CBS News
March 10, 2019
Tonopah, Nevada, is about as isolated a place as you can find – 200 miles south of Reno, 200 miles north of Las Vegas, with one road in or out. But to those who call it home, this scenic dot on the desert landscape once had everything they needed. Emmy Merrow had no concerns about living in such a remote place: “It had a store and a gas station, and I was fine!” she laughed.

STATNews
March 10, 2019
As more people get genetic testing to assess their risk of getting cancers and other serious conditions, diabetes has been almost entirely left out — largely because of the difficulty of developing a useful test.

But at the South by Southwest festival on Sunday, the consumer genomics giant 23andMe announced that it will now tell its customers how their DNA affects their chances of developing type 2 diabetes, a condition better known for its link to environmental factors than genetics.

The New York Times
March 9, 2019
Catherine Quintana’s father had been in and out of a hospital for weeks, and the family understood that his time was running out. Her 78-year-old father, Ernest Quintana, had lung disease and was struggling to breathe on his own. On March 3, he was admitted to a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Fremont, Calif., for the third time in 15 days, Ms. Quintana said. He had his wife of nearly six decades and other members of his family at his side.

Washington Post
March 6, 2019
For two years, a group of world-class scientists pitched their idea for a hot new biotech company to investors: a start-up focused on a promising therapy for preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication that can become life-threatening. It was cutting-edge science, backed by a Nobel laureate, a Harvard kidney specialist, a leading chemist, and a biologist with both expertise and personal experience. Eventually, they gave up — not on the science, and not on preeclampsia — but on the investors.

BusinessWest.com
March 5, 2019
Every day, patients rely on doctors to tackle their chronic health and wellness issues and make them feel better. But what if it’s the doctors feeling miserable? Or stressed-out, anxious, and overwhelmed? Unfortunately, that’s happening constantly. Burnout among physicians has become so pervasive that a new paper recently published by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Mass. Medical Society, and the Mass. Health and Hospital Assoc. deems the situation no less than a public health crisis.

Time
February 23, 2019
When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital to recover.