Â鶹ŮÓÅ

All told, within 60 days in 2015, four children with rare sarcoma cancers were being treated with intensive chemotherapy, fighting for their lives, family members said. In the southeast Georgia community where the children live in and around, some suspected it was more than just a coincidence. But in trying to prove that, worried residents didn’t know they would be facing obstacles nearly as formidable as the cancer itself. (Goodman and Miller, 10/20)

Pennsylvania officials announced Thursday a broad collaboration to improve health care in North Philadelphia and a swath of surrounding neighborhoods where at least half the residents receive Medicaid, costing more than $1 billion last year. The North Philadelphia Health Enterprise Zone encompasses an area from around Spring Garden Street north to Olney and from Frankford in the east to Germantown in the west. It is home to five hospitals that struggle financially under a heavy load of Medicaid patients. (Brubaker, 10/20)

New types of ambulances will likely speed through the western suburbs soon, in hopes of delivering lifesaving care to stroke victims sooner. Unlike typical ambulances, the new mobile stroke treatment units of Rush University Medical Center and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital will carry CT scanners, cameras for communicating with stroke neurologists from afar and medication that can begin to dissolve clots and restore blood flow to the brain. The stroke units will be the first of their kind in the Chicago area and likely among the first dozen or so in the country, said Rush officials who demonstrated Thursday how Rush's unit will work. (Schencker, 10/20)

The Mayo Clinic is recruiting its first class of 50 students for a new medical school that will begin next summer on its campus in Scottsdale. It's a tangible step in what Mayo and Arizona State University leaders say will be a growing effort to bring innovative medical education to Arizona and beyond. The two entities described the arrangement as the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care. (Alltucker, 10/21)

Political donors have spent a record $458 million on 17 statewide November ballot initiatives in California, beating the state's own record for the most spent on propositions appearing on state ballots in a single year, campaign reports filed Thursday show. (10/20)

Workers and retirees covered under the New Hampshire state employee health care plan have had access to gender reassignment surgery since July 1, shortly after Gov. Maggie Hassan issued an executive order forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender identity, a top state official said this week. The surgery became available ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline established by federal regulations, said Administrative Services Commissioner Vickie Quiram. She said the decision to provide early coverage was based upon Hassan’s executive order and Anthem Blue Cross, the company that administers the state’s health plan. (Hayward, 10/20)

Dr. Zoe Maher has never been busier. In addition to being a trauma surgeon and a new mom, she's spent the last year and half talking to hospital patients and community groups across Philadelphia about a study she's confident will save more adult gunshot and stab wound victims. On a recent Saturday morning, Maher stood before a dozen members of a North Philadelphia neighborhood association to walk them through the specifics of the Philadelphia Immediate Transport in Penetrating Trauma Trial. (Moselle, 10/20)

In Southern California, if people haven't gone to Mexico for health care, they probably know someone who has. People overburdened by the price of getting what's supposed to be some of the best health care in the world are willing to seek out options that would have seemed overly risky not long ago. And while more Americans now have health insurance than ever before, the high price of seeing a doctor, dentist or filling a prescription have not slowed the annual growth in the amount of money Americans spend on health care in foreign countries. (Newkirk, 10/20)

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating repeated problems with a portable compressor for artificial hearts that may have played a role in the death earlier this month of a 57-year-old Orange County man. Officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where the man’s artificial heart was implanted, said they believe the apparent failure of the compressor may have caused his death. The hospital said it has stopped using the device with new patients, pending guidance from regulators. (Gorman, 10/20)

A group of 17 mothers and one father from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the region sat around a conference table Thursday to tell stories about birth and early parenting to one of the top health administrators in the federal government. Dr. Michael Lu, of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, was making good on a promise he made nearly two years ago on St. Louis’ high infant mortality rate...In Missouri, 6,373 babies under the age of 1 died from 2000 to 2010, which resulted in an infant mortality rate of 7.4 per 1,000 live births during that period, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The national rate in 2010 was 6.15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Cambria, 10/21)

After years of continual improvement in the health and birth outcomes for newborns in North Carolina, the rate of babies who died in their first year of life has inched upwards for the second year running. After reaching an all-time low of 7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010, and hitting that mark again in 2013, the rate crept upwards to 7.3 deaths per 1,000 babies. This keeps North Carolina with one of the worst infant mortality rates in the country. (Hoban, 10/21)

State health officials confirmed one case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease in Bastrop County, according to a report released this week. The death of a 13-year-old Bastrop County boy this month is blamed on the virus, according to the teen’s parents. West Nile neuroinvasive disease is the severest form of West Nile virus, with symptoms including disorientation, tremors, coma and paralysis. (Huber, 10/20)

Numerous Cincinnati area communities are participating in National Take-Back Day, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. To find out which of your communities is participating, go to the Drug Enforcement Administration's Drug Take Back Day site and type in your location. Numerous prevention organizations and law enforcement agencies are asking people to safely dispose of medications at designated locations. (DeMio, 10/20)

United For Care’s John Morgan and Jessica Spencer squared off Tuesday night in a televised medical marijuana debate.The debate, hosted by Orlando television station WESH, lasted 30 minutes. Florida voters will decide whether to legalize full-strength medical marijuana in  November. You can watch the debate here. Here is a transcript of the debate, with fact checking from health reporter Abe Aboraya. (10/20)