Category: 4. Health

The Trump administration is taking steps to limit family planning services both domestically and internationally. When the most drastic Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect at the end of next year and Affordable Care Act premium subsidies expire at the end of 2025, many low-income American women of reproductive age could lose access to birth control along with other health…

A panel convened in July 2025 by the Food and Drug Administration sparked controversy by casting doubt about the safety of commonly used antidepressants during pregnancy. But it also raised the broader issue of how little is known about the safety of many medications used in pregnancy, considering the implications for both mother and child – and how understudied this topic is.

In the U.S., the average pregnant patient takes four prescription medications, and more than 9 in 10…

A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard suggests that a Mediterranean-style diet may help reduce dementia risk. The study, published in Nature Medicine, found that people at the highest genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease benefited more from following a Mediterranean-style diet, showing a greater…

August marks Neurosurgery Awareness Month, a time to recognize not only neurosurgeons but also the many professionals who ensure safe neurosurgery. I often compare surgery to a plane landing on an aircraft carrier. The pilot and plane capture attention, yet countless skilled individuals—seen and unseen—orchestrate this complex operation. Neurosurgery is no…

Private equity in healthcare has faced substantial criticism, recently fueled by the bankruptcy of Steward Health, a hospital chain once owned by a private equity firm. In response, several states have passed—or are considering—laws to restrict private equity’s involvement in healthcare. But a new study published in the Journal of Financial Economics offers a more nuanced picture.

Three finance professors conducted the most comprehensive and rigorous analysis of private equity’s…

A pilot study of close to 200 pet dogs in homes that use private wells as their main source of water found that at least two-thirds of those dogs were consuming water containing high levels of lead, arsenic, and copper.

“Our results confirm that a variety of heavy metals are…

The FDA announced on Wednesday the new plan for Covid vaccine boosters. As per his pattern, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, made the announcement on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying:

“I promised 4 things:

1. to end covid vaccine mandates.

2. to keep vaccines…

Guidance around COVID-19 vaccines has once again shifted after the Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 27, 2025, approved updated shots for the fall season, but for a more limited group than in prior seasons.

These changes, announced on X by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., raise new questions about eligibility and availability of COVID-19 vaccines for children.

As a pediatrician and researcher who studies vaccine delivery and health policy, I foresee…

Despite its growing “deeptech” bonafides, the US neurotechnology industry has wound up on the wrong side of AI.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new pilot program to test whether AI-enabled claim denials will save money. How? By automatically reducing the use of implanted neurostimulation and other service categories “that may be fraudulent, and wasteful, or of low-value and medically unnecessary.”

The Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (

How can trillions of microbes live in our gut without causing a massive immune reaction? Scientists have been researching this question for years, and we are learning more about how the gut microbiome can coexist harmlessly with our immune system, and even benefit our bodies in many ways. New research has identified a molecule that is found on the surface of many bacterial cells, and how this molecule can stimulate a reaction from the immune system, or…