clinics in ten locations, including Mumbai and Delhi, by 2027. Additionally, the company intends to expand into men’s fertility services and develop a digital platform to offer continuous support for fertility. Outlook Business

The Health Department has initiated the process of establishing Trauma Care Centres (TCCs) across 14 districts in the state, with seven of these facilities planned for Faridabad and Palwal districts.

A senior official confirmed that the Union government has approved a budget of Rs 200 crore for the project, with Rs 175 crore already allocated for procuring medical equipment. The primary trauma care centre in each district will be located within the civil hospital premises, with some facilities extending to Community Health Centres (CHCs).

“An initiative of the Central Government, the scheme will be implemented within the existing infrastructure of government hospitals. These centres will provide immediate medical intervention to victims suffering from severe traumatic injuries caused by accidents, falls or violent acts. Timely treatment within the ‘golden hour’ is critical to maximising survival rates and minimising complications,” said a senior Health Department official.

The trauma care infrastructure will be developed in districts connected to National Highways and Expressways, including Faridabad and Palwal, which are slated to receive four and three centres, respectively.

With many critical patients currently being referred to Delhi due to the lack of advanced treatment facilities in the region, officials believe the delay in medical intervention has been a key factor in high casualty rates.

“The absence of well-equipped trauma centres has been a longstanding concern. Victims suffering from serious injuries are often transported to Delhi, leading to avoidable fatalities. The new centres will ensure that no trauma victim has to travel beyond 50 km for emergency care,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

SK Sharma, coordinator of the Road Safety Organisation (RSO), an NGO, echoed this concern. “Most government and private hospitals lack state-of-the-art trauma care. The 50-km rule for establishing trauma centres on highways is critical, yet Faridabad and Palwal have been left without this essential facility for years,” he said.

Similarly, Satish Chopra of NGO Sewa Vahan, who has been protesting for nearly three months demanding a trauma care centre, criticised the inadequate healthcare infrastructure. “The poor facilities at civil hospitals have turned them into mere referral centres for critically injured patients,” he said.

Dr MP Singh, an official of the Health Department, confirmed that work on the project has already begun and that the facilities are expected to be operational within a year. The Tribune

The Supreme Court on March 4, 2025 directed States to consider framing guidelines to ensure patients are not “exploited” or compelled by private hospitals to buy medicines, implants, consumables and medical devices at inflated prices from their own pharmacies or outlets.

The court, at the same time, cautioned the States from taking a hard line while formulating the guidelines that may affect private investment in the health sector.

A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant took a balanced view that States, until they develop the infrastructure, would need private hospitals to fill in the gaps in their health sector.

“Not only people, but States look to private hospitals for providing basic and specialised service to the public at large,” the court noted.

The hearing was based on a plea filed by petitioner-in-person Siddharth Dalmia. Mr. Dalmia said in court that he had personally felt the brunt of the exploitation when a relative had undergone extensive treatment at a private hospital.

Refraining from commenting on the merits of Mr. Dalmia’s allegations of “exploitation” and unreasonable charges levied by private hospitals, the Bench said it merely wanted to sensitise the State governments to the situation. The court said the issue raised in the petition amounted to the taking of a policy decision. The subject of health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries were State subjects. The policy-makers of each State had to take a call on the measures they wanted to adopt, the court noted.

“It will not be advisable for the court to issue mandatory conditions that would hamper the establishment of hospitals by the private sector,” the Bench struck a cautionary note in its order.

Disposing of the petition, the court said it merely wanted to draw the attention of the States to the constitutional framework.

The court said the States and their policy-makers would be the best judges of whether they wanted to introduce a policy that would have a cascading effect on private investment in the health sector.

“Should the States, obliged to adopt economic policies dedicated to development of basic health infrastructure, take stringent measures in the meanwhile that may discourage private entities? These are policy decisions,” the Bench reasoned.

The court recorded Mr. Dalmia’s submissions that affordable medical assistance was important for one and all and amounted to protection of the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Besides, Mr. Dalmia argued, States had a duty to ensure social and economic justice by providing all classes of citizens the requisite health infrastructure under the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution. The Hindu