Editors’ Top Five Week of January 22, 2018

Homecare Agencies Often Wrongly Deny Medicare Help to the Chronically Ill
A leading industry group contends that Medicare’s home health care policies are often misconstrued. (Susan Jaffe/Kaiser Health News/NPR Health Shots)

Senate Panel Advances Trump’s Nominee for Health Secretary
Azar’s nomination will now head to a what appears to be an easy confirmation vote on the floor before the full Senate. (Rachel Roubein/The Hill)

VA Puts Telehealth to Work in ‘Anywhere to Anywhere’ Care Initiative
The VA has awarded a $260 million contract to launch a telehealth and telemedicine platform capable of connecting its doctors to patients no matter where they live, while enabling veterans to transmit mHealth data from devices in their homes. (Eric Wicklund/mHealth Intelligence)

A Severe Flu Season Is Stretching Hospitals Thin. That Is a Very Bad Omen.
But if something as foreseeable as a flu season—albeit one that is pretty severe—is stretching health care to its limits, what does that tell us about the ability of hospitals to handle the next flu pandemic? (Helen Branswell/Stat News)

AI Software Helps Emergency Dispatchers Spot Cardiac Arrests
A Danish AI system that can identify cardiac arrest from a 911 call 95 percent of the time might soon be coming to the US, according to a report in Fast Company. (Jonah Comstock/Mobi Health News)