Des chercheurs ont reconstitué l’exposition aux radiations ionisantes de plus de 21 000 volontaires de Constances depuis leur naissance. Ces expositions ont été estimées pour 6 organes (cerveau, poumons, seins, thyroïde, prostate et côlon) et seront bientôt mises en relation avec la survenue de cancers et autres maladies chroniques. Publié en mai 2026, ce travail sur l’exposome radiologique est une première mondiale en population réelle.

Children and families from priority populations, including culturally and linguistically diverse communities and regional/rural areas, face substantial barriers to accessing health and social care services, challenges that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. A two-site randomised controlled trial conducted in Australia from August 2021 to 2023 evaluated the Watch Me Grow–Electronic (WMG-E) intervention, a digital platform combining developmental screening with community navigation services. The study enrolled 288 parents or carers of children from priority populations through Child and Family Health services, randomly assigning 145 to the WMG-E intervention—which included digital screening and personalized navigation to relevant services via a dedicated navigator—and 143 to standard care. Using the WE CARE instrument to measure unmet social needs, researchers found that while both groups showed improvement over time, the intervention group demonstrated significantly greater reductions in unmet needs at 12 months. These findings suggest WMG-E shows promise as a feasible digital tool for improving access to integrated health and social care services for vulnerable populations, though sustained impacts require further investigation across diverse settings.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces critical healthcare delivery challenges exacerbated by climate change and widespread energy poverty, with approximately 53 percent of health facilities lacking reliable electricity access. This energy deficit undermines the region's capacity to provide quality care, maintain cold chains for vaccines and medicines, and operate modern medical technologies—challenges intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, BASE is partnering with SACREEE to support the United Nations Development Programme in developing a Green Climate Fund proposal to equip approximately 2,000 public health centers across Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with renewable energy systems and climate adaptation measures. The regional program addresses operational sustainability, affordability constraints, and private sector investment mobilization without requiring full upfront facility payments. By integrating climate and health data into existing surveillance systems, the initiative enables better prediction of climate-sensitive disease outbreaks and supports preventive interventions. The programme aims to improve healthcare access for nearly 15 million people, with half of direct beneficiaries being women, while strengthening regional resilience to climate impacts on public health.

More than 47 million Americans lived in food-insecure households in 2023, representing a critical social determinant of health that intersects with chronic disease, depression, and economic instability across pediatric clinics, schools, aging services, and child welfare settings. The USDA defines food insecurity as limited or uncertain access to adequate food, distinguishing between low food security involving reduced diet quality and very low food security involving disrupted eating patterns. The 2024 report documented that 13.7 percent of U.S. households experienced food insecurity, with 5.4 percent experiencing very low food security. Despite its pervasiveness, most social work curricula treat food access peripherally, leaving practitioners unprepared. This 2026 practice guide addresses this gap by providing validated screening tools, describing intervention models with published outcomes, identifying careers in food-insecurity-focused social work, and equipping practitioners with policy advocacy skills for systemic change. The guide reflects a paradigm shift positioning food insecurity as a predictable systemic consequence of inequity rather than individual failure, placing social workers at the center of addressing structural barriers to food access.

Researchers assessed the feasibility of deploying Bright Health, a solar-powered digital health infrastructure, across twelve public healthcare facilities in rural and peri-urban Kenya. The study employed mixed methods including structured facility assessments and qualitative interviews with facility managers and technical staff, with findings validated through a multi-stakeholder workshop. Results revealed that 83 percent of facilities experienced frequent power outages, with 67 percent reporting disruptions to electronic medical record systems. Connectivity challenges were widespread but addressed through offline-first architecture, enabling uninterrupted data capture and service delivery. Economically, 83 percent of facilities projected that solar-powered systems would reduce long-term operational costs by decreasing generator dependence and downtime, though upfront investment concerns remained. Health system readiness was notably high, with 92 percent of facilities expressing willingness to adopt the solution, though capacity gaps were identified. This research demonstrates that integrating renewable energy with digital health infrastructure represents a viable approach to overcoming persistent electricity and connectivity constraints that impede digital health implementation in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in underserved rural settings where traditional power infrastructure remains unreliable.

The Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program, authorized under Section 71401 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21), represents a comprehensive federal initiative to strengthen healthcare delivery in rural America. With $50 billion in funding allocated over five fiscal years—beginning in fiscal year 2026 with $10 billion annually—the program empowers states to improve healthcare access, quality, and outcomes through systematic ecosystem transformation. The RHT Program pursues four strategic objectives: supporting rural health innovations and preventative care through evidence-based interventions addressing chronic disease management, behavioral health, and prenatal care; enhancing provider sustainability by facilitating operational coordination and resource sharing among rural facilities and regional systems; attracting and retaining healthcare professionals through recruitment initiatives while enabling providers to practice at the top of their license and expanding the workforce to include community health workers and patient navigators; and advancing innovative care models and payment mechanisms through ACOs that reduce costs and shift care to lower-cost settings. Additionally, the program promotes digital health infrastructure, including remote care access, data sharing capabilities, and cybersecurity strengthening. Funding will be distributed through cooperative agreements with states via a Notice of Funding Opportunity, fundamentally reshaping rural healthcare delivery for future generations.

In 2023, more than 47 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, a crisis that manifests across all social work settings including pediatric clinics, schools, and child welfare offices. The USDA defines food insecurity as limited access to adequate food and distinguishes between low food security, characterized by reduced diet quality and food anxiety, and very low food security, marked by disrupted eating patterns and skipped meals. The 2024 data shows 13.7% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity, with 5.4% facing severe deprivation. Despite food insecurity's documented impact as a social determinant of health compounding chronic disease and mental health challenges, most social work curricula provide minimal training on this critical issue, leaving practitioners to develop competency through self-directed learning. A new 2026 practice guide addresses this gap by providing validated screening tools, evidence-based intervention models with published outcomes, and policy advocacy strategies for systemic change. The guide reframes food insecurity from a personal failing to a predictable consequence of structural inequity, positioning social workers as central to addressing this public health crisis through direct practice, program connection, and advocacy for structural reform.

Lifestyle Medicine (LM) represents an evidence-based discipline designed to prevent, manage, and reverse non-communicable diseases through healthy lifestyle behavioral changes. Building on the foundational Doha Declaration on LM, an international consensus meeting convened 26 global LM professionals to explore the field's potential to transform clinical practice and public health policy. The resulting white paper examines LM's implications for global health outcomes, economic sustainability, and population well-being, emphasizing the strategic necessity of integrating LM into medical education curricula, clinical guidelines, and health governance frameworks. The research identifies critical implementation challenges while proposing actionable solutions to establish LM as a cornerstone of equitable and sustainable healthcare delivery worldwide. Key findings demonstrate that LM can significantly reduce the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. However, successful implementation requires comprehensive incorporation into healthcare systems and educational programs, supported by policies tailored to local cultures, resources, and practices. These coordinated efforts address unhealthy behaviors and underlying disease risk factors, ultimately improving health outcomes across populations globally.

A comprehensive ecosystem of digital health platforms emerged on July 14, 2026, demonstrating the healthcare industry's commitment to care coordination and remote patient management. Leading companies including VeeOne Health, PatientIQ, ChronicCareIQ, and Cadence Solutions have introduced sophisticated virtual care delivery systems enabling proactive patient management and remote monitoring across multiple conditions. Specialized platforms address distinct clinical needs: Babyscripts supports pregnancy and postpartum care, Rula connects patients with behavioral health providers, Brightside Health delivers comprehensive mental health management, while Force Therapeutics and SeamlessMD guide patients through surgical journeys with personalized education and recovery tracking. Condition-specific solutions like Tidepool for diabetes management and Medbridge for rehabilitation demonstrate targeted approaches to chronic disease management. NeuroFlow integrates behavioral health screening into clinical workflows, and CoachCare emphasizes engagement outcomes. These platforms collectively capture patient-reported outcomes, enable longitudinal monitoring, and support self-management across the care continuum, reflecting a significant shift toward technology-enabled coordination that connects patients and care teams while improving outcomes and engagement through scalable, personalized interventions.

Healthcare delivery is shifting from episodic office visits to continuous care models that support patients daily, particularly as chronic disease drives healthcare utilization and costs. Brook provides the infrastructure enabling organizations to deliver longitudinal, continuous care at scale through remote monitoring, AI-powered clinical intelligence, coordinated workflows, and human care teams. This approach identifies clinical risks earlier, improves patient engagement, and enables timely interventions before conditions deteriorate. Continuous care encompasses ongoing patient engagement, remote health data monitoring, medication support, personalized education, AI-driven clinical prioritization, care coordination, and proactive intervention between visits. Since over 90 percent of healthcare spending relates to chronic disease and mental health conditions, and most health outcomes depend on factors outside clinical settings, the traditional episodic model creates dangerous gaps. Patients managing complex care largely independently often experience poor medication adherence, disease progression, preventable emergency visits, and hospital readmissions, while clinicians face burnout. By maintaining ongoing connections with patients throughout their healthcare journey, continuous care closes these gaps, improving clinical outcomes, reducing avoidable utilization, and supporting financially sustainable care delivery models.

This qualitative study examines the complex systems and policy barriers faced by homeless adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Researchers interviewed eighteen service professionals—including clinicians, case managers, allied professionals, and outreach specialists—between March and June 2021 to understand how individuals with IDD navigate multiple public systems to access care. The analysis identified five distinct systems with which this population frequently interacts and revealed two critical themes: structurally fragmented care for complex needs and policy-driven gaps in care. The findings demonstrate that homeless adults with IDD experience perpetual cycling through fragmented public systems, creating barriers to essential services and care coordination. The research underscores how structural ableism embedded throughout existing systems prevents health equity. The study advocates for transitioning from crisis-driven care models to cohesive care ecosystems and emphasizes the urgent need for integrated approaches that reduce system churn. These insights are particularly significant given the housing affordability crisis has disproportionately increased homelessness among adults with IDD, making coordinated, equity-focused service delivery models essential for this vulnerable population.

Social determinants of health—including economic stability, education, healthcare access, housing, and social support—significantly influence eating disorder risk, diagnosis, and recovery outcomes, accounting for approximately 30 to 55 percent of overall health outcomes. A continuing education webinar featuring Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, MD, National Medical Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Monte Nido, and Erikka Taylor, MD, MPH, DFAACAP, Chair of Project HEAL's Board of Directors, addressed how clinicians can provide more equitable eating disorder care. Although eating disorders affect individuals across all demographics, recognition and treatment remain unequally distributed across populations due to persistent clinical stereotypes about who develops these conditions. Food insecurity, discrimination, poverty, unstable housing, and limited healthcare access correlate with increased eating disorder risk and delayed diagnosis. The webinar emphasized that early recognition remains one of the strongest predictors of improved outcomes, underscoring the critical importance of addressing social determinants to ensure equitable access to timely treatment for all populations vulnerable to eating disorders.

For most of modern medical history, microbes were viewed primarily as threats. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi were ‘problems’ physicians were trying to eliminate with disinfectants and antibiotics. However, over the past two decades a major scientific shift has occurred. Researchers now recognise that trillions of micro-organisms living in and on the human body, collectively called the microbiome, play an essential role in health.

With rapid advances in synthetic biology and genetic engineering, genetically engineered bacteria (GEB) have emerged as a promising platform for biological therapy, addressing key limitations of conventional drug delivery systems and demonstrating significant clinical potential. By leveraging a modular design framework, GEB exhibits high biocompatibility and programmability, enabling precise genetic modifications for targeted delivery, dynamic responsiveness, and sustained therapeutic effects. This review systematically examines the therapeutic development of GEB, focusing on its pivotal roles in tumor therapy, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), metabolic disorders, and the treatment of complex infections. It outlines key design strategies—including sensing, payload release, and biocontainment modules—as well as evaluation frameworks and mechanisms of action.

Although probiotic-based bionic strategies show therapeutic promise for inflammatory bowel disease, their clinical translation is limited by poor gastric acid survival, inefficient intestinal colonization and inadequate targeting. Inspired by the multi-level cooperative mechanism of defense protection–danger sensing–tissue repair observed in coral communities, we developed a core–shell bionic microcapsule reactor (MY-E@SS). Here we show that the multifunctional bionic shell enables safe delivery of engineered bacteria through the gastrointestinal tract. Upon reaching inflamed intestinal sites, these bacteria sense the pathological microenvironment and responsively release an anti-inflammatory peptide. In a male murine model of inflammatory bowel disease, this system exhibited excellent biocompatibility and pronounced therapeutic efficacy, restoring intestinal barrier integrity, attenuating systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, modulating respiratory metabolism, and reestablishing microbial homeostasis.

Probiotics have long been star ingredients in dairy foods, drinks, and supplements, promising to generate a better bacterial balance to our guts. On Apr. 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took a step toward formalizing the idea of adjusting gut-bacteria populations when it approved the first oral drug designed to treat the microbiome. Called SER-109, the pill is a cocktail of bacteria that can prevent recurring infections of C. difficile bacteria in people who have had previous episodes, and help them maintain healthy levels of gut bacteria. Keeping beneficial bacteria in proper balance could be an important way to keep disease-causing ones like C. difficile at bay.

The Prison Policy Initiative has compiled a comprehensive research collection examining how the criminal justice system affects public health outcomes and mortality rates. This curated resource aggregates existing research while highlighting the organization's original contributions to understanding this critical intersection. The initiative recognizes that incarceration and justice system involvement have significant health consequences extending beyond immediate physical safety concerns. By centralizing this body of knowledge, the Prison Policy Initiative provides researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with accessible evidence about health disparities linked to criminal justice involvement. The collection addresses the broader question of how systemic factors within prisons and the justice system impact population health, mortality patterns, and long-term health trajectories. This resource is part of the organization's larger research library, which covers diverse criminal justice topics. The focus on health implications represents growing recognition that effective criminal justice reform requires understanding and addressing the documented health consequences of incarceration, making this compilation valuable for evidence-based policy development and public health advocacy.

A recent study from Mass General Brigham reveals a significant gap between current cholesterol levels and newly released 2026 American guidelines. Nearly one-third of U.S. adults without heart disease and almost four-fifths of those with prior cardiovascular events have LDL cholesterol above recommended targets. Notably, approximately three-quarters of at-risk adults without heart disease receive no cholesterol-lowering medication despite eligibility. The 2026 guidelines introduced stricter LDL goals based on cardiovascular risk assessment, with lower targets for higher-risk patients. Researchers analyzed national data representing 178 million Americans, highlighting a substantial treatment gap that represents missed prevention opportunities for millions of individuals at risk for heart attacks and strokes.

Bioinks are developed using various polymers with crosslinkers. The crosslinkers play a crucial role in the formation of bioinks, which can be natural or synthetic (ionic, chemical, photo, etc.). However, extensive usage of crosslinkers limits the clinical application of bioinks due to compromising the ideal properties of bioinks, such as cytocompatibility, biodegradability, and biomechanical properties. Therefore, the potential solution to this problem is utilizing the click chemistry approach. The click chemistry strategy can achieve efficient bio-inks without compromising their intrinsic and optimal characteristics, as click reactions are rapid, spontaneous, and bioorthogonal, favoring the gelation time, rate of degradation, and cell viability.

Patient experience represents a fundamental dimension of healthcare quality that extends beyond clinical excellence and treatment accessibility. It encompasses how patients perceive and navigate their care journey, including their understanding of information, sense of being heard, continuity of support, and attention to practical, emotional, and social needs. This concept proves particularly critical in chronic disease management, which demands sustained follow-up and active patient participation. For healthcare providers, optimizing patient experience serves as a strategic lever to better understand individual needs, enhance care coordination, and foster patient engagement. Distinguishing patient experience from experiential knowledge—lived reality versus insights derived from it—enables organizations to capture authentic perspectives and implement meaningful improvements throughout care pathways.