Critical Path Institute today announced the outcomes of its 2026 Global Impact Conference (CGIC), held September 15 and 16 at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center in Washington, D.C. Across two days of plenary sessions, breakout discussions and fireside conversations, regulators, industry leaders, researchers, clinicians and advocates, joined by people living with the conditions under discussion, addressed what must change in how evidence is generated for drug development in the 21st century.

A new scientific study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that food industry ties are common among researchers who criticize how ultra-processed foods are classified.

Jefferson clinical trial uncovers potential paths to better therapies for uveal melanoma.

Most medical devices do not hit the market through rigorous safety testing but by being deemed similar enough to something already approved—the “predicate” device through a mechanism known as the FDA’s 510(k) pathway. But similar is not a synonym for safe. While the assumption may be that substantial equivalence is a reasonable stand-in for a safety review, a share of devices cleared with this method still get recalled, and the FDA spends valuable time reviewing devices the same way, regardless of how risky it is on paper.

Key findings

- Childhood trauma is associated with higher rates of risky health behaviour in late adolescence, such as smoking, illicit drug use, problematic alcohol use and high consumption of ultra-processed foods.

- Behavioural problems (such as impulsivity, aggression and attention difficulties) partly explain these links. Their influence seems greater than that of emotional difficulties such as anxiety and depression.

- Early interventions targeting self-regulation and behavioural difficulties among trauma-exposed children could help reduce longer-term physical harm.

- Many of the health-risk behaviours examined in the study, including smoking, alcohol misuse and poor diet, are key contributors to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death globally.

Loneliness and social isolation are linked to a range of serious health problems, but their overall toll on healthy life has been hard to quantify until now. In a first-of-its-kind study published in Nature Communications, Tulane University researchers analyzed data from 277,489 UK Biobank adults tracked for more than a decade. They found men experiencing both loneliness and social isolation lost up to six years free from depression and anxiety. Women, meanwhile, lost roughly four fewer years.

Penn Medicine experts are participating in the ASTRO Annual Meeting, where Neha Vapiwala, MD, will wrap up her term as president of the organization.