The dramatic growth of a key federal drug discount program has fueled debate about whether it is helping low-income patients as intended or primarily benefiting healthcare providers. Congress created the 340B Drug Pricing Program over 30 years ago to help hospitals and clinics that serve high levels of uninsured patients purchase outpatient drugs from manufacturers at significantly discounted prices. However, the law does not require participating providers to pass on discounts to patients or dedicate program funds to safety-net care. A new white paper from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics traces how major eligibility expansions and distorted program incentives ...

About The Study: For Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cell and gene therapies, commercial health plans commonly imposed coverage requirements beyond FDA-approved product labeling. These restrictions were often aligned with pivotal trial criteria, suggesting that plan coverage aligns with stronger supporting evidence. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, James D. Chambers, PhD, email james.chambers@tuftsmedicine.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

Parents improved use of appropriate child car seats after remote motivational counseling and mobile-based support, according to the results from a randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open. The intervention included tailored web content, periodic text messages and personalized feedback on photos parents submitted every four to six weeks showing how their child usually travels in a car. “Parents and children might resist using the recommended car seat or booster seat, even though it’s the law, due to inconvenience or beliefs that their child is safe enough riding ...

About The Study: In this study, population-level effectiveness and herd protection were robust 17 years after human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine introduction, even in sexually experienced adolescent girls and young women at relatively high risk for HPV who may not have received the full vaccination series.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH, email jessica.kahn@einsteinmed.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.3568) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

About The Study: This decision analytical model study estimates that COVID-19 vaccination (primarily annual COVID-19 vaccination) during pregnancy will likely continue to yield meaningful public health benefits in the U.S., especially to reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations in infants. COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy has been shown to be safe. While there is global variation in policy recommending COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, the U.S. has a high risk of severe COVID-19 in newborns, underscoring relevance of maternal COVID-19 vaccination.  Corresponding ...

About The Study: The rise in early-onset cancer incidence does not consistently signal a rise in the occurrence of clinically meaningful cancer. While some of the increase in early-onset cancer is likely clinically meaningful, it appears small and limited to a few cancer sites. Much of the increase appears to reflect increased diagnostic scrutiny and over-diagnosis. Interpreting rising incidence as an epidemic of disease may lead to unnecessary screening and treatment while also diverting attention from other more pressing health threats in young adults.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, email drgilwelch@gmail.com. To ...

CRISPR-Cas systems are adaptive immune systems found in prokaryotes that defend against invading nucleic acids through CRISPR RNA-guided cleavage. Type V CRISPR-Cas (Cas12) systems, in particular, serve as one of today’s most powerful tools for genome editing, especially in basic research, medicine, and agriculture.  Researchers led by Prof. GAO Caixia from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with Assoc. Prof. LIU Junjie from Tsinghua University ...

September 29, 2025 (BRONX, NY)—A large, long-term study led by an Albert Einstein College of Medicine researcher has found that the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in community settings is highly effective in protecting young women from infections caused by the cervical-cancer-causing virus—including women who didn’t even receive the vaccine. The study was published today in JAMA Pediatrics. “There are two encouraging takeaways from our study,” said lead ...

Girls who overeat regularly in the preschool years are more likely to experience anxiety, impulsivity and hyperactivity in adolescence, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Research Centre. The study followed more than 2,000 Quebec children using provincial data, tracking eating patterns reported by caregivers in early childhood and assessing mental-health symptoms when participants turned 15. The link between overeating and later difficulties was seen in girls, but not in boys. Takeaway for caregivers The findings ...

One or more risk factors above optimal levels — high blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or smoking — almost always precedes a cardiac event Findings refute the commonly held belief that heart disease often strikes people without warning Authors urge greater attention to early detection and control of these modifiable risks CHICAGO --- More than 99% of people who went on to suffer a heart attack, stroke or heart failure already had at least one risk factor above optimal level beforehand, ...

WASHINGTON (September 29, 2025) — The American College of Cardiology (ACC) released today its second Scientific Statement, Inflammation and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). The statement emphasizes years of clinical and basic science research, confirming that inflammation is an important underlying contributor to several CVDs, including coronary artery disease and heart failure. Key Points: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is an inexpensive and widely available blood test. While there has been debate within the medical community regarding the utility of hsCRP, this statement details the data confirming its ...

A new study applying multi-omics techniques and machine learning identified 33 plasma proteins that differ significantly in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The findings suggest ALS could be detected up to 10 years before symptoms appear, offering promise for reliable diagnostic biomarkers. The integration of advanced high-throughput sequencing technologies, such as whole genome sequencing (WGS) for the early detection of rare diseases, such as ALS, could give clinicians and patients a critical window for ...

University of Oregon researchers have tested a new combination drug therapy that could dismantle the difficult-to-treat bacteria inhabiting chronic wound infections.    Their findings, published Sept. 29 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, illuminate ways to develop more effective antimicrobial treatments that promote healing in chronic wounds. Such treatments also could help reduce the risk of severe infections that sometimes lead to amputations, such as diabetic foot ulcers.    Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the approach pairs long-known substances that do little ...

AMHERST, Mass. — Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst are part of a team that has identified a unique mineral on Mars, described in Nature Communications. Named ferric hydroxysulfate, the mineral provides clues about the Martian environment and history of the planet, including the possibility of former lava, ash or hydrothermal activity.   Mars gets its trademark red hue from the abundance of iron on its surface, but that’s just what can be seen with the naked eye. The various minerals on ...

DALLAS, Sept 29, 2025 — Megan McLaughlin, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has been selected to  receive the 2025 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025. The meeting, to be held Nov. 7-10, 2025, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science. The award will be presented to Dr. McLaughlin during the annual Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award for Best Scientific Article on Cardiovascular ...

Researchers investigate clean and efficient new method for iron production MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/29/2025) — A research team at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has investigated a new method to produce iron, the main component of steel. For the first time, the researchers were able to observe chemical reactions and iron formation in real-time at the nanometer scale.  This breakthrough has the potential to transform the global iron and steel production industry by improving energy efficiency ...

A team of scientists at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) has published new evidence suggesting that the brain’s protective shield — known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB) — remains largely intact in a commonly used mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. The discovery challenges long-standing assumptions that Alzheimer’s disease causes the BBB to “leak,” potentially reshaping how researchers think about drug delivery for the disease. The study, published July 23 in Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, was conducted by a research team ...

A new class of highly efficient and scalable quantum low-density parity-check error correction codes, capable of performance approaching the theoretical hashing bound, has been developed by scientists at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan. These novel error-correction codes can handle quantum codes with hundreds of thousands of qubits, potentially enabling large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing, with applications in diverse fields, including quantum chemistry and optimization problems. In recent years, quantum computers have begun to handle double-digit quantum bits, or qubits. However, many essential applications targeted by quantum computers, such as quantum chemistry, ...

Rapidly aging populations and rising cases of lifestyle-related diseases (LRDs), like diabetes and hypertension, are driving significant financial strain on government budgets. While regular health checkups under a standardized government program can be a solution, it is not well understood how these initiatives benefit different socioeconomic sections of the society and their economic feasibility. Most studies have documented how health checkup programs affect salaried or employed workers, examining the program’s role in informing individuals about their health status and risks. However, ...

DARIEN, IL – The Associated Professional Sleep Societies is accepting research abstracts and session proposal submissions for SLEEP 2026, the 40th annual meeting of the APSS, which will be held June 14 to 17 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Research abstracts will be accepted for oral and poster presentations in two tracks: basic and translational sleep and circadian science and clinical sleep science and practice. Accepted abstracts will be published online in a supplement of the journal Sleep. The APSS Program Committee is also accepting proposals for postgraduate courses and other sessions including bench-to-bedside sessions, clinical workshops, discussion ...

A team led by UCL (University College London) and Imperial College London researchers has shown for the first time how life-saving antibiotics called polymyxins pierce the armour of harmful bacteria. The findings, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, could lead to new treatments for bacterial infections – especially urgent since drug-resistant infections already kill more than a million people a year. Polymyxins were discovered more than 80 years ago and are used as a last-resort treatment for infections caused ...

Toronto, ON, September 29, 2025 – Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) account for more than one in five patients who have been in Ontario’s mental health beds for over a year, according to a new study from researchers at ICES and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The findings suggest that people with IDD have different support needs compared with patients without IDD as they are more likely to have moderate or severe cognitive impairment, difficulty caring for themselves, and few social supports, which may contribute to challenges transitioning out of hospital and into the community. Enhancing specialized ...

At a glance: Correctly distinguishing between look-alike tumors found in the brain during surgery can guide critical decisions in real time while patient is still in the operating room. A new AI tool outperformed humans and other models in distinguishing glioblastoma from another type of cancer that appears similar under a microscope. The new AI tool has a built-in uncertainty feature that flags tumors the model has not encountered before and marks them for human review. A Harvard Medical School–led research team has developed an AI tool that can reliably tell apart two look-alike cancers found in the ...

They were the first generation of Americans to grow up with ultra-processed foods all around them – products typically loaded with extra fat, salt, sugar and flavorings. They were children and young adults at a time when such products, designed to maximize their appeal, proliferated. Now, a study shows, 21% of women and 10% of men in Generation X and the tail end of the Baby Boom generation, now in their 50s and early 60s, meet criteria for addiction to these ultra-processed foods. That rate is far higher than it is among ...

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the scientific journal The BMJ, shows how a simple blood analysis can predict the risk of developing severe liver disease. The method may already start to be applied in primary care to enable the earlier detection of cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. “These are diseases that are growing increasingly common and that have a poor prognosis if detected late,” says Rickard Strandberg, affiliated researcher at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medicine in ...