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Artificial intelligence (AI) is at an inflection point in health care. A 50-year span of algorithm and software development has produced some powerful approaches to extracting patterns from big data. For example, deep-learning neural networks have been shown to be effective for image analysis, resulting in the first FDA-approved AI-aided diagnosis of an eye disease called diabetic retinopathy, using only photos of a patient’s eye. (Jason H. Moore, 7/29)

In Australia, physicians and psychologists are publicly lamenting that the mental health system cannot handle the demand for new patients. During the pandemic, Australians have been seeking counseling amid growing reports of self-harm and eating disorders. The system was already deeply flawed, with limited highly-skilled psychologists and not enough hospital capacity for patients seeking support. In failing to prepare for mental health well-being during a potential crisis, nor responding adequately now, the Australian health system and government need to take responsibility for not providing people the tools they need to better themselves. (Cat Woods, 7/29)

The new Supreme Court conservative supermajority has already radically changed notions of law in some pockets of America. For proof, look no further than the brief that the state of Mississippi filed last week in the most closely watched abortion case in a generation, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which the Supreme Court will decide next term.The case concerns the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law that generally prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That Mississippi passed this law is itself breathtaking. The core holding of the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence — reaffirmed as a “super duper precedent” by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at his confirmation hearing — is that the state is constitutionally forbidden from interfering with a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy before the fetus reaches viability, roughly at 24 to 28 weeks. (Harry Litman, 7/29)

As health care companies raised a record-breaking $31.6 billion during the first quarter of 2021, investors drove home two big points: Health care providers adopted digital technologies like virtual care solutions in astonishing numbers as they pushed through the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Health care innovation is just getting started. I’ve never been more optimistic about the opportunities to dramatically change health care. (Kieran Murphy, 7/30)

The elderly population in America is growing. For the first time in U.S. history, adults over the age of 65 are on pace to outnumber children under 18 by 2034. With this demographic shift comes a greater demand for health services and a need to innovate care delivery systems in order to meet those demands. (Dr. Richard Stone, 7/29)

New data from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, show that our nation needs a fundamental shift in how Alzheimer’s research and clinical trials are designed and funded to overcome urgent health equity challenges. Alzheimer’s — a progressive brain disease that slowly erodes memory and executive function over time — disproportionately affects people of color, yet health disparities in Alzheimer’s treatment and research remain under-addressed. (Jason Resendez and Stephanie Monroe, 7/29)

While the delta variant and recent surge in the number of COVID-19 cases has reminded us that the pandemic is not over, Texas has taken an important step toward keeping its people safe and the economy strong by establishing the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute, or “TEPHI” for short. Created by the passage of Senate Bill 1780 and recently signed into law by Gov. Abbott, TEPHI will initially steer us safely through the final phases of COVID-19 and then transition to better prepare Texas for future pandemics. (Eric Boerwinkle and John Zerwas, 7/30)

Many Americans take good nutrition for granted. They shouldn’t. Hunger is a growing problem in the U.S. In 2019, more than 1 in every 10 American households suffered from food insecurity, meaning that they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The Covid-19 pandemic made things worse. The need for food assistance increased as millions of families — according to one estimate, nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households across the country — experienced food insecurity, the result of pandemic-related factors such as job loss. (Christina Severin and Erin McAleer, 7/30)