More than 40 percent people in fair or poor health found their medical bills were unaffordable and more than 25 percent said the bills were inaccurate and difficult to understand. The results of the PwC Health Research Institute survey were released on May 7.

Two pharmaceutical companies terminated a cardiovascular outcomes study earlier at the request of the trial’s steering committee. The study compared naltrexone hydrochloride and bupropion hydrochloride extended-release tablets with placebo in nearly 9,000 overweight and obese patients.

Healthcare systems increasingly embrace the idea of a chief experience officer (CXO) to pilot improvement efforts in their hospitals, but many physicians are not at the vanguard of change, survey results showed. Most respondents saw physicians as passive participants in the process.

From 2001 to 2012, the percentage of U.S. adults with elevated triglyceride levels declined in both men and women, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

With smartphones becoming more common, the issue of patients recording their doctor visits concerns some physicians.

Digital health tools may be the ticket for preventing cardiovascular disease or improving outcomes in at-risk patients. A meta-analysis gave digital health interventions an overall thumbs up for primary and secondary prevention.

By performing exome sequencing, researchers have identified two genes and mechanisms (PDE4DIP and ACOT4) associated with an increased risk for ischemic stroke. They also found two other genes (ZFHX3 and ABCA1) had protein-coding variants associated with ischemic stroke.

The increasing popularity of narrow networks is limiting choices for patients.