As the novel coronavirus disease 2019 and its variants continue to rage into the second year of a global pandemic, many success stories of applying Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) to treat COVID-19 patients continue to emerge from China and other part of the world. Herewith, from a systems medicine perspective, the authors analyze those experiences and categorize them into four major treatment principles: (1) focusing on eliminating toxins in the early stage of the disease, (2) tonifying deficiency of the body throughout the entire disease course, (3) treating the affected lung and intestine simultaneously based on visceral interactions, (4) cooling blood and removing blood stasis at the later stage, as well as interpret the rationale of these principles. This is helpful not only in reducing the complexity of promoting the CHM applications to enhance anti-COVID-19 efficacy, but also in ramping out the process of integrating traditional Chinese medicine with modern medical practices.

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This cross-sectional study uses Medicare Advantage benefit package data for 2021 to examine differences in the coverage of nonmedical supplemental benefits—such as transportation services and food and meal assistance—for dual-eligible enrollees with health-related social needs.

Joining nonownership based, organization-driven networks and alliances is a common strategy for hospitals to pursue yet little is known about what types of hospitals join these collaborations, due in part to challenges in identifying members. One novel network form that has recently emerged, and made identification feasible, is franchise-like “affiliation networks” in which affiliate hospitals pay an annual membership fee that allows access to the clinical expertise and resources of high-status, nationally ranked sponsor hospitals. Affiliation networks and their members publicize affiliation. Using 2006-2015 data on United States’ hospitals, we find hospitals with higher patient acuity, teaching hospitals, and hospitals located in areas of higher utilization intensity were more likely to join an affiliation network. Joining affiliation networks does not appear to be in response to highly competitive markets because hospitals in less competitive environments are more likely to join and hospitals with higher net incomes are more likely to join.