On March 16, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) achieved another medical milestone by performing the first successful pig-to-human kidney transplant.

Using a genetically modified organ made by Massachusetts-based biotech eGenesis, Rick Slayman, a 62-year-old patient with end-stage kidney disease, underwent a four-hour xenotransplantation surgery, or the transfer of organs in a human from nonhuman sources, the hospital announced in a statement.

With more than 100,000 people in the US on waitlists, experts said the success of the procedure laid grounds for optimism of more similar organ transplants.

But on May 7, Slayman died. He was facing cardiovascular issues, which ended his life only 51 days after the groundbreaking procedure. At the end of May, Healthcare Brew spoke with two experts involved with the transplant about the implications of Slayman’s death on the future of this kind of xenotransplantation.

Keep reading here.—CM

If you’re wearing socks, get ready to have them knocked off. These numbers from PRS Global are quite a sight. Just look at ’em:

• Every nurse hired through PRS saves hospitals $51,500—and that’s not including the cost savings from eliminating contract labor.
• Of the 4,000+ nurses PRS has hired at hospitals, they average a 93% retention rate (and have a six-month guarantee).

PRS knows it’s hard to find experienced RNs, med techs, and PTs for hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. That’s why they partner with these facilities to address their workforce challenges and bolster their staffing resilience with global talent.

Hiring through PRS isn’t meant to be a quick fix. It’s designed to meet long-term workforce needs. Think: mitigating turnover, workforce attrition, and pay disparity.

Get help curbing burnout and boosting patient satisfaction. Schedule a call with PRS Global.

The prices hospitals charge for their services have long been opaque, but thanks to a 2021 hospital price transparency law, the picture is starting to come slightly into focus. And it turns out, there are some huge disparities in the prices hospitals charge that can’t be attributed to quality of care, according to a recent study from research institute Rand Corporation.

Using star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—a standard industry measure of hospital quality—Rand researchers found that hospitals charge prices that vary widely, ranging from close to Medicare rates to over 400% of Medicare rates.

“The wide variation in prices is notable, and addressing this variation could lead to substantial reductions in medical spending,” researchers wrote in the study.

Keep reading here.—MA

If the Wild West nature of the startup world appeals to you, but you want to work with something more tangible than software, you might want to consider a career in cannabis finance.

Legal cannabis is a booming industry: An estimated $38.4 billion in medical and recreational cannabis was sold in the US in 2023, and that figure is projected to rise to $56.9 billion by 2028. The industry has grown an average of 29.1% per year between 2018 and 2023, according to IBISWorld.

“You’re going to see the birth of a new industry in your career maybe once or twice like this at this scale,” Andrew Hunzicker told CFO Brew.

Read the full story right here on CFO Brew.—CV

Testing, testing. Have you checked your test codes lately? Ya know, there are new allergy profiles and test codes that you could be using. Find them in this Lab Ordering Guide (LOG). Simply enter your zip code and choose the allergy profile you’re looking for. From there, these guides can help you interpret test results.