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The American Medical Association (AMA) rolled out a comprehensive framework to protect physicians from unauthorized artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes. The guide, created by the organization’s Center for Digital Health and AI, aims to modernize physician identity protections while closing legal gaps. The AMA uses the term “augmented intelligence” when referring to AI to emphasize its assistive role in medicine. (Gleeson, 5/11)

It is a drug that kills nearly 500 Americans every day, and causes more deaths in a typical year than every infectious disease combined. It is manufactured abroad and domestically, then sold by powerful multinational organizations with a vast network of distributors. Its promoters can appear indifferent to its addictive and ruinous properties. For decades — for centuries, really — it has destroyed lives, torn apart families, stunted the economy, and caused millions of deaths. Yet alcohol, by far the most popular and most harmful mind-altering substance in the U.S., is not seen as a public health emergency. (Facher and Cueto, 5/12)

More than two dozen lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite its review of mental health therapies like psychedelics as part of multiple pieces of legislation already drafted. Military.com has reported on different legislative efforts in the House and Senate that largely center on the same objective: providing more expansive treatment options to both civilians along with current and former military service members who experience elevated rates of PTSD, depression and suicide. (Mordowanec, 5/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Low Wages, Empty Plates, Heavy Toll: Rethinking Suicide Prevention

As a teenager, Rei Scott spent several weeks living out of a car with four family members and their dog. Each day, Scott worried about where they would spend the following night. One day at school, Scott snuck away to the bathroom and called the national suicide hotline. Scott, who is transgender and nonbinary, explained to the hotline counselor that the family had struggled with poverty for years. They had lived in crumbling homes with water leaks, or a family member’s basement with no privacy. Sometimes the family worried about having enough food. The stress and anxiety were constant, and Scott had been suicidal many times. (Pattani, 5/12)

For about a decade, scientists have had remarkable success curing some blood cancers by modifying a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and kill the malignant cells. That same approach may help control H.I.V., among the wiliest of viruses, scientists will report on Tuesday. After a single infusion of immune cells engineered to recognize the virus, two people in a new study have suppressed their H.I.V. to undetectable levels, one of them for nearly two years. (Mandavilli, 5/11)

A strategy for preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) appears to be rapidly losing effectiveness against gonorrhea, according to a new study. The strategy, known as doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP), involves taking a dose of the antibiotic doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex. (Dall, 5/11)

Penobscot County is grappling with Maine’s largest HIV outbreak in its history. Looking back, the top public health official for the county seat of Bangor described how the conditions existed for such an outbreak and how it is now difficult to know the full scope. In a recent interview, Jennifer Gunderman, Bangor’s director of public health and community services, said HIV had dropped off the radar in Maine because the state has a low incidence of the disease, but then the risk factors started piling up: increased homelessness, wide drug use, disappearing syringe service providers and health care options, and fewer case management providers. (Lundy, 5/11)

There's a persistent gap in healthcare performance among Black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American patients in Florida and their white counterparts. That's according to the 2026 Health Disparities Report published by the Commonwealth Fund on April 29, which evaluates how healthcare systems are working for racial and ethnic groups across the country. It uses the latest available comparable data from 2022 to 2024. (Paul, 5/12)

A more intensive "food-is-medicine" intervention didn't improve diet quality overall but did signal blood pressure reductions in adherent, high-risk adults with uncontrolled hypertension, a randomized pilot trial showed. In the trial's population of Black and Hispanic adults living in food deserts, the intervention providing produce and tailored dietary coaching didn't significantly improve DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) score compared with a group only getting free fruits and vegetables, with a 0.5-point difference between groups on the 0-9 point scale (P=0.452) by week 24, reported Elohor Oborevwori, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore. (Monaco, 5/11)

Tick bites are sending a record rate of people to the ER for this time of year, according to new CDC data. "Tick season is here and these tiny biters can make you seriously sick," says Alison Hinckley, epidemiologist with the CDC, in a statement. (Mallenbaum, 5/12)

Extreme heat is suspected to have played a role in the deaths of six people from Mexico and Honduras whose bodies were discovered inside a train car in Laredo. (Garcia, 5/11)

For as long as he can remember, Trevor Larcom wanted to look different. He’d grown up overweight in the public eye as a child actor, appearing on the sitcoms “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Fuller House.” He was 18 years old and 300 pounds when he turned his focus to working out and cutting calories. (Ashley O'Brien, 5/11)

The widow of a man killed in last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University is suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI, blaming the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot for giving advice on how to carry out the rampage. The lawsuit comes after state authorities disclosed that ChatGPT gave information to the shooter about what time and location would maximize victims on campus, as well as the type of gun and ammunition to use. Authorities say he was also told that an attack can get more media attention if children are involved. (Martin, 5/11)