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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidelines to help hospitals create more effective sepsis management teams and improve patient survival rates. The agency's seven "Sepsis Core Elements," announced Thursday, come as sepsis cases continue to rise and industry leaders call for better surveillance systems, diagnostic tools and education surrounding the life-threatening condition. (Devereaux, 8/24)

In a typical year, at least 1.7 million adults in the US develop sepsis, and at least 350,000 die in the hospital or are moved into hospice care, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On top of that, about a third people who die in a hospital in the US have sepsis during that hospitalization, the agency says. (Musa, 8/24)

On a Wednesday afternoon in 2012, 12-year-old Rory Staunton got a scrape during a middle-school basketball game. His gym teacher applied two Band-Aids to the cuts on his arm. By Thursday, Rory had a 104-degree fever, vomiting and leg pain, but the emergency room staff at NYU Langone Health suspected dehydration and gave him fluids and anti-nausea medicine. By Friday, the boy was critically ill. By Sunday, he was dead. Hospital records show the cause was severe septic shock. More than a decade later, Rory’s mother, Orlaith Staunton, believes that change may finally be coming, that there may fewer tragedies like this one in the future. (Baumgaertner, 8/24)

West Virginia has the right to block the sale of the abortion drug mifepristone, even though federal regulators have decided the medication is safe, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers is a blow to abortion rights groups that had hoped to strike down state bans using a novel and somewhat arcane legal argument invoking an idea known as "federal preemption." (Flaherty, 8/25)

Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers on Thursday asked South Carolina's top court to reconsider its Wednesday ruling upholding the state's recent ban on abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. In its petition, Planned Parenthood said that the South Carolina Supreme Court had left undecided whether fetal cardiac activity refers to the first regular contractions of heart tissue, which usually occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, or whether it requires the four chambers of the heart to be fully formed - which is usually not until 17 to 20 weeks. (Pierson, 8/24)

When the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a ban on most abortions this week, the majority wrote that they were leaving “for another day” a decision on when, exactly, the “fetal heartbeat” limit begins during pregnancy. Doctors practicing under the strict law cannot similarly punt on that question. Physicians say the statute’s unclear guidance is already chilling medical practice at the few abortion clinics that operate in the conservative state. With potential criminal charges hanging in the balance, most abortions are being halted as doctors wrestle with the murky legal definitions. (Pollard, 8/25)

The Ohio Ballot Board approved language Thursday for a fall measure seeking to establish abortion access as a fundamental right, but one Democratic member blasted it as “rife with misleading and defective language.” Key among opponents’ objections is language developed by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an abortion opponent, amid warnings the language could face a legal challenge even before the proposal goes before Ohio voters in November. (Smyth, 8/24)

As they try to pad their state Supreme Court majority in a presidential battleground, Democrats in Pennsylvania now hope to harness the same voter enthusiasm for protecting abortion rights that has already helped their side to a string of high-profile election victories. Democrats and their allies are bringing up talk of abortion rights at their rallies and in their ads and are casting a contest for a Pennsylvania high court seat as an existential response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority. (Levy, 8/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Republican Debate Highlights Candidates’ Views On Abortion 

Eight Republican hopefuls took the stage Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee for the first debate of the 2024 presidential primary campaign. The eight-way faceoff, generally chaotic and contentious, included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; former Vice President Mike Pence; U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.); former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Trump administration ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Fox News anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier often struggled to keep the evening on track. Former President Donald Trump chose not to attend, leading Baier to refer to him as “the elephant not in the room.” (�鶹Ů�� Health News and PolitiFact staffs, 8/24)

Even as Republicans’ efforts to restrict abortion rights appear to have hurt candidates in key races over the last year, the party’s chairwoman said on Thursday morning that she welcomed the protracted — and at times, contentious — discussion of the topic in the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night. “I was very pleased to see them talk about abortion,” Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, said on “Fox & Friends.” (Gold, 8/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: A Not-So-Health-Y GOP Debate 

The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 cycle took place without front-runner Donald Trump — and with hardly a mention of health issues save for abortion. Meanwhile, in Florida, patients dropped from the Medicaid program are suing the state for not giving them enough notice or a way to contest their being dropped from the program. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Victoria Knight of Axios join �鶹Ů�� Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too. (8/24)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax to be available to the public in mid-September, an agency official told reporters Thursday. That amounts to the most specific timeline to date. Federal officials have said the new shots could arrive around September. CDC Director Mandy Cohen had previously provided a later timeline, telling NPR that the vaccines could be available by the “early October time frame.” (Constantino, 8/25)

Federal health authorities are laying out plans for taking on this year's respiratory viral season, with officials emboldened by the new spate of preventive medications the U.S. has gathered heading into the fall and winter. "We are in our strongest position yet to be able to fight COVID-19 as well as the other viruses that are responsible for the majority of fall and winter hospitalizations, namely flu, COVID as well as RSV," a CDC official said in a press call on Thursday. (Choi, 8/25)

With last fall’s chaotic early start to the respiratory virus season still fresh in the public memory, federal health authorities are trying to move quickly to convey the impression that this year will be different. (Branswell, 8/25)

Pulse oximeters routinely overestimated levels of oxygen in the blood in darker-skinned Covid patients, leading to delays in treatment and hospital readmissions, according to a research article published on Thursday. The research focused on the first years of the coronavirus pandemic, when patients overwhelmed hospitals. At the time, blood-oxygen levels were a key factor in deciding which patients wound up in limited hospital beds and received treatment. (Jewett, 8/24)

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers show that teens born in 2008, who were ages 11 and 12 in 2020, have significant gaps in vaccine coverage for three common  immunizations, including the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine, meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY,) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. (Soucheray, 8/24)

A “rock star” doctor who tested tens of thousands of people for COVID-19 in the pandemic’s early months in a badly-stricken California desert community has pleaded guilty to misbranding cosmetic drugs, authorities said Thursday. Dr. Tien Tan Vo acknowledged in a plea agreement that none of the lip fillers used by his Imperial Valley clinics from November 2016 to October 2020 were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, federal prosecutors said. (8/24)

In its bid to fight cancer, the Biden administration this week announced plans to enlist the mRNA technology made famous by COVID-19 vaccines. The idea is to create a platform of mRNA technologies that could turn the immune system against cancer and other diseases. ... The new research project led by Emory University in Atlanta will receive up to $24 million from the administration's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). (Weintraub, 8/24)

The healthcare industry has suffered fewer but larger cybersecurity breaches in the first half of 2023, suggesting a shift in targets and tactics among attackers, wrote cybersecurity firm Critical Insight in a new report. The 308 healthcare data breaches reported to the federal government from January through June represent a 15% sequential decline from the back half of 2022’s 363, according to the report. (Muoio, 8/24)

Health insurer Cigna Group said on Thursday it would remove the use of prior authorization or paperwork required to get approval for insurance coverage for 25% of medical services. Health insurers have come under pressure as physicians claim that the pre-authorization requirements for some procedures are restrictive and increases their paperwork. (8/24)

A federal appeals court has revived a high-profile class action lawsuit that accuses a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary of improperly denying mental health claims. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday that some policyholders may be entitled to relief from United Behavioral Health, partially reversing an earlier decision. (Tepper, 8/24)

Tens of thousands of workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across the country will soon vote on whether to authorize a strike, union officials announced Thursday. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which includes a dozen local unions with members in seven states and the District of Columbia, said voting would begin Saturday and extend into the middle of September. Any strike would start no earlier than Oct. 1. (Alpert Reyes, 8/24)

Nonprofit healthcare systems are adding or expanding facilities in an effort to keep up with patients' growing demands, despite a challenging operating environment. At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, construction continues on a 17-story UPMC Presbyterian inpatient tower, a $1.5 billion project at the system's Oakland hospital campus that will house 636 beds. The tower, on track to open in 2026, will offer specialty care such as cardiology and neurology, according to UPMC. (Hudson, 8/24)

Nearly two-thirds of Medicare Shared Savings Program accountable care organizations earned shared savings last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday. These ACOs saved Medicare $1.8 billion in 2022, 8.4% more than during the previous year, according to CMS. The proportion of Shared Savings Program ACOs that generated cost reductions increased from 58% to 63%. (Berryman and Tepper, 8/24)

A fourth-year medical student, a music therapist, a child psychiatrist, and a physician-researcher stared at their laptops, puzzling over the combination of words that would make a supposedly intelligent system — NYU Langone’s customized version of ChatGPT — think about health care problems in a way that was useful to them. (Aguilar, 8/25)

Healthcare providers are struggling to get patients to tell them about problems they face outside of the exam room. Providers want patients to tell them about their social needs but confront mistrust, shame and other obstacles to people sharing unflattering details about their personal lives, said Lauren Barca, vice president of quality at 86Borders, a patient engagement vendor. Patients also may not trust what providers will do with the information they collect, she said. (Hartnett, 8/24)

Companies are selling body scans to seemingly healthy patients, promising peace of mind. Traditional medical professionals are concerned about the costs. The financial cost for a preventive scan ranges from $650 to several thousand dollars. Insurance generally doesn’t cover it. Demand for these types of procedures has surged, particularly among the wealthy, healthcare professionals say. (Janin, 8/24)

When the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming care earlier this month, and called for a systematic review of the evidence, some swaths of the public saw the move as casting doubt on the benefits of such care. (Gaffney, 8/25)

In 1972, as Congress promised dialysis and rehabilitation for all kidney failure patients in America, Australia was passing its own law to guarantee universal dialysis coverage. Since then, Australia and America have traveled very different paths, in dialysis and in health care as a whole. (Muller, 8/25)

Wegovy, the blockbuster weight-loss medication from Novo Nordisk A/S, alleviated heart failure symptoms in patients with obesity, according to a late-stage trial that adds to the drug’s potential benefits. A weekly dose reduced patients’ ills that can include shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling in the legs and irregular heartbeat, according to findings published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Muller and Kresge, 8/25)

Young people should be banned from buying tobacco products until they are 22, researchers have suggested after a study found those who start smoking before the age of 20 find it more difficult to quit. Scientists said a rise in the minimum age by governments across the world could reduce nicotine dependence. (Newton, 8/25)

Charles River Laboratories has signed a joint agreement with four entities to enhance protections in South Carolina for horseshoe crabs and a bird that feeds on their eggs, they said on Thursday. The crabs, prized for their milky-blue blood that is used to detect bacterial contamination in intravenous drugs or implants, have been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (8/24)

Simon Bensmaia, a trailblazing neuroscientist working on brain computer interfaces allowing amputees and paralyzed patients to control prosthetic and robotic limbs while simultaneously feeling the natural sensations of touch, died Aug. 11 at his home in Chicago. He was 49.The University of Chicago, where Dr. Bensmaia was a professor of organismal biology and anatomy, announced his death but did not cite a cause. (Rosenwald, 8/24)

The smoke from Canadian wildfires that drifted into the U.S. led to a spike in people with asthma visiting emergency rooms — particularly in the New York area. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published two studies Thursday about the health impacts of the smoke, which shrouded city skylines with an orange haze in late spring. A medical journal also released a study this week. (Stobbe, 8/24)

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arthropod-borne disease surveillance data confirm that West Nile virus remains the most common mosquito-borne disease in the United States, with almost 3,000 cases reported in 2021. The surveillance data shows 3,035 cases of domestic arthropod-borne diseases, including 2,911 of West Nile, 40 cases of La Crosse, 32 cases of Jamestown Canyon, 24 cases of Powassan virus, 17 cases of St. Louis encephalitis, 5 cases of eastern equine encephalitis, and 6 cases of an unspecified California serogroup virus. (Soucheray, 8/24)

On Thursday, Yolo County Public Health officials announced that a resident had died from the disease. It's the county's first West Nile virus death since 2018, officials said. "This tragic death underscores the importance of preventing mosquito bites. While most West Nile virus infections have no symptoms, some people get very sick and may die, especially older adults and people with underlying conditions or weakened immune systems," said Yolo County's Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson in a statement. (Padilla, 8/24)

A half dozen clinicians at Cambridge Health Alliance got the first test alert on June 1. The 83-degree day didn’t trigger an official heat warning in Boston. But in this New England climate, when temperatures rise past the mid-70s, heat-related hospitalizations and deaths rise, too. And, a sudden pre-summer heat surge can be especially bad. (Bebinger, 8/24)

Juan Carlos Baltazar Peña, 28, has worked in the fields since childhood, often exposing his body to extreme heat like the wave hitting the Midwest this week. The heat can cause such deep pain in his whole body that he just wants to lie down, he said, as his body tells him he can’t take another day on the job. On those days, his only motivation to get out of bed is to earn dollars to send to his 10-month-old baby in Mexico. (Tesfaye and Cordero, 8/25)

Sonoma County Health officials have issued a health advisory after a spate of participants in the county’s “Tough Mudder” race reported developing rashes with fevers, nausea, muscle pain and vomiting. In an advisory released Wednesday, health officials urged participants who are experiencing symptoms to seek medical care or visit their local emergency departments. (Vainshtein, 8/24)

Tick-borne diseases have risen dramatically in New Hampshire in the past two decades, but there’s a lack of data about where ticks are found, their numbers, and the pathogens they may carry. Researchers at N.H.’s Hubbard Center for Genome Studies and the University of New Hampshire have landed a new grant from the U.S. Geological Survey that they will use to establish baseline data to answer these questions. The goal is to use that information to protect people and animals from disease. (Gokee, 8/24)

Denver has a reputation for being smelly and having some of the worst air quality in the U.S. Now, add noise pollution to the mix. Too much noise can be terrible for your health. A recent New York Times investigation shows chronic noise — as suffered by residents near flight paths — can shorten life spans. (Alvarez, 8/24)

Scientists in Belgium recently tested dozens of straws from supermarkets, retail stores and fast-food restaurants in the country, and found that the majority contained PFAS — a family of synthetic chemicals used in the manufacture of consumer products because they can resist stains, grease and water. ... The results were published Thursday in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants. (Bendix, 8/25)

Bullying in schools has shot up over the past five years, according to an annual survey by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Years of pandemic disruption have caused students to struggle with stress management, problem solving and peer relationships, the survey found. 40% of child and teen respondents said they were bullied on school campuses in the past year, according to the Youth Right Now survey, conducted annually by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. (Rubin, 8/24)

Pediatricians and other child development experts have spoken out about the risk of emotional harm to the children featured in many of these videos. (Bisset, 8/25)

When it comes to microbiome health, many people focus on the foods that will help the trillions of good bacteria in their guts thrive. But less is known about how other factors like stress and trauma influence our gut health. A provocative study suggests that a mother’s stress may leave a lasting scar on future generations by impacting the makeup of her child’s gut microbiome. (Zimmerman, 8/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: ‘All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens 

Juan Campos has been working to save at-risk teens from gun violence for 16 years. As a street outreach worker in Oakland, California, he has seen the pull and power of gangs. And he offers teens support when they’ve emerged from the juvenile justice system, advocates for them in school, and, if needed, helps them find housing, mental health services, and treatment for substance abuse. (Szabo, 8/25)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Illustrated Report: How Gun Violence Goes Viral 

As chatter and images about guns and violence slip into the social media feeds of more teens, viral messages fueled by “likes” can lead to real-world conflict and loss. This illustrated report has been adapted from a �鶹Ů�� Health News article, “‘All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens,” by Liz Szabo. (Tempest and Szabo, 8/25)

t’s a common term these days, deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors: “Stockholm syndrome.” And it got its name 50 years ago this week, during a failed bank robbery in Sweden’s capital. Stockholm syndrome — dubbed by its founder “Norrmalmstorg syndrome,” after the square where the bank heist took place — has since been used in connection with hostage-takings around the world, including the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s. (Ritter and Olsen, 8/25)

The source of desire has long been elusive, the stuff of poets and musicians. Now, Stanford University researchers have found it doesn’t live in the heart but in a very specific set of cells in the brain. They have located the cellular circuitry that drives the passion of male mice, and learned how to turn it on and off – a discovery that could lead to new treatments and deepen our understanding of this most primal force. (Krieger, 8/24)

At the beginning of the next fiscal year, certain immigrants who have been granted green cards will also have access to Medicaid in Michigan. One advocate estimates the change will impact only about 3,000 people in Michigan. Not all green card holders will have access to Medicaid, as there will still be a five-year waiting period for many. (Meyers, 8/24)

Nearly 68,400 people in North Carolina have lost Medicaid since the state resumed terminations in June, with the vast majority being kicked off the rolls for what are essentially paperwork issues. The purge follows the expiration of the continuous coverage requirement, a federal provision that prevented states from disenrolling Medicaid participants — old and newly qualified recipients — for the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Baxley, 8/25)

Since opening in December 2021, there has not been a single hospital-acquired infection at Mon Health Marion Neighborhood Hospital in White Hall, W. Va.. "Achieving over 600 days without a hospital acquired infection is no small task," Alison Gwynne, infection preventionist at the hospital, said in an Aug. 23 news release. "It takes the whole team, from the moment that a patient is admitted, to recognizing symptoms, early testing, and communication to have this success."  (Carbajal, 8/24)

West Texas is home to endless miles of plains filled with oil field machinery, wind turbines, farms and ranches. But what’s not always available in the deep stretches of empty plains and state highways are hospitals and emergency rooms — leaving the people who live there or traveling without immediate care in their time of incredible need. (Carver, 8/25)

Insurance companies in New Hampshire can no longer require their members to get prior authorization before getting coverage for emergency mental health or substance use care when it is provided by a mobile crisis team, outside a licensed hospital. The new law, Senate Bill 85, is intended to make it easier for people to get insurance coverage for crisis care immediately, outside the emergency room, without having to wait for an insurance company’s approval. (Timmins, 8/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California Offers Lifeline To 17 Troubled Hospitals

Madera Community Hospital in California’s Central Valley, which ceased operations last December and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, moved a step closer to reopening Thursday when California’s new fund for troubled hospitals said it was prepared to offer the facility up to $52 million in interest-free loans. The program is offering an additional $240.5 million in no-interest loans to 16 other troubled hospitals, including Beverly Community Hospital in Montebello and Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister, both of which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. (Wolfson, 8/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California’s Medical Board Can’t Pay Its Bills, But Doctors Resist Proposed Fixes

California doctors and state lawmakers are squaring off once again over the future of the Medical Board of California, which is responsible for licensing and disciplining doctors and has been criticized by patient advocates for years for being too lax. A bill before the legislature would significantly increase the fees doctors pay to fund the medical board, which says it hasn’t had the budget to carry out its mission properly. It would also mandate new procedures for investigating complaints. (Sciacca, 8/25)

Charmaine Branchaud can see the stories of Red Lake Nation students in the data. Branchaud says the work to improve Red Lake School District’s immunization rates began as she sifted through paper records. The data allowed her to understand student health needs.  “I wanted to see if we had any frequent fliers,” she said, referring to children who often require health care. “It could be a red flag for something else going on in a student’s life.” (Olson, 8/25)

Rosandria Williams, a 32-year-old Boston native, was excited to experience the joys of motherhood. But in a devastating turn of events, she lost her first child to preeclampsia, a disorder that can lead to serious and even fatal complications for both the mother and baby, and affects Black women in the United States at a rate 60 percent higher than white women. (Obregón Dominguez, 8/24)

‘I froze,’ the woman said, thinking back on the day she was raped during a military exercise a few summers ago. It had been a long, hot day of training — marching into the hills, carrying heavy packs, eating M.R.E.s. Her group had been honing their navigation skills, figuring out how to get from one place to another as quickly as possible with only a compass and points, all while avoiding ambushes and snakes. (Percy, 8/22)

Their former colleagues and collaborators have turned on them; they are hounded by lobbyists and campaigners; and in some cases, the accusations have led them to question whether their work is helping or harming people. That’s been the reality faced by scientists, public health experts, and doctors working on e-cigarette research. Experts have described being ridiculed publicly, bullied by colleagues, and accused of being in the pocket of industry in their quest to investigate the benefits and harms of e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, it’s a boon for industry lobbyists, who can co-opt supportive messages from independent researchers and dismiss negative ones as relying on bad science. (Furlong, 8/21)

In Newburgh, New York, an ambulance had raced Maurice “Mo” Miller to the hospital after he collapsed, a mass in his brain. He never woke up from the biopsy, brain-dead at just 57. Next steps were up to his sister, his closest relative. Mary Miller-Duffy asked about donating his organs but he didn’t qualify. That biopsy had found cancer. Only then did the organ agency broach whole-body donation. Miller-Duffy wasn’t familiar with that, but the goal of improving kidney transplants, “that kind of struck a chord.” Another brother had died of kidney disease as a toddler. Other relatives have kidney-damaging illnesses or even died on dialysis. (Neergaard and Lum, 8/19)

The conversation surrounding parenting and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) often focuses on how parents can teach their kids to avoid getting one. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STI rates are especially high among people between the ages of 15 and 24. What happens when a teen does get an STI, and how can parents proceed? Ahead, moms who have gone through it share how they handled the news, and what they wish they'd done differently. (Sylvester, 8/23)

For many trans people, clothes are their first step in transitioning. But shopping in traditional stores is often intimidating and disappointing. If they’re just starting to transition, they may not know what clothes they’re looking for. During the biweekly Trans Thrive events — Folk and Swagger for trans men and She Boutique for trans women; both events are also open to gender-nonconforming people — clients browse new clothes donated by manufacturers or stores with extra inventory, plus accessories like shoes, purses, chest binders and bras. Staff stand to the side, ready to offer advice or encouragement. (Allday, 8/20)

Dawson Broad had been the starting quarterback for his suburban Buffalo high school, but he hadn’t played any sports since 2021, when, on his 23rd birthday, he had dived into an aboveground swimming pool and damaged his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed. Then, last October, one of Broad’s physical therapists urged him to attend a local wheelchair football game. Broad was skeptical. He had spent long months of grueling rehabilitation regaining use of his left arm so that he could push a wheelchair. He wondered, What would touch football on wheels look like anyway? (Higgins, 8/22)

Theme parks, airlines and other businesses are stepping up efforts to weed out abuse by opportunists pretending to be disabled to save money or cut long lines. Companies looking to stem the abuse increasingly are turning to nonprofits or credentialing agencies to determine who qualifies for exemptions. ... Disabled travelers say they create additional burdens when they travel. (Passy, 8/23)

It was June 2016, and almost a year had passed since Stephen Brearey, the lead doctor at a neonatal unit in northwest England, first became concerned about a spate of troubling and unexpected deaths on his ward. Five babies had died, and at least six others had experienced unusual complications. The neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital cared for premature and vulnerable babies, but the number of deaths was far above average for the unit. Something was desperately wrong. (Specia, 8/23)

The U.N. is spending over 20 times more money than usual on fuel for generators to keep millions of vaccines in Niger from spoiling due to incessant power cuts. The outages are the result of severe economic and travel sanctions imposed by regional countries after mutinous soldiers toppled the country’s president last month. Country representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Niger, Stefano Savi, told The Associated Press on Monday that it has spent $200,000 powering generators to keep vaccines, including for polio and rotavirus, across the country cold during the first three weeks of August. That’s up from approximately $10,000 a month previously and might soon run out of money, he said. (Mednick, 8/21)

Alzheimer’s disease was first named and described in 1910. It is disgraceful that for most of the 20th century, the disease was underfunded by the government, neglected by most of the medical community and ignored by Big Pharma. It was not until 1994, more than 80 years after the disease was discovered, that the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for Alzheimer’s. (Cory Franklin and Victoria Tiller, 8/25)

While some people have specific circumstances prompting them to get a shot now, most Americans can wait until the updated booster is released in late September to early October. (Leana S. Wen, 8/24)

Two new studies published simultaneously in the journal Nature document a leap forward in the race to teach computers to translate brain signals into text. It’s an exciting development in a field that is attracting millions in investment, including to Elon Musk’s brain-implant company, Neuralink Corp. (Lisa Jarvis, 8/24)

Advancements in LLMs such as ChatGPT and GPT-4 have generated substantial excitement. Many see these models as assistants or even potential replacements for time-intensive tasks, like patient-physician communication through the electronic health record. Designed to serve numerous downstream applications, these models convert data into representations that are useful for multiple tasks. As a result, they have been labeled “foundation models.” (Jenna Wiens, Rada Mihalcea and Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, 8/25)