New editorial explores double-edged sword of AI scribes in health care

Texas passed a landmark law in June 2025, supported by former Gov. Rick Perry, that allocates US$50 million to support research on ibogaine, one of the most powerful psychedelics, for treating opioid addiction and treatment-resistant PTSD.

In a new study, artificial intelligence matched and potentially exceeded the performance of gastroenterologists and conventional scoring in evaluating endoscopies of Crohn's disease patients.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a new investigational drug that shows promise in treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a serious form of fatty liver disease linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes that can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and even liver cancer.

In my youth, I spent an unreasonable amount of time questioning why A-level chemistry was a prerequisite for medical school. Why was it as essential as biology? Why did I need to learn about electrons and entropy? The penny finally dropped when my rather brilliant teachers turned my attention towards the periodic table.

A novel, multi-analyte test developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, its Ludwig Center and the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery can accurately identify brain cancers using small samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), offering a promising new tool to guide clinical decision-making.

A UCLA study has mapped a critical brain hub in mice that regulates stress responses and social behavior, shedding new light on the neural roots of psychiatric conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

Investigators at Mass General Brigham and the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have uncovered how patients' health care spending has changed following the implementation of the No Surprises Act in 2022, a bipartisan law prohibiting unexpected or "surprise" bills after patients receive out-of-network medical care.

Government housing assistance was associated with a nearly seven-percentage point lower risk of experiencing financial hardship related to medical expenses among US renters with a history of cancer, new research finds.

Scientists at Kumamoto University have made a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine by successfully creating functional ureter tissue—organoids resembling the urinary tract—from pluripotent stem cells. The results, published in Nature Communications, bring researchers one step closer to developing transplantable kidneys capable of producing and expelling urine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will stop airing its "Tips From Former Smokers" ads at the end of September, ending a 13-year campaign that helped millions of Americans quit smoking.

By stimulating macrophages—a type of white blood cell—with biological factors that mimic infection, researchers have uncovered genetic drivers of complex diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), in one of the largest studies of its kind.

Treatment with exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) led to robust and sustained improvements in quality of life for patients with severe sickle cell disease (SCD) or transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, according to two studies published in Blood Advances.

Across the United States, the return of students to college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020 sparked widespread fears that local communities would be overwhelmed by the virus.

Autistic children with mild to moderate developmental delay will no longer be eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) from mid-2027.

Bulimia nervosa (BN), or bulimia, is a mental health disorder characterized by binge eating and a fear of gaining weight, which drives people to try and avoid weight gain, usually by compensatory (vomiting etc.). Over time, this binge–purge cycle harms both the physical and mental health of the individual, leading to problems like dehydration, low blood pressure, depression, and even self-harm.

The government is considering new, bulk-billed health checks for 3-year-olds, to pick up developmental concerns and refer kids that might need additional support.

More than 60% of women in New Zealand have experienced some form of interpersonal violence—an alarming statistic with serious implications for public health.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center reports that maternal immunoglobulin G (IgG), ingested in the first week of life, restrained microbiota-dependent adaptive immune responses weeks later, after weaning in mice. Investigators identified a critical early-life window when ingested IgG tunes responses to commensal microbes and dietary antigens.