Health Policy News

April 15, 2025

Top Headlines

School-Based Asthma Therapy Improves Student Health, Lowers Medical Costs

Apr. 11, 2025 — Millions of U.S. children have asthma and benefit from taking anti-inflammatory medications at least once a day as prescribed by their health care provider. This school-based asthma therapy program enables school nurses to help students take their ...

Tech-Assisted Peer Therapy Effective for Perinatal Depression in Lower Income Countries

Apr. 8, 2025 — A study has demonstrated the effectiveness of a technology-assisted intervention for perinatal ...

A New Smartphone-Sized Device Can Test for Tuberculosis: Here's Why That Matters for Children

Apr. 9, 2025 — This handheld device is the first that can detect tuberculosis in saliva, in addition to blood and sputum samples, an important breakthrough for testing children and HIV patients, who struggle to ...

Antibiotic Resistance Among Key Bacterial Species Plateaus Over Time

Apr. 3, 2025 — Antibiotic resistance tends to stabilize over time, according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:52pm EDT

Wildfire Recovery: What Victims Say They Need Most

Apr. 9, 2025 — Wildfire victims have a range of needs, including mental health support and information about wildfire smoke, according to a new ...

Climate and Health Litigation Mounting in Australia as Exposure to Heatwaves Grows

Apr. 7, 2025 — Australia has experienced a 37 per cent rise in dangerous heat exposure over the past two decades, while becoming the world's second-highest hotspot ...

Artificial Intelligence Has Potential to Aid Physician Decisions During Virtual Urgent Care

Apr. 4, 2025 — Do physicians or artificial intelligence (AI) offer better treatment recommendations for patients examined through a virtual urgent care setting? A ...

Exposure to Wildfire Smoke Linked With Worsening Mental Health Conditions

Apr. 4, 2025 — Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke was associated with increased visits to emergency departments (ED) for mental health conditions, according to a new ...

Guideline on Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis Calls for Changes in Practice

Apr. 2, 2025 — The United States Cystic Fibrosis Foundation released the first guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), in order to improve timely ...

Awareness Grows of Cancer Risk from Alcohol Consumption

Apr. 1, 2025 — Public awareness of the link between drinking alcohol and an elevated risk of cancer has grown since last fall, with 55% of U.S. adults saying that regularly consuming alcohol increases your chances ...

Clinical Trial Unearths Hidden Hypertension With Automated Searches of Health Records

Mar. 31, 2025 — A trial of 648 patients found that the new automated method and intervention strategy resulted in nearly four times as many diagnoses and treatment ...

My Robot Therapist: The Ethics of AI Mental Health Chatbots for Kids

Mar. 31, 2025 — AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use ...

Research Highlights Urgent Need for National Strategy to Combat Rising Eating Disorders

Mar. 27, 2025 — The increasing number of people with eating disorders and a lack of national guidance for support teams has led to researchers calling for a new ...

Adulting Is Hard on the Heart: Teen to Young Adulthood Is a Critical Time to Address Risk

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing ...

Multi-Virus Wastewater Surveillance Shows Promise at Smaller, Site-Specific Scales

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a new study, wastewater surveillance for multiple pathogens at five different sites identified local trends that were not captured in larger surveillance programs, and some sites used the data to ...

Avoidable Deaths Are on the Rise in the United States, Yet Falling in Many Peer Nations

Mar. 24, 2025 — In most high-income countries around the world, the number of avoidable mortalities is going down. But in the United States, avoidable deaths have been on the rise for more than a decade, according ...

Tax Sugar and Salt in Food to Improve Health?

Mar. 17, 2025 — Introducing a new salt levy is another proposal put forward in a comprehensive set of recommended regulations for the food ...

When It Comes to ACL Injury, a Dollar of Prevention Is Worth More Than Seven Dollars of Cure

Mar. 13, 2025 — An analysis of high school soccer players suggests that incorporating a lower extremity injury prevention program results in fewer anterior cruciate ligament tears and a big reduction in health care ...

Intervention Boosts Brain Infection Diagnosis and Care

Mar. 13, 2025 — Researchers have worked with global partners to identify and successfully implement an intervention package that has significantly improved the diagnosis and management of brain infections in ...

Study Quantifies Loss of Disability-Free Years of Life from COVID-19 Pandemic

Mar. 11, 2025 — Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new ...

Study Challenges Conventional Thought on Nurse Continuity in ICUs

Mar. 5, 2025 — A new study challenges conventional thought regarding the benefits of continuity in nursing care within intensive care units (ICUs). The researchers found that increased nurse continuity was not ...

Does Getting ADHD Drugs Via Telehealth Increase Addiction Risk?

Mar. 5, 2025 — A study of people who started ADHD stimulant treatment via telehealth vs in-person visits shows no difference in risk of new substance use disorders except for young adults age ...

A Third of Children Worldwide Forecast to Be Obese or Overweight by 2050

Mar. 3, 2025 — Obesity rates are set to skyrocket, with one in six children and adolescents worldwide forecast to be obese by 2050, according to a new study. But with significant increases predicted within the next ...

Infant Mortality Tied to Concentration of Lead in Air

Feb. 26, 2025 — In a new study, researchers used data on lead emissions in the air to estimate the effects of air lead concentration on infant mortality. The study found a statistically significant relation between ...

A Change in Child Concussion Management Policies Led to Improvements in Recovery Time

Feb. 25, 2025 — A concussion clinic changed its childhood concussion policies in 2017. A new study of this protocol change shows the approach, which recommended concussed kids begin rehab two weeks or less after ...

Telemedicine May Help Reduce Use of Unnecessary Health Tests

Feb. 24, 2025 — A research team has found that telemedicine may help to reduce the use of low-value ...

Single-Session Therapy Can Improve Mental Health Outcomes

Feb. 20, 2025 — Seeking mental health help is a significant step, but that first intake session can often feel more like paperwork than progress, and a significant proportion of people 'drop out' or never ...

Almost 90% of People Would Agree to Genetic Testing to Tailor Medication Use, Survey Finds

Feb. 19, 2025 — New research shows almost 90% of people in England would agree to genetic testing to get the most effective medication and reduce the risk of side ...

Advances in AI Can Help Prepare the World for the Next Pandemic, Global Group of Scientists Find

Feb. 19, 2025 — Scientists across Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe outline for the first time how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform the landscape of infectious disease research and improve ...

We Are No Longer Living Longer: Study Across Europe

Feb. 18, 2025 — The rise in human life expectancy has slowed down across Europe since 2011, according to new research. A new study reveals that the food we eat, physical inactivity and obesity are largely to blame, ...

Global Action Needed to Solve the Medical Oxygen Crisis

Feb. 17, 2025 — Targets for universal access, national roadmaps and more affordable and accessible care are vital to help fill the medical oxygen gap affecting more than half of the world's population, ...

Adults Don't Trust Health Care to Use AI Responsibly and Without Harm

Feb. 14, 2025 — A survey of adults found most had low trust in their health care system to use artificial intelligence responsibly or to make sure an AI tool would not harm ...

Wealth Gap Fuels Health Inequality for Over 50s: New Study Reveals Lifestyle Divide and Depression Link

Feb. 12, 2025 — There is a 'silent emergency' brewing under our noses as research finds that there is a clear wealth gap among adults over 50 who meet physical activity and dietary guidelines. The research ...

Long Drives and High Costs Stand Between Americans and Safe Surgery -- Especially in Rural Areas

Feb. 12, 2025 — When they need surgery, nearly one in three Americans may find themselves in a precarious position: They live more than an hour's drive from a high-quality hospital, and their insurance plan may ...