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Some tiny clusters of brain cells grown in a lab dish are making big news at this week's Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. Known as "minibrains," these rudimentary networks of cells are small enough to fit on the head of a pin, but already are providing researchers with insights into everything from early brain development to Down syndrome, Alzheimer's and Zika. (Hamilton, 11/13)

Pediatricians around the country, faced with persistent opposition to childhood vaccinations, are increasingly grappling with the difficult decision of whether to dismiss those families from their practices to protect their other patients. Doctors say they are more willing to take this last-resort step because the anti-vaccine movement in recent years has contributed to a resurgence of preventable childhood diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough. Their practices also have been emboldened by families who say they will only choose physicians who require other families to vaccinate. (Sun, 11/12)

The psychological impact of gun violence and mass shootings was discussed by world experts at a conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in Dallas this week. Military members, veterans and people of color are at highest risk of developing PTSD, they said. In the days and weeks after a mass shooting, people exposed to the attack can suffer poor sleep, irritability, depression and anxiety. Physical symptoms include chest pain, headaches, stomach aches and nausea. Those feelings are normal and should fade within a month, experts said. But if symptoms persist for longer than a few weeks, you might have post-traumatic stress disorder. One in five people who survives a tragedy develops PTSD, said Dr. John Burruss, CEO of Metrocare, the largest provider of mental health care in Dallas County. (Yasmin, 11/12)

National health expenditures are expected to hit $3.35 trillion this year, most of it spent on care for one person at a time: doctors’ visits, hospital stays, prescription drugs. But to really improve the health of Americans, two new studies suggest, we also need to aim for a culture of health in communities as a whole. (Scudellari, 11/14)

Nearly a quarter of Americans older than 65 are — or are at risk of becoming — what some experts call “elder orphans.” They are people who are getting older without a spouse, partner or adult children — or at least any who live nearby. With an aging baby boomer population and a third of Americans ages 45 to 60 either choosing to be or finding themselves single, the number of seniors living alone will only grow, experts say. (Pyle, 11/13)

After 58 years of living with type 1 diabetes, Marilyn Krupnick thought she'd heard it all. Children who warned others to stay away from the "dirty diabetic" or they'd "catch it, too." Well-meaning friends and relatives with misguided advice the Abington resident and former schoolteacher long ago learned to quietly ignore...Her experience illustrates a serious problem for people with diabetes: Not only must they cope with the physical effects of a chronic disease, they also must contend with the stigma of having a condition even many doctors don't really understand. A 2014 poll for the diaTribe Foundation, a nonprofit diabetes organization, suggested that most people with diabetes feel stigmatized by the condition, regardless of its origins. (Rush, 11/13)

Companies say they offer them to make work more fun, improve workers' health, boost employee productivity or save money on health insurance costs. Some employees and advocacy groups, however, worry that fitness trackers might invade an employee's privacy and that some wellness programs may not be truly optional. It also remains unclear whether workplace trackers consistently improve employee health or save employers money on health care costs. This year, 31 percent of 540 companies with 1,000 or more employees surveyed by brokerage and consultancy Willis Towers Watson offered wearable activity trackers to workers. Another 23 percent said they were considering doing so in the next two years. (Schencker, 11/11)