Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

London's Ultra Low Emission Zone delivers measurable lung health benefits for children

A landmark study of more than 3,400 children, led by Queen Mary University of London, has found that air quality improvements following the introduction of London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) are strongly associated with accelerated lung growth in children.

18 Aug 2026

Poor safety compliance threatens ambitious NHS digital transformation

The NHS 10 year Health Plan "risks propagating patient harm at an unprecedented scale" due to the lack of appropriate safety architecture to support the envisaged digital transformation, warn experts in an analysis published in the online journal BMJ Innovations.

18 Aug 2026

Multiple long-term conditions raise pregnancy risks, study finds

Women who begin pregnancy with two or more pre-existing, long-term physical or mental health conditions have 20% higher risk of miscarriage, 69% higher risk of severe nausea and vomiting, and around four times the risk of anxiety and depression, compared with those with no long-term conditions.

18 Aug 2026

Rutgers study supports waist measurements for routine obesity screening

Measuring waist size may be one of the simplest and most effective ways to detect obesity-related health risks, according to a study by Rutgers Health researchers.

14 Aug 2026

Global epilepsy burden shifts expose widening healthcare access gaps

Epilepsy remains a major public health challenge, but its burden is changing in ways that reveal health inequalities.

14 Aug 2026

AI took on doctors in simulated video consultations, and the results were striking

Google researchers developed AMIE, a Gemini-based multi-agent system combining real-time audio-visual perception, clinical reasoning, and low-latency dialogue for simulated video consultations. In a randomized OSCE across 100 clinical scenarios, AMIE Video matched or exceeded primary care physicians across core clinical measures, while patient actors preferred video over text, although real-world clinical validation is still needed.

12 Aug 2026

Pediatric rheumatic diseases have unique genetic architecture compared to adults

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found that pediatric-onset rheumatic and inflammatory diseases have distinct genetic architecture compared with adults.

12 Aug 2026

UC San Diego and West Health launch new national healthcare model

America's health care system is under pressure with demand rising, hospital capacity strained and the number of patients who need care the most increasing faster than the system was built to serve.

12 Aug 2026

New UH Health initiative targets Texas healthcare workforce shortage

Addressing Texas' growing healthcare workforce shortage and rising demand for care, the University of Houston has launched UH Health, an academic health enterprise designed to integrate education, research and community engagement across the University.

11 Aug 2026

Faith-based screenings expand early dementia detection among African Americans

Alter Dementia, Dementia Care Aware (DCA) and SageNavigator facilitated more than 100 free, community-based cognitive screenings at the 2026 Alter Dementia Summit and Aging Well Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, for the 100 Minds Screening Project.

10 Aug 2026

Scalable education program protects transplant survivors from elevated skin cancer risk

Experts at City of Hope, one of the nation's largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations, are shining a spotlight on the risk of skin cancer faced by hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) survivors, as well as the need for early detection.

6 Aug 2026

AI tool aims to accelerate Alzheimer's treatment through faster referrals

Vanderbilt Health researchers have received a grant from Eli Lilly and Company, a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, to build an artificial intelligence (AI) tool within the electronic health record system (EHR) to get patients with Alzheimer's disease to treatment faster.

5 Aug 2026

Telemedicine expands access to pediatric primary care for endocrine or behavioral health issues

A multi-institutional study led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that telemedicine is becoming increasingly common for problem-based primary care, particularly for children with endocrine or behavioral health issues where chronic needs are significant.

5 Aug 2026

Neuroscience-informed therapy provides massive cost-savings for opioid addiction treatment

A new economic evaluation from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine has revealed that Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) - an innovative, evidence-based, neuroscience-informed therapy for opioid misuse and chronic pain - provides $12 in cost savings for every dollar spent, between two and six times more cost effective than other addiction treatments such as residential or intensive outpatient treatment.

5 Aug 2026

People with eczema face higher risk of developing shingles

An analysis in JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft found that people with eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) face an elevated risk of developing shingles (or herpes zoster).

5 Aug 2026

Continuous glucose monitors show no proven benefits for healthy people

Continuous glucose monitors are becoming increasingly popular, including among people without diabetes.

4 Aug 2026

Current NICE criteria miss most younger women at breast cancer risk

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) criteria used to decide who should be referred by GPs for further breast cancer risk assessment and specialist care misses up to 95% of women under 50 who will go on to develop the disease in the next 10 years, new research by researchers at the University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, has found.

3 Aug 2026

New NYU Langone facility expands specialty healthcare access in Brooklyn

NYU Langone Health is continuing to expand its footprint in Brooklyn with the opening of NYU Langone Ambulatory Care—Fort Hamilton, a new multispecialty practice offering top-quality care.

30 Jul 2026

AI-enabled tool helps identify hospitalized patients at risk of rapid clinical decline

Researchers from RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled early warning system helped identify hospitalized patients at risk of rapid clinical decline sooner, contributing to fewer deaths among high-risk patients.

29 Jul 2026

Trial successfully lowers alcohol use in humanitarian setting

The first known randomized trial of an alcohol-reduction intervention in a humanitarian setting found a significant, sustained effect in lowering alcohol use.

27 Jul 2026