Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

Chronic liver disease threatens millions across Europe, report finds

Europe is facing a growing chronic liver disease threat, according to a new Series published today in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, that engaged more than 75 co-authors from 30 countries and was led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation.

25 May 2026

Innovative platform bridges the gap between OUD treatment and HIV prevention

People with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at increased risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While there are effective interventions that can substantially reduce HIV incidence and opioid overdose, like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), many patients still face barriers to accessing and staying engaged in care.

22 May 2026

Researchers track genetic changes in Brazil's rare Sabiá virus

The Sabiá virus causes an acute hemorrhagic and neurological syndrome. Four fatal cases have been recorded in the state of São Paulo since 1990.

20 May 2026

Study paves way for earlier pancreatic cancer diagnoses in patients with low-risk pancreatic cysts

Catching pancreatic cancer early can increase the five-year survival rate from 15% to 80%. Patients with pancreatic cysts, frequently detected during unrelated abdominal CT or MRI imaging, can develop malignant pancreatic cancers.

20 May 2026

Patient intuition leads to urgent open-heart surgery at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn

Shana Hale, a Brooklyn mother of two and a technology executive, noticed a mild burning sensation in her chest during her daily walks last summer.

20 May 2026

Emergency mental health admission costs for youth nearly quadruple over a decade

The total cost of emergency admissions for mental health among children and young people in England rose from £22.5 million in 2012/13 to £87.3 million in 2021/22, finds research published online in the journal BMJ Open.

20 May 2026

Early electronic advance directives reduce burdensome end-of-life care

Advance directives document patient preferences for future care, including end-of-life. An analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that older patients with an advance directive that had been uploaded into the electronic health record at least six months before death were 25% less likely to experience potentially burdensome end-of-life care (19.9% versus 26.8%) and 31% less likely to have died in the hospital (23.2% versus 32.1%).

20 May 2026

New guidelines urge earlier cholesterol treatment to prevent heart disease

Doctors should consider treating high cholesterol much earlier and more aggressively than they have in the past, according to a new perspective by Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and Yale School of Medicine investigators.

19 May 2026

Pennington and Vanderbilt launch major study on childhood obesity treatment

Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has launched a research study, the COACH trial, to test different ways to help children and their families improve their health through lifestyle changes delivered by primary care clinics in communities in Louisiana and Tennessee.

19 May 2026

Children's mental health concerns increasingly addressed during primary care visits

A new study led by researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston University, Boston Medical Center, UMass Chan Medical School, and Brown University finds that children's mental health concerns are appearing more often during routine visits with primary care doctors.

18 May 2026

New therapies could help type 1 diabetes care move beyond insulin alone

Disease-modifying therapies for type 1 diabetes are beginning to move care beyond insulin replacement by targeting immune dysregulation, beta-cell stress, and preservation of endogenous beta-cell function. Teplizumab marks a major clinical milestone, but the review emphasizes that durable metabolic remission will likely require earlier screening, better patient selection, and sequential or combination therapies.

18 May 2026

AI beats primary care doctors in simulated diagnosis study using images and ECGs

Multi-modal AMIE used state-aware reasoning to interpret patient history alongside skin photos, ECGs, and clinical documents during simulated telehealth consultations. In a blinded exploratory OSCE-style study, AMIE outperformed primary care physicians across most diagnostic, communication, empathy, and multimodal reasoning measures, but still requires real-world clinical validation.

17 May 2026

Addressing depression and anxiety in primary care improves chronic pain management

A study published this month in the American Journal of Managed Care explores how integrating behavioral health care into primary care can improve outcomes and be cost-effective for adults with depression, anxiety and chronic pain who are on long-term opioid therapy.

15 May 2026

Perioperative medicine emerges as a system wide strategy for better surgery outcomes

Perioperative medicine is emerging as a transformative, comprehensive, system-wide approach to patient care before, during, and after surgery – that reduces complication rates and hospital days, provides better health outcomes, and improves health system performance, according to a special article in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).

14 May 2026

Study warns of rising cognitive impairment following a heart attack

The chance of developing cognitive impairment was significantly higher for people who have had a heart attack, according to a study published today in Stroke, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

14 May 2026

Why experts say PCOS needs a new name

A Lancet Health Policy paper reports an international consensus process that selected polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) as the new name for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The change aims to shift the focus away from ovarian cysts and better reflect the condition’s endocrine, metabolic, and ovarian features.

13 May 2026

Perimenopausal women face higher risk of low heart health

Perimenopausal women were two times more likely to have a low cardiovascular health score compared to women having regular menstrual cycles, according to an analysis of nationwide U.S. data published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

13 May 2026

Sports coaches can improve health for athletes with disabilities

Research highlights the role of sports coaches in enhancing health for athletes with disabilities, focusing on collaboration and effective health promotion.

13 May 2026

Why are so many mothers missing diabetes follow-up after childbirth?

A New York City cohort study found that few women with postpartum-onset diabetes received guideline-recommended A1C monitoring over three years. Non-Hispanic Black women and mothers with more children faced lower monitoring rates, while Medicaid coverage was linked to better follow-up.

11 May 2026

Two leading heart risk tools pass a major global test

A multinational Nature Medicine validation study found that PREVENT and SCORE2 cardiovascular risk equations performed generally well across 6.4 million people from observational cohorts and randomized trials. The findings support broader use of these tools for CVD risk stratification, while highlighting the need for local calibration and more validation in underrepresented regions.

11 May 2026