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Latest Health News

Local Coverage

Jun 24, 2024

Mass. moves to protect emergency abortion care ahead of Supreme Court ruling in Idaho case

Gov. Maura Healey's new executive order is driven by a pending case over whether Idaho's abortion ban conflicts with federal law requiring certain hospitals to provide "necessary stabilizing treatment" in emergency situations.

Unnerved by bankruptcy, doctors and patients are leaving Steward hospitals

Health

04:01Jun 24, 2024

Dr. Lisa Walling greets her 13-year-old hospice patient, Rugby, a Newfoundland, in the dog's home in Bedford, N.Y., on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. As an end-of-life care veterinarian, Walling is there to make sure animals are as comfortable as possible in their final days and help humans through the difficult decision of knowing when it’s time to say good-bye. (Mary Conlon/AP)

How to navigate losing a pet; guidance from animal end-of-life doulas

Local Coverage

Jun 17, 2024

Ambitious federal effort to curb overdoses shows no impact on deaths, initial study finds

Health

Jun 17, 2024

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A patient holds up a dosage of Wegovy, a drug used for weight loss, at her home in Virginia. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP)

Use of weight loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic has skyrocketed in Mass.

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Gov. Maura Healey spoke to reporters in the lobby of her executive suite in the hours after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous ruling upholding access to the abortion medication mifepristone. (State House News Service)

Healey, Campbell applaud abortion pill decision but caution more challenges could happen

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Thursday protecting access to medication abortion with mifepristone was a "no brainer" and "the obvious decision."

Local Coverage

Jun 13, 2024

New North Citizens Council outreach worker Carlos Matias checks a NaloxBox Opioid Rescue Kit located on High Street in downtown Springfield, an overdose hotspot. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Naloxone boxes credited with helping to reduce overdose deaths in Mass.

For many years, communities in Massachusetts balked at the idea of installing boxes containing Narcan on the streets and outside public buildings. Now there are at least 134. This drug...

Health

04:32Jun 12, 2024

An opioid harm reduction worker demonstrates how to test empty heroin bags for fentanyl. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Overdose deaths in Mass. dropped 10%, but fatalities rose for Black men

It’s the largest single-year decrease in overdose deaths here in 20 years, state officials said. Preliminary data suggests the trend is keeping up this year. But the gains are uneven....

Health

Jun 12, 2024

Warren proposes jail time for 'corporate greed' in health care

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation that would establish new penalties and guardrails for health care executives who endanger patient safety and access to care. The bill is aimed at...

Local Coverage

Jun 11, 2024

Steward secures financing to keep hospitals open during bankruptcy

Steward Health Care said Tuesday it will seek court approval for a deal worth $225 million in additional financing to help the company operate through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Health

Jun 11, 2024

State launches awareness campaign targeting 'misrepresentation' from crisis pregnancy centers

DPH said many of the centers "advertise themselves as full-service reproductive health care clinics, yet they do not provide abortion care or abortion referrals, contraception, or other important reproductive health...

Health

Jun 10, 2024

An assortment of unspecified pills. (Gervanio Guimaraes via Getty Images)

FDA advisors' scrutiny of MDMA therapy is 'temporary setback,' says Harvard researcher

Some Boston-area researchers said the decision by advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reflected challenges facing regulators as psychedelic treatments enter mainstream psychiatry.

Health

05:06Jun 6, 2024

Soaring PFAS levels force a reckoning for worried Hyannis residents

Researchers from the Silent Spring Institute revealed this week that, among Hyannis residents who lived in the community over a recent 10-year period, blood levels of PFHxS were about 3.2...

Environment

Jun 6, 2024

The Massachusetts State House and flag. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Poll: Two-thirds of Mass. residents support medical aid in dying

Massachusetts voters spoke directly to the medical aid in dying in 2012 when they rejected a ballot question. Now, two-thirds of Massachusetts adults support giving certain terminally ill patients the...

Local Coverage

Jun 4, 2024

Holy Family Hospital's facility in Methuen, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Judge sets hospital auction dates as Steward scrambles to find cash

A federal judge Monday ordered Steward Health Care to sell its Massachusetts hospitals at auction by the end of the month, and to seek additional financing to keep the company...

Health

Jun 3, 2024