It had been a rough few months. Cynthia Tompkins was hospitalized in May for osteomyelitis — a bone infection — then spent six weeks in a rehabilitation facility. “It was a struggle,” she said. “I didn’t bounce back too well.”

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“No more operations,” he said. It was mid-January 2026, and my then-73-year-old husband, Mike Salmon, had just started bouncing back from a three-month ordeal of three operations related to aortic aneurysms, sepsis, and a terrifying descent into delirium tied to a stay in the intensive care unit.

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MACY, Neb. — Erica Carter is passionate about her job, and she has seven acres of flowers and vegetables to show for it.

Carter’s specialty is reeling in grants to support students in the Omaha Nation school district, where she is a finance manager. One paid for the garden that sits next to the district’s campus. Another allowed the school system, in one of Nebraska’s lowest-income counties, to pay students to maintain it.

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Highlights

Recently released findings from KFF’s July Health Tracking Poll show that much of the public is unsure of the abortion pill mifepristone’s safety, and most lack awareness that most abortions in the U.S. are performed via medications. These findings come as some groups opposed to abortion are citing a misleading paper in an effort to classify mifepristone as a water contaminant, despite criticism of the paper’s methodology and a lack of evidence demonstrating the drug poses an environmental risk.

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President Donald Trump, apparently unhappy with the slow pace of efforts to change the federal government’s childhood vaccine schedule, issued a new executive order this week that would, if implemented, upend how children are protected from communicable diseases. But there are many obstacles to carrying out the president’s initiative, both legal and political.

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Hospitals across the U.S. are trying to reduce maternal deaths and complications after pregnancies using one small tool: a silicone wristband stamped with the declaration “I Gave Birth.”

The wristbands are part of a growing initiative first launched by North Carolina-based ECU Health as Congress sought to address the nation’s growing maternal mortality crisis during the covid pandemic. Since 2021, nearly 50 North Carolina hospitals and the state’s health department have begun distributing the wristbands, to give mothers and care providers a visual reminder of the life-threatening health risks after birth.

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A new Executive Order (EO) released by the White House on Monday is the latest in a series of administration actions seeking to change U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations. It follows:

• a presidential memo from last December calling for the U.S. to align its vaccine recommendations with “best practices from peer, developed countries.”
• a January 5 memo from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopting a revised federal childhood vaccine schedule that categorized vaccines into three groups – “population-based,” or recommended for all children recommended for certain high-risk groups; and recommended through “shared-clinical decision-making” – and reduced the number of vaccines routinely recommended for all children, and
• an EO from May calling on federal agencies to align their actions, regulations, and funding with the revised vaccine schedule. However, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the revised HHS recommendations.

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HOT SPRINGS, S.D. — Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has said “the best way to help some of these communities is going to be AI-based avatars” that connect rural patients to mental health services.

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More than a million times a year, a U.S. surgeon slices open a knee, strips out worn cartilage, caps the leg bones with metal, and drops in a plastic spacer to allow the new joint to glide.

While knee replacement procedures have become standard, however, the prices charged have not.

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Doula Taja Iglesias and her business partner have built a space in Alexandria, Virginia, that’s all things pregnancy, birth, and childcare.

Comfortable couches in one area invite expectant parents to settle in for birth education classes. In another, a colorful pile of toys await the babies and toddlers. And there’s a free supply of diapers and food. Years ago, as Iglesias was giving birth and expressing her wish not to have an epidural for pain, she felt isolated and that her preferences were dismissed by the medical staff. Today, she works hard to make sure other parents can have the support of a doula.

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