Evaluation of health equity in COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans in US

What The Study Did: Changes in the use of women's preventive health services during the COVID-19 pandemic, including screening for sexually transmitted infections, breast and cervical cancer, and obtaining contraceptives from pharmacies are described by researchers in this study. Authors: Nora V. Becker, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1408) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

What The Study Did: Researchers estimated the frequency and magnitude of surprise bills for deliveries and newborn hospitalizations, which are the leading reasons for hospitalization in the United States, to illustrate the  potential benefits of federal legislation that will protect families from most surprise bills. Potential surprise bills were defined as claims from out-of-network clinicians and ancillary service providers, such as an ambulance. Authors: Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1460) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of ...

What The Study Did: This study investigates whether different risk factors identify the same hospitals caring for a high proportion of disadvantaged patients using seven definitions of social risk. Authors: Susannah M. Bernheim, M.D., M.H.S., of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1323) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support ...

PHILADELPHIA-- While more women are entering the field of academic medicine than ever before, they are less likely to be recognized as experts and leaders; they are less likely to receive prestigious awards, be promoted to full professorships, hold leadership roles, or author original research or commentaries in major journals. What's more, articles published by women in high-impact medical journals also have fewer citations than those written by men, especially when women are primary and senior authors, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, published today in JAMA Open Network. Researchers found that of the 5,554 articles published in 5 leading academic medical journals ...

The Mutriku wave power plant was built on the Mutriku breakwater, a site with great wave energy potential, and has been in operation since 2011. With 14 oscillating water columns to transform wave energy, it is the only wave farm in the world that supplies electricity to the grid on a continuous basis. In general, technologies that harness the power of the waves to produce electricity are in their infancy, and this is precisely what is being explored by the UPV/EHU's Research Group EOLO, which focusses on Meteorology, Climate and Environment, among many ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Migraine is one of the largest causes of disability in the world. Existing treatments are often not enough to offer full relief for patients. A new study published in The BMJ demonstrates an additional option patients can use in their effort to experience fewer migraines and headaches - a change in diet. "Our ancestors ate very different amounts and types of fats compared to our modern diets," said co-first author Daisy Zamora, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. "Polyunsaturated fatty acids, which our bodies do not produce, have increased substantially in our diet due to the addition of oils such as corn, soybean and cottonseed to many processed foods like chips, crackers and granola." The classes of polyunsaturated ...

According to studies in recent years, air pollution affects the thyroid. Thyroid hormones are essential for regulating foetal growth and metabolism, and play an important role in neurological development. Thyroxine (T4) is the main thyroid hormone that is circulating and the thyroid-stimulating hormone is TSH. At 48 hours newborn babies undergo a heel prick test in which thyroxine and TSH levels in the blood are measured. In fact, if the balance of these thyroid hormones is not right, the risk of developing serious diseases increases. That is why, "this study set out to analyse the relationship between atmospheric pollution during pregnancy and the level ...

When the analysis of digital data reaches its limits, methods that focus on observations made by individuals can be useful. In contexts such as the coronavirus pandemic, a method called human social sensing can elicit information that is difficult to obtain from digital trace data. Prof. Frauke Kreuter at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich is now using this method with the global "Covid Trends & Impact Survey" to predict the course of the pandemic. Despite today's researchers in the social sciences having access to historically unparalleled amounts of data, many aspects of contemporary social developments have proven difficult to predict. National elections and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic are highly visible examples ...

The seasonal flu kills up to 600 000 people a year worldwide and has a century-long history of pandemics. Examples include the Spanish flu in the late 1910's or the H1N1 in 2009, which together claimed more than 50 million lives. "The way the stage is set tells us that it is not a matter of if but rather of when there will be a next pandemic. And preparing ourselves for that demands intensive fundamental research and constant accumulation of knowledge about these viruses and the diseases they cause", says Maria João Amorim, IGC principal investigator and leader of the team that conducted the study. When a virus like influenza enters our lungs, it is quickly faced with cocktails of ...

An international study has elucidated the structure of a protein that is required for the assembly and stability of photosynthetic membranes. Plants, algae and cyanobacteria convert carbon dioxide and water into biomass and oxygen with the aid of photosynthesis. This process forms the basis of most forms of life on Earth. Global warming is exposing photosynthetic organisms to increasing levels of stress. This reduces growth rates, and in the longer term presents a threat to food supplies for human populations. An international project, in which Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet ...