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The family doctor has always been a beloved icon in this country, celebrated in novels, movies and heart-warming illustrations by Norman Rockwell. Although many now find it hard to believe, the family doctor used to come to your front door. Ushered into the home at a time of crisis, or maybe to welcome a new life into the world, the doctor opened a well-worn black bag and, while worried family members lingered, dispensed equal parts medication and well-earned wisdom. In small towns and rural areas, the doctor, trusted implicitly, was almost a member of the family. He or she was there when needed. (11/30)

Ask most any woman about her experience with the American healthcare system and you will likely hear stories of medical maltreatment in the form of dismissal, undertreatment or incorrect diagnosis. Add racial bias to the mix and a woman’s likelihood of being victimized in medicine is even worse. In the largest study of its kind to date, a 2020 analysis of more than 3 million U.S. patients’ hospital admissions between 2012 and 2017 found that adults who are Black or from other underrepresented racial or ethnic groups received up to 10% fewer early treatments for heart problems than white patients. Medical bias according to race and gender is so powerful that even mega stars like Serena Williams have nearly died from it. (Damon Centola, 11/29)

Amid all the attention paid to the legal drama surrounding both Mississippi’s and Texas’s contested abortion laws, one striking detail seems to have escaped much notice: Neither state makes an exception for rape or incest. This is a major departure, a sign of how extreme America’s abortion politics have become. For decades, exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest were a rare source of consensus. (Michele Goodwin and Mary Ziegler, 11/29)

Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, has defied our best efforts to find a cure or even a treatment that can substantially slow its devastating degradation of the brain. The now decades-long sequence of high-profile setbacks in Alzheimer’s drug discovery and development underscores the unique challenge this disease presents. (Li-Huei Tsai, 11/29)

What are the most important ethical considerations for artificial intelligence (AI) in health care? The World Health Organization tried to answer this question in its recent report “Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health.” It offers recommendations on how to design safe, transparent, and equitable AI products and applications that can help providers make informed medical decisions and help patients achieve positive outcomes. (Ben Glocker, 11/30)

Over the past few years, we have lost several iconic figures to the same deadly disease, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Congressman John Lewis and “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. Each of these leaders – and thousands of other fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, lovers and friends passed away after losing a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest of all cancers. In the oncology world, pancreatic cancer has frustrated doctors, scientists and other experts for decades, while causing untold suffering for patients. Often called “the silent killer,” pancreatic cancer usually does not carry symptoms until the tumors have advanced to the point where they invade nearby organs. (Drs. William R. Jarnagin and Alice Wei, 11/29)

November is National Family Caregivers month, and if there’s one thing that’s come to light during the pandemic, it’s that we don’t value and support family caregivers enough. Even though families provide most of the care for children, adults with disabilities and older adults, Tennessee ranks 49th nationally for support of family caregivers, according to the 2020 Long Term Services & Supports State Scorecard. (Grace Smith, 11/29)

Michigan may have just replaced Minnesota as the nation's hottest COVID-19 hot spot, but we still are heading into the holidays with grim viral metrics and the unknowns of the new omicron variant. To save lives, the state's world-class medical providers need to step up now with this urgent but unpopular message: Minnesota must do more to control the current COVID surge, and that includes implementing both old and new preventive measures to keep the upcoming holidays from refueling viral spread. (11/29)