Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

A few years ago, when I’d just started graduate work, I was waiting with a grandmother finishing a questionnaire I’d handed her about her 19-year-old granddaughter who was in the testing room next door. They were participating in a study that used brain imaging to look at adolescent development. The older woman had a soft southern accent and a warm laugh.“What’s funny?” I asked.“Cellphone use,” she said, gesturing at a question about how much time her granddaughter spent on her device. “When is she not on it? And my younger granddaughter, she just turned 18 – I mean, I think…

PUBLISHED : 14 Sep 2026 at 15:34 Weight-loss injection pens seized from an online seller’s house in Nonthaburi on Friday. (Photo: Food and Drug Administration) Weight-loss injection pens have declared a specially controlled medication requiring a doctor’s prescription and available only from pharmacies, effective from Sept 15, following reports of harmful use and unregistered sales.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the new regulation on Monday.  So-called weight-loss pens contain a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as Liraglutide or Semaglutide, FDA secretary-general Supattra Boonserm said. They mimic a naturally occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1.  They were…

Last May, US President Donald Trump pushed to align drug pricing with the lowest levels among other developed nations — so-called most-favoured-nation (MFN) pricing. However, the pricing policy might have negative consequences. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT European patients might have to wait longer for some novel medicines as the US forces drugmakers to offer prices that match other high‑income countries, such as Germany or France, according to a new modelling study published in The Lancet. Researchers looked at 195 patented medicines that together account for $87.9 billion of US’ annual spending. They found that for three in four medicines studied, the money…

This brass head depicts an “oba,” or ruler of the Kingdom of Benin.(Image credit: Cleveland Museum of Art (Public Domain))Quick factsName: Ancestral commemorative headWhat it is: A copper-alloy sculpture of an African ruler’s headWhere it is from: Edo, NigeriaWhen it was made: Mid-1500sIn the Kingdom of Benin, one of the oldest monarchies in West Africa, a traditional ruler known as an oba would commission a brass or bronze bust of their predecessor upon taking the throne. The bust of the past oba would then be set on an ancestral altar in the palace. But when the British Empire annexed the…

In women’s reproductive years, their brains are exposed to high levels of sex hormones, and their neurons may come to depend on those hormones to function optimally. But leading up to and after menopause, the ovaries produce far less estrogen and progesterone, raising concerns that this drop in hormones may contribute to women’s dementia risk.”We think that the loss of those hormones at menopause renders those neurons more vulnerable to age-related cellular decline and pathologies like Alzheimer’s,” said Karyn Frick, a neuroscientist and professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.So, if falling hormone levels are a…

Commentary: 28 million people — almost 10% of the population — lack insurance. The number is growing as people trade cost against rent, food and electricity.William Potter/Getty ImagesSyndicatedAs Charles Dickens might have said, “It is the best of times in medicine, it is the worst of times in healthcare.” It is a time of great medical discovery with artificial intelligence, it is a time of the poorest outcomes for the sick.One of America’s most distinguished pediatric cardiologists says the nation is in desperate shape with the end of Medicaid subsidies and the 28 million people — or almost 10% of…

One of the world’s largest health cohorts provides researchers with an unusually detailed view of disease across Britain, but comparisons with national surveys and established biobanks reveal that sample size is only part of the picture. Study: Phenomic profiles and disease patterns of 1.9 million participants from Our Future Health. Image Credit: Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers evaluated baseline phenotypic data from more than 1.9 million adult participants enrolled in the Our Future Health (OFH) study. The analysis focused on OFH participants from England, Scotland, and Wales and assessed self-reported medical histories, physical measurements,…

Abridge expanded its artificial intelligence capabilities into the mid-revenue cycle workflow. The company launched a pre-bill review capability designed specifically for clinical documentation integrity (CDI), coding, and revenue cycle teams. The pre-bill reviews inpatient claims before submission, comparing coded diagnoses and diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) against what the clinical documentation supports to identify potential discrepancies and provide supporting evidence, the company announced on Monday. Abridge started with ambient listening and AI-powered clinical notes and has steadily expanded beyond clinical documentation to tackle other admin tasks, developing what it calls a “clinical intelligence” platform. The company has built its platform around the…

A pooled analysis across seven multiethnic cohorts examines whether the same p-tau217 reading carries the same prognostic meaning for people with different APOE backgrounds. Study: Plasma phosphorylated tau 217 concentrations, APOE genotype, and timing of cognitive impairment in individuals across diverse racial and ethnic groups: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies. Image Credit: Nanzeeba / Shutterstock A recent pooled analysis published in The Lancet Neurology suggests that higher plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) levels are associated with a greater risk of cognitive impairment, especially among adults carrying the apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele. In addition to risk estimation, APOE-ε4 carrier…

Researchers tracked prenatal exposure to public-water fluoride across 34 US states to examine whether concentrations during pregnancy were associated with children’s later emotional and behavioral health. Study: Prenatal Water Fluoride Exposure and Children’s Behavioral Problems. Image Credit: christinarosepix / Shutterstock A recent study published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that prenatal exposure to fluoride in public drinking water was not associated with emotional or behavioral problems in children overall. Background Fluoride is commonly used to help prevent tooth decay, but its addition to drinking water is regulated at both the state and local levels in the USA. The US…