In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers found that up to 80% of emergency department visits and more than one-third of hospitalizations in severely impaired and terminally ill nursing home residents were potentially avoidable. Common causes included UTIs, pneumonia, feeding tube complications, falls, and seizures – many preventable with timely, on-site care. These unnecessary transfers not only distress vulnerable patients and families but also drive-up health care costs, contributing to $14.3 billion in annual Medicare spending.

Self-disclosure is vital for communication. In the present century, various innovative forms of communication have emerged, including video-conferencing and embodied virtual reality (VR). In this context, researchers from Japan have recently demonstrated that embodied VR, especially with unrealistic avatars, facilitates the revelation of personal feelings. Moreover, female-to-female pairing had the highest self-disclosure score, underlining the role of gender.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment, but not all patients respond equally. Now, researchers from Japan have explored why two anti-PD-L1 antibodies, which target the same immune pathway, produce vastly different therapeutic outcomes in a mouse cancer model. They found that an immune mechanism known as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity can inadvertently destroy antitumor immune cells. These findings underscore the importance of selecting antibody drugs that minimize off-target effects to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy.