Animal care panel sues own university, fearing harassment from animal rights activists | Science

In an unprecedented move, members of a confidential group that oversees animal research at the University of Washington (UW) have sued their own school to block the release of their names to an animal rights organization. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been trying to obtain this information for more than a … Read more

Gender-Affirming Health Care Should Be a Right, Not a Crime

Editor’s Note (2/25/22): This week Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to investigate gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth as “child abuse.” This article from April 13, 2021, is being republished to highlight the ways that anti-trans legislation is unethical and out of sync with the recommendations from prominent medical groups. In late March, … Read more

Vast Majority of People With Depression Aren’t Getting Treatment, Global Review Finds

Depression has become a leading cause of disability worldwide with no signs of slowing down. By 2030, the World Health Organization predicts the disorder could be the main contributor to the global burden of disease.   Even though we now have some effective treatments for depression, including medications and psychological interventions, medical care remains woeful … Read more

Most COVID-19 ICU Survivors Still Experience Symptoms a Year After Admission

Efforts to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control while still returning to some sort of normal life are delicately balanced – and new research suggests more attention needs to be paid to the long-term effects of the virus for those patients who required placement in intensive care units (ICUs).   An analysis of 246 patients … Read more

Waiting Over 5 Hours in ER Is Linked to Higher Death Rates, New Data Show

As emergency rooms worldwide are flooded with a wave of new COVID-19 patients, a large study in the United Kingdom has laid out the deadly consequences of delayed critical care.   Nearly 27 million individuals attended a major emergency room in England from 2016 to 2018, waiting on average just under five hours for a … Read more

Risk of Death For Female Patients Is Much Higher if Surgeon Is a Man, Study Reveals

For female patients, operation outcomes tend to be significantly better when their surgeon is also female, recent research out of Canada has found. No one really knows why that is just yet, but a new model comparing the sex of the surgeon, the sex of the patient, and the outcomes of the surgery have now revealed an … Read more

Latin American Abortion Laws Hurt Health Care and the Economy–a Lesson for a Post-Roe U.S.

As the U.S. braces for the possible rollback of abortion rights later this year, seismic shifts are happening south of the border. A series of recent legal and legislative decisions has begun to loosen restrictions in Latin America, a region with some of the world’s harshest antiabortion laws. And they could chart a path toward … Read more

Racism in Health Care Isn’t Always Obvious

Editor’s Note (12/21/21): This article is being showcased in a special collection about equity in health care that was made possible by the support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. As physicians from three distinct racial minorities, our lives are defined by an innate tension. On one hand, we experience … Read more