Flu admissions jump 27% in a week to the highest late-October rate since 2010

• WatchEvidence Oct 30, 2026
  Flu admissions rise 27% in a week to 6,100, the highest late-October hospitalization rate since 2010, almost all H1N1

  CDC forecasts 4,800 to 23,200 weekly flu admissions for the week ending Nov. 14, Becker's reported.

  All physicians
  Hospitals reported 6,100 lab-confirmed influenza admissions in the week ending Oct. 24, up from 4,811 the week before, for a rate of 1.8 per 100,000 and 5.8 per 100,000 in adults 65 and older, according to the CDC's FluView report published Oct. 30. The FluSurv-NET hospitalization rate, estimated at 1.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 after reporting delays, is the highest for that week since the 2010-11 season, and 98.9% of 371 subtyped influenza A viruses were A(H1N1)pdm09. Test positivity in clinical labs rose to 7.6%, flu accounted for 1.2% of emergency department visits, and the first pediatric flu death of the 2026-27 season was reported. The CDC estimates at least 1 million illnesses, 16,000 hospitalizations and 900 deaths so far, and said it is too early to know which viruses will predominate or what that means for vaccine effectiveness; 94.2% of 103 tested H1N1 viruses were well recognized by vaccine reference antisera, Becker's reported.
  Sources: CDC FluView, week 42, CDC FluView, week 41, Becker's Hospital Review
• FYIEvidence Nov 1, 2026
  Coronary CT angiography matches intravascular ultrasound for guiding stents and cuts procedure time 17 minutes, 1,105-patient trial finds
  CardiologyRadiology
  Planning percutaneous coronary intervention from a pre-procedure coronary CT angiogram was noninferior to intravascular ultrasound guidance in the randomized P4 trial of 1,105 patients, presented Nov. 1 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, TCTMD reported. Twelve-month target-vessel failure, a composite of cardiac death, target-vessel heart attack and ischemia-driven revascularization, was 4.1% with CT guidance and 4.6% with ultrasound, within the 4.5-point noninferiority margin. Median procedure time was 46 vs. 63 minutes and median contrast volume 150 vs. 170 mL, and 98% of patients had stable ischemic heart disease. Discussant Dr. Emmanouil Brilakis called it a landmark trial but said the population "was not that complex"; GE HealthCare and HeartFlow funded the study, and lead investigator Dr. Carlos Collet works for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, which publishes TCTMD.
  Source: TCTMD
• FYIRegulation Oct 30, 2026
  Epic says hospitals will keep its AI model documentation and evaluation tools after HHS dropped the federal requirement
  Hospitals
  Epic said in an Oct. 30 LinkedIn post that health systems using its software will retain access to AI transparency documentation and tools for assessing the fairness and validity of its models, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The statement followed HHS's Oct. 26 HTI-5 final rule, which removes the model-card requirements for decision support tools in certified health record software that the 2024 HTI-1 rule had created. Epic said it will keep providing documentation that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology no longer requires, but did not say whether it will maintain every element of the former federal disclosures, according to Becker's.
  Source: Becker's Hospital Review
• FYIRegulation Oct 30, 2026
  FDA authorizes Virtuoso's endoscopic surgery robot, whose needle-sized arms work through a rigid endoscope
  Hospitals
  The FDA granted De Novo authorization to the Virtuoso Endoscopy System from Nashville-based Virtuoso Surgical with a decision date of Oct. 30, according to the agency's De Novo database, which lists the General and Plastic Surgery panel as the reviewing committee and does not state the authorized indications. The system carries two instrument arms made of concentric nitinol tubes that replicate a surgeon's hand movements through a rigid endoscope, according to the company, which reported first-in-human bladder cancer removal cases in Hong Kong in May 2025 and received Breakthrough Device designation in September 2025. The technology was first developed at Johns Hopkins University and Vanderbilt, the company said. It has not announced the authorization or published outcome data from U.S. patients.
  Sources: FDA De Novo database, DEN250054, Virtuoso Surgical
• FYIMoney Oct 28, 2026
  Britain commits £100 million to reach 500,000 robotic operations a year by 2035 and orders a review of AI and NHS productivity
  Hospitals
  The U.K. government's Oct. 28 budget confirmed £100 million to speed robotically assisted surgery in England, with a goal of raising annual robotic procedures from 70,000 to 500,000 by 2035 and a national robotics registry that will use data and AI, Building Better Healthcare reported. The government also commissioned an independent review of NHS productivity and the opportunities in AI and other technology, led by Mark Bailie, a non-executive director of NHS England, to report in early 2027 and inform the next spending review. The government said AI-supported diagnostic tools have helped more than 4 million patients get faster lung cancer diagnoses or results, according to the report.
  Source: Building Better Healthcare