"I think one of the major keys to having a high-performing revenue cycle is the relationship between revenue cycle and operations," UTMB’s Jamie Bailey tells Becker’s. UTMB was one of 17 providers to receive the Healthcare Financial Management Association's 2024 MAP Award for high performance in revenue cycle.

A new study lends weight to fears that more livestock workers have gotten the bird flu than has been reported. “I am very confident there are more people being infected than we know about,” said Gregory Gray, the infectious disease researcher at UTMB who led the study, posted online Wednesday and under review to be published in a leading infectious disease journal. “Largely, that’s because our surveillance has been so poor.” This news was also reported in Ars Technica, Oregon Capital Chronicle, News Tribune and many other outlets.

A team of UTMB scientists has achieved a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research by developing a nasal spray designed to treat the disease and other forms of dementia, reports The Daily News. “This nasal spray approach opens new avenues for non-invasive delivery of tau therapeutic antibodies directly to the brain, and it holds promise for many neurodegenerative diseases,” said UTMB’s Dr. Rakez Kayed.

UTMB students nominated Dr. Jennifer Raley for the Joyce Jeardeau Memorial Award in recognition of her “planning, detailed organization, passion, and vision for the FMIG.” Raley will accept the award at the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in August at the same time the UTMB Family Medicine Interest Group wins a Program of Excellence Award for the sixth year in a row.

“From a health perspective, a flotilla of bubbles acts as a natural stress reliever, bringing delight, distraction and even abstraction into our lives,” writes Dr. Victor S. Sierpina in his Daily News column. If life is getting stressful, Sierpina writes, maybe you need a bubble break.

Bioprinting technology has made it possible to “print” a brain, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. While promising, there are limitations to the printed brain tissues but it will be an exciting area to watch, Herzog and Niesel write.

UTMB’s Dr. Jeff Susman was named a 2024 Distinguished Service Award recipient by the National Board of Medical Examiners.

The Olympics are set to start later this summer in Paris just as Europe is suffering from yet another outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, write Drs. Richard Rupp and Megan Berman in their latest Vaccine Smarts column.

Ashwagandha is a common supplement Dr. Samuel Mathis says he recommends to patients. “This plant is rich in anti-inflammatory properties, alkaloids, and a type of molecule known as withanolides, a steroid-like compound that is believed to be the primary agent responsible for ashwagandha’s effect,” Mathis writes in his Daily News column.

Dr. Praveeena K. Gupta designed and manufactured the Ring-IT, a tactile 3-dimensional bottle ring adaptor that improvs the identification and dosing frequency of eye drops for low-vision patients, at the Maker Health Space Medical Fabrication Laboratory at UTMB. The Ophthalmology Times reported that Gupta and her colleagues believe that their study “holds breakthrough potential to catalyze a shift in clinical practice, providing a practical tool to enhance topical eye drop adherence in patients with visual impairment.”