Wildfire smoke and extreme heat – increasingly the new norm – each have their own harmful effects on pregnant people and babies, including preterm birth and low birthweight. Now University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD SPH) researchers will lead a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine how the combined experience of these hazards affects maternal health in the United States. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) scribes can reduce the time physicians spend documenting patient visits by 69.1% during simulated primary care appointments, according to research led by University of Toronto PhD student LaShawn Murray. 

The study — published in the journal JAMIA Open, and co-authored with University of Toronto professor Enid Montague and Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya of Women’s College Hospital — involved nine physicians completing simulated patient encounters both with and without the use of AI scribes. These digital tools are capable of recording audio and using it to generate structured, regulatory-compliant clinical notes for a patient’s medical chart — the record physicians use to document their care. 

The researchers used video recordings of each appointment to analyze how physicians spent their time. They found that when the scribes were in use, the doctors spent significantly less time documenting. 

A study from the Dartmouth Cancer Center, led by James B. Yu, MD, MHS, reveals that more men in the U.S. are being diagnosed with advanced and aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Analyzing nearly two decades of data, the study highlights trends such as rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, an increase in high-grade tumors from 2008 to 2015, a steady rise in cases of metastatic prostate cancer since 2007, and growth in higher-risk genetic features of tumors.