It's easy to get drawn in by flashy uses of AI in healthcare. It's much harder to figure out which ones are actually good ideas and which ones just sound cool.
In 2024, ThedaCare merged with Froedert Health. In February 2025, that newly-formed healthcare system closed the delivery unit there. The closest birthing center to Waupaca is now more than 30 miles to the northwest in Stevens Point. But many pregnant women will have to go even farther — to the Fox Valley to the east — to reach a hospital that accepts their insurance.
Traditional healthcare is rooted in generalized care plans, third-party payers and overwhelmed providers and is not built to meet the individual needs of today's patients. Direct-to-consumer healthcare companies, also called direct-to-patient or on-demand care, are taking advantage of this market gap to connect patients directly with providers for more affordable, personalized care.
Massachusetts health officials say a patient at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Needham mysteriously contracted Legionnaires' disease. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health calls it a "healthcare associated" case, but how the patient got it inside the hospital is unknown. Legionnaires' is not transmitted from person to person. Rather, it's caught from a specific bacteria in soil or water — for example, by inhaling infected droplets from air conditioning units, hot tubs or showers.
Prior exposures to specific types of seasonal influenza viruses promote cross-reactive immunity against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Older adults who were exposed to seasonal flu viruses that circulated prior to 1968 were found to be more likely to have antibodies that bound to the H5N1 avian flu virus.
A majority of the more than 200 resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare announced their intent to unionize on Wednesday, joining a wave of organizing campaigns by doctors and advanced health care providers across the country.