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Hollowed-out public health system faces more cuts amid virus

The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century.

1 Jul 2020

Researchers identify optimal face masks for controlling respiratory droplets

While the use of face masks in public has been widely recommended by public health officials during the current COVID-19 pandemic, there are relatively few specific guidelines pertaining to mask materials and designs.

1 Jul 2020

New app to check patient's jugular venous pressure

A new report from cardiologists at UT Southwestern raises the hope that doctors will be able to visually check the jugular venous pressure of heart failure patients remotely, using the camera on a smartphone. The finding is especially timely as telemedicine expands during the pandemic.

1 Jul 2020

New study will help primary care nurses better care for dementia patients

McLean Hospital's Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc, is heading a new study of a training model to help primary care nurses better care for patients with dementia.

30 Jun 2020

Residents of some cities unwilling to follow practices that reduce COVID-19 spread

Several U.S. cities may be at increased risk of surges in COVID-19 cases as they reopen their economies because their residents are unwilling to follow practices that reduce the spread of the disease, according to Penn State researchers.

30 Jun 2020

Hospital executive charged in $1.4B rural hospital billing scheme

A Miami entrepreneur who led a rural hospital empire was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday in what federal prosecutors called a $1.4 billion fraudulent lab-billing scheme.

30 Jun 2020

Nearly half of Americans have limited awareness about burn injuries and treatment

Summertime means Americans are spending more time around grills, firepits, and fireworks, increasing their risk for fire-related burn injuries.

30 Jun 2020

Workers filed more than 4,100 complaints about protective gear. Some still died.

COVID-19 cases were climbing at Michigan's McLaren Flint hospital. So Roger Liddell, 64, who procured supplies for the hospital, asked for an N95 respirator for his own protection, since his work brought him into the same room as COVID-positive patients.

30 Jun 2020

Essential worker shoulders $1,840 pandemic debt due to COVID cost loophole

Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper.

30 Jun 2020

‘More than physical health’: Gym helps 91-year-old battle isolation

Most mornings, like clockwork, you could find Art Ballard pumping iron.

30 Jun 2020

Researchers develop a promising treatment to prevent blindness

The team was co-led by May Griffith, a researcher at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre, which is affiliated with Université de Montréal and is part of the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.

30 Jun 2020

Stanford's Nobel Laureate develops a prediction model for SARS-CoV-2

The researchers from Stanford School of Medicine and ShangaiTech University show that the growth of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak does not behave in accordance with an exponential growth law, but instead slows down exponentially with time from the very first days. Their thought-provoking findings can be currently found in the medRxiv* preprint server.

29 Jun 2020

New agreements to increase access to cancer medicines and save countless lives

The American Cancer Society and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) today announced agreements with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Novartis, and Mylan to expand access to 20 lifesaving cancer treatments in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Purchasers are expected to save an average of 59 percent for medicines procured through the agreements.

29 Jun 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: High court’s surprising abortion decision

The Supreme Court surprised both sides in the polarized abortion battle Monday by ruling, 5-4, that a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform the procedure to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is an unconstitutional infringement of a woman's right to an abortion.

29 Jun 2020

ACR releases position statement supporting the role of telemedicine in rheumatology

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) has released an official position statement supporting the role of telemedicine as a tool with the potential to increase access and improve care for patients with rheumatic diseases.

29 Jun 2020

Supreme Court, rejecting restrictive La. law, refuses to roll back abortion rights

In a decision certain to roil the fall elections, a Supreme Court with a majority of anti-abortion justices Monday refused to use its first opportunity to roll back abortion rights.

29 Jun 2020

California prisons are COVID hotbeds despite billions spent on inmate health

From Corcoran and Avenal state prisons in the arid Central Valley to historical San Quentin on the San Francisco Bay, California prisons have emerged as raging COVID-19 hot spots, even as the state annually spends more on inmate health care than other big states spend on their entire prison systems.

29 Jun 2020

In Arizona race, McSally makes health care pledge at odds with track record

Trailing Democratic challenger Mark Kelly in one of the country's most hotly contested Senate races, Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is seeking to tie herself to an issue with across-the-aisle appeal: insurance protections for people with preexisting health conditions.

29 Jun 2020

Conflicting COVID messages create cloud of confusion around public health and prevention

Regina Fargis didn't know what to do. Fargis runs Summit Hills — a health and retirement community in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that offers skilled nursing, activities and communal meals for its residents, most of whom are over 60, the highest-risk category for coronavirus complications.

29 Jun 2020

Pregnancy stereotype is a silent stressor and can lead to workplace accidents, says WSU expert

Fears of confirming stereotypes about pregnant workers as incompetent, weak, or less committed to their job can drive pregnant employees to work extra hard, risking injury.

29 Jun 2020