The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday named its new chief scientist and announced the appointment of its new CNO, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia and Wisconsin.

• District of Columbia: WHO on Tuesday appointed Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist and announced the appointment of Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu as its new CNO. According to WHO, Tuipulotu, the Kingdom of Tonga's former minister of health, will join the organization during the first quarter of 2023, and Farrar will join during the second quarter. "I am delighted that Jeremy and Amelia will join WHO at a critical time in global public health when investment in both the health workforce and science is imperative to strengthening health systems and outbreak preparedness and prevention," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "As chief scientist, Jeremy will accelerate our efforts to ensure WHO, its member states and our partners benefit from cutting-edge, life-saving science and innovations. As chief nursing officer, Amelia will ignite the all-important need not only to fill the gap in health workers worldwide but also to ensure they receive the support they need and deserve." (Branswell, STAT, 12/13)

• District of Columbia: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block a California law that would ban flavored tobacco. After the court's ruling, the ban is set to go into effect next week. Previously, R.J. Reynolds, the company that manufactures Newport menthol cigarettes, asked the court to intervene before the law goes into effect. The company, along with several smaller tobacco companies, argued that the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gives states the ability to regulate tobacco products but does not give them the authority to ban them. "They can raise the minimum purchase age, restrict sales to particular times and locations, and enforce licensing regimes," the tobacco companies said. "But one thing they cannot do is completely prohibit the sale of those products for failing to meet the state's or locality's preferred tobacco product standards." (Liptak, New York Times, 12/12)

• Wisconsin: Epic announced that will temporarily shut down its app market on Jan. 9 to change the way end users interact with third-party applications, according to Nate Bubb, technical services division lead at Epic. The company has not yet determined when the app market will reopen. Meanwhile, Epic will launch Connection Hub—an online directory that will allow vendors to self-report if they have connected with the company's application programming interface, Modern Healthcare reports. All existing applications on Epic's app market will transition to Vendor Services, a program that gives vendors developer support and an opportunity to test their code before entering Connection Hub. Notably, none of the services will be affected by the transition, Bubb said. (Turner, Modern Healthcare, 12/9)