The American healthcare system is approaching a crisis. Medical costs are rising far faster than the nation's ability to pay. Healthcare jobs are expanding rapidly, but clinical outcomes aren't improving. And the very professionals entrusted with healing others are burned out with many leaving the field.
Ascension Alexian Brothers Hospital may be one step closer to closing its labor and delivery unit. It's just the latest service to be eliminated at the suburban community hospital. Officials at the hospital say they'll discontinue the 28-bed inpatient obstetrics department and consolidate those services, including deliveries, at their sister hospital, Ascension Saint Alexius Medical Center, which is a few miles away in Hoffman Estates.
Think of AI as the new digital front door for healthcare practices. It's the invisible force working behind the scenes of Google searches, health apps and chatbots. Experience shows that successful practices are the ones that deeply understand their patients' decision-making processes.
President Donald Trump recently had a medical checkup after noticing "mild swelling" in his lower legs and was found to have a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins, the White House said Thursday. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said tests by the White House medical unit showed that Trump has chronic venous insufficiency, which occurs when little valves inside the veins that normally help move blood against gravity gradually lose the ability to work properly. Leavitt also addressed bruising on the back of Trump’s hand, seen in recent photos covered by makeup that was not an exact match to his skin tone. She said the bruising was "consistent" with irritation from his "frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin." Trump takes aspirin to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Since President Trump signed his sweeping domestic policy bill into law, a key provision that prevents Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid funding has already been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. William Brangham discussed the legal challenge with Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood.
As vaccination rates among children continue to plummet, concerns are rising over the potential for infectious diseases to spread rampantly in the coming years and decades. Research published in JAMA suggests a continued decline could lead to millions of infections from diseases currently considered under control or eradicated.