SHEA has published a new practical guide to help healthcare organizations build the business case for diagnostic stewardship. Published in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology (ASHE), the resource outlines five high-impact interventions and provides implementation strategies and financial models that hospitals can adapt to their own settings. The authors estimate that a representative 200-bed community hospital implementing all five interventions could realize approximately $2.5–$2.8 million in annual laboratory and clinical savings, with additional potential savings through improved quality metrics and reduced CMS penalties. The guide, developed by SHEA’s Diagnostic Stewardship Special Interest Group, demonstrates how diagnostic stewardship can simultaneously improve patient care, healthcare quality, and operational performance.

A new study published in The Lancet Public Health assessed candy and soda sales in supermarkets, drug stores, and mass-market retailers in Berkeley, as well as three comparison cities in California, after a first-of-its-kind healthy checkout ordinance was implemented in 2021 and then became enforceable in 2022. Changes in sales varied by product and store type: soda sales decreased substantially after the HCO was implemented and enforced, while sales of small-packaged candy decreased significantly in supermarkets after the HCO was enforced. Overall candy sales increased moderately after the policy was implemented (but not after enforcement), but so did sales in healthy, lower-sugar items such as snack-sized nuts and seeds. Supermarkets, which complied the most with the HCO, saw the greatest declines in sales of these sugary items, while drug stores, which complied the least, did not have reduced candy or soda sales.

Northern India experiences some of the world’s worst winter air pollution, with dangerous episodes often prompting emergency control efforts. In major cities like Delhi, the Air Quality Index has reached levels above 999 – over 30 times the World Health Organization’s safety limit. A new study finds that much of the year-to-year variation in winter pollution can be traced to large-scale weather systems – and that these relationships could provide useful warning of an unusually polluted winter, months in advance.

The study, published in Science Advances, finds that 70% of the year-to-year variation in winter air pollution across northern India can be explained by the frequency of western disturbances – storm systems that travel eastward from the Mediterranean region toward South Asia by strengthening vertical ventilation and bringing precipitation that helps clear accumulated pollution from the air. Winters with more frequent western disturbances therefore tend to experience lower air pollution levels, while winters with fewer of these storms are more susceptible to persistent severe pollution.

A new study published in The Milbank Quarterly provides insight from leaders, clinicians, and care coordinators for six of the 17 Medicaid ACOs in Massachusetts between 2018-2024, finding that these ACOs were able to improve the quality of patients’ maternal care by intentionally and strategically incorporating new maternal metrics and initiatives mandated in their contracts, as well as by providing the necessary resources and infrastructure to meet these requirements. Mandating specific maternal health initiatives, from timely prenatal care to postpartum depression screening, motivated the ACOs to adapt or develop programs that align with maternal health goals.