Verily, struggling to turn profits, taps a Starbucks veteran and 'Warcraft' master

The newly minted CEO of the Alphabet health tech spinout Verily is not a doctor or a Ph.D. scientist. His breakthrough executive job, far from the halls of science or medicine, was at Starbucks. But Stephen Gillett now finds himself in charge of one of the most ambitious (some would say overhyped) efforts to transform American health care with technology. Read more.

By Casey Ross

Christine Kao/STAT

'They were his best shot. And they failed to help': Why did EMS workers neglect Tyre Nichols?

By the time medics arrived, Tyre Nichols was sitting on the ground, handcuffed and propped against a police car. Other than helping Nichols back up when he slumped over, medics barely engaged with him, according to police body camera footage of the incident. "They didn't do bread and butter EMS," said Ameera Haamid, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Chicago. Read more.

By Marion Renault

Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

Tracking the bird flu, experts see a familiar threat — and a virus whose course is hard to predict

H5N1 bird flu has returned to the headlines, with an outbreak at a Spanish mink farm — reported in mid-January — triggering the latest round of fears that the virus might be inching closer to acquiring the ability to easily transmit among humans. Read more.

By Helen Branswell

More great reads from STAT this week

As ban on one abortion pill looms, providers look to the other as a fallback. But that isn't ideal
After 'losing my life' caring for a sick partner, a professor examines the U.S. caregiver crisis
Mm-hm, uh-huh: AI-powered medical scribes still can't understand our conversations
Angry at Vertex pricing of cystic fibrosis drugs, families in four countries seek to override patents
How the CPAP crisis has paved the way for Philips' biggest rivals to rake in profits
Opinion: Mindstrong's demise and the future of mental health care