Category: NPR

Doctors are pushing Hollywood for more realistic depictions of death and dying on TV

Clinicians who work with people at the end of life say the most common television depictions of death aren’t representative of what happens in the real world. They want to flip the script.

Health workers struggle to prevent an infectious disease ‘disaster in waiting’ in Gaza

Public health experts say conditions in war-torn Gaza are ripe for the spread of infectious disease. Health workers are struggling to spot and contain outbreaks, even as the health system teeters.

In 2023, opioid settlement funds started being paid out. Here’s how it’s going

Some $1.5 billion flowed to local government coffers this year, sparking debates about transparency and how to spend the money. Here are 5 takeaways from a year’s worth of reporting on the issue.

For the third year in a row, ACA health insurance plans see record signups

More than 19 million people have already signed up for health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. And you can still enroll through Jan. 16.

A new test could save arthritis patients time, money and pain. But will it be used?

Stories of chronic pain, drug-hopping, and insurance meddling are all too common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Precision medicine offers new hope.

A new normal? 6 stories about the evolving U.S. COVID response in 2023

This was the year a lot people finally exhaled. The pandemic was declared no longer an emergency. But viral threats are still with us and there are lessons we still haven’t learned.

Can family doctors deliver rural America from its maternal health crisis?

More than half of American counties don’t have an obstetrician. Family physicians, working in teams with proper support, could be the answer to the crisis in rural obstetric care.

Pod Corner: ‘Imminent Danger’

The new podcast Imminent Danger looks at the troubling medical career of one OB-GYN and what it tells us about how doctors are vetted in the United States.

The U.S. is unprepared for the growing threat of mosquito- and tick-borne viruses

Experts warn that new tropical viruses are headed for the U.S. – and the country should take active measures to fend them off.

5 things to know about the latest abortion case in Texas

The case involves just one abortion, but it’s likely to have wider implications in the state with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country.