Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

The 2026 Fierce 50 brings together scientists, physicians, public health leaders, patient advocates and organizations working in very different ways to move healthcare and the life sciences forward. This year’s honorees are developing new medicines, closing gaps in access and representation, tackling health literacy and misinformation, rethinking disease prevention and finding new ways to bring public health information into the communities that need it. In this episode of “Podnosis,” Fierce Editor-in-Chief Ayla Ellison looks at some of the stories that stood out from this year’s honorees, from Revolution Medicines’ bet on the once “undruggable” RAS cancer target and the protein-design…

Demand for medical imaging in the U.S. keeps rising, but the number of radiologists available to read those images has barely budged relative to the population, according to a new research study published in the JACR®. The researchers tracked the radiologist pipeline over roughly the past 15 years using four national datasets covering the residency match, accredited training programs, graduate medical education, and the practicing physician workforce. They found that radiology residency positions grew 33% between 2010 and 2025, and the total number of radiology residents grew 23% through 2024. Yet the number of radiologists actually in practice rose only…

A bacterial protein fragment called corisin drives the process of pulmonary fibrosis by infiltrating and disrupting the cell’s quality-control system, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Mie University in Japan found in a new study. Meanwhile, blocking corisin with an antibody impeded the damage. “One of the most important principles in medicine is that understanding how a disease develops is the key to discovering better treatments. Our findings move corisin from being simply an intriguing bacterial peptide associated with fibrosis to a mechanistically defined, biologically active and causally supported driver of disease – and importantly, a promising therapeutic…

A Rutgers-led international collaboration has identified 36 genes that substantially raise the risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and chronic tic disorders – providing what two researchers said is the most detailed biological understanding of how these conditions develop – and how they might eventually be treated. Jay Tischfield, a pioneer in the study of Tourette syndrome and an emeritus Distinguished Professor in the Department of Genetics at Rutgers, and a senior coauthor of the study. Image Credit: Rutgers University Before this study, published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists had found a few genetic clues, each linked separately to OCD or chronic tic…

Regular aerobic exercise – the kind that gets your heart pumping – can improve important thinking skills called executive functions, and the benefits appear especially strong for women after menopause, according to Rutgers researchers. Executive functions help you plan, switch between tasks, stay focused and maintain independence. These skills often feel more difficult during and after the menopause transition. Two-thirds of all Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses occur in women, and the hormonal shift around midlife creates a critical window to protect long-term brain health. Many women reduce consistent physical activity during and after menopause because of symptoms, stress or lack of…

A sunken World War II hospital ship off the coast of Albania has attracted both invasive devil firefish and rare Mediterranean monk seals, leading researchers to weigh the risks and benefits of these wrecks for local ecosystems.The ship, called the Po, sank off Vlora Bay in 1941 after being hit by a torpedo from a British Fairey Swordfish aircraft during the Greco-Italian War, one of the conflicts within World War II. It is now acting as an artificial reef, with over 80% of its surface teeming with marine life, researchers reported July 27 in the journal Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability.This…

While deaths from several alcohol-attributable conditions have fallen globally, one cancer followed a strikingly different trajectory during the pandemic years. Study: Global and national trends in alcohol-attributable deaths from 1990 to 2023 and projections to 2050. Image Credit: Explode / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal npj Science of Food, researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study to investigate global, regional, and national trends in alcohol-attributable mortality from four specific conditions (1990 to 2023). The study evaluated these mortality patterns across 204 countries and territories. It further assessed temporal shifts in alcohol-attributable mortality…

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have discovered a human skeleton inside a giant Roman jar. It’s likely that the individual sought shelter in the vessel during an enemy attack over 1,600 years ago but died as a fire swept through the area.The team unearthed the gigantic jar in a Late Roman turret, or small tower, in the Roman colony of Deultum on Aug. 10. It’s unclear which battle led to the individual’s death, but Deultum faced many attacks from East Germanic tribes and Huns in the fourth and fifth centuries, lead excavator Lyudmil Vagalinski, an archaeologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,…

Around one in four heart surgery patients develop serious lung complications – but a new Adelaide-led study is testing a simple bedside scan that could predict who is most at risk before symptoms appear. Novel research led by Calvary Adelaide Hospital (CAH) in partnership with Adelaide University is exploring whether a quick, non-invasive ultrasound of the thigh can flag early signs of post-operative decline in cardiac patients. Funded by a $60,000 Health Translation SA grant through the Medical Research Future Fund Catalyst Grant Scheme, the new study will assess whether measuring of the rectus femoris muscle – a major thigh…

Simple voice calls have long been useful for getting help in a crisis, but today’s smartphones can do so much more. Many can even automatically contact emergency services if you’re incapacitated.Your phone can give warnings for dangerous situations like storms, floods, wildfires and earthquakes. And if you’re stranded out of network range, many newer devices can connect to a satellite for requesting assistance. Here’s an overview.Getting StartedFirst, take time to explore your phone’s settings and menus. Find the places to list emergency contacts, your medical information, permission to share your location and other vital details that can get aid to…