A  study  published last month in  medRxiv  found that while ChatGPT was able to answer simple cardiology questions, it struggled to solve complex cardiology cases, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from New York, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.

• New York: A study published last month in medRxiv found that while ChatGPT was able to answer simple cardiology questions, it struggled to solve complex cardiology cases. According to study authors Ralf Harskamp and Lukas de Clercq of  Amsterdam UMC, the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool was able to correctly answer roughly 90% of cardiology-related questions patients had for their primary care providers. However, when faced with more complex questions that primary care doctors referred to cardiologists, the tool only answered correctly half of the time. The researchers also found that ChatGPT was able to answer cardiology trivia questions correctly 74% of the time. "Specialized medical information probably comprises a very small part of the training data, and yet that implicit knowledge is somewhere in this giant stochastic space of the model. So we were surprised to see that it performed rather well," de Clercq said. "We did not give it any context for these questions," he added. "It might perform even better if you provide it with the current guidelines and then ask questions regarding those guidelines." (Fiore, MedPage Today, 4/11)
• District of Columbia: Within the next decade, Medicare and social security will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefits, according to the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees  report  released late last month. According to the report, Medicare will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits or nursing home stays by 2031 and social security will be unable to pay full benefits to its 66 million beneficiaries by 2033. The report underscores the importance of addressing the fragile financial state of these programs, which are projected to become even more expensive as more Americans age into eligibility in the coming years. "The Trustees continue to recommend that Congress address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely fashion to phase in necessary changes gradually," said Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of social security. (Seitz/Hussein, Associated Press, 3/31)
• Massachusetts: Moderna on Monday said it hopes to offer new life-saving vaccines that target a variety of conditions, including cancer and heart disease, by 2030. A spokesperson for the company confirmed remarks made by Moderna's CMO, Paul Burton. On Sunday, Burton said he is confident the vaccines will be ready by 2030, noting that they could possibly be available in as little as five years. He added that advancements in mRNA technology in recent years spurred a golden age for new vaccines. "I think what we have learned in recent months is that if you ever thought that mRNA was just for infectious diseases, or just for Covid, the evidence now is that that's absolutely not the case," Burton said. "It can be applied to all sorts of disease areas; we are in cancer, infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, rare disease." (Constantino, CNBC, 4/11)