In 2020, Dána Langford read an analysis from Bloomberg CityLab that found her hometown Cleveland, Ohio, ranked second to last among major cities in the US for Black women’s health outcomes.

As a certified nurse midwife, Langford was already well aware of the health disparities Black women face in the US, particularly when it comes to maternal mortality. Black patients in the US are nearly 3x as likely to die during childbirth and 50% more likely to give birth prematurely compared to white patients, according to the CDC.

In her 16-year career, Langford has been on “numerous” committees formed to address such inequities.

“However, as I sat in these conversations, nobody in the room looked like the community that was being ravished by the disparities of infant and maternal mortality, and a lot of the solutions were coming from Black-led organizations, but they were being told no,” Langford told Healthcare Brew.

Learn more about Village of Healing.—MA

23andMe, the genetic testing company that asked millions of people to spit into test tubes to learn they’re 2% Neanderthal, announced on Sunday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is up for sale.

The company also announced that CEO Anne Wojcicki has stepped down—replaced by Chief Financial and Accounting Officer Joe Selsavage on an interim basis—though she will remain a member of the board.

It’s a shocking fall for a public company that once boasted a $6 billion valuation in 2021—despite never making a profit. As of Friday, it was worth $50 million, and on Monday, shares for the consumer genetic testing pioneer fell 50% to 88 cents, Reuters reported.

Wojcicki previously proposed making the company private, but a special committee rejected the pitch.

Read about the company’s bumpy past here.—CC

A database containing thousands of healthcare related records was left open to the internet, a researcher found.

Staffing agency app ESHYFT, which provides professionals with a mobile platform on which to connect to long-term care centers for per diem work, had a 108.8 GB, 86,341 record database publicly exposed and free of password protection for an unknown amount of time before Cybersecurity Researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered it.

Red alert. Fowler, reporting on the breach on Website Planet, said that he alerted ESHYFT of the breach and that it was closed “over a month later.” Fowler added that he did not download any of the data and that there was no sign that anyone had accessed the information.

Check out the full story on IT Brew.—EH

Despite a $1b investment to boost domestic PPE manufacturing during the Covid-19 pandemic, most US startups have shut down, leaving hospitals and providers reliant on foreign suppliers. Imports topped $75b in 2024 alone. Experts warn this dependence could repeat pandemic-era shortages during the next health emergency. We explore the lessons learned, supply chain gaps, and potential strategies to build resilient, US-based PPE manufacturing before it’s too late.

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