This is a preview of the June 4 issue of Access Health—click here to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday morning.
Good morning. This week, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held its annual conference in Chicago. In my conversations with cancer leaders and researchers, I heard excited talk about new solutions: breakthrough treatments and discoveries that could allow patients to live longer after diagnoses previously considered incurable.
These new answers raise a new question that is a welcome challenge for the oncology community: How should cancer care change as patients live longer with cancer and its consequences?
When I met with Dr. Boris Pasche, President and CEO of the Karmanos Cancer Institute, he pointed to one "stunning" study that stands out from the rest. A new targeted therapy from Revolution Medicines doubled the survival rate of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had exhausted all first-line treatment options. Patients receiving standard chemotherapy survived an average of about six months. Patients receiving a drug targeting the KRAS gene survived 13.2 months.
«Using chemotherapy as a second-line treatment resulted in twice the survival rate as expected,» Pashe told me.
This is monumental news, given that pancreatic cancer remains one of the most challenging cancers in the world. It is expected to become the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States by 2030, and significant breakthroughs in this field have been rare. Pasche called this new therapy "revolutionary," potentially changing the treatment approach for the entire pancreatic cancer spectrum. Although FDA approval is pending, an expanded access program has already been launched.
This year's conference also presented growing evidence suggesting that patients taking GLP-1 agonists may have a lower risk of developing obesity-related cancers and a lower chance of cancer recurrence after treatment.
The results are still preliminary, and it's not entirely clear whether the benefit is primarily due to weight loss or some other biological mechanism. But as the research progresses, Pasche predicts that this could change how oncologists prescribe medications. If a patient meets the criteria for GLP-1 therapy, "this will encourage colleagues to consider referring that patient to another specialist or having the physicians prescribe [the drug] themselves," he said.
Taken together, these developments point to a more optimistic outlook for patients with several common cancer diagnoses.
That's why another announcement this week caught my attention. City of Hope CEO Robert Stone unveiled a new approach to supporting patients after active treatment, designed to help cancer centers continue to care for patients long after active treatment has ended.
According to Stone, a renewed focus on success stories can also benefit healthcare professionals. The experience of recovery creates a space to celebrate victories for physicians who often face loss. This shifts the focus from simply prolonging life to helping people live a fulfilling life after cancer and encourages healthcare systems to support patients as they face the long-term physical, emotional, and financial consequences of a diagnosis.
All the oncology news this week can be found on the ASCO news website. And to those returning home from the conference, I wish you a safe journey (and a much-needed rest for your legs after strolling around McCormick Place!).
In other news
Top healthcare news of the week
-
Newsweek and Statista Two hospital rankings were published this week. — just in time for the middle of the year to sum up the results.
-
In the ranking America's Best Hospitals for Specialized Care 1,375 leading hospitals are represented in seven key specialties: oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, neurology, orthopedics and pulmonology.
-
And the rating America's best children's hospitals Recognizes the top 50 pediatric hospitals in eight regions.
-
You can find out your hospital's rating and review the methodology using the links above.
-
-
CMS presented plan implementation of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, which is estimated to result in approximately 5 million people losing their health insurance by 2034.
-
Under the new rules, certain Medicaid applicants and recipients must perform at least 80 hours per month of qualified activity to be eligible for coverage.
-
Exceptions apply to pregnant women, postpartum women, individuals with disabilities, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, parents or guardians of young children, and individuals with disabilities and/or already meeting the SNAP and TANF work requirements. CMS also clarified that individuals with "medical health conditions" are exempt from these requirements, but it's unclear who exactly falls into this category and where regulators will draw the line.
-
Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia are required to verify compliance with Medicaid applications or renewals. States must give beneficiaries a 30-day period to verify eligibility for work requirements or waivers before terminating or denying coverage.
-
My colleagues from Newsweek have exclusive information.
-
-
The Federal Prosecutor's Office has filed accusations two National Institutes of Health researchers conspired to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and lie to law enforcement.
-
According to investigators, the two defendants imported more than 100 vials containing virus samples into the country after traveling to the Republic of Congo. Both men are foreign citizens and were studying the spread of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health's Rocky Mountain Biosafety Laboratory in Montana.
-
The investigation is ongoing, and both defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Read the full article in Newsweek .
-
-
According to a new study by Wolters Kluwer , Artificial intelligence is changing the face of the doctor's office. . Nearly 60% patients said their doctors openly interact with AI-generated information during appointments, and 56% doctors said they view AI-generated information provided by patients.
-
As Dr. Peter Bonis, chief medical officer at Wolters Kluwer Health, noted during a discussion of the survey results: «"Artificial intelligence isn't just something medical organizations implement within the healthcare system. It's something that shapes the patient's journey long before they even step foot in the doctor's office.". This has a significant impact on the dynamics of clinical decision making.».
-
This shift creates new opportunities, but also creates new obstacles. Bonis warned that doctors may enter into a "state of epistemic volatility,", when patients, armed with consumer AI tools, come to appointments with their own answers, sources of information, and assumptions.
-
«"The exam room can become a battlefield for what is right, what is true," he said.
-
-
However, both patients and physicians share serious concerns about trust when implementing AI in their interactions with patients. Nearly three-quarters of doctors cited hallucinations as a major concern, and 75 percent of patients said they feared liability if AI caused harm during treatment.
-
However, the pace of implementation continues to accelerate. Bonis called this discrepancy "a gap between reality and expectations regarding the reliability of information and management," noting that Patients expect to have their AI results verified, even though many doctors are unaware of the safety measures that govern the use of these tools.
-
In particular, governance issues appear to be lagging behind implementation. Only 27 percent of physicians said they were aware of formal AI governance policies in place at their organizations, a slight increase from 21 percent the previous year.
-
Bonis told me the findings point to communication problems in health care systems.
-
«"The problem is that these systems are currently still broken," he said, "and »Without proper governance, without transparency, there is a mismatch between patient expectations and what is actually being done at the enterprise level.”.
-
-
Checking the pulse
Executives' views on key industry issues
Roxanne Gapstur is president and CEO of WellSpan Health, a 12-hospital health system based in York, Pennsylvania.
This morning, WellSpan Health announced a seven-year partnership with Philips that positions the Pennsylvania-based health system as a co-developer of future medical technologies.
The agreement includes a system-wide upgrade of imaging systems, a joint research program focused on artificial intelligence and operational efficiency, and a plan to jointly develop new products with Philips' research and development teams. WellSpan says the collaboration will help it achieve its goal of reducing employee workload by more than 500,000 hours annually.
It's not the kind of announcement you see every day from a local health system, so I called Roxanne Gapstur, WellSpan's president and CEO, to learn more about the strategy behind the deal, what it means for WellSpan's AI ambitions, and why she believes local health systems should play a bigger role in healthcare innovation.
Below you will find an excerpt from our interview.
Editor's note: Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What was WellSpan's relationship with Philips like before this partnership?
Five years ago, we had traditional partnerships with providers, but over the past five years, WellSpan has truly expanded its reach, strengthening our culture and capabilities to accelerate innovation as part of our WellSpan 2030 strategic plan. Part of this plan involves personalizing, simplifying, and transforming healthcare, and in response, we began to develop our relationships with several companies. You may have seen some of our strategic partnerships with companies like AiDoc, Hippocratic AI, and General Catalyst, so for us, this was a natural step toward deepening our partnerships to accelerate the implementation of our strategy.
I think Philips also recognized our growing expertise in not only piloting innovations, but also scaling them across the organization and completely transforming the way we deliver care.
We are thrilled about this new seven-year strategic alliance with them because not only will we provide our teams and patients with new, cutting-edge imaging and digital technologies, but we will also conduct research and co-development with Philips to ensure these solutions accurately meet healthcare needs of the future.
Why is co-development so important to WellSpan? In what areas do you see the greatest benefit from the opportunity to collaborate on new technology development?
We moved away from choosing 50 different point solutions and instead looked at the large integrated platforms that we know will be a key part of the healthcare delivery system over the next five to 10 years, and looked at how we can co-design and shape these platforms to truly deliver the greatest value to our patients and the organization.
Here's where I see the difference: Philips isn't just a single solution, like an ultrasound machine or an MRI. It's a complete platform with AI and diagnostic capabilities. Philips is also very interested in understanding how these capabilities can be used not only in imaging systems or clinical equipment, but across all workflows. This joint development truly leverages the strengths of both partners.
We're seeing these kinds of partnerships emerge at academic medical centers. What does this mean for the industry when community health systems like WellSpan become involved in this development?
Most people in the United States receive their healthcare through their local health systems. Only a very small percentage of people truly need and have access to academic healthcare systems—most people in the United States don't live near such systems—so we believe it's crucial that the places where most people receive their healthcare have the opportunity to participate in research and development.
One of the partnership's goals is to save over 500,000 hours of work annually. Where are these hours being wasted today, and what solutions will you prioritize to maximize time savings?
In healthcare, there's a significant administrative burden on all medical teams. I think we often focus on documentation and things that distract us from the patient, but there's just as much administrative overhead in imaging, billing, claims processing, and finance as there is at the bedside.
It's crucial to ensure that all our teams—both clinical and non-clinical—can free up time. We just analyzed our results for the past year, and we've surpassed the 500,000-hour mark, demonstrating the need for a significant overhaul of the system to improve its efficiency for both our teams and patients.
What will doctors do when they have free time?
Sometimes we don't realize that an eight-hour shift requires 12 or 14 hours of work, so we ask people to handle a huge amount of paperwork and other work while simultaneously providing patient care. We hope we can create a more manageable environment for our teams and patients where an eight-hour shift requires eight hours of work.
We don't see people sitting around thinking, "Oh my God, I have nothing better to do this shift." Instead, I hope there will be more time to interact with patients, but I also hope that people will have a workflow and stable job that doesn't require them to constantly run from one task to another, and that they will be able to provide truly high-quality services.
You mentioned earlier that WellSpan has been successful not only in piloting AI initiatives but also in scaling them across the organization. This is where many health systems seem to get stuck. What enabled WellSpan to move from experimentation to organization-wide implementation more effectively than others?
I talked earlier about culture and capabilities, and six or seven years ago, we didn't have either that culture or those capabilities. We've really worked hard to develop them. Part of that involves conducting deep research and development at the outset of a project and truly understanding the project, its workflows, and its teams. And then, the partnership between our innovation leaders, our human-centered design teams, and our operations teams has become truly key for us. You can't scale without testing everything in real-world conditions and ironing out any bugs.
We have an "innovation sprint" process, where we conduct a four- to six-week in-depth study at the beginning of a project, and then scale it up. The in-depth study includes a pilot project, so at the end of the six weeks, we ask ourselves, "Is this a project or not? Will it work or not?"«
If it works—if it's a good project, and we see good metrics and results—then we'll scale up. We don't wait; we don't say, "Well, let's try five more pilot projects to make sure this is really true." And it worked well for us.
I'd like to emphasize again that there must be a partnership between the operations team and the innovation team, and the project, as part of an in-depth analysis, must involve people from the team directly involved in delivering care or from the operations team. We can't just bring them into their own workflows later and say, "Hey, we've redesigned this for you." That's not the most effective way to implement anything.
Have you noticed that employees are willing to participate in this development process, given all the other requirements of their positions?
I think we all understand that there are opportunities to improve healthcare, and one of our values at WellSpan is "Find a Better Way." This is an absolutely fundamental principle of our organization, so we haven't had a hard time engaging our teams in improving healthcare. In fact, I think they want it, and they certainly want to provide the best possible care to their patients. Finding a better way has become a real passion and goal for our teams.
Research is a vital component of Philips' partnerships. What does success in this area mean: peer-reviewed studies, commercialized products, or concrete clinical results?
Yes, I think it could be all of the above. We have a research department at WellSpan, we have several academic programs and grants, so we're familiar with this process. I think engaging with Philips within their research infrastructure and trying to understand the best way forward in areas where we don't have solutions today, and jointly developing and then researching these solutions, is certainly part of the plan.
Is there any specific problem that you think this partnership with Philips can help solve?
There are several—it's a goal-rich environment, as you can imagine. But let's talk a little about efficiency, workflows, and the productivity of our teams.
Philips has done amazing work over the past few years to improve imaging efficiency, reduce patient time in scanners, and so on, but we're really excited about the potential for digital twins, avatars, and AI assistants that could be integrated into the imaging process to help both the patient and the team navigate the entire process much more efficiently (and likely with greater emotional intelligence when providing patient care, as scanning can be a daunting experience).
Do you anticipate this partnership will lead to the creation of products that can be used outside of WellSpan? Do you see this as a revenue opportunity?
I don't think it's out of the question. We haven't yet met for our first [planning session to determine] the main areas of work for the first 12 months, but I think it will definitely be on the list of issues we'll discuss together.
Reshuffles in top management
Where Healthcare Leaders Come and Go
-
Ardent Health Company appointed Dave Caspers as President and CEO.
-
Kaspers joined Brentwood, Tennessee-based Ardent Health in March 2025, previously serving as chief operating officer.
-
He succeeds Marty Bonick, who stepped down to "pursue other business," the company said.
-
-
Min Lee will become the new president of the UNC Hospitals network, headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on July 20.
-
She joins UNC Health from UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she served as chief operating officer since 2022.
-
Lee previously held leadership positions at Emory Healthcare and Tower Health hospitals.
-
-
Platform Transcarent , providing services for navigation in the healthcare system and ensuring accessibility of medical services, chose Anjali Jameson has been appointed Chief Product Officer.
-
Jameson's background includes product development leadership positions at Amazon One Medical, UnitedHealth Group, and Apple.
-
This is a preview of the June 4 issue of Access Health—click here to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday morning.
Related articles
-
Is creating AI systems for nurses more difficult than for doctors? Abridge's CEO answers: "Yes.".
-
Under the FDA's accelerated approval process.
-
Patients are enthusiastic about wearable technology, but are healthcare systems ready? Experts weigh in.
Start your unlimited trial of Newsweek.