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U.S. companies that prescribe abortion pills after telehealth consultations are expanding, but only in states that allow the practice, after the Supreme Court last month removed constitutional protections for abortion. Nonprofits based abroad, meanwhile, are mailing more pills to women across the U.S., including patients in states that have banned or restricted medication abortion. (Abbott and Montes, 7/18)

Demand for abortion pills is soaring following last month's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, even as states move to ban or restrict access. (Gonzalez and Gold, 7/18)

Virtual training and practice on anatomical models may soon become the norm for how OB-GYN residents learn how to safely conduct abortions as medical programs navigate new state abortion bans. (Dreher and Gonzalez, 7/19)

When Ariela Schnyer was choosing where to get trained as a nurse-midwife, California stood out for an important reason: The state would allow clinicians like her to provide abortions. But three years later, after graduating from her nurse-midwifery program at UC San Francisco, Schnyer is not yet prepared to provide abortions that require hands-on care. After the news broke that Roe vs. Wade had been overturned — a shift that is expected to send more abortion patients to California — Schnyer was trying to find out whether she could get trained in Mexico City. (Reyes, 7/18)

The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology exams are voluntary, but certification lends respect to doctors’ credentials, indicating they graduated from an accredited medical school and passed written and oral competency exams. Some employers also require the tests. The Dallas-based board had held virtual exams during the pandemic but planned to have the upcoming fall oral exams in-person. On Thursday, the board announced a reversal, saying the exams would be virtual. (Tanner, 7/18)

Figures from Google, one of the most prolific collectors of location data, show that the company received 5,764 “geofence” warrants between 2018 and 2020 from police in the 10 states that have banned abortion as of July 5. These warrants demand GPS data showing which mobile devices were present in a specified area during a particular time period, and can help investigate individuals who were present at crime scenes or other locations of interest. (Ng, 7/18)

The Markup has found that Facebook is serving up ads and posts for the “abortion pill reversal” procedure, a medically unapproved and potentially dangerous process that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says is “not based on science.” (Kirchner, Varner and Waller, 7/19)

The Idaho Republican Party has rejected adding language to their platform to allow an abortion to save the life of the mother. KMVT-TV reported that a majority of the roughly 700 delegates from around the state rejected the change to the party’s existing platform during its three-day convention that wrapped up Saturday. The platform does not have the force of law but states the party’s position it wants Republicans in elected office to follow. (7/18)

The Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade has been sold and will not reopen even if it’s allowed to do so by a state court, its owner told The Associated Press on Monday. (Wagster Pettus, 7/18)

As states pass and revive legislation restricting abortion following the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, many women are heading to Florida to have the procedure done. (Bojorquez, 7/18)

A judge in West Virginia on Monday temporarily blocked the state's pre-Roe abortion ban from taking effect. (Gonzalez, 7/18)

The Supreme Court issued an order Monday allowing Indiana to begin enforcing a state law requiring parental consent in order for a minor to get an abortion. (Williams, 7/18)

Texas anti-abortion conservatives are intensifying their efforts to shut down access for residents seeking abortions, with a near-daily drumbeat of threats and court filings aimed at donors, employers and others trying to help those patients. (Harper, 7/18)

North Dakota’s only abortion clinic, the Red River Women’s Clinic, has gone to state court seeking to declare the state’s imminent abortion ban is contrary to the state constitution. The lawsuit also seeks to at least delay the July 28 date for the ban to kick in. (Kolpack, 7/18)

KHN: In Some States, Voters Will Get To Decide The Future Of Abortion Rights

As states grapple with the future of abortion in the U.S., Michigan, California, and Vermont could become the first states to let voters decide whether the right to abortion should be written into the state constitution. In Michigan, a proposed constitutional amendment would override a 90-year-old state law that makes abortion a felony even in cases of rape or incest. The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last month could revive that abortion ban — and has galvanized abortion-rights advocates to secure new protections. (Wells, 7/19)

Vice President Harris told a gathering at a civil rights conference Monday that Americans’ freedoms are under assault from “extremist so-called leaders” looking to curtail access to abortion services and enact voting restrictions. “We must recognize there are those who are fighting to drag us backward,” Harris said in keynote remarks at the NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J. (Chalfant, 7/18)

Vice President Kamala Harris stressed the implications of the recent rollback on abortion rights in the U.S. on Monday by noting that the country has claimed "ownership" over human bodies before. Harris was speaking at the 113th NAACP National Convention when she called for steps to be taken in order to protect "fundamental freedoms," which she said included women being able to make decisions about their own bodies. (Strozewski, 7/18)

While the Respect for Marriage Act is expected to pass the House, it is almost certain to stall in the Senate, where most Republicans would surely block it. It’s one of several bills, including those enshrining abortion access, that Democrats are pushing to confront the court’s conservative majority. Another bill, guaranteeing access to contraceptive services, is set for a vote later this week. (Mascaro, 7/19)

Thomas wrote that the court’s “substantive due process precedents” set in cases like Obergefell v. Hodges — which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states — should be revisited, creating widespread uncertainty and panic among same-sex married couples over whether their unions will continue to be recognized. (Migdon, 7/18)

Calls for boycotts ramped up on social media on Monday after an article published by The Star Tribune earlier in July featured a Minnesota woman named Jessica Pentz detailing a Walgreens clerk allegedly refusing to sell her condoms based on a religious objection. The incident allegedly happened over the July 4th weekend, when Pentz visited a store while on vacation in Wisconsin with her husband Nate, who later shared an account of the refusal on Twitter. (Slisco, 7/18)

Over and over, Doug Mastriano has claimed that his Democratic opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, sued a group of nuns, aiming to force them to “violate their religious beliefs.” Catholics make up about one-quarter of Pennsylvania’s population. They traditionally lean toward Democrats, so this attack line is intended to undermine Shapiro’s standing among Catholics. (Kessler, 7/19)

KHN: Fighting Monkeypox, Sexual Health Clinics Are Underfunded And Ill-Equipped

Clinics that treat sexually transmitted diseases — already struggling to contain an explosive increase in infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea — now find themselves on the front lines in the nation’s fight to control the rapidly growing monkeypox outbreak. After decades of underfunding and 2½ years into a pandemic that severely disrupted care, clinic staffers and public health officials say the clinics are ill-equipped for yet another epidemic. (Szabo and Weber, 7/19)

Sexual health clinics on the frontline of the monkeypox response are already financially stretched, leaving the United States and UK ill-equipped to tackle the first major global health test since the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious disease experts say sexual health clinics - which offer confidential walk-in diagnosis and treatment – are best placed to identify and treat cases of monkeypox, which is largely affecting men who have sex with men. (Steenhuysen and Rigby, 7/18)

It has been a mere nine weeks since the United Kingdom announced it had detected four cases of monkeypox, a virus endemic only in West and Central Africa. In that time, the number of cases has mushroomed to nearly 13,000 in over 60 countries throughout Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, new parts of Africa, South Asia, and Australia. (Branswell, 7/19)

D.C. has more cases of monkeypox per capita than any state, prompting public health officials to launch an aggressive vaccination campaign aimed at blanketing the most at-risk communities. As of Friday, health departments were reporting 122 positive cases in D.C., 44 in Virginia and 37 in Maryland, but D.C. public health officials say there are more people infected than the data show because not everyone with symptoms obtains a test. (Portnoy, 7/18)

Inside the department, officials are battling over public messaging as the number of monkeypox cases has nearly tripled in the last week, nearly all of them among men who have sex with men. A few epidemiologists say the city should be encouraging gay men to temporarily change their sexual behavior while the disease spreads, while other officials argue that approach would stigmatize gay men and would backfire. (Goldstein, 7/18)

While monkeypox can sometimes result in mild symptoms, it is turning out to be unexpectedly severe for a substantial number of patients infected in this outbreak, according to doctors, public health officials and patients in New York City, the epicenter of the nation’s cases. (Otterman, 7/18)

“CDC has determined that the cruise industry has access to the necessary tools (e.g., cruise-specific recommendations and guidance, vaccinations, testing instruments, treatment modalities, and non-pharmaceutical interventions) to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 on board,” CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in an email. (Finnegan and Hiatt, 7/18)

“I feel strongly that you can’t just kind of cry wolf all the time,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago health department, who said she would wait to see whether hospitals become strained before considering another citywide mask mandate. “I want to save the requirements around masks or updating vaccine requirements for when there’s a significant change.” (Bosman, Fuller and Sandoval, 7/18)

While more than 1 million died from COVID in the U.S., many more survived ICU stays that have left them with anxiety, PTSD and a host of health issues. Research has shown that intensive therapy starting in the ICU can help, but it was often hard to provide as hospitals teemed with patients. (Hollingsworth, 7/19)

Omicron is “antigenically very distinct,” said Lemieux — meaning the structures on the virus’s surface are different from those of previous variants, making them harder for the immune system to recognize. Subvariants like BA.4 and BA.5 have also been “distinguished by a progressive ability to escape the immune system,” he said. The United States hasn’t systematically tracked reinfections. But data from countries that have reveals the impact of Omicron. In July 2021, reinfections comprised less than 2 percent of cases in the United Kingdom, according to its data. By June 2022, reinfections comprised over 25 percent of the country’s cases each day. (Caldera, 7/19)

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet this week to discuss the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax, whose latecomer shot would offer unvaccinated Americans another choice as the vaccination rate has leveled off. (Olson, 7/18)

Injected vaccines against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 have been hugely successful, saving nearly 20 million lives globally in their first year of use and slashing the pandemic's death toll by an estimated 63%, according to a recent study. (Goodman, 7/18)

When Stephanie caught COVID-19 just before Thanksgiving of last year, her daughter Laurie suggested that she get help. "She was really not feeling well, and I was like, 'Just go to the doctor,'" Laurie recalls. (Brumfiel, 7/19)

Super-contagious Omicron subvariants that can reinfect people within weeks are fueling a new wave of the pandemic across California. Hospitalizations are rising, and Los Angeles County is moving toward an indoor mask mandate, perhaps by the end of the month. (Lin II, Money and Reyes, 7/18)

In the past year, the rapid mutation of the coronavirus has triggered new variants, which have swept across the world: Delta last summer, then omicron in winter and more recently omicron’s subvariants BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5. The last pair have quickly become the world’s dominant forms of the coronavirus, as recorded in the GISAID international repository of coronavirus genetic sequences analyzed by The Washington Post. (Keating, Dong and Shin, 7/18)

President Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as soon as this week as he seeks to salvage his environmental agenda in the wake of stalled talks on Capitol Hill, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. (Romm and Stein, 7/19)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning that Democrats’ plans to curb drug prices would insert “socialist price controls” between Americans and the treatments they need as partisan battle lines form over a shrunken economic package that President Joe Biden wants Congress to complete within weeks. (Fram, 7/19)

Dozens of lawmakers are demanding the Biden administration penalize drug companies that have curtailed discounts to a federal program, the latest fallout from an intensifying battle between the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical industry. (Silverman, 7/18)

While Black voters remain overwhelmingly allied with the Democratic Party, some, especially older churchgoers, have a conservative streak when it comes to social issues like abortion. The best way to communicate to those members of her community, Ms. Smith-Pollard and other faith leaders said not long before the court ruled to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, would be to frame the response as not just a matter of abortion, but rather as part of a broader movement to restrict individual rights, including voting, marriage and control over one’s own body. (Kanno-Youngs, 7/18)

Further exposing long-simmering tensions between the state’s two Republican senators, Paul commented on his own role in sinking the nomination last week of anti-abortion lawyer Chad Meredith for a federal judgeship in Kentucky. The White House abruptly abandoned the nomination on Friday, pointing to the home-state resistance from Paul, who is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate in this year’s elections. (Schreiner, 7/18)

In recent months, the will-he-or-won’t-he-step-down conversation has dogged the 81-year-old Dr. Fauci — perhaps the best-known doctor in America. The issue comes and goes in direct proportion to how much Republicans are attacking the man who has been the top medical adviser to two presidents during the pandemic. (Gay Stolberg, 7/18)

Dr. Anthony Fauci plans to retire by the end of President Joe Biden's current term in office, which ends in January 2025, the government's top infectious disease expert tells CNN's Kate Bolduan. (7/18)

Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, first joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a clinical research fellow in 1968 and became the agency’s director in 1984. In that role, he has advised seven presidents through all manner of public health crises, including HIV/AIDS, the 2001 anthrax attacks, Ebola and Zika — though in recent years, he became a political lightning rod for his advice on the coronavirus. President Donald Trump in 2020 publicly criticized Fauci and told supporters he would consider firing him, while Biden heralded his decades in public service and made Fauci his chief medical adviser upon winning the presidency. (Abutaleb and Diamond, 7/18)

"My time is running out. I'm 81 years old," Fauci said in an interview on Australian radio station 3AW, in response to a question about whether he planned to stay at his post if former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. (Tin, 7/18)

Fauci, 81, told NPR that does not have an exact date in mind for his decision but that it may come "sooner rather than later." As for what's next, he said he is not sure what he will do after leaving his position partially because he hasn't decided when he will be leaving. (Stein and Davis, 7/18)

First and second COVID-19 vaccine booster doses conferred substantial protection against emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits and hospitalizations caused by infections with the Omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.2.12.1, finds a study of adults in 10 US states published late last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Van Beusekom, 7/18)

COVID-19 hospitalization is associated with a 45% greater risk of subsequent heart failure (HF), particularly for patients who are younger, White, or previously diagnosed as having heart disease, according to a US study published late last week in Nature Communications. (7/18)

... Data on 5,621 COVID-19 patients treated at six New York City-area hospitals between February 2020 and November 2021 showed that patients with high viscosity had death rates 38% to 60% higher than those with low blood viscosity. The inflammation associated with COVID-19 likely contributes to high viscosity, which in turn can lead to damage to blood vessel linings and clogging of arteries, according to the researchers. (Lapid, 7/18)

A new study in JAMA Network Open shows a higher COVID-19 infection rate in adolescents and young adults compared with older adults before vaccines were available. The study is based on health department statistics from 19 states, and it contradicts previous studies from Europe and Asia that showed older adults were more at risk of contracting the virus during the early months of the pandemic. (7/18)

In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government launched Operation Warp Speed, the public-private initiative aimed in part at speeding up the development of vaccines. But that same kind of effort has not been given to developing the next generation of vaccines, which experts believe will provide even greater protection. (Lovelace Jr., 7/19)

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on gonococcal infection, antibiotic resistance, and international travel that were published from 2010 to 2021, a team of Spanish researchers found that 16 of 18 studies described a probable link between international travel and transmission of MDR Neisseria gonorrhoeae from the country of travel to the country of return, as the index cases reported unprotected sexual intercourse at their place of destination. Travelers mainly visited Southeast Asian countries (66.7%) and returned to the United Kingdom (38.9%). (7/18)

Researcher Barbara Pavlova, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and colleagues reported in JAMA Network Open that the likelihood children would develop an anxiety disorder diagnosis during their lifetime was nearly three times higher when a parent of the same sex also had anxiety, but “no significant association” was observed when a parent of the opposite sex had anxiety. (Thompson Payton, 7/18)

As people age, their immune systems naturally begin to decline. This aging of the immune system, called immunosenescence, may be an important part of age-related health problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as older people’s less effective response to vaccines. (Klopack, 7/18)

A rural hospital in the Midwest is weighing whether it can continue to care for pregnant women in its community. (Kacik, 7/18)

In a news briefing, leaders from the Washington State Hospital Association said many health care facilities are 120% to 130% full, leading to long wait times in emergency departments, declining patient care and disruptions in ambulance services throughout the state, The Seattle Times reported. The high patient loads aren’t directly because of COVID-19 cases, although they are increasing, but due to delayed procedures and difficulties discharging hospital patients. (7/18)

Healthcare mergers and acquisitions are off to a slow start in 2022, but such deals are showing signs of revival. (Hudson, 7/18)

Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System paid the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights $240,000 to settle a possible violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. (Cohen, 7/18)

Early in 2020, as the world shut down, health care providers scrambled to get online as patients clamored to get treatment via telehealth. In mere weeks, the ability to connect with a physician, psychologist or nurse through a computer exploded. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 7/19)

For all the advances oncology researchers have made in genomics and precision medicine, one of the most basic questions for cancer patients remains one of the least understood. What should I eat? (Wosen, 7/19)

Patients with vitiligo will now have access to the first ever at-home therapy for skin repigmentation approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Welle, 7/18)

KHN: No-Bid Medicaid Contract For Kaiser Permanente Is Now California Law, But Key Details Are Missing

California lawmakers have approved a controversial no-bid statewide Medi-Cal contract for HMO giant Kaiser Permanente over the objection of county governments and competing health plans. But key details — including how many new patients KP will enroll — are still unclear. On June 30, with little fanfare, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill that codifies the deal, despite concerns first reported by KHN that KP was getting preferential treatment from the state that would allow it to continue enrolling a healthier pool of Medi-Cal patients, leaving other health plans with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients. Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, the government-funded health insurance program for people with low incomes, covers nearly 14.6 million Californians, 84% of whom are in managed-care plans. (Wolfson, 7/19)

Uber Technologies will pay $2.2 million to settle a federal lawsuit that centered on the rideshare company's charging an extra "wait-time fee" for disabled passengers, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. (Brooks, 7/18)

Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) will pay more than $2 million and waive wait time fees for disabled passengers to settle U.S. allegations that the ride share company had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Department of Justice said on Monday. (7/18)

Some 40 million Americans are under heat alerts due to "dangerous and intense" potentially record-breaking heat across the Plains and Mississippi Valley that's expected to expand into the Southeast this week. (Falconer, 7/19)

In Tulsa, Emergency Medical Services Authority, the state’s largest ambulance provider, has responded to 84 heat-related illness calls and taken 55 patients to hospitals since July 1, when the third heat alert of the year was issued for the city. In Oklahoma City, since a heat alert on July 7, the agency has responded to 59 calls, with 42 patients taken to hospitals. (Romero, 7/18)

Extreme heat holds special risk for people with chronic diseases — an enormous group that has only been made larger by Covid-19. (Cueto, 7/19)

Longtime Berkeley resident Mila Mangold has died at 114 years, 7 months old. The supercentenarian was the second oldest person in the United States at the time of her passing on July 2, 2022. Mangold was long considered a neighborhood treasure. (Raguso, 7/17)

Mental health advocates in Kentucky expressed hope Monday that the launch of a three-digit mental health crisis hotline will help remove the stigma of reaching out for assistance. The 988 hotline went live nationally this past Saturday, offering quick help for suicidal thoughts and other mental health emergencies. People taking the calls are trained counselors. (7/18)

Rhode Island has sued five more landlords who rent properties in which children with lead poisoning live, the state attorney general said Monday. The three properties in Providence, one in Central Falls, and one in Newport all contain “significant lead hazards” and the landlords have failed to comply with state lead poisoning prevention laws, Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement. (7/18)

Emory’s Hope Clinic Vaccine Center is one of four sites selected to participate in the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative’s clinical trials, taking part in the first human evaluation of mRNA technology in HIV vaccines. (Thomas, 7/18)

Hundreds of support workers at Sequoia Hospital walked out of the job Monday to strike for better wages, benefits and working conditions after negotiations with Dignity Health for a new contract stalled. (Toledo, 7/18)

Mascoma Community Health Center will suspend its dental services beginning July 30, following the departure of the center’s current dentist, according to a news release from the nonprofit’s board. (Doyle-Burr, 7/18)

The CEO of a financially troubled hospital in the Mississippi Delta has resigned as the hospital continues to pursue a possible joint operating agreement with a larger medical center. Jason Studley announced his resignation from Greenwood Leflore Hospital on Friday in a memo to the hospital’s employees and medical staff, the Greenwood Commonwealth reported. (7/18)

After two decades of marriage, Blanca finally hit a breaking point. Watching her husband rip apart the wedding dress she had so painstakingly sewn, then preserved over the years caused something to shift for her. That act was the final rupture in a relationship that had been turbulent from the start, with only short interludes of affection thrown in. The emotional abuse had been going on for years, according to Blanca. She said he constantly denigrated her appearance and Spanish-accented English. He refused to put her and their two sons on the health insurance provided by his job as a mechanic, telling her to buy her own. He rejected her pleas to let her write checks and have access to their joint bank account. He made her pay all the rent on the Bay Area home they shared with his relatives. (Sundaram, 6/27)

Bill Taormina had 17 minutes to convince the crowd in the auditorium of Boyle Heights Resurrection School to back his plan to turn their shuttered neighborhood Sears into a giant homeless services hub. The “Los Angeles Life Rebuilding Center” that Taormina wants to build would house up to 10,000 homeless people and provide medical and mental health services, job training, immigration help and drug abuse diversion programs. (Campa, 7/18)

If you want to mark an unnatural, scary, real-world data point for climate change, it is here in Britain, right now, where temperatures are forecast to soar as high as 40 Celsius — 104 Fahrenheit — on Tuesday, an extreme weather episode, a freak peak-heat, not seen since modern record keeping began a century and a half ago. (Booth, 7/18)

As Western Europe experiences a record-breaking heat wave, Spain and Portugal have reported at least 1,169 heat-related deaths, according to each country's ministry of health. (Theodorou and Grant, 7/19)

The Marburg virus is a “genetically unique zoonotic … RNA virus of the filovirus family,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The six species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family.” Fatality rates range from 24 percent to 88 percent, according to the WHO, depending on the virus strain and quality of case management. (Suliman, 7/18)

North Korea is on the path to "finally defuse" a crisis stemming from its first acknowledged outbreak of COVID-19, the state news agency said on Monday, while Asian neighbours battle a fresh wave of infections driven by Omicron subvariants. (Choi, 7/18)

Sexually transmissible infections are on the rise across the United States. But it’s not just monkeypox that’s surging, and it’s not just men who have sex with men who are affected. (Celine Gounder and Michael Donnelly, 7/18)

It’s getting hard to keep track of all the stories of women being denied care for miscarriages and otherwise having their lives endangered because of state abortion bans. (Michelle Goldberg, 7/180

Is abortion murder? It depends on when you think life begins. Is it at conception, at viability, at birth? Dr. Arthur Caplan, a New York University bioethicist, talks of symmetry: “We agree that people are dead and no longer exist when their brains have ceased to function. So, I think a key landmark is when a brain is able to totally function.” (Jill Lawrence, 7/19)

Abortion is healthcare. As physicians we support our patients in their healthcare choices to live the healthiest lives possible.Yet the existing trigger law in Tennessee and subsequent near total ban on abortion threatens the fundamental safety of pregnant persons in our state. (7/18)

In our case, choosing to have abortions was the culmination of an arduous and painful process in which we had to endure the disappointment of losing longed-for children not once but twice. And as zealous Republican state legislatures outdo themselves in a rush to enact draconian legislation that, in some cases, will prohibit all abortions, we are deeply worried about the implications for people whose route to becoming parents involves a high-risk pregnancy of any kind. (Gary Stix and Miriam Lacob Stix, 7/18)

On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved amendments expanding research into the potential benefits of psychedelic drugs. (Sal Rodriguez, 7/17)

I left semiretirement in December 2019 to assist in addressing the adolescent suicide crisis, only to be faced with the pandemic. Surprisingly, I found returning to practice in Minnesota akin to practicing in a Third World country, with unacceptable shortages and delays. Not due to lack of financial resources or infrastructure flaws, but rather due to corporate greed and corrupted politicians. (Richard O. Walker, Jr., 7/18)

The Season of Parental Falling is here. I didn’t realize how quickly it would arrive. But the price Mom and Dad pay to get to live another day — their deal with the devil that is chemotherapy — is numb hands and feet. No matter how many rugs and mats, flip flops and open-heeled sandals I disappear out of their home, or the type and variety of trekking poles, canes, tripod canes with seats, straight walkers, wheeled walkers or other assistive devices they have, my parents keep falling. (Dipti S. Barot, 7/17)

This week, an under-the-radar U.S. government advisory group called the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) can vastly improve medical device safety. (Kushal T. Kadakia, Sanket S. Dhruva and Harlan M. Krumholz, 7/18)

Value-based care champions health and justice by focusing on outcomes rather than on units of service. As this type of payment reform expands, implementing the necessary changes to enable it must operate from a frame of equity rather than equality. (Lora Council, 7/19)

Follow the evidence. It's a foundational tenet of health care, as it is of all scientific inquiry. Yet today's medical establishment is unwilling to confront the consequences of its attempts to maximize diversity. After years of lowering standards for applicants, medical schools are more diverse than ever before. Yet new studies show that many students are struggling, putting their future patients and careers at risk. (Stanley Goldfarb, 7/19)