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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Dec-2025 01:11 ET (14-Dec-2025 06:11 GMT/UTC)

The key to increasing patients’ advance care medical planning may be automatic patient outreach

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A strategy for advance care planning that included automated outreach from staff who contacted patients to offer assistance significantly boosted the number of patients who completed documentation outlining their wishes in times of serious illness

Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine
Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Canadian wildfire smoke worsened pediatric asthma in US Northeast: UVM study

University of Vermont
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As wildfire smoke becomes a growing public-health story in the Northeast, a first-of-its-kind study in Environmental Health finds that Canadian wildfire smoke in the summer of 2023 worsened asthma symptoms in children across Vermont and upstate New York—even though the fires were burning hundreds of miles away.

Journal: Environmental Health

UBCO study finds microdosing can temporarily improve mood, creativity

University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new UBC Okanagan study found that people who microdose psychedelics feel better on the days they take them—but those boosts don’t seem to last.

This suggests, says Dr. Michelle St. Pierre, that perceived benefits may be acute rather than long lasting.

Journal: Psychopharmacology

Blood test reveals prognosis after cardiac arrest

Lund University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A blood biomarker yet to be used in cardiac arrest care can give a clearer picture of the extent of brain damage after a cardiac arrest. This has been shown in a large international multicentre study led by researchers at Lund University that has been published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Worldwide, around four million people each year suffer a sudden cardiac arrest

“This will transform care for these patients,” says researcher Marion Moseby Knappe.

Journal: The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
Funder: The Swedish Research Council, The Swedish Heart–Lung Foundation, The Stig and Ragna Gorthon Foundation, The Knutsson Foundation, Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine, The Hans-Gabriel and Alice Trolle-Wachtmeister Foundation for Medical Research, The Bundy Academy at Lund University, Regional Research Support in Skåne, The Swedish Government, Roche Diagnostics International

The Lancet: New single dose oral treatment for gonorrhoea effectively combats drug-resistant infections, trial finds

The Lancet
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A single-dose oral medication called zoliflodacin shows promise as a new treatment for antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea, according to a phase 3 clinical trial published in The Lancet. The study found that one dose of zoliflodacin was as effective as the current standard treatment, which combines two antibiotics: an injection of ceftriaxone followed by an oral dose of azithromycin.

Journal: The Lancet

Diversity language in US medical research agency grants declined 25% since 2024

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Words reflecting diversity language have appeared less frequently in grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since the 2024 US presidential election, with a 25% relative decrease between January 2024 and June 2025, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

Journal: The BMJ

Concern over growing use of AI chatbots to stave off loneliness

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

AI chatbot systems, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, are used increasingly as confidants of choice, but turning to AI chatbots for companionship and emotional support is a cause for concern, especially in younger people, say experts in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

Journal: The BMJ

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