Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Format For DSM-5 Psychiatric Manual Planned In Major Overhaul
NPR: The ‘Bible Of Psychiatry’ Will Get A New Format And Philosophy For Its Next Edition
The diagnostic manual known as "the Bible of psychiatry" is about to get a major overhaul. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) puts out the tome known in the field as the DSM-5. That stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. (Chatterjee, 1/28)
More health industry news —
Daily Southtown: Cancer Center To Open At UChicago Ingalls Memorial In Harvey
A cancer treatment center funded by a grant from the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation will open this year at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to a news release. (Lewis, 1/27)
Modern Healthcare: HCA Healthcare Eyes Outpatient Expansion After Strong Q4 Earnings
HCA Healthcare is on the hunt, seeking to acquire more outpatient facilities in communities where it operates hospitals, executives said Tuesday. The Nashville, Tennessee-based health system is aiming to operate up to 20 outpatient facilities near each of its 190 hospitals by the end of the decade, CEO Sam Hazen told analysts during a fourth-quarter earnings call. The system currently has 2,700 outpatient facilities. (Eastabrook, 1/27)
MedPage Today: The 50 Best Hospitals In The U.S., According To Healthgrades
The top 50 hospitals in the U.S. are located in 19 states, according to the 2026 rankings from Healthgrades. The rankings also list the top 100 and 250 hospitals in the country, altogether representing the nation's best 1%, 2%, and 5% of hospitals, respectively. Well-known healthcare facilities such as the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and NYU Langone made the top 50 list, alongside smaller community hospitals. (Fiore, 1/27)
Stat: Why Hospitals Are Making Their Own ChatGPTs For Patient Records
To make the most of his 30-minute appointments with patients, Penn Medicine Chief Health Information Officer Srinath Adusumalli goes through his patients’ charts the day before to figure out why they are seeing him, a cardiologist. To do that, he has to navigate multiple tabs in the electronic health record: prior appointments, prior labs and imaging tests, as well as scanned documents from other hospitals. (Trang, 1/28)
In pharma and tech updates —
Stat: Gene Therapy Startup Altido Bio Takes Aim At Glioblastoma Brain Tumors
Nick Leschly, the CEO who became synonymous with the curative promise and complicated reality of gene therapy, is back with a new company. The startup, Altido Bio, is trying to commercialize a CAR-T cell therapy developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for glioblastoma, a nearly always fatal brain tumor. It recently closed a $12.5 million seed round led by ARCH Venture and is trying to raise a $75 million Series A. (Mast, 1/28)
Politico: RFK Jr. Promised A Revolution In Psychedelic Medicine. It Hasn’t Happened.
People who think psychedelic drugs are the key to treating intractable mental illness could not have been more psyched when Donald Trump named one of their own to lead the government’s health agencies. A year into his tenure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has yet to expand access to the mind-altering drugs and advocates are starting to lose patience. (Chu, 1/28)
In obituaries —
The New York Times: Peter H. Duesberg, 89, Renowned Biologist Turned H.I.V. Denialist, Dies
Peter H. Duesberg, a renowned molecular biologist who became famous for his pioneering work on the underpinnings of cancer but infamous for his assertion, in the face of evidence to the contrary, that H.I.V. does not cause AIDS, died on Jan. 13 in Lafayette, Calif. He was 89. His death, at a care facility near his home in Oakland, was from kidney failure, his wife, Sigrid Duesberg, said. (Flam, 1/27)
