In 1991, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine declared that computer-based patient records were an essential technology for health care. Yet today, says Kevin Johnson, MD, MS, it is clear that electronic health record (EHR) implementation in the US has failed to live up to its potential. Dr. Johnson and co-author William W. Stead, MD, of Vanderbilt University, set out the important problems and suggest solutions in a JAMA viewpoint article.

At the start of the pandemic, professionals working in health systems across the US realized that to avoid straining resources, most people would need to manage their illness at home — but there were no good options for that scenario. Enter Covid Watch, an automated monitoring system in which patients of all major racial and ethnic subgroups had reduced mortality rates.

In addition to making events such as catastrophic flooding more frequent, climate change will negatively affect human health in many other ways. A recent study by Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE, and colleagues showed that rising temperatures will lead to an increase in cases of kidney stones over the next seven decades — even if we take measures  to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Researchers confront a key, persistent bottleneck as they look to realize the huge translational potential of spatial transcriptomics: They lack the analytical tools to extract knowledge from the information they see about cancer and Alheimer's. Enter the technique that biostatistician Mingyao Li, PhD, has developed.

Although mammography reduces breast cancer mortality by 15 to 20 percent, the diagnosis in many cases — approximately 15 percent of all breast cancers — occurs after a patient has a negative mammogram and before her next recommended screening. These are “interval cancers,” and they carry big implications.
ALSO: Read about how Dr. McCarthy's team concentrates especially on the higher risks that confront women of color.

Michael Levy, PhD, has played a pivotal role in researching and commenting on the potential harm of evictions — and the mitigating role that eviction moratoria can play — during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here we present a few highlights of this work.

Tuberculosis remains the world's number one cause of death from a single infection. And for TB patients who are also HIV-positive, mortality risk is up to four times higher. How much can an ideal drug regimen improve their chances?