A strategy for advance care planning (ACP) that included automated outreach from staff who contacted patients to offer assistance significantly boosted the number of patients who completed documentation outlining their wishes in times of serious illness, new research finds. People with serious illnesses should discuss their medical care wishes with families and doctors, said Dr. Neil Wenger, professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s senior author. But these conversations are not always easy, particularly for primary care doctors who are busy with other clinical ...

A 66-million-year-old tooth discovered in North Dakota, USA, suggests that some mosasaurs — extinct lizard-like reptiles that could grow up to 12 metres long — may have hunted in rivers as well as seas. The authors suggest that the findings, which are published in BMC Zoology, may represent the first evidence of a mosasaur hunting freshwater prey in Hell Creek at this time. Melanie During, Nathan Van Vranken, and colleagues examined the tooth after it was discovered in 2022 in the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota, USA, in a river-like area formerly connected to an ancient sea known as the Western Interior ...

New research reveals a link between rising temperatures and changes in polar bear DNA, which may be helping them adapt and survive in increasingly challenging environments.  The study by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) discovered that some genes related to heat-stress, aging and metabolism are behaving differently in polar bears living in southeastern Greenland, suggesting they might be adjusting to their warmer conditions.  The finding suggests that these genes play a key role in how different polar bear populations are adapting or evolving in response to their changing local climates ...

New research from the University of Vermont reveals exposure to smoke from Canadian wildfires in the summer of 2023 led to worsening asthma symptoms in children in Vermont and upstate New York.  The study, published today [12/11] in the journal Environmental Health, is the first to examine the relationship between wildfire smoke and asthma in the Northeast—which in recent years has seen a marked increase in poor air quality days due to wildfires.  “In 2023 when we couldn’t see New York across the lake, a lot of Vermonters began to worry about wildfire smoke,” says Anna Maassel, a Ph.D. candidate at the Rubenstein School of Environment ...

The old proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” also applies to preventing youth suicide, according to UBC Okanagan researchers who found that community support is essential. In Canada, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among children under 14 and the second for youth and young adults between 15 and 34 years old. The UBCO Faculty of Health and Social Development researchers say governments, schools and community agencies need to rethink how youth suicide prevention efforts are designed. And work together on the issue. “Suicide among young people is a major public health issue and is among the leading causes of death among children ...

Words reflecting diversity language have appeared less frequently in grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since the 2024 US presidential election, with a 25% relative decrease between January 2024 and June 2025, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ. News reports have indicated that US federal agencies have recently limited or discouraged use of words related to diversity, health inequities, and other scientific subjects commanding political attention in NIH research grants.  News reports also suggest that researchers may be modifying their language or research topics to align with federal ...

AI chatbot systems, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, are used increasingly as confidants of choice, but turning to AI chatbots for companionship and emotional support is a cause for concern, especially in younger people, say experts in the Christmas issue of The BMJ. They warn that “we might be witnessing a generation learning to form emotional bonds with entities that lack capacities for human-like empathy, care, and relational attunement” and say evidence based strategies for reducing ...

Authors in biomedical journals frequently describe cited evidence as “recent,” yet the actual age of the references behind these phrases has rarely been measured.  To measure how recent the "recent" studies really are, researchers based in Spain analysed 1000 biomedical articles containing 20 predefined “recent” expressions directly linked to a citation.  Their findings in the Christmas issue of The BMJ show that the citation lag ranged from 0 to 37 years, with a median of 4 years and a mean of 5.5 years.   The most frequent ...

A single-dose oral medication called zoliflodacin shows promise as a new treatment for antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea, according to a phase 3 clinical trial published in The Lancet. The study found that one dose of zoliflodacin was as effective as the current standard treatment, which combines two antibiotics: an injection of ceftriaxone followed by an oral dose of azithromycin. Gonorrhoea is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, affecting over 82 million people globally each year. However, it is increasingly difficult to treat as the bacteria that cause ...

At five years, 90.9% of proton patients were alive compared to 81% with traditional radiation Proton therapy also showed benefits in quality of life, such as less feeding tube dependence, less difficulty swallowing, less dry mouth, and higher immune cell counts Study represents the largest randomized Phase III trial comparing proton to traditional radiation with photons for oropharyngeal cancer patients HOUSTON, DECEMBER 11, 2025 ― A new study published today in The Lancet showed a significant ...

A blood biomarker yet to be used in cardiac arrest care can give a clearer picture of the extent of brain damage after a cardiac arrest. This has been shown in a large international multicentre study led by researchers at Lund University that has been published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Worldwide, around four million people each year suffer a sudden cardiac arrest “This will transform care for these patients,” says researcher Marion Moseby Knappe. Key facts about the study: clinical prospective multicentre study // 819 patients // out-of- hospital cardiac arrest // A simple blood test that can very accurately predict the chance of survival with good recovery ...

A new UBC Okanagan study found that people who microdose psychedelics feel better on the days they take them—but those boosts don’t seem to last. This suggests, says Dr. Michelle St. Pierre, that perceived benefits may be acute rather than long lasting. Dr. St. Pierre is a post-doctoral psychology researcher with UBCO’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She recently published a study in Psychopharmacology that tracks the daily experiences of people who microdose with psychedelics. Microdosing involves ingesting small amounts of a psychedelic substance, commonly psilocybin mushrooms or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). “Most ...

A prospective, multicenter cancer clinical trial by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) has validated an improved method for predicting treatment benefits in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer that has spread primarily or exclusively to the bones. These patients make up a large portion of individuals who are living with advanced breast cancer—yet are routinely excluded from clinical trials that rely on standard imaging-based assessments (i.e., RECIST 1.1). The study demonstrated that metabolic change assessed by FDG-PET/CT accurately predicted progression-free ...

December 11, 2025, CLEVELAND: Cleveland Clinic researchers are presenting final Phase 1 data from their novel study of a vaccine aimed at preventing triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease.   The study team found that the investigational vaccine produced an immune response in the majority (74%) of all participants and was safe and well tolerated. They determined the maximum tolerated dose and described that side effects primarily consisted of mild skin inflammation at the injection site. The findings, which will inform the ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, along with University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) President Bert O’Malley, MD, today announced the appointment of C. David Mintz, MD, PhD, to be the next Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Chief of the Anesthesiology Clinical Service (“Chief of Anesthesiology”) at UMMC. Dr. Mintz, a neuroanesthesiologist and nationally recognized leader in research, education, and perioperative operations, will be installed as the Martin Helrich Endowed Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology. He will begin his new position in July, 2026. Dr. Mintz brings an ...

In Mozambique, more than one in three children under five suffer from stunting, or impaired physical growth, a sign of chronic undernutrition. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that improving access to safe drinking water can reduce the odds of stunting by about 20 percent, making it the most effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) intervention for child growth. The study, published in the journal Children, is one of the few studies to use nationally representative data from Mozambique to examine the independent and combined effects of access to water and sanitation on child growth outcomes (stunting ...

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have identified a type of enzyme with a complicated name — cell migration inducing and hyaluronan-binding protein, or CEMIP — is associated with disorders ranging from multiple sclerosis to stroke to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. The next step is to develop a way to target the enzyme to heal or slow the progression of disease. In a study published in the journal ASN Neuro, researchers describe their path to implicating CEMIP in cell culture, mice and deceased human tissue. Researchers found this specific enzyme is ...

James (Jim) Schwob, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election as an academy fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. The NAI was founded to recognize and encourage inventors with U.S. patents and enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation. This year’s fellows include Nobel Prize winners and recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and Medal of Science. The group, which holds over 5,300 issued U.S. patents, includes members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among others. The ...

Researchers have made a major advance in quantum computing with a new device that is nearly 100 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the breakthrough optical phase modulators could help unlock much larger quantum computers by enabling efficient control of lasers required to operate thousands or even millions of qubits—the basic units of quantum information. Critically, the team of scientists have developed these devices using scalable manufacturing, avoiding complex, custom builds in favor of those used to make the same technology behind ...

The energy that plants capture from sunlight through photosynthesis provides the source of nearly all of humanity’s food. Yet the process of photosynthesis has inefficiencies that limit crop productivity, especially in a rapidly changing world. A new review by University of Illinois scientists and collaborators reflects on how improving photosynthesis can bring us closer to food security. The review, which was published in Cell, was coauthored by plant biology professors Stephen Long, Amy Marshall-Colon, and Lisa Ainsworth. ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Dec. 11, 2025 — A patient with synovial sarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer that usually occurs in the large joints of the arms and legs, is the first in Arizona treated with a new immune-cell-therapy known as TECELRA at the HonorHealth Research Institute. This new cell therapy targets a protein associated with the MAGEA4 gene, which is commonly expressed in synovial sarcoma and often occurs in the extremities, such as in the knees, though it can occur almost anywhere in the body. “The patient tolerated the cell infusion well, with early signs of tumor shrinkage,” said Justin Moser, M.D., an associate clinical ...

Hoboken, NJ., December 11, 2025 — In recent years AI has emerged as a powerful tool for analyzing medical images. Thanks to advances in computing and large medical datasets from which AI can learn, it has proven to be a valuable aid in reading and analyzing patterns in X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, enabling doctors to make better and faster decisions, particularly in the treatment and diagnosis of life-threatening diseases like cancer. In certain settings, these AI tools even offer advantages over their human counterparts.   “AI systems can process thousands of images quickly and provide ...

Recruiting participants for injury and violence-related studies can be challenging. Online qualitative data collection can increase accessibility for some participants, expand a study’s reach to potential participants, offer convenience and extend a sense of safety.   But the data can be marred by fraudulent responses.   As online data collection has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, widely available online platforms and sophisticated bots can potentially expose studies to would-be fraudulent participants, that can jeopardize the research. Fraudulent participants are ...

Distinct psychiatric disorders have more in common biologically than previously believed, according to the largest and most detailed analysis to date of how genes influence mental illness. The study, led by University of Colorado Boulder and Mass General Brigham researchers, could inform efforts to improve the way psychological disorders are diagnosed and provide insight for developing novel treatments that address multiple disorders at once. The findings were published Dec. 10 in the journal Nature. “Right ...

URBANA, Ill. –  The U.S. is largely self-sufficient in agricultural food production, supported by a well-developed storage and interstate trade system. However, extreme weather events put increasing pressure on agriculture, potentially impacting the country’s ability to provide food for its growing population and underscoring the importance of maintaining a resilient food supply chain.  A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at U.S. interstate trade for agricultural products, analyzing how weather ...