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What older adults need to know before taking a GLP-1 medication to lose weight
Starting Wednesday, millions of Medicare-qualifying adults will have access to popular medications for weight loss at deep discounts through a temporary federal program called the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge.
Affordable Healthcare Emerges as a Voter Priority in Purple Nevada
The Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP may complicate Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s reelection chances.
NC’s first full budget since 2023 reflects transformed health policy landscape
North Carolina's first full budget since 2023 reflects Medicaid expansion, Healthy Opportunities Pilot funding, SNAP changes and new federal health policies.
Medicaid work requirements challenged by coalition of 26 states
Led by Massachusetts and California, the plaintiffs say CMS ignored the will of Congress by strictly defining a “medically frail” exemption that would allow a person access to safety net medical coverage.
Richmond mental health agency operator charged in $49.6M Medicaid fraud scheme
The operator of a Richmond mental health agency faces federal charges after prosecutors say she ran a years-long Medicaid fraud scheme that targeted low-income and homeless Virginians.
Can GLP-1 medications improve health in people with Type 2 diabetes and PAD?
Research Highlights: GLP-1RA (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist) medications, which are prescribed to treat Type 2 diabetes and to help with weight loss, were found to reduce the number of deaths, amputations and hospitalizations among people...
St. Peter’s Health Partners Medical Associates Welcomes Nattamon Thapa
Nattamon Thapa, FNP-BC, has joined St. Peter’s Vascular Associates in Albany. A board-certified family nurse practitioner, Thapa specializes in vascular surgery care.
New health care system director appointed at Montana VA
The Department of Veteran Affairs appointed a new healthcare system director.Kimberly Adkins is responsible for 21 sites of care statewide including a medical c
Trump administration suspends funding for New York's Medicaid fraud unit over low performance
The funding suspension is part of the Republican administration's broader anti-fraud actions in the healthcare sector.
Trump administration suspends funding for New York's Medicaid fraud unit
The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration.
Lionel Richie's ex-wife shares update on singer's condition after hospitalization
Lionel Richie's ex-wife, Brenda Harvey Richie, shared news on her former husband's health after a medical incident led to a concert stoppage and hospitalization.
Peptides are everywhere in health and beauty, but does the science actually back up the claims?
Peptides are everywhere — promising to fix wrinkles, weight gain, and even torn ligaments. But are they safe? The FDA is moving to expand access. Here's what a medical expert wants you to know. 👇
Molecular imaging pioneer Eva Nogales awarded the 2026 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science
The Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science recognizes scientists who have a stellar record of research accomplishments.
PAHO expands health response as Venezuela faces mounting health risks after devastating earthquakes
Caracas, Venezuela/Washington, D.C., 30 June 2026 (PAHO) – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is expanding its support to Venezuela's Ministry of Health following the two powerful earthquakes that struck the country on 24 June, deploying technical experts, coordinating international Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), assessing damaged health facilities, and mobilizing emergency medical supplies to support lifesaving care and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.
Oklahoma Health Care Authority board approves balanced budget despite funding gaps
Budget cuts and modifications are leaving the state Medicaid agency with "razor-thin margins" as it enters the 2027 fiscal year.
All of Us tests a new approach to collect real-world data for research
The NIH All of Us Research Program has secured thousands of electronic medical records through an innovative use of patient data-sharing networks
Strengthening Collaboration between Workforce, Health, and Human Services to Meet New Federal Requirements
Human Services Policy Advisors Institute | June 24th, 2026 H.R. 1, or “The One Big Beautiful Bill”, introduced significant changes to work requirements across major health and human services programs. including expanding the populations subject to SNAP time limits, reducing state/territory SNAP waiver flexibility, and creating new work requirements in Medicaid. These changes accelerate the […]
'Lilo & Stitch' star Daveigh Chase's father reacts to daughter's death from AIDS at 35
'Lilo & Stitch' and 'The Ring' actress Daveigh Chase's father offered a heartbreaking reaction to his daughter's death after the medical examiner's office ruled her cause of death to be AIDS.
Half of states sue over Medicaid work requirements
FDA peptide panelists, a new study on Covid and flu shots, and more health news from Morning Rounds
Contributor: Mental health care isn't ready for psychedelic side effects
Accelerated FDA approval will invite recklessness. But don't block these important medications. Take steps to prepare.
These Church Members Disagree on Politics. Together They’re Wiping Out Medical Debt.
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
FDA staff recommendation undercuts RFK Jr.’s push to expand peptides
The chains of amino acids are increasingly marketed for antiaging and health benefits. However, medical experts say many of those claims have not yet been fully tested.
Think Insurance Denials Only Hurt Patients? Why Business Owners Are Paying the Ultimate Price
A simple 9-week delay for a critical medication resulted in a $50,000 surgical nightmare. Here is how healthcare bureaucratic delays quietly destroy your company's bottom line.
Leading Colorado toward modern mental health solutions
By Sean Camacho America is facing a silent crisis. Millions of Americans are living with invisible illnesses like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which decrease quality of life and, amid limited treatment options, create a vicious cycle of endless medications and, for many people, hopeless therapies. This […]
Radiology providers must pay $7M, modify policies after breast cancer miss
Radiologist Henry C. Lusane, MD, with Acumen Medical Imaging, interpreted the scans, reporting the mass as benign, a mistake later leading to a terminal cancer diagnosis.
DEA Comes Out Swinging in Cannabis Rescheduling Hearing
The government argued in support of currently accepted medical use; anti-rescheduling parties attempted to poke holes in the Schedule III recommendation.
Holyoke Medical Center earns national award for improving patient experience
Holyoke Medical Center has received national recognition for its efforts to improve the patient experience through technology.
SGMC Health Welcomes 32 Resident Physicians
SGMC Health welcomes its newest cohort of resident physicians as they begin their clinical training, representing a significant milestone in the continued advancement of the organization’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program.
Indy economic development leaders visiting Switzerland on trade trip
The trip will involve meetings with leaders in the life sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, medical technology, digital heath and advanced manufacturing sectors.
Unredacted comments from California hospital lawsuits show stunning admissions and a 'forced' McKinsey collaboration
Who controls the Medicaid market, GLP-1 usage and pizza household costs, and more from Health Care Inc.
To reduce wait times, UVM Health is demanding its docs see more patients
A recent report commissioned by a state-appointed overseer largely blames long wait times on low productivity among the network’s doctors, and argues wait times also contribute to unnecessarily high prices.
West Palm Beach business collecting items for Venezuela
Across the region, donation drives are collecting baby formula, medical supplies, nonperishable food and other essentials for families affected by the disaster.
'The Ring' star Daveigh Chase's cause of death revealed
Daveigh Chase's official cause of death has been released. The "Lilo & Stitch" and "The Ring" actress died from AIDS, according to Los Angeles medical examiner online records viewed by
As medical debt burdens millions, nonprofits and some governments step in
The federal government reversed course on a Biden administration-era plan to block medical debt from appearing on credit reports
Jackson fallout, Tuberville fight shape Alabama politics
Jackson Hospital, medical cannabis, Tuberville’s residency fight, tax reform and family farms reveal Alabama politics under pressure again this week.
Medicare will start covering weight-loss drugs on July 1 for the first time.
Millions of Medicare enrollees will gain their first-ever coverage for drugs for weight loss under a temporary pilot program that launches July 1.
Mental health medications can cause heat sensitivity
Some drugs can impair the body’s ability to cool itself and require extra self-care.
After months of unanswered pain, a Philly woman learned she had Stage 3 colon cancer. Now she’s pushing for equitable care
Medical advances mean that more people are surviving cancer. But not everyone is benefiting from those gains equally, a new report shows.
Medicare will start covering weight-loss drugs on July 1 for the first time. Here’s what you need to know
Millions of Medicare enrollees will gain their first-ever coverage for drugs for weight loss under a temporary pilot program that launches July 1.
Medicare is about to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Here’s what to know.
The Trump administration will launch its pilot program on Wednesday. It lasts 18 months, and estimated costs to taxpayers have not been disclosed.
Wisconsin moms on Medicaid now get 12 months of coverage
Wisconsin’s new law extends mothers’ Medicaid coverage for a full year after birth. Medical experts say it will save lives.
Housing, groceries, and medical needs: Detroit’s Health Hubs helping to get kids to school
Since their launch in 2023, DPSCD’s Health Hubs have helped thousands of families and contributed to improving attendance for many students, according to the district.
Medicare pushes end-of-life discussions in hospitals
Questions about living wills and other "advanced directives" are often skipped — or become a box-check in the admissions process.
After her insurer denied coverage of medication, she ended up in the ER
After switching Medicare Advantage plans, a woman with a weakened immune system got tangled in the preapproval process, which the insurance industry has vowed to improve.
Benchmark Scores Don’t Break. Clinical Reality Does. The Health AI Readiness Illusion.
Nature Medicine's frontier AI evaluation exposes a dangerous gap: models acing medical benchmarks collapse under adversarial pressure, and the FDA has no…
Uneven access to radiology AI could deepen healthcare disparities
New Neiman research explores how Medicare's New Technology Add-On Payment has impacted use of an AI triage tool for pinpointing severe strokes.
House committee advances radiology-backed legislation to curb prior authorization
The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act seeks to streamline the “often cumbersome and time-consuming” task of approving requests for medical imaging in Medicare Advantage.
Caldwell University Professors Join Nationwide "Phage Hunters" Science Alliance
Caldwell, NJ – Three professors of Caldwell University’s Department of Natural Sciences, Dr. Maria Agapito, Dr. Darryl Aucoin, and Dr. Hector Loyola Irizarry, attended the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) […]
Multiple sclerosis affects social life and work beyond physical health
Multiple sclerosis (MS) can have a substantial impact on many aspects of life beyond physical health, with 51% of people reporting that the disease affects their social life and 48% reporting that it affects their work, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2026.
Efzimfotase alfa demonstrated improvements in bone health in treatment-naïve pediatric patients with hypophosphatasia achieving median difference of 1.67 vs placebo in RGI-C Score at week 25 in MULBERRY Phase III trial
Positive results from the MULBERRY Phase III trial showed that efzimfotase alfa (ALXN1850), an investigational enzyme replacement therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in bone health in children (2 to
These church members disagree on politics. Together they're wiping out medical debt
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, N. C., has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
These church members disagree on politics. Together they're wiping out medical debt
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, N. C., has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
Americans now live longer in Democratic-held House districts. Here’s why
Even as health care issues rise in the 2026 campaign debate, new data show that far more House Republicans than Democrats represent districts where the most residents face major medical challenges — and lack health insurance.
Elliot Anderson’s Manchester City transfer arrangements see last-minute change
Adaptations have been made to the final medical checks for Manchester City’s record transfer for Elliot Anderson.The 23-year-old put in an 84-minute shift to help guide England through a highly comp...
Vikas Sehdev: Starting a New Chapter as Senior Medical Science Liaison at BioNTech SE
Vikas Sehdev: Starting a New Chapter as Senior Medical Science Liaison at BioNTech SE / AstraZeneca, BioNTech SE, cancer, OncoDaily, Oncology, Vikas Sehdev
Could 'humanmaxxing' actually help you live longer? Here's what experts say
Humanmaxxing is the latest wellness trend focused on maximizing human potential through biohacking, longevity science and advanced medical treatments.
Could 'humanmaxxing' actually help you live longer? Here's what experts say
Humanmaxxing is the latest wellness trend focused on maximizing human potential through biohacking, longevity science and advanced medical treatments.
Design and Early Implementation Outcomes of a Mobile Health-Enabled Social Support Intervention for Adults Living With HIV and Type 2 Diabetes in Uganda
Background: Adults living with HIV and type 2 diabetes experience complex treatment demands that affect medication-taking, clinic attendance, privacy, social support, and engagement with care. M...
States seek to lower drug prices by targeting the companies that manage them for health plans
TOPEKA, Kan. — As consumers worry about medication costs, states are trying to lower drug prices by reining in big companies that oversee prescription coverage for health insurers. Some of those companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, also own pharmacies, and one of them, CVS, has spent millions of dollars fighting
A Clover Health Director Sold Over 67,000 Company Shares. Here's a Closer Look at the Transaction.
This healthcare technology firm, focused on Medicare Advantage plans, reported a notable insider sale amid muted stock performance.
Baylor teen health clinics provide free medical care, mental health services
According to the latest U.S. Census data, Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured residents.
Piccadilly Jackson Medical Mall location closing after more than 56 years in business
After more than 56 years in business, the Piccadilly restaurant located in the Jackson Medical Mall is closing.
Business Honor Roll picnic celebrates community support
The Business Relations Committee at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena recently welcomed local professionals and industry leaders to a Business Honor Roll Appreciation Picnic hosted by Alpena Agency in their downtown location. Established in 1994, the Business Honor Roll brings together local companies and corporations interested in strengthening health care for our region. Through annual contributions […]
ACES hosts event looking at health impacts of climate change
Dr. Mark Gladwin, the dean of University of Maryland School of Medicine and the vice president of Medical Affairs, is slated to speak with Aspen Center for Environmental Studies from 6 to 7 p.m. July 2 on the worsening health impacts in the face of human-driven climate change.
Medical Debt Bills Advance, House Hears Behavioral Health Testimony
Several healthcare-related bills advanced in the Michigan Legislature during the week of June 22, including legislation addressing medical debt collections and behavioral health screenings.
Medicare will soon offer some older Oregonians weight loss drugs for $50 a month. Here’s how it works.
Medicare has long excluded coverage of GLP-1s prescribed solely for weight loss.
Medical miracles that changed how we treat disease
We've come a long way since \
OHSU advances massive leap in medical science with cellular therapies
Patients are benefiting from CAR-T to treat neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, lupus and other autoimmune conditions.
Most Patients Want Docs To Break Cancer News Directly, Not Through Portal Messaging
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, June 25, 2026 (HealthDay News) — People are becoming more comfortable communicating with their doctor through clinics’ patient portals. Folks use the portals to ask their doc questions and even to review the results of recent medical tests. But there are ...
Medical breakthroughs collide with the health system
The buzziest advances — like personalized gene therapies or AI-discovered drugs — may not deliver.
Sharonville mom raising money for UC Health's ICU patient program after she nearly died
It's been a year since a Sharonville mom suffered a medical emergency days after giving birth to her second child.
Trump nominates Chris Klomp as HHS second-in-command
President Donald Trump on Thursday named Medicare director and former health care executive Chris Klomp to be deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Shockwave Medical announces new studies evaluating carotid IVL platform
Carotid artery disease causes up to 30% of all strokes, but severely calcified lesions can make treatment quite complex. The hope is that IVL can be as successful in this area as it has been in the treatment of coronary and peripheral artery disease.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Three RWJBarnabas Health Hospitals Recognized Among Newsweek's Best Hospitals for Specialized Care for 2026
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (CBMC) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset (RWJUH Somerset), all RWJBarnabas Health facilities, have been recognized among Newsweek's America’s Best Hospitals for Specialized Care 2026.
12 arrested in South Florida in nationwide investigation into $6.5B health care fraud
Investigators say Medicaid and Medicare thieves in South Florida bilked taxpayers for $27 million for everything from fake therapy to medical equipment patients never received. Officials seized the stolen taxpayer money from Key West to Fort Pierce.
5 states targeting Medicaid behavioral health enrollment amid fraud concerns
At least five states have taken steps in 2026 to restrict new Medicaid behavioral health provider enrollments as stakeholders seek to curb fraud, waste and abuse while strengthening oversight of high-risk services. The developments come as the Trump administration aims to crack down on healthcare fraud. On June 25, the Justice Department charged 455 people, […]
Saint Alphonsus Health System begins 260,000-square-foot Nampa expansion
Saint Alphonsus Health System broke ground on the expansion of Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Nampa.The expansion will more than double the hospital's current s
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on GSK and Fresenius Medical Care in the latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector.
Lionel Richie reportedly hospitalized after medical incident forced concert to end early
Lionel Richie has reportedly been hospitalized after a medical incident on stage forced him to sit down to sing a song on the opening night of his tour with Earth, Wind & Fire.
CMS projects national health spending grew to $5.7 trillion in 2025
National health spending is projected to have reached $5.7 trillion in 2025, up 7.3% from 2024, according to an analysis by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published yesterday by Health Affairs. It marks the third consecutive year of growth greater than 7%. CMS projects growth to continue in 2026 due to continued demand for high-cost retail prescription drugs, mostly from individuals with Medicare and private insurance.
CT AHEC Introduces New Public Health Programs and Partnerships
New public health and public health careers enrichment programs for high school and emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic college students launch ...
Merck KGaA to buy Bio-Techne for $11.3bn in life science footprint expansion
The deal is Merck’s largest since 2015, when it spent $17bn on acquiring Sigma-Aldrich, also a life sciences specialist.
Immigrant-led residential care businesses in Maine launch new coalition
The group consists of 30 agencies who provide Medicare services to Mainers with intellectual disabilities and autism.
Americans are struggling to pay for health care. Here's why.
Fewer than half of U.S. adults said they believed they could pay for health care, medical appointments and prescriptions,
Around the MHS
This edition of news from around the Military Health System for the week of June 22-26, 2026, includes a vital partnership between Offutt Air Force Base and the American Red Cross, new Uniformed Services University research on stress fractures, and Naval Medical Research Unit EURAFCENT participates in a multinational readiness exercise.
4 charged in Nebraska as part of DOJ national health care fraud takedown
Criminal charges announced today are tied to alleged schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska.
Louisville doctor, nurse and nonprofit founder charged in federal health care fraud crackdown
Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Kentucky announced charges in four separate cases involving alleged schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, misuse medical credentials and controlled substances, and submit
Sister’s Gift Represents Transplant First at Sutter Health
Photo caption: Dr. Eric Miller adjusts the image focus on the da Vinci 5 robot as he performs Sutter’s first fully robotic living-donor kidney transplant. | June 2, 2026 Sutter’s California Pacific Medical Center (Sutter’s CPMC) in San Francisco has performed its first fully robotic living-donor kidney transplant, marking a significant milestone for the system’s […]
Medicaid-focused Cityblock acquiring MA business Homeward Health
Cityblock Health has raised $886 million and Homeward Health has raised roughly $72 million.
Medicaid-focused Cityblock acquiring MA business Homeward Health
Cityblock Health has raised $886 million and Homeward Health has raised roughly $72 million.
Las Vegas woman accused of running illegal multi-million-dollar healthcare scheme in Pearland, prosecutors say
Marizel Yukee is accused of providing medically unnecessary allografts to patients while receiving kickbacks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Her case is one prosecutors are citing as part of a national crackdown on health care fraud.
USF football and all sports will feel a big impact under new NCAA eligibility rule
Players in all sports will have five years to complete five seasons. Redshirts and medical extensions are going away.
Houston Methodist receives $110M donation, largest in health system’s history
The donation, made by The Brockman Medical Research Foundation, is the largest in the hospital system's history.
New Patient Guidebook Helps Puget Sound Beneficiaries Navigate Their Health Care
MADIGAN ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. -- Great news for military communities and TRICARE beneficiaries across the Pacific Northwe...
Tennessee parents, doctors warn of law aimed at excluding ill undocumented children from public medical program
A Tennessee law requires the health department to share the immigration status of a child with state authorities if they’re enrolled in the Children’s Special Services program.
Health insurers propose high rate hikes for 2027 Minnesota plans
To find out why and how much it'll burden customers, policy analyst Matt McGough with KFF Health News joined Morning Edition Wednesday.
NFL Legend Jim Kelly Recovering Following Stroke
Legendary NFL quarterback Jim Kelly announced this week that he suffered a medical issue earlier this year. Kelly, 66, says that he recently suffered a stroke. However, the former Buffalo Bills great is feeling good now. Kelly opened up about his medical status while speaking with reporters at the ...
Cityblock in talks to buy fellow General Catalyst-backed startup Homeward Health
Cityblock Health in talks to acquire General Catalyst-backed rural care startup Homeward, expanding into Medicare Advantage, source says.
455 people including doctors charged in historic $6.5B health care schemes
Over 450 people, including 90 medical professionals, are facing charges in global health care fraud schemes totaling $6.5 billion.