The average age of moms giving birth in the U.S. continues to rise, hitting nearly 30 years old in 2023. In a report, published Friday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, researchers found the average age of all mothers giving birth in the United States increased from 28.7 years old in 2016 to 29.6 in 2023. For new first-time moms, average age also increased, from 26.6 in 2016 to 27.5 in 2023. The data was taken from the National Vital Statistics System, which includes all birth records in the country.
Tailored feedback to surgeons dramatically cuts excessive opioid prescriptions for common surgeries, aligning them with evidence-based guidelines without affecting patient pain control.
When The Permanente Medical Group rolled out ambient augmented intelligence (AI)—also known as artificial intelligence—scribes in late 2023, it was with an eye toward solving one of medicine's most entrenched problems: documentation burden. One year and more than 2.5 million patient encounters later, the results are in, and they paint a compelling picture of how AI can help restore the human side of medicine.
Hospitals across Ohio could soon face a choice: Let federal immigration agents inside to arrest patients or lose access to state funding. That’s the ultimatum behind House Bill 281, a bill from state Rep. Josh Williams, a Toledo-area Republican.
HB 281 would require any hospital receiving state grant money or Medicaid reimbursements to:
* Allow ICE to enter to arrest, interview or collect evidence in service of a warrant.
* Arrest individuals with a lawful warrant.
* Require hospital staff and contractors help facilitate access for these activities.
* Provide ICE agents with information and/or evidence the hospital possesses so long as it doesn’t violate existing federal or state law.
Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday approved a measure that targets out-of-state doctors and activists who prescribe, sell, or provide pregnancy-ending drugs to residents in the reliably red state where abortions are banned with few exceptions. Louisiana law already allows women to sue doctors who perform abortions on them in the state. The bill expands who can be sued. It includes those out of the state, who may be responsible for an illegal abortion whether that be mailing, prescribing or 'coordinating the sale of' pregnancy-ending pills to someone in Louisiana.