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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Oct-2026 09:16 ET (31-Oct-2026 13:16 GMT/UTC)

Drug decriminalization in BC reduced police encounters for drug possession, with no changes in drug-related deaths

Canadian Medical Association Journal
Peer-Reviewed Publication

British Columbia’s drug decriminalization policy was associated with a substantial decrease in police encounters for drug possession, while neither decriminalization nor the subsequent partial recriminalization was associated with detectable changes in deaths due to drug toxicity or drug-related hospitalizations, found new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.260038.

Journal: Canadian Medical Association Journal

University students are less physically active and more sedentary than older adults in their 70s, NUS study finds

National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

• Month-long health tracker data from nearly 2,000 adults in Singapore showed that university students accumulate the lowest physical activity and highest sedentary time compared to working age and old adults

• Older adults aged 67–80 were the most active group, averaging 100 minutes more daily physical activity than students

• Reallocating just 30 minutes per day from sedentary time to physical activity or sleep was associated with meaningful improvements in obesity and cardiovascular health markers

• Findings challenge long-held assumptions about age-related inactivity and highlight young adulthood as a critical window for public health intervention

Journal: BMC Medicine

New analysis points to low overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening

University of Southern Denmark Faculty of Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The extent of overdiagnosis has been one of the most debated issues in breast cancer screening for decades. Estimates from randomised trials have varied widely, with some suggesting that as many as 30-50% of breast cancers detected through screening may represent overdiagnosis.

In this study, the researchers found that the excess number of breast cancer cases detected in the randomised trials closely matched what would be expected in a Danish screening population, where overdiagnosis is estimated to be below 5%.

Journal: JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute

The Lancet: New US Medicare pricing policies could reshape global pharmaceutical markets, potentially driving up prices and delaying medicine launches worldwide, study suggests

The Lancet
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new modelling study published in The Lancet suggests that US Medicare's new 'Most-Favoured-Nation' pricing policy [1], which ties what Medicare pays for medicines to prices charged in other high-income countries, could push pharmaceutical manufacturers to raise prices or delay launches. For about three in four medicines studied, the resulting Medicare savings would be worth almost four times that medicine's entire annual sales in the country used to set its price, potentially giving manufacturers a strong incentive to change how they price and launch products outside the USA.

Journal: The Lancet
Funder: Arnold Ventures

Europe’s endocrine community calls for urgent policy action as growing demand puts hormone health workforce under pressure

European Society of Endocrinology
Business Announcement

New survey shows long waits and workforce pressures may threaten efforts to recruit and retain hormone health specialists, timely access to care and capacity for vital research. The Prague Declaration, published today by the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) and endorsed by 46 national endocrine societies and three specialist societies, calls on policymakers and healthcare leaders across Europe to act now.

‘Space: The final frontier’ for cataract surgery!

European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons
Reports and Proceedings

UK: An eye surgeon with a passion for space since childhood predicts that as astronauts start to make journeys to the Moon and Mars in the near future, eye surgery in space will eventually become a necessity. Speaking at the 44^th Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), Dr Morgan Micheletti said that cataract surgery, in particular, will be needed as people travel through space and stay in space stations for longer periods of time. Therefore, it was vital to know how medical supplies such as intraocular lenses (IOLs) and the other equipment needed for surgery could best be packed, transported, stored and protected from the space environment.

Funder: see full details in notes for journalists
Meeting: 44th Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons

Smartphones could be used to screen for cataracts and other eye problems

European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons
Reports and Proceedings

Researchers have found a high level of agreement between cataract referral decisions based on smartphone images reviewed remotely and those made by ophthalmologists examining patients in person at rural eye camps. The finding could make it possible for health workers to detect cataracts, pterygia (a fleshy growth on the white of the eye) and other eye diseases in people who live in remote rural areas and who find it difficult to visit an ophthalmologist, either because of geographical barriers or because of age or infirmity. The research is presented at the 44^th Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS).

Funder: National Eye Institute, Microsoft Innovation Acceleration Award, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, Stephen F. Raab and Mariellen Brickley-Raab Rising Professorship in Ophthalmology, T. Boone Pickens Rising Professorship in Ophthalmology
Meeting: 44th Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons

KAIST and KIOM develop a wearable microneedle electroceutical for personalized pain management

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

- Delivers stable electrical stimulation while reducing the influence of sweat or dead skin cells, and automatically detaches when the skin overheats to enhance safety

- Remotely controlled via smartphone and capable of automatic operation triggered by physiological signals, offering the potential for personalized pain management

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: National Research Foundation of Korea, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine

How will AI impact the future of the clinical workforce?

Weill Cornell Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

Contrary to some predictions, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents could lead to more, not fewer, health care professionals working in the United States, according to a new article by a physician and health policy researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine who surveyed economic theory and the history of technology in health care.

Journal: New England Journal of Medicine