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Although Truvada was approved as a preventive drug four years ago, less than one-tenth of those who could benefit from it take the drug. The need is greatest among blacks and Latinos, who are disproportionately affected by AIDS, and gay men under 30, whose rates of infection are growing. That’s why Massachusetts public health officials recently started a project with AIDS service agencies and health centers, testing ways to bring PrEP into wider use. That effort got a boost last week when the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts started offering PrEP to its patients, men and women. (Freyer, 9/6)

Whether you're looking at chronic conditions, sexually transmitted diseases or other maladies, Baltimore has some of the worse health outcomes in the state and the nation. City data shows 19 percent of Baltimore residents have asthma, while statewide it's 14 percent; 30 percent of children are obese, compared with 15 percent statewide; 30 percent of city kids have had at least two traumatic childhood experiences, versus 19 percent statewide. (Cohn, 9/3)

People living in Northeast Texas are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, stroke and lower respiratory conditions than people living in other areas of the state, a recent report finds. It’s not the first study to explore the widening gap in health care outcomes between rural and urban areas of the state.  But the authors say the magnitude of the disparities suggest that limited access to clinicians and health insurance are not the sole issues spurring the differences. (Rice, 9/2)

No matter which way you count, the number of Texas women dying after they have babies or unsuccessful pregnancies is on the rise.Two new studies detailing the disturbing trend have prompted soul-searching from state policymakers and outcry from women’s health advocates, who argue that cuts by the state’s Republican-led Legislature to Planned Parenthood and other women’s health programs are at least partially responsible for the increase. (Walters, 9/4)

For more than a decade, doctors at Detroit Medical Center lodged complaints about surgical instruments. Some were dirty or broken, they said. Others were missing altogether. Now both the CMS and the state of Michigan are investigating the claims, which were aired in a newspaper account late last month. No matter what investigators find at DMC, unclean surgical instruments and other medical devices are nothing new. (Whitman, 9/3)

In the 10 years since it was formed by a $10.6 billion merger, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has turned in some impressive numbers. The world’s largest supplier of laboratory products and services has bought more than a dozen smaller companies. Revenue has doubled to a projected $18 billion in 2016. Employment has grown from 30,000 to 55,000, including 1,930 in 13 offices in Massachusetts. And annual research and development outlays have increased from $300 million to more than $700 million. (Weisman, 9/5)

[Marco] Tapie’s mother, Maria Garaitonandia, asked state disability administrators two years ago for help in caring for Tapie, now 23, and too strapping for his mother to control him when his rare form of epilepsy sends him into paroxysms of unintended motion. The Agency for Persons with Disabilities refused, saying the young man failed to meet eligibility for a program that serves disabled Floridians in their homes or communities. But late last month, a Miami appeals court said the disabilities agency, or APD, cherry-picked diagnostic tests in an effort to avoid caring for Tapie, and ordered the state to enroll him into its community-based care program. (Miller and Harris, 9/3)

Mental health workers are joining Denver police on foot and in their patrol cars to help handle calls involving people in mental health crisis, a new program aimed at getting people into treatment instead of sending them to jail. The six social workers and clinicians are employees of the Mental Health Center of Denver but work at Denver police headquarters through the partnership, called the “co-responder” program. The $500,000 initiative, funded through grants and other money from Denver Human Services, is part of the city’s crisis intervention and response unit specializing in mental and behavioral health calls. (Brown, 9/2)

As police forces across the country re-evaluate their practices regarding encounters with people with mental health problems, Minneapolis authorities are considering an approach that might seem to fly in the face of conventional policing wisdom: Stand down, and leave it to the professionals. Under a recently announced pilot program, city police officers would be paired with mental health specialists on emergency calls involving such problems. Officials hope the tactic, already in use by departments in Houston, Los Angeles and Madison, Wis., will lead to more peaceful resolutions and decrease the likelihood of jail time — or physical encounters. (Jany, 9/6)

Cleveland's public health department has asked the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) to officially close 38 percent of the city's backlog of thousands of unresolved lead poisoning cases. The request to the state, sent Wednesday, is the first of its kind in the nine months city officials have spent working through the cases, some of which date back more than a decade. (Dissell and Zeltner, 9/5)

Unlike at many hospitals, the medical team at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's surgical intensive care unit has embraced the idea of including families in physician rounds. That helps families form realistic expectations and helps the staff get to know patients who are often too sick to talk, said Daniel Holena, a Penn surgeon who specializes in critical care, trauma, and emergency surgery. But distance and work responsibilities can make it difficult for some family members to be physically in the hospital when teams discuss patients. (Burling, 9/5)

It’s long been a problem for the nation’s hospitals: A staggering number of medical supplies — from surgical gloves to sponges to medications — go unused and are discarded after surgeries. A recent study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has put a price tag on that waste: almost $1,000 per procedure examined at the academic medical center. (Ibarra, 9/6)

Counting on the growing public outrage over the soaring costs of prescription drugs -- and bolstered by the recent fury generated by huge price hikes for lifesaving EpiPens -- Proposition 61 proponents are gearing up for one of the most highly anticipated ballot measure showdowns this election season. (Seipel, 9/5)

A Kent woman with a rare genetic condition that caused her teeth to break and crumble to the gum line has a bright new smile — thanks to what one doctor likens to winning a lottery for dental care. ... Last month, her struggle ended — because she won a contest sponsored by a Renton oral-surgery practice. Coleman received about $56,000 worth of free care, including removal of her old teeth and a set of full-mouth dental implants. (Aleccia, 9/2)

Medical marijuana will be legal in Ohio on Thursday. But for most of those with debilitating conditions covered under the new law it will mean nothing – except more waiting. It could be as long as two years before medical marijuana is sold here, before doctors who want to recommend it will know how to proceed, before the state medical and pharmacy boards and the commerce department will have all of the rules in place. (DeMio, 9/2)

Minnesotans seeking pain relief have quickly become the second-largest group of patients in the state’s medical marijuana program, even though they became eligible just one month ago. One out of three patients enrolled in the program is seeking relief from chronic pain, according to figures released this week by the Office of Medical Cannabis. (Brooks, 9/5)

Over the past decade, the number of older homeless people has increased both in St. Paul and across the country. Part of that increase can be credited to the fact that baby boomers are a large portion of the population, and they are aging. And the recent recession took its toll on many people’s savings and safety nets. ... In Minnesota, the increase of homeless people older than 55 is similar to that age group’s increase in the general population, according to the Wilder Foundation, which has conducted a statewide one-night count of the homeless every three years since 1991. (Cooney, 9/2)