I’m a big fan of healthcare e-mail newsletters, especially top-notch quality ones.
One of the biggest ways we find healthcare stories to curate for the weekly Healthy Muse is through informative, news-based healthcare newsletters.
I really don’t really think you can go wrong with any of the ones listed below, but I’ve tried ranking them by my personal enjoyment level.
Trust me – I’ve subscribed to them all. These are the best healthcare newsletters around.
The 10 Best Healthcare Newsletters:
- The Healthy Muse
- Axios Vitals
- Healthcare Dive
- Stat Health’s Morning Rounds and Daily Recap
- Kaiser Health News’ Morning Briefing
- ModernHealthcare’s Daily Dose
- Global Health Advisor’s Daily Note
- FierceHealthcare
- MedCity News
- Beckers Hospital Review
Note: If you’re reading this in 2020 and beyond, check out our brand new healthcare newsletter directory, which provides our readers with our favorite and best healthcare newsletters updated in real-time.
To our knowledge, this directory is the only one in existence and we only include top-notch, quality content.
1. Best Aggregator/Curator Healthcare Newsletter for Healthcare News: The Healthy Muse
Description: The Healthy Muse is the best healthcare newsletter for comprehensive, all-in-one healthcare content. It rounds up the latest stories from reputable healthcare sources (including all of the sources in this list) and provides the biggest healthcare stories from the week in just 5 minutes.
The newsletter includes the latest policy developments, notable trends, interesting innovations, and pretty much everything else.
It’s basically the Skimm, but for healthcare – meaning you get everything you need to know in one quick, easy read.
- Frequency: Once Weekly: Monday nights
2. Best Healthcare Newsletter for News Overall: Axios Vitals
Description: Kicking off our list of the best healthcare newsletters HAS to be Axios Vitals. Vitals provides the latest developments on the politics and business of healthcare. It’s clear and concise.
The writers do an excellent job of breaking down what the various issues in healthcare mean to us, and how things are constantly changing.
This is my personal favorite and pick for the overall best healthcare newsletter.
- Frequency: Daily – every weekday morning (early)
3. Healthcare Dive
Description: As one of the best healthcare newsletters for content and cost (free), Healthcare Dive’s newsletter provides readers with their latest articles on a host of hot healthcare topics each day.
I particularly like the bottom section of each newsletter, which includes a “What We’re Reading” section.
This section will usually include about 3-4 external links to other interesting healthcare content not necessarily covered by Healthcare Dive.
- Frequency: Daily, late morning
4. Stat Morning Rounds and Daily Recap
Description: Stat News provides a summary of the day’s news in its Morning Rounds.
In the afternoon, Stat sends out its Daily Recap, covering the latest healthcare developments happening each day. Stat News does a great job of covering healthcare and medicine news.
I’ve found that they’re one of the best healthcare newsletters for covering biotech and drug-related developments.
Another good one I really like from Stat is relatively new – called Stat Health Tech, the newsletter covers the intersection of technology and innovation in healthcare.
- Frequency: Daily, early morning
5. KHN Morning Briefing & KHN Weekly Summary
Description: Kaiser Health News publishes a variety of newsletters and other email alerts to keep readers updated on pretty much everything happening in national and state health policy discourse.
Their daily First Edition and Morning Briefing emails give you a look at all the important news of the day.
There’s a host of other newsletters you can sign up for on their site, too – including the latest original research, Medicare and Medicaid trends, and plenty of others.
I personally am signed up for the KHN Morning Briefing and Brianna Labuskes’ Friday Breeze. A quick warning, though – the Morning Briefing can be a bit overwhelming, since the newsletter sends you about 30 links to various articles per day.
In terms of research, health policy, and state-level trends, the Morning Briefing is one of the best healthcare newsletters.
- Frequency: Daily, early morning
6. ModernHealthcare
Description: I would say ModernHealthcare’s newsletter, the Daily Dose, is pretty similar to Healthcare Dive’s.
Each morning, the Daily Dose provides readers with an update on the latest healthcare developments, linking articles written by the ModernHealthcare site.
ModernHealthcare’s writers take a deeper dive into issues and hone in on more specific trends in a more thorough manner. I should note, though – their website has a soft paywall, meaning you have to be a paying subscriber after viewing ~3 articles.
The good news is that the Daily Dose is free. You just need to pick and choose which articles are worth it. In conclusion, the Daily Dose is one of the best healthcare newsletters for deep dives into specific healthcare issues.
- Frequency: Daily (it IS called the DAILY Dose, after all), every morning
- Sign up for the Daily Dose and other ModernHealthcare newsletters here
7. Global Health Advisors Daily Note
Description: Global Healthcare Advisors publishes a Daily Note healthcare newsletter that aggregates M&A activity, notable developments, regulatory changes, and conferences that they deem to be of interest to their partners.
It’s a quick afternoon read and an easy way to keep your finger on the pulse of the healthcare space.
I’ve found that this healthcare newsletter is especially good for seeing what healthcare conferences are coming up, reading about the latest private equity and public market M&A activity is in the healthcare space, and keeping up with the latest notable developments in healthcare.
It’s definitely geared for more of a healthcare business professional as opposed to the general population, just as an FYI.
The Daily Note is one of the best healthcare newsletters for healthcare professionals who work in M&A and private equity.
- Frequency: Daily (in case you didn’t get that from the title), early afternoon publish time
8. FierceHealthcare
Description: Similar to ModernHealthcare and Healthcare Dive, Fierce Healthcare provides free healthcare newsletters on a variety of topics.
For the most part, they’re focused on healthcare news specifically in business and policy.
Akin to Healthcare Dive, it’s one of the best healthcare newsletters for all-around news.
- Frequency: Daily or weekly – depending on which newsletter you pick.
9. MedCityNews
Description: In its healthcare newsletters, MedCity News focuses on the business of innovation in healthcare, providing readers with news on startups, innovations, and other interesting trends. They have loads of good content!
Similarly to Healthcare Dive and Fierce Healthcare, MedCity is one of the best healthcare newsletters for all-around news.
- Frequency: Daily
10. Beckers Hospital Review
Description: Through their “e-weekly” healthcare newsletters, Beckers provides healthcare news segmented in every imaginable way.
As long as you look close enough, you won’t miss any notable healthcare development. Sometimes, the newsletters can get a slightly spammy since all they do is provide links with not much context beyond the article’s title.
In fact, I’ve found that their newsletters repeat the same linked articles from day to day. Another slight annoyance from Beckers involves the self-promotional nature of the newsletters.
Without fail, in every newsletter you’ll find a large chunk in the middle promoting one of their upcoming webinars or speaker series.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing – I’m just trying to prepare you for what to expect. Still, Beckers is one of the best healthcare newsletters for finding breaking issues and giving a perspective to both providers and business professionals working in healthcare.
- Frequency: Daily, late morning