Original Research  Isolation and Financial Hardship Linked With Lower Odds of Receiving Preventive Health Care in the U.S.  Background: Researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national telephone survey, to better understand how social isolation and physical isolation intersect with material deprivation, including financial strain and inadequate health care access. The study examined six preventive services: COVID-19, flu and pneumococcal vaccination, and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screenings.  What They Found:   Among 281,582 adults, 31.9% ...

Original Research  Primary Care Continuity Remained High in Community Health Centers Despite COVID-19 Disruptions     Background: Continuity of care — seeing one’s own primary care clinician for most visits — is a basic tenet of primary care. This study examined continuity trends from 2019 through 2023 in a national sample of community-based health centers spanning the period before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers used OCHIN Epic electronic health record (EHR) data to measure continuity among patients using the Usual Provider of Care (UPC) index (the proportion of visits ...

Innovations in Primary Care  Innovative Panel Management Strategy Benefits Patients Who Need More Intensive Primary Care  Primary care panel sizes are often determined without detailed data on patient complexity, which can strain access to care and contribute to clinician burnout. Geisinger Health System used Charlson Comorbidity Health Analytics (CCHA) and Needs-Based Segmentation (NBS) tools to support complexity-based panel management across 45 primary care clinics serving more than ...

Original Research  Study Explores Frameworks for Improved Indigenous Data Sovereignty  Background: In Canada, current approaches to managing health data do not always reflect principles of Indigenous data sovereignty, which emphasize Indigenous peoples’ rights to control how data about their communities are collected, used, and shared. This study examined how practice-based research and learning networks (PBRLNs) currently approach data governance and explored how Indigenous data sovereignty frameworks could apply. Researchers ...

Original Research  Patients With Floaters or Flashes Could Face Higher Risk of Retinal Detachment  Background: Data from ophthalmology practices showed that experiencing newly emerging floaters in vision is more strongly associated with retinal tears than experiencing flashes. However, these associations have not been studied in primary care. In this study, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic records from seven family practices in the Netherlands to examine whether patients presenting with floaters, flashes, or both had different risks of retinal detachment in primary care.  What ...

Original Research  Patients With Floaters or Flashes Could Face Higher Risk of Retinal Detachment  Background: Data from ophthalmology practices showed that experiencing newly emerging floaters in vision is more strongly associated with retinal tears than experiencing flashes. However, these associations have not been studied in primary care. In this study, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic records from seven family practices in the Netherlands to examine whether patients presenting with floaters, flashes, or both had different risks of retinal detachment in primary care.  What They Found: Researchers reviewed 1,181 episodes ...

Original Research  Integrating Social Risk Alerts Into Primary Care Workflows May Improve Blood Pressure Control  Background: Screening for social risks has expanded in recent years. However, less is known about how integrating social risk information into clinical workflows influences patient outcomes. The study was conducted in the OCHIN network, a national consultancy for community health care organizations. Six clinics implemented the intervention; 44 clinics served as controls and were followed for 12 months.  What They Found: The intervention included electronic health record-integrated alerts identifying patients overdue for social risk ...

Original Research  Bleeding events largely outnumber thromboembolic events in patients with cancer during the last phase of life, most patients continue antithrombotic therapy Background: Blood thinners can prevent strokes and blood clots, but they also increase bleeding risk. It is unclear whether patients with cancer continue to benefit from these medications during the final weeks of life. Researchers in the Netherlands examined blood thinner use and related events in people with cancer during this period using routine general practitioner (GP) records from 2018 to 2022. They analyzed data from 2,860 adults starting when the GP first registered palliative care and reviewed records ...

Innovations In Primary Care  Family Medicine Practice Redesigns Patient Dismissal Process  Clinicians at an academic family medicine practice in upstate New York serving more than 25,000 patients revised their patient dismissal process after a review found that all immediate dismissals during a six-month period involved Black patients, who represent about 36% of the practice population. The clinic replaced the expedited dismissal approach with a structured review process led by an interdisciplinary Practice Concerns Review Committee. Rather than defaulting to warning letters or dismissal, the new approach centers patient engagement, shared problem solving, collaborative ...

Innovations In Primary Care  Chaplain Support at Primary Care Buprenorphine Clinic Addresses Mental Health Needs of Patients  Medication treatment with buprenorphine is widely used for opioid use disorder. Yet many people early in recovery experience emotional distress, social isolation, and difficulty finding meaning or rebuilding relationships. This report describes a team-based buprenorphine clinic within an academic family medicine residency practice that incorporated a clinically trained chaplain into patient ...

Methodology  Joint Display Method for Patient Surveys Reveals Deeper Insights Into Patient Satisfaction Background: Many patient surveys include both numerical ratings and written comments,  responses that are frequently analyzed separately, which can limit what researchers learn from the data. This report demonstrates a method for analyzing survey ratings and open-text comments together. Researchers used survey data from Alberta, Canada’s Long COVID Interprofessional Outpatient Program (IPOP), which provided multidisciplinary care for adults ...

A new study led by researchers at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology suggests that the benefits of the Mediterranean diet may be driven, in part, by tiny proteins hidden within our mitochondria, opening a new window into how diet shapes aging and disease risk. The study, led by USC Leonard Davis Instructional Associate Professor of Gerontology Roberto Vicinanza, found that people who closely follow a Mediterranean-style diet have higher levels of two mitochondrial microproteins, humanin and SHMOOSE ...

New research led by Colorado State University highlights a critical need for system-level thinking and innovation in shaping the electric power grid of the future. Professor Zongjie Wang recently published a paper in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature portfolio, that outlines a novel framework. The proposed method helps different how parts of the grid – transmission and distribution operations – work together to make holistic decisions, without requiring system centralization. The research is particularly relevant as power industry leaders and consumers grapple with the impacts of weather-related outages, rising energy costs, and ...

A free open-access webinar will introduce the Cancer Genome Interpreter (CGI), an advanced bioinformatics tool to interpret mutations in cancer genomes developed  by IRB Barcelona and co-created with European hospitals to turn complex cancer genomics into actionable insights. On Thursday, 9 April 2026 (14:00–15:30 CET), the CGI-Clinics consortium will host a free online workshop to present the Cancer Genome Interpreter (CGI), an AI-powered platform designed to support the interpretation of tumour genomes. ...

The National Science Foundation Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York, which aims to transform upstate into America's battery tech capital, will receive $45 million over three years for the second phase of the program. The initiative, led by Binghamton University and its core partners — Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, Griffiss Institute, Launch-NY, and NY-BEST — is one of nine inaugural Engines launched under NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program.  Since its launch in 2024, the Energy Storage Engine has received $15M from the NSF. The initiative may receive up to ...

This winter was one of the warmest on record across the West; as a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed to an abysmal ski season, but they can also set the stage for dangerous avalanches. At temperatures close to freezing, precipitation can fall as rain but freeze when it hits the snow, forming an icy crust. Snow that accumulates on top of that crust is unstable and prone to abrupt slides, causing an avalanche that can close down a major highway in moments, endanger backcountry ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Recycled plastics are promoted on everything from water bottles and fleece jackets to shopping bags and yogurt cups. Verifying such claims, however, is another matter because there is no quick and reliable way to measure how much recycled plastic these products contain. University at Buffalo researchers are addressing this problem by combining several scientific tests, as well as artificial intelligence, to create a new method for differentiating recycled plastic from new plastic. Described in a study published today in Nature's Communications Engineering, the method aims to help ...

DALLAS, March 23, 2026 — At a time when American dietary patterns are facing renewed attention, the American Heart Association has announced its inaugural Health Care by Food™ Most Impactful Food Is Medicine Research Award, honoring the year’s most meritorious scientific study exploring effective ways to integrate healthy food into clinical care to address the growing prevalence and cost of cardiovascular disease and other diet‑related chronic diseases. The inaugural award recognizes the research team behind “Pilot study of a heart‑healthy food box intervention for Native Americans with uncontrolled hypertension: methods and results from the Chickasaw ...

Dance like nobody’s watching? Not quite, at least not for honey bees. In recent years, scientists have carefully deciphered details of the honey bee “waggle dance,” which is an advanced form of social communication in the animal kingdom. University of California San Diego biologists and their international colleagues recently unraveled how the dance conveys critical information about food sources for the benefit of fellow hive inhabitants. A new study on the dynamics of the dance, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

NEW YORK, NY — By scanning the brains of mice throughout their lifespans, scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and the University of Texas at Dallas have discovered that the human brain is not unique in how it changes with age. These findings might one day help researchers pinpoint mechanisms in humans that confer vulnerability to, or grant resilience from, age-related brain decline, diseases and disorders.  Their research was published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery ...

Australian researchers have uncovered a critical mechanism driving the growth and spread of glioblastoma – one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of brain cancer – potentially paving the way for more effective treatments. In a new study led by Adelaide University scientists from the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB), researchers identified a previously unrecognised role for a protein called CD47 in promoting tumour progression, independent of its known function in helping cancer evade the immune system. Glioblastoma is extremely difficult to treat, with most patients surviving less than 18 months after diagnosis. Current ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – March 23, 2026) Neurodegenerative diseases form a tangled biological web with overlapping molecular signatures and symptoms. To decode this complexity, a multi-institute collaboration led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists developed the pan-neurodegeneration atlas (PanNDA). The atlas is a comprehensive survey of neurodegenerative disease “proteomes” containing information about protein levels, modifications and interactions. This resource, published today in Cell, provides a wide-ranging protein-based ...

EDGE is one of two next-generation satellite missions announced in February. The mission will help NASA better understand changes to the Earth’s surface and will create detailed 3D maps of vegetation, as well as ice formations like glaciers and sea ice. It builds on the work of two existing NASA satellites, but will do it better and more precisely. This is particularly important for ecosystems in the semi-arid west, where measuring low-height vegetation such as shrubs and vegetation on steep slopes is challenging. Accurate measurement of vegetation ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - For 150 years, Major League Baseball (MLB) players and fans have accepted that an umpire missing a few balls and strikes is just part of the game. But this spring, MLB is rolling out an artificial intelligence-augmented camera system that will provide a second opinion for players to tap if they think an umpire whiffed. This historic change inspired a Cornell research team to study how MLB stakeholders are integrating the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) – which tracks pitches in real time – into baseball’s sacred gameplay. “We hear so much about AI influencing political views and ...