Children's Health News and Research

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Moms of children with rare genetic illness push for wider newborn screening

Kerri De Nies received the news this spring from her son's pediatrician: Her chubby-cheeked toddler had a rare brain disorder.

5 Oct 2017

Podcast: ‘What the Health?’ Congress chips away at health insurance for kids

Oct. 1 marked the official end to this year's effort to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act. But the start of fiscal 2018 also marked the end of the federal authorization for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program.

4 Oct 2017

5 takeaways from Congress’ failure to extend funding for children’s coverage

Congress finally seems ready to take action on the Children’s Health Insurance Program after funding lapsed Sept. 30.

3 Oct 2017

Podcast: ‘What the health?’ Repeal and replace is dead. What now?

As predicted, the last-ditch GOP effort to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act ended the way its predecessors did this week — in failure.

30 Sep 2017

Congress’ cold shoulder sends shivers through community health centers

One community health center in New York has frozen hiring. Another in Missouri can't get a bank loan to expand.

30 Sep 2017

New study reveals impact of Agent Orange exposure on women and babies in Vietnam

Exposure to Agent Orange sprayed during the Vietnam War has been linked to increased levels of certain hormones in women and their breastfeeding children decades later, potentially putting them at higher risk of health problems, according to a new study in Science of the Total Environment.

26 Sep 2017

Medicaid has a bull’s-eye on its back, which means no one is entirely safe

When high levels of lead were discovered in the public water system in Flint, Mich., in 2015, Medicaid stepped in to help thousands of children get tested for poisoning and receive care.

25 Sep 2017

GOP health bill’s changes go far beyond preexisting conditions

The latest GOP effort to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act is getting a lot of attention, even if its passage seems unlikely. But there is far more to the measure than its changes to rules regarding preexisting health conditions.

22 Sep 2017

NCI selects UTSW cancer researcher to receive Outstanding Investigator Award

The National Cancer Institute has selected UT Southwestern Medical Center cancer researcher Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis to receive its prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award.

22 Sep 2017

New study shows how staph cells evade the body's immune system

For years, medical investigators have tried and failed to develop vaccines for a type of staph bacteria associated with the deadly superbug MRSA. But a new study by Cedars-Sinai investigators shows how staph cells evade the body's immune system, offering a clearer picture of how a successful vaccine would work.

21 Sep 2017

Open your mouth and say goo-goo: Dentists treating ever-younger patients

Allen Barron scrunches up his tiny face and wails as his mother gently tips him backward onto the lap of Jean Calvo, a pediatric dental resident at the University of California-San Francisco.

21 Sep 2017

Podcast: ‘What the Health?’ Zombie repeal-and-replace bill rises again

Republican efforts to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act are back, in a big way. And the "What the Health" podcast is focused on Capitol Hill's debate on the bill by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

20 Sep 2017

Patients and families save time and money with telemedicine visits

Patients and families who use telemedicine for sports medicine appointments saved an average of $50 in travel costs and 51 minutes in waiting and visit time, according to a new study by Nemours Children's Health System. Each telemedicine visit also saved the health system an average of $24 per patient, researchers reported at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition.

15 Sep 2017

Podcast: ‘What the Health?’ health plans busting out all over

In a busy health week for Congress, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee agreed on a proposal to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program for five more years, while Republicans and Democrats at the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee continued to pursue a joint plan to stabilize the individual health insurance market.

13 Sep 2017

FDA moves to guard against abuse of ‘orphan drug’ program

The Food and Drug Administration is changing the way it approves medicines known as "orphan drugs" after revelations that drugmakers may be abusing a law intended to help patients with rare diseases.

13 Sep 2017

Congress’ tight timetable complicates renewal of children’s health plan

A popular federal-state program that provides health coverage to millions of children in lower- and middle-class families is up for renewal Sept. 30.

8 Sep 2017

Meningitis B vaccine’s high price tag poses a health care conundrum

Four years ago, when meningitis B, an extremely rare but potentially lethal form of the infection, sickened a small number of college students at Princeton and the University of California-Santa Barbara, there was no vaccine against the disease sold in the U.S. Despite its availability abroad, it had never been licensed in the country due to its limited marketability.

8 Sep 2017

Lawmakers debate how much wiggle room to give states in health care

One of the few things that Republicans and Democrats broadly agree on is that states should have some flexibility to experiment with different ways to pay for and deliver health care.

7 Sep 2017

Structural abnormalities in the brain's white matter seen in children with ASD traits

Structural abnormalities in the brain's white matter match up consistently with the severity of autistic symptoms not only in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but also, to some degree, in those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who also have autistic traits.

6 Sep 2017

Assessment tools, interconnected webs of relationships help address childhood adversity, trauma

Two new studies led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest that the bevy of tools available to assess and address childhood adversity and trauma, as well as the interconnected webs of relationships among families and the providers who care for children, are key to healing the effects of these potentially life-altering circumstances.

6 Sep 2017