Daily Briefing for November 2, 2026

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

The voices on this episode are generated, and so is the script, from the day's post at Physician in the Loop. Every fact in the post links to its source.

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Hospitals admitted 6,100 patients with lab-confirmed influenza in the week ending Oct. 24, up 27% from the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

The agency's surveillance network put the hospitalization rate at its highest for that week of the season since 2010-11, with nearly every subtyped influenza A virus an H1N1 strain. The CDC said an early rise does not necessarily mean a higher peak or a more severe season.

In cardiology, a 1,105-patient trial presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting found that coronary CT angiography planned stenting as well as intravascular ultrasound with shorter procedures. Epic said it will keep supplying AI model documentation that a new federal rule no longer requires, and the FDA authorized a robotic system whose needle-sized arms work through a rigid endoscope.

In this episode

• Flu admissions rise 27% in a week to 6,100, the highest late-October hospitalization rate since 2010, almost all H1N1
• Coronary CT angiography matches intravascular ultrasound for guiding stents and cuts procedure time 17 minutes, 1,105-patient trial finds
• Epic says hospitals will keep its AI model documentation and evaluation tools after HHS dropped the federal requirement
• FDA authorizes Virtuoso's endoscopic surgery robot, whose needle-sized arms work through a rigid endoscope
• Britain commits £100 million to reach 500,000 robotic operations a year by 2035 and orders a review of AI and NHS productivity