FDA's Vaccines and Related Biologics Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Thursday recommended that fall COVID-19 boosters should focus only on the latest omicron XBB variants, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from California, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

• California: Uber Health on Tuesday launched a new grocery delivery service for patients who have been recently discharged from hospitals and other settings. According to Axios, the new service expands Uber's current healthcare offerings, which include patient transportation and prescription drug delivery. Through the new service, providers will be able to choose foods that fit a patient's dietary needs and have them shipped to their doorstep. "So much of what affects our health are things that have nothing to do with the medical care we receive," said Caitlin Donovan, the global head of Uber Health. "We've been finding that patients that need one of those things need all of those things. That's what's so important to us, why we need a one-stop shop to make sure that there's a single place to coordinate the logistics of care outside the four walls of the hospital." (Reed, Axios, 6/13)
• District of Columbia: HHS and the Health Resources and Services Administration recently announced the Pediatric Specialty Loan Repayment Program, which aims to increase recruitment and retention for pediatricians, especially in schools and underserved areas. The program will allocate $15 million for loan forgiveness and repayment initiatives for pediatricians. Eligible physicians who work in an area with a shortage of health professionals or with a medically underserved population for at least three years will receive $100,000 to go toward their loans. To qualify, clinicians must be working in or receiving training in a pediatric subspecialty, surgical specialty, or child and adolescent behavioral healthcare. The deadline to apply is July 20. "Through the Pediatric Specialty Loan Repayment Program, we will be able to recruit and train new doctors, nurses, counselors, and other health professionals, and improve health outcomes for young people," said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. (Devereaux, Modern Healthcare, 6/12)
• Maryland: FDA's VRBPAC on Thursday recommended that fall COVID-19 boosters should focus only on the latest omicron XBB variants, which are currently dominant worldwide. In May, the World Health Organization made a similar recommendation, saying new boosters should target the XBB.1.5 or XBB.1.16 variants and that they should no longer include the original coronavirus strain, which is no longer circulating in humans. "Based on the global dominance of the XBB descendent lineages, in conjunction with the high level of baseline immunity to the ancestral virus strain, regulators concluded that a monovalent XBB vaccine would be an adequate candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine composition update and would likely increase the chances of matching more closely virus variants in the immediate future," FDA staff wrote. Currently, FDA is considering three XBB variants as potential contenders for updated vaccines, with XBB.1.5 being the top choice so far since it is the most common variant currently infecting people. (Neergaard/Stobbe, Associated Press, 6/15; Hein, MedPage Today, 6/13)