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Off-label ketamine use for chronic pain lacks scientific basis

The off-label use of ketamine to treat chronic pain is not supported by scientific evidence, a new Cochrane review has found.

18 Aug 2025

Community pop-up screenings uncover hidden cardiovascular risk factors

Pop-up screening for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk held at community pharmacies and large-scale sporting events can identify people with uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors, according to a study published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and simultaneously presented at the 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

17 Aug 2025

Patients recall inadequate disclosure of electroconvulsive therapy risks

The medical pros of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are being exaggerated while the risks are being downplayed, suggest the findings of a survey on the type of information patients and their relatives/friends recall having been given before the procedure, and published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

17 Aug 2025

Maryland taps Affordable Care Act fund to help pay for abortion care

Maryland is the first state to tap into an old fund connected to the Affordable Care Act to help solve a new problem: helping pay the expenses of patients who travel to Maryland for an abortion.

17 Aug 2025

Breaking down why Medicare Part D premiums are likely to go up

Medicare enrollees who buy the optional Part D drug benefit may see substantial premium price hikes — potentially up to $50 a month — when they shop for next year's coverage.

17 Aug 2025

Growing use of AI scribes among New Zealand GPs raises ethical and legal questions

Many New Zealand GPs have taken up the use of AI scribes to transcribe patient notes during consultations despite ongoing challenges with their legal and ethical oversight, data security, patient consent, and the impact on the doctor-patient relationship, a study led by the University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke has found.

14 Aug 2025

UC San Diego's ACTRI wins $80 million Clinical and Translational Science Award

The University of California San Diego's Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) has received a seven-year, $80 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

14 Aug 2025

Smartphone app doubles quit rates among low-income smokers

While smoking rates in the United States have substantially declined over the past six decades, smoking remains high among people with low incomes, leading to health disparities.

14 Aug 2025

Smartwatch data helps identify daily activities in real life

Researchers have long been able to use information from smartwatches to identify physical movement, such as sitting or walking, that wearers are performing in a controlled lab setting.

14 Aug 2025

Frailty raises the risk of lung attacks and death in smokers

A new research paper was published in Volume 17, Issue 7, of Aging (Aging-US) on July 3, 2025, titled "Frailty associates with respiratory exacerbations and mortality in the COPDGene cohort."

14 Aug 2025

‘Alternative facts’ aren’t a reason to skip vaccines

President Donald Trump's administrations have been notorious for an array of "alternative facts" — ranging from the relatively minor (the size of inaugural crowds) to threats to U.S. democracy, such as who really won the 2020 election.

14 Aug 2025

‘A fear pandemic’: Immigration raids push patients into telehealth

Jacob Sweidan has seen his patients through the federal immigration raids of the 1990s, a sitting governor's call to abolish birthright citizenship, and the highly publicized workplace crackdowns and family separation policies of President Donald Trump's first term.

14 Aug 2025

HonorHealth taps longevity authority Nicholas J. Schork to lead new research division

Nicholas J. Schork, Ph.D., an international authority on human longevity and health maintenance, has joined HonorHealth Research Institute as Research Director of Longevity, Prevention and Interception.

14 Aug 2025

New drug discovery platform aims to deliver first-in-class therapies

65LAB has awarded US$1.5 million (approx. S$1.9 million) to Professor Enrico Petretto to advance a breakthrough drug discovery platform developed at Duke-NUS Medical School. The project aims to deliver first-in-class antifibrotic therapies for lung and kidney diseases-conditions that currently have no effective treatment.

14 Aug 2025

Helping others regularly slows cognitive decline in older adults

In the latest evidence that meaningful social connections bolster health, a team from The University of Texas at Austin and University of Massachusetts Boston has found that regular time spent helping outside the home significantly slows cognitive decline in middle-age and older adults.

13 Aug 2025

ISSCR updates guidelines to address advances in stem cell-based embryo models

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) released an update of its 2021 Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation today.

13 Aug 2025

Clinicians more likely to express doubt in medical records of Black patients

Clinicians are more likely to indicate doubt or disbelief in the medical records of Black patients than in those of White patients-a pattern that could contribute to ongoing racial disparities in healthcare.

13 Aug 2025

Primary care could help meet growing needs of cancer survivors

Thanks to new advances in cancer care, more and more people are surviving cancer, with a projected total of 22.5 million survivors by 2032.

13 Aug 2025

Low screening rates linked to higher cervical cancer deaths in rural counties

Women in counties with repeatedly lower cervical cancer screening rates suffer nearly double the rate of cervical cancer diagnoses, particularly of late-stage disease, and death from cervical cancer, according to a new analysis from researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

13 Aug 2025