Allergies aren’t the only thing that are seasonal. In a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, researchers found the risk of developing surgical site infections (SSI) increased as the weather warms up.

The Rochester Epidemiology Project, a partnership of healthcare organizations in Minnesota and Wisconsin for the sharing of medical records for research, is celebrating 50 years of service. The Project is beginning in the next 50 years with the launch of the Data Exploration Portal, which aims to improve community and public health in the two states.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified a possible cause for a rare infection in heart and lung transplant recipients: the donor. The way in which heart and lung transplant recipients acquired a specific species of bacteria, Mycoplasma hominis, had been previously undefined, and the bacterium was difficult to test. Originally, this bacterium was considered to reside exclusively in, and be a potential pathogen of, the area of the reproductive and urinary organs – the genitourinary tract.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in New York have successfully grown lung organoids from human pluripotent stem cells. These 3D structures that mimic a fully-grown lung aim to improve research into respiratory diseases.

With the potential of providing access to quality care at a lower cost, telehealth is gaining another player in its court with the new bipartisan bill. The CONNECT for Health Act hopes to expand the use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring with Medicare patients.

Seeing physicians on their smartphones could mean being discharged faster. A recent study, published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, examined differences in discharge times for emergency department patients with chest pain seen by physicians with or without smartphones to deliver laboratory results. 

Two large hospitals in the Los Angeles area would be under the same parent organization under a proposed affiliation plan announced by Cedars-Sinai and Torrance Memorial Medical Center.

Reach Health, a telemedicine software provider, has released its 2017 U.S. Telemedicine Industry Benchmark Survey. The survey contains results on what top healthcare executives and providers feel about obstacles in implementation and the development of telehealth within their health systems.