• California: On Sunday, 23andMe announced that it will file for bankruptcy and that its CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki will leave the company. Over the last few years, 23andMe has faced significant financial difficulties, losing more than 95% of its share price since it first went public in 2021. As of last Friday, the company was valued at $50 million, a significant decline from its peak valuation of $6 billion. Last year, Wojcicki offered to take 23andMe private but was rejected by the company's special committee. Under this bankruptcy plan, 23andMe plans to sell itself through a court-supervised sale. According to Wojcicki, she is planning to place an offer for 23andMe as "an independent bidder" now that she has resigned from the company. 23andMe will also continue its normal operations while it searches for a buyer. Although the company did not provide specific details about how consumers' genetic and medical data will be used in the future, 23andMe said that it "remains committed to transparency" and that "any buyer will be required to comply with applicable law" on customer data. (Mast, STAT+ [subscription required], 3/24)
• Georgia: According to new preliminary data from CDC, there were over 10,300 TB cases in the United States in 2024, an 8% increase from the year before and the highest number since 2011. The number of cases and the rate of infections increased. TB rates were up in all age groups, and 34 U.S. states reported an increase in TB cases. According to CDC officials, this increase in TB rates is largely due to international travel and migration. Currently, most cases of TB in the United States are diagnosed in individuals born in other countries. Several states have also reported recent outbreaks of TB, including one in Kansas. The TB outbreak in Kansas, which began in January 2024, is still ongoing. So far, 147 people have been diagnosed with TB, and 67 have experienced symptoms. (Associated Press/MedPage Today, 3/21; Dobos/Henao-Tamayo, PBS News, 3/23)
• Maryland: FDA has warned healthcare providers about interruptions to the supply of hemodialysis bloodlines — a shortage that could continue through fall 2025 and will likely impact patient care. In January, B. Braun sent out a letter to its customers saying that "additional supply and labor constraints over the holidays" had reduced production of its SL-2000M2095 Streamline FMC Bloodlines and that it would run out of product by Jan. 20. At the time, the company advised customers to seek alternative products, including those by Fresenius Medical Care and Nipro. Earlier this month, FDA added hemodialysis bloodlines to the Medical Device Shortages List. To reduce the impact of the shortage, FDA has asked healthcare providers to conserve the use of hemodialysis bloodlines when possible. Clinicians should also continue to provide dialysis treatments to patients and monitor their current/future supplies of bloodlines. Currently, FDA is working with manufacturers and dialysis providers to monitor the shortage and evaluate potential solutions. (Taylor, Healthcare Dive, 3/17)

The fight against COVID-19 has pushed healthcare to quickly adopt virtual tools at a rate much faster than normal. Some of the most promising pandemic-related health technologies go beyond just telehealth — for example, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). Read on to learn three ways AI can be used to help with future pandemics.