PUBLIC HOSPITALS BUDGETING: With preliminary budget hearings beginning this week, the City Council will hold its first health-related inquest of the cycle with an oversight hearing of New York City Health + Hospitals’ preliminary budget proposal. The Council’s Committee on Hospitals will examine Mayor Eric Adams $2.3 billion preliminary budget proposal for the public hospital system. The hearing will take place at City Hall and be streamed online at 1 p.m.
VIRTUAL OPIOID PROGRAMS: The Petersen Health Technology Institute, a Midtown East organization that independently assesses digital health solutions, is planning to study the clinical impacts and cost implications of virtual opioid disorder treatment programs, the organization said Wednesday. More than 5.4 million people in the U.S. live with opioid use disorder, which drives more than $90 billion in annual health spending. Smartphone apps and digital therapy programs have cropped up to meet the needs of people with opioid use disorder, but it is unclear how effective those technologies are. The institute, founded in 2023 by the Petersen Center on Healthcare, has released similar analyses on digital diabetes, musculoskeletal and hypertension management solutions.
NIH FUNDING: A U.S. judge in Boston blocked President Donald Trump on Wednesday from cutting billions in federal research funding from medical centers and universities while a lawsuit continues to play out. Twenty-two states filed a lawsuit against the administration last month over a policy that would have slashed funding from the National Institutes of Health to cover indirect research costs, stating that it could cause “irreparable damage” to hospitals and universities. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelly temporarily blocked those cuts last month, and issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday that puts the policy on hold until the case is resolved.
