How Louisiana’s New Surgeon General Wants To Transform Public Health
Evelyn Griffin had led a life out of the spotlight until she testified at the Louisiana Statehouse five years ago and experienced what she called her “great awakening.” The state health department wanted to add covid vaccines to the school immunization schedule, a move no state has ever implemented. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then known […]
How Much of a Cancer Drug Is Too Much? Patients, Researchers Challenge FDA-Approved Dosages
Northwestern University economist Chuck Manski studies decision-making amid uncertainty. That prepared him better than many other cancer patients to decide whether to stay on an immunotherapy treatment that was making him very ill. For six months in 2022, Manski received monthly infusions of nivolumab to fight advanced melanoma. The drug ruined his thyroid gland, he […]
Violence Against Healthcare Workers and Staffing Shortages Fuel Hospital Strikes
Nurse Crystal Dhooghe is used to dealing with blood and broken bones in the emergency room. But she didn’t expect to witness so much violence against her own colleagues. “I’ve seen nurses get shoved, pushed, scratched. The biggest one is bitten,” said Dhooghe, who works at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan. The […]
Medicare’s Paying Less for Cataract Surgery. Eye Doctors Are Turning to Lucrative Lasers.
Tammy Chalala, a retired dietitian in New York, was thrilled with the results of her cataract surgeries, which left her with close to 20/20 vision. She said she paid nearly $4,000 out-of-pocket for her two surgeries last year because she opted to have her doctor use a laser to assist with the procedure. Chalala, 69, […]
You Want To Join a Clinical Trial. Here’s What To Know About the Hurdles.
Connecting people with clinical trials is complicated — even if people identify a promising match, there’s a slew of potentially thorny factors, including geographic incompatibility, and financial and time considerations. Simply finding an appropriate trial can present an enormous hurdle. In a recent online survey of more than 2,000 adults, 71% of patients with chronic […]
Drive for Nuclear Power Boosts Uranium Industry — And Tribal Health Concerns in Southwest
WHITE MESA, Utah — On a hot April day, Malcolm Lehi maneuvered his Jeep Wrangler over a rough dirt road past junipers and sagebrush in search of Entrance Spring on land long connected to his tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute. The cool, mossy spring lies just across the highway from White Mesa Mill, the nation’s […]
What Geriatric Emergency Departments Do Differently
It had been a rough few months. Cynthia Tompkins was hospitalized in May for osteomyelitis — a bone infection — then spent six weeks in a rehabilitation facility. “It was a struggle,” she said. “I didn’t bounce back too well.” Tompkins returned to her home in San Diego, but she was still taking antibiotics, along […]
Kennedy’s Quiet Hunt for Autism Culprits Stalls as Trump Orders Baseless Changes to Childhood Shots
President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines — publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases — even as the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder. While the executive order released Aug. 10 does not directly mention autism, […]
Newsom Promotes Affordable Insulin, but California’s Generic Label Off to a Slow Start
SAN FRANCISCO — At a Walgreens in this city’s bustling Japantown neighborhood, pharmacist Margaret On stocks two boxes of long-acting insulin pens from California’s new prescription drug label, CalRx, emblazoned with the state’s iconic grizzly bear. Although she hasn’t dispensed any, On plans to keep them on hand. “It’s good to have if a patient […]
Trump Team’s Use of Arcane Budget Rule Threatens Medicaid Coverage
About 200,000 low-income Arkansans could see major changes to their health coverage next year after the Trump administration recently informed state officials it will not renew a key Medicaid agreement with the federal government. The decision by federal officials, citing authority granted under President Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law, suggests the GOP-led state’s predicament could […]