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Seven years in the making, a nationwide network to exchange patient data called the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement is now operational, marking a critical step in establishing universal connectivity across providers. The interoperability framework, called TEFCA, was mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act back in 2016 and was designed to create an infrastructure to enable data sharing between health information networks. (Landi, 12/12)

The TEFCA launch represents a milestone in the long journey toward national health data interoperability, said HHS Secretary Xavier Beccera at a news conference. The creation of TEFCA was required by the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law in December 2016 by President Barack Obama. But Micky Tripathi, national coordinator for health IT, said the government’s vision for a national exchange of health information dates back nearly 20 years to when ONC was established in 2004 under President George W. Bush. (Perna, 12/12)

Nearly half of the 5 million veterans that have been screened by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under a new law have reported at least one possible exposure to toxic substances during their military service. Announcing the 5 million screening milestone, the VA revealed that 2.1 million veterans — or 43 percent of those screened — were potentially exposed to such substances during their service. (Frazin, 12/12)

The screening covers a number of various toxic exposures, although the two most commonly reported exposures are to Agent Orange — a widespread problem from the Vietnam War — and burn pits. (Watson, 12/12)

Hundreds of drinking water wells near military bases or other facilities in Washington have been contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, according to a Seattle Times analysis of the past two years of test results published by the military. So far, the military has confirmed the release of these "forever chemicals," named for their pervasiveness in the environment, at 10 military installments in the state, many of them near the Salish Sea. (Villa, 12/12)

MAPS Public Benefit Corp. filed an application on Tuesday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the psychedelic drug MDMA — also known as Ecstasy — in combination with therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, in what would be the first treatment of its kind. The filing is a milestone in researchers’ quest to move psychedelic drugs from tightly restricted substances into mainstream medical treatments that are widely accessible to patients. It comes after decades of studies have demonstrated the promise of psychedelics — including psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, and ketamine — to treat mental health disorders. (Gilbert and Ovalle, 12/12)

“Our goal is to make medicines that are derived from psychedelics that are safer and gentler, more effective and more accessible,” said Matthew Baggott, former director of data science and engineering at Genentech, whose Palo Alto-based startup Tactogen has patented several novel MDMA, or “Ecstasy,” molecules that offer spiritual and personal insights with less heart-racing anxiety and euphoria. (Krieger, 12/12)

A recent report from Data Bridge Market Research projects that the global market for pharmaceutical psychedelics will reach $6.4 billion by 2030. (Krieger, 12/12)

A study today of viral shedding dynamics in 101 children who had COVID-19 during the Omicron surge in Toronto shows that 40% were still infectious on the day after their symptoms resolved. Moreover, rapid antigen tests (RATs) were often negative early in the course of illness, and thus cannot be relied on to exclude infection, they authors say. The study is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Soucheray, 12/12)

Respiratory viruses are rebounding in the United States on the precipice of the end-of-year holidays, with emergency room visits for covid-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus collectively reaching their highest levels since February. Among the three, covid continues to be the biggest driver of hospitalizations, settling into a familiar rhythm of causing periodic waves without wreaking havoc on the health-care system as it once did. Hospitals reported more than 22,000 new covid admissions the week ending Dec. 2, the highest since the peak of the summer wave in September. (Nirappil, 12/12)

New data shows that Americans living in four key states — Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska — are suffering the highest prevalence of COVID-19 infections in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Mayer, 12/12)

Ron DeSantis cited a scientific journal as evidence Florida had a lower COVID death rate than California. The study's author says that's not the whole story. (Lin II, 12/13)

Two Melbourne-made COVID-19 vaccines have shown strong potential to be an improved approach for boosting immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants according to interim results of a Phase 1 clinical trial. ... The two vaccine candidates are distinct from most existing vaccines that are in use around the globe because they focus the immune response on the tip of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, called the receptor binding domain (RBD). (12/12)

For an hour Tuesday, six justices of the Arizona Supreme Court questioned attorneys in a high-profile case that could either protect, or effectively erase, a woman's right to obtain an abortion in the state. Four lawyers argued two sides of the case. All were men. It was a noticeable approach in a consequential case when the broader policy discussion about abortion often focuses on the rights of women to make their own healthcare decisions. Supporters of abortion access argue the government has no role in such choices, and the decision should be between a woman and her doctor. (Barchenger, 12/12)

The New Mexico Supreme Court is weighing whether to strike down local abortion restrictions by conservative cities and counties at the request of the attorney general for the state where abortion laws are among the most liberal in the country. Oral arguments were scheduled for Wednesday in Santa Fe. At least four state supreme courts are grappling with abortion litigation this week in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to rescind the constitutional right to abortion. (Lee, 12/13)

New Hampshire lawmakers will again consider competing proposals to either protect or restrict abortion rights next year. This will be the second legislative session since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending protections for abortion under the federal constitution. Earlier this year, a series of abortion-related bills – some expanding access, others limiting it – failed in the Republican-controlled legislature. On Monday, Democratic lawmakers announced a push to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. (Cuno-Booth, 12/12)

A Kentucky woman who filed a class action last week challenging the state's near-total ban on abortion is no longer pregnant, her lawyers said Tuesday, calling for more plaintiffs to carry the case forward. Lawyers for the woman at Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement that the woman learned her embryo no longer had cardiac activity after she filed the lawsuit on Friday. (Pierson, 12/12)

Near the tip of the top of the state, Amarillo is far from the Capitol in Austin, Dallas’ busy downtown, and Houston’s congested highways. The “floating” city in the Panhandle is often forgotten by much of the state, residents say. Most of the country has never heard of their home. That changed when the Amarillo City Council took up a proposed abortion travel ban in October. The debate put an unfamiliar spotlight on the city — activists flocked to Amarillo, national organizations joined local efforts, and council members' phones rang off the hook. (Carver, 12/13)

Kate Cox, whose fetus had a fatal condition, did not qualify for an abortion in Texas: not after four emergency room visits, elevated vital signs, risks of a uterine rupture and with her ability to have more children in jeopardy. The Texas Supreme Court’s rejection of the mother of two’s request for an exception under the state’s restrictive ban has laid bare the high threshold women in many states must meet to get the procedure: pregnancy complications that pose life-threatening danger to the mother. (Weber and Stengle, 12/12)

The sudden collapse of SmileDirectClub has stranded users of its clear-plastic, removable teeth aligners — in some cases just weeks after they were given a discount for paying up front. Customers experiencing problems with their treatment will not be able to get new aligners, treatment, or other support from the company. (Bomey, 12/12)

Medicare Advantage beneficiaries on Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the health insurance giant Humana illegally used an algorithm to prematurely cut off payment for rehabilitation care after patients suffered serious illnesses and injuries. (Ross and Herman, 12/12)

The vast majority of American patients are wary of how their doctor may use generative AI to help treat them, according to a new Wolters Kluwer Health survey. The technology is still in limited use in physician offices — mostly to help with administrative tasks — but one day may help doctors make diagnoses or develop care plans. (Reed, 12/13)

Kaiser Permanente has joined the growing number of health systems cutting back their IT teams. The Oakland, California-based health system confirmed it eliminated 115 workers from IT positions last month. Kaiser declined to specify how many IT employees were retained or provide detail about the roles and locations affected. (Turner, 12/12)

Nurses and staff members held separate rallies at Seton Medical Center in Daly City on Tuesday morning, calling for decisions to cut jobs to be overturned and for their benefits to be increased. ... "AHMC is the worst operator we've ever seen at Seton," Christina Caradis, a radiologic technologist who has worked at the hospital for 26 years, said in a press release. "They're not able to provide basic needs for the hospital or patients." (12/12)

A group of New York hospitals and health care centers were targeted in a cyberattack that for two months allowed hackers to access patients' private information, officials said this week. ... HealthAlliance, Inc., the corporate parent of the three facilities, said Monday that it "began mailing notification letters to patients whose information may have been involved in a data security incident." (Czachor, 12/12)

The future of education is here at North Shore Community College where surgical technology students are using virtual reality to learn procedures in simulated operating rooms. "It's game changing for these students. They're so much more prepared to go to clinical," program coordinator, Jennifer Forte told WBZ-TV. She said there's a nationwide critical shortage of surgical technologists and this enhances their program to get more students into the field. (Kincade, 12/12)

Nemours Children’s Health plans to launch a pediatric hospital-at-home program next year, despite questions about how it will be reimbursed for home-based care.The program would provide acute home-based care to patients within a 40-mile radius of the health system’s two hospitals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Orlando, Florida, said Dr. Eric Jackson, chief innovation officer. The care would include remote patient monitoring, telehealth and in-person visits to children with urgent, short-term illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus, Covid-19, bronchitis and influenza. (Eastabrook, 12/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: As Foundation For ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis Cracks, Fallout Spreads 

When Angelo Quinto’s family learned that officials blamed his 2020 death on “excited delirium,” a term they had never heard before, they couldn’t believe it. To them, it was obvious the science behind the diagnosis wasn’t real. Quinto, 30, had been pinned on the ground for at least 90 seconds by police in California and stopped breathing. He died three days later. (Rayasam, Hawryluk and Young, 12/13)

North Carolina children insured through Medicaid will remain covered for another year as the state works its way through recertifications of everyone on the program. Health experts praise the move, which they say should help protect children from losing coverage over procedural issues when they would otherwise still be eligible during the process known as the “unwinding,” where states have been disenrolling people who gained Medicaid during the pandemic. (Fernandez, 12/13)

An Arlington County doctor who prosecutors said “flooded” Virginia with more than 1 million oxycodone pills she prescribed over a decade was convicted Tuesday of a drug distribution conspiracy. Kirsten Van Steenberg Ball testified at her trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that she kept prescribing oxycodone to patients who failed drug tests, shared pills with others in violation of criminal laws or neglected to provide documentation that she requested. An undercover FBI agent testified that he kept obtaining oxycodone prescriptions from Ball after all of those lapses. (Rizzo, 12/12)

In a statement on Tuesday, Dec, 12, the U.S. General Services Administration Great Lakes Region said water testing on Nov. 8 determined elevated levels of the bacteria in specific test points. "Immediately after receiving these test results, GSA notified building occupants, shut off the affected water outlets, and restricted access to the outlets. In addition, GSA is continuing to flush water through these points while developing a full building water flushing and sampling testing plan," a GSA spokesperson said in the statement. (Booth-Singleton, 12/12)

Florida is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a district judge’s ruling in a decade-long battle about children with complex medical needs receiving care in nursing homes, describing a key part of the ruling as an “arbitrary and unachievable” goal. A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled Jan. 24 to hear arguments in the state’s appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks that the Florida Medicaid program violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Saunders, 12/12)

Florida officials leveled sanctions — including a fine — on a Broward County high school Tuesday for allowing a transgender female student who was born as a biological male to play on the girls’ volleyball team. Carried out by the Florida High School Athletic Association, the move is a substantial one for the state, marking what appears the be the first time a school has been penalized over the 2021 “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender women and girls from competing in women’s and girls’ sports. (Atterbury, 12/12)

It was February 10, 2020, just weeks away from the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down statehouses and halting any legislation from moving forward. But on that day, the South Dakota legislature was poised to vote on House Bill 1057, a measure to ban gender-affirming care for youth. Dozens of bills just like this one had been introduced in other statehouses. South Dakota, with its deep red House and Senate and conservative governor, was seen as a bellwether. Passing HB 1057 would lay the groundwork for its many siblings nationwide. (Sosin, 12/12)

Wyoming State Parks has a new way to make sure bumpy trails or steep inclines don’t keep people from spending time enjoying the outdoors – the TrackMaster Series 2 mobility chair. Instead of traditional wheels, the motorized device has big, durable rubber tracks, which helps it go places where normal wheelchairs can’t. The agency is one of 18 state parks across the country to receive the chair through a grant from the Ford Bronco Wild Fund and administered by the America’s State Parks Foundation. The goal is to increase access to parks and outdoor recreation opportunities for those with mobility challenges. (Habermann, 12/12)

Hepatitis A is on the rise among homeless people and those who use illicit drugs in Massachusetts, state health officials said Tuesday. The highly contagious virus and liver infection was discovered in six people last month in three counties surrounding Boston — Suffolk, Norfolk and Plymouth — as well as in Hampden County in western Massachusetts, they said. No deaths were reported, but some patients were hospitalized, the state Public Health Department said in a statement. Four of the six patients are men 36 and older. (Romero, 12/13)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Millions In Opioid Settlement Funds Sit Untouched As Overdose Deaths Rise

Nearly a year after Montana began receiving millions of dollars to invest in efforts to combat the opioid crisis, much of that money remains untouched. Meanwhile, the state’s opioid overdose and death counts continue to rise. The money is part of the approximately $50 billion that states and local governments will receive nationwide in opioid settlement funds over nearly two decades. The payments come from more than a dozen companies that made, distributed, or sold prescription opioid painkillers that were sued for their role in fueling the overdose epidemic. (Houghton and Pattani, 12/13)

Children with obesity should receive intensive counseling to promote healthy diet and exercise habits starting at age 6, according to a draft recommendation issued by a panel of U.S. experts on Wednesday. The government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) had recommended in 2017 that screening for obesity start at age 6. Research since then has shown the effectiveness of intensive behavioral interventions - defined as at least 26 hours of counseling with one or more health professionals - for achieving a healthy weight and improving the quality of life for children and adolescents, the panel said. The recommendation did not specify a timeframe. (Lapid, 12/12)

Things are not necessarily better for American women today than they were for their mothers and grandmothers, according to a new report. In recent years, the most important markers of women’s safety and health have declined, the data showed. The Population Reference Bureau created an index of women’s well-being, identifying the factors that best indicated the general status of poverty, education, incarceration, political representation, physical and mental health, and participation in the labor force. (Holcombe, 12/11)

Women who use marijuana during pregnancy may be putting their babies’ health at risk, with risk increasing as use goes up, a new study suggests.An analysis of data from more than 9,000 moms-to-be from across the U.S. revealed that cannabis exposure during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of unhealthy outcomes, especially low birth weight. Moreover, the more cannabis moms-to-be consumed, the higher the risk, according to the report, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Carroll, 12/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute' 

This week on the �鶹Ů�� Health News Minute: People seeking food and cash assistance are getting lost in the bureaucracy as states purge their Medicaid rolls, and a tip for how listeners can avoid pricey bills for routine bloodwork. (12/12)

A new state health report pinpoints racism as a public health crisis while also noting Illinois needs to improve in the areas of maternal and infant health, mental health and substance use disorders. The broad goals are laid out in a draft of the State Health Improvement Plan, which will be finalized and presented to the Illinois General Assembly next year. The SHIP is part of Healthy Illinois 2028, a five-year plan outlining the major public health crises the state hopes to address. (Raju, 12/13)

Overcrowding at Virginia’s public psychiatric hospitals is creating unsafe conditions for patients and workers, prompting a staff exodus and causing delays in care for those in crisis, according to a comprehensive study of the system. The 159-page report by a body that oversees state agencies for the General Assembly found breakdowns in many facets of the nine-hospital system and recommended closing a troubled facility for children despite a decade of changes aimed at bolstering how the state cares for some of its most vulnerable residents. (Jouvenal and Portnoy, 12/12)

Sonoma County is expanding its mobile mental health crisis response teams to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will create a dedicated hotline and dispatch center by the end of the year. ... "Up until now, the mobile support teams are accessed by the public through 911. And many times the public is not very excited, a lot of our clients at least, are not too excited to be calling the police when they're having a crisis" Jan Cobaleda-Kegler, director of the Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division, told the county's Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday. (12/12)

A student’s quick action in making a report to Colorado’s anonymous Safe2Tell program stopped a suicide attempt in progress in a child’s home, state officials revealed Tuesday. A peer who saw another student’s social media post about wanting to kill themselves made a report to the school safety program, which resulted in police officers driving to the student’s home. They found the student “actively attempting suicide” and took the student to a hospital, according to information released by the state Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the Safe2Tell program. (Brown, 12/12)

Eisai said on Wednesday its Alzheimer's drug Leqembi will launch in Japan on Dec. 20 following its inclusion on the National Health Insurance price list. Intravenous treatment of the drug, co-developed with U.S. partner Biogen, will cost about 2.98 million yen ($20,438) per patient per year, based on a Japanese health ministry panel ruling the same day. ... The drug is priced at about $26,500 in the United States, where it gained full approval in July. Leqembi was given the nod by Japanese regulators in September. (12/13)

Japan's health ministry on Wednesday reported the country's first fatality from mpox. The patient was a man in his 30s with a prior infection with HIV and no travel history, the ministry said in a statement. (12/13)

At Nasser Medical Complex in central Khan Younis, what head ICU nurse Dr. Samer Mansour describes can hardly be called a functioning hospital — no syringes, no gauze, no medications. There is not enough water and electricity from generators is spotty, at best, he says. There are four patients for each of the hospital's 300 beds, resulting in many patients being forced to lie in the corridors. Mansour estimates that 20,000 others are using the hospital grounds simply as shelter from the fighting. In the hospital's ICU, Mansour says he's afraid to leave patients on mechanical ventilator support. "I can't leave because they will die," he says. (Baba and Neuman, 12/12)

A senior doctor in northern Gaza says that dozens of medical staffers at his hospital have been taken to an undisclosed location by the Israeli military, as the enclave’s wider healthcare system teeters on the edge of collapse. Dr. Hossam Abu-Safia, head of pediatrics at Kamal Adwan Hospital, told CNN in a phone interview that the area where the facility is located saw particularly heaving bombing on Tuesday followed by the arrival of Israeli troops, describing the situation as “very dangerous.” (Dahman, Lister and John, 12/13)

The year 2022 set a grim record — 1,989 attacks on health-care facilities and their personnel, the worst total number in the decade since the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition began its sobering count.This year is on track to be even more devastating for the toll on health care. In many of the world's ongoing conflicts — like Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and now between Israel and Hamas — health care has been a target. The reasons for this may differ from conflict to conflict but the end result is an affront to international humanitarian law, written to protect health care in times of war. (Daniel, 12/12)

Draped in a kachhad, a traditional Nepalese cotton garment wrapped around the waist, 28-year-old Umesh Balal walked into his meetings at the COP28 conference in Dubai with a sense of determination. He is there to advocate for inclusion of disability rights in the climate change agenda — an aspect that he says has long been ignored by organizers of the world's largest annual meeting on climate issues. Balal, who has dwarfism, has dedicated himself to making sure all kinds of marginalized voices are heard in discussions about climate change. (Kumar, 12/12)

Pope Francis, who has shunned much of the Vatican's pomp and privilege, has decided to vastly simplify the elaborate funeral rites for a pontiff and be the first one to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century. The pope, who turns 87 on Sunday, disclosed plans for his funeral in an interview with Mexico's N+ television on Tuesday evening to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. (Pullella, 12/13)

French pharma company Sanofi scrapped a $750 million drug licensing deal with California-based Maze Therapeutics, just hours after the FTC sued to block the arrangement. This is a significant, and de facto successful, expansion of the Biden administration's "killer acquisition" theory, to a drug that's still in the early stages of development. (Primack, 12/12)

When Sanofi terminated its partnership with Maze Therapeutics this week to develop an experimental drug for Pompe disease, Maze CEO Jason Coloma did not learn the news in a conference call with the French pharma giant or even an email. He found out when Sanofi issued a public statement. (Feuerstein, 12/12)

Pfizer said on Tuesday it expects to close its $43 billion deal to buy cancer drugmaker Seagen later this week and plans to create a new oncology division that includes the acquisition early next year. Pfizer also said Chief Commercial Officer Angela Hwang would step down, and that it will split the its commercial business, not including oncology, into two divisions, one focused on the United States and the other on the rest of the world. (Erman and Mishra, 12/12)

The sickle cell community has for the past few days been buzzing with news of the first-ever approved gene therapies for the devastating disease. Meanwhile, researchers at the American Society of Hematology meeting on Tuesday are reporting advances in a less expensive and more established strategy proven to cure patients: bone marrow transplant. (Wosen, 12/12)

Two gene therapies were approved for sickle cell disease last week, but for many researchers the Holy Grail remains something far more modest: A pill. Only the pharmacists’ oldest tool, they say, can actually have an impact on the scale of sickle cell. The gene therapies, with the risks and hospital stays and bespoke manufacturing they entail, won’t be an option for the vast majority of U.S. patients or for virtually any of the 20 million patients across the Global South. A pill could be distributed everywhere, as HIV medicines are. (Mast, 12/13)

Some patients with type 2 diabetes say they are having more difficulty getting reimbursed for drugs like Ozempic as U.S. insurers implement restrictions designed to deter doctors from prescribing the medication for weight loss. Novo Nordisk confirmed in a recent email that it is seeing tighter health plan management of GLP-1 drugs including Ozempic and is working to minimize disruption for type 2 diabetes patients. The trend has contributed to a recent dip in U.S. prescriptions, an executive at the Danish drugmaker said at an investor conference last month. (Beasley, 12/12)

One of the toughest subtypes of acute leukemia involves a genetic alteration in the KMT2A gene. Many cancers with this genetic alteration end up relapsing or don’t respond to treatment, but new data presented at the annual American Society of Hematology meeting offer hope of a new targeted therapy for these patients. (Chen, 12/12)

The meds Shelby Campbell needed for her rare blood disorder stopped working just after her sixth birthday. She lost her appetite and was often doubled over in pain. She continued getting blood transfusions but her doctors struggled to manage side effects that threatened her organs. By the time she turned 7, the doctors told her parents they had to do something — soon. (Trang, 12/13)

French biopharmaceutical company Antabio announced today that it has raised $25 million in financing to continue development of a next-generation antibacterial combination for severe drug-resistant infections. (Dall, 12/12)

An unexpectedly high percentage of children, who were born with HIV and started treatment within 48 hours of life, exhibit biomarkers by 2 years of age that may make them eligible to test for medication-free remission, according to a multinational study. (Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, 12/7)

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had agreed to buy respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine developer Icosavax in a deal valued at up to $1.1 billion. Icosavax is developing a combination vaccine candidate targeting RSV and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). RSV is a leading cause of pneumonia in toddlers and the elderly, while hMPV causes very similar respiratory tract infections. (Shabong, 12/12)

A landmark study has shown that severe asthma can be controlled using biologic therapies, without the addition of regular high-dose inhaled steroids which can have significant side effects. (King's College London, 12/8)

Personalized treatment for the most common form of adult leukemia helps patients survive for longer and stay in remission, a phase III trial has found. Adult patients were given a combination of cancer growth blocking drugs over varied durations depending on how rapidly their disease responded.   More than 19 in 20 patients were in remission three years after starting treatment -- a significant improvement in progression-free and overall survival compared to standard treatment. (University of Leeds, 12/10)

The current class of anti-obesity drugs is proving remarkably effective at removing excess pounds. However, a phase 3 randomized clinical trial found that people who stopped taking the medication regained much of that weight within a year. At the same time, the study shows that remaining on the drug not only promotes additional weight loss but preserves improvements in metabolic and cardiovascular health. (Weill Cornell Medicine, 12/11)

Last month, I was invited to visit the Teletón Children’s Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Texas, to participate in the Teletón USA solidarity program, which will be broadcast on Dec. 16 on Univision. Everything was going according to plan until I arrived at the hotel and realized I had forgotten the medication my doctor prescribed for me to fall asleep. I suffer from insomnia. (Mario Kreutzberger, 12/8)

After years of working to find solutions and deliver resources to our communities to combat the substance use disorder epidemic, Congress finally made progress in 2018. For the first time, we passed into law a comprehensive, bipartisan legislative package aimed at mitigating the harmful effects of opioids, largely driven by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family's deceptive and aggressive marketing of OxyContin. In the five years since it was signed into law, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) Act has been a critical guidebook for health care workers, law enforcement personnel, and policymakers to respond to this crisis on the front lines. (David Trone, Brian Fitzpatrick, Ann McLane Kuster, and Lisa McClain, 12/12)

Raina Mcmahan, a 42-year-old recovery coach, spent roughly half her life seeking treatment for her own opioid use disorder. She tried detoxing multiple times at different inpatient facilities, but those programs usually discharged her after a week or two without any follow-up care. (Jeneen Interlandi, 12/13)

It all started with individuals being hooked on opioids that were prescribed for them, most famously the OxyContin that Purdue recklessly marketed to mostly unwitting physicians. As the Sacklers wrung every penny they could from their company, and prescription opioids became more expensive and harder to obtain, those addicts increasingly fed their habits with illegal street drugs — first heroin and, later, the dangerous synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. (12/11)

Women of Texas, now you know: The state’s abortion law will not protect you in the case of a medical emergency. Not only will the state’s attorney general come after you, the all-Republican, Texas Supreme Court will contort itself to find that your situation doesn’t constitute an emergency that would allow an abortion to proceed. Never mind what your doctors say — courts know best, even as they purport to be deferring to medical judgment. (Ruth Marcus, 12/13)

For more than a year here in Texas, women in Kate Cox’s position have had to navigate a legal hell. The Dallas-area woman and her husband, Justin, already had two children at home when they received the news no parents want to hear. Her weeks-old fetus had an almost certain fatal condition: trisomy 18. She had to visit the emergency room four times due to severe symptoms. Her doctor told her that the pregnancy could risk her future fertility, but an abortion wasn’t possible in Texas without permission from the courts. (12/12)

More than two years ago, when the Legislature passed a near total ban on abortion, with vague exceptions for the health of the mother, we wrote that “the recently enacted Texas law isn’t going to improve this country’s long-simmering debate over abortion. It’s more likely to mire us in conflict and legal chaos.” And here we are. The law was not only poorly written, it wasn’t designed to change the hearts of those who view the right to abortion differently from the state’s most conservative lawmakers and citizens. It was instead crafted in a way sure to collide with the moral complexity that abortion represents. (12/13)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his supporters are not seeking to protect the unborn by opposing Kate Cox’s bid to obtain an abortion and Amanda Zurawski’s and others’ lawsuit to clarify Texas’ ambiguous abortion ban. Rather, they are revealing the real purpose behind their alleged efforts to “protect life.” (Laura Hermer, 12/13)

The way we talk about the world shapes our experience of the world. In 2022, the researchers Lucy Foulkes and Jack L. Andrews coined the term prevalence inflation to describe the way that some people, especially young people, consume so much information about anxiety disorders that they begin to process normal problems of living as signs of a decline in mental health. “If people are repeatedly told that mental health problems are common and that they might experience them … they might start to interpret any negative thoughts and feelings through this lens,” Foulkes and Andrews write. (Derek Thompson, 12/13)

No one ever feels truly “ready” for a pregnancy, but for a significant portion of our female population – those without access to quality women’s health care – the dangers of pregnancy are heightened if not paired with compassionate, medically accurate care.  And receiving that care early is critical. (Kailey Cornett, 12/12)

I had a persistent small growth on the back of my scalp. After a year, I decided to have it removed, concerned that it could be cancerous. It was less than one-half inch in size. (Wayne Kaniewskl, 12/12)

Thanks to tax preferences dating back two generations, patients have come to expect most medical treatment and procedures — even routine prescriptions — to be covered by health insurance. Consequently, insurers wield far more economic clout than patients do. Providers — doctors, hospitals, urgent care facilities — are forced to accommodate the demands of insurance companies, since it is they who pay the tab. (Jeff Jacoby, 12/13)

Roughly 65 million adult Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Some 16 million suffer from a major one. Fifty-five million Americans struggle with substance abuse of some kind. And 15 million Americans have reported serious thoughts of suicide (costing us nearly 50,000 American lives last year). The more concerning statistic to me is that less than half of the 65 million suffering from a mental illness will seek help, and about 5% of those with a substance issue will. (Jacob Durst, 12/12)

Every day, thousands of individuals across the United States call 911 due to concern about someone who is intoxicated in public. Their concern is warranted: The potential harms from public intoxication are significant. They are at risk of being the target of assault, violence, or theft or may suffer injury or death from an underlying health condition. In addition to risk of death in custody, there may also be a heightened danger for some racial or ethnic groups when law enforcement becomes involved. (Shannon Smith-Bernardin, 12/13)