Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a lactation pad equipped with sensing technology that allows parents of newborns to monitor breast milk in real time. Publishing in the Cell Press journal Device on May 7, their work shows that the device is capable of ensuring that breast milk contains safe levels of the painkiller acetaminophen, which is often prescribed after childbirth and can be transferred to breastfeeding infants. 

An artificial intelligence (AI) model improved outcomes in hospitalized patients by quadrupling the rate of detection and treatment of delirium. The model identifies patients at high risk for delirium and alerts a specially-trained team to assess the patient and create a treatment plan, if needed. The model, developed by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been integrated into hospital operations, helping health care providers identify and manage delirium, a condition that can affect up to one-third of hospitalized patients. The study, the first to show that an AI-powered delirium risk assignment model can not only perform well in a laboratory setting but also deliver real-world benefits in clinical practice, was published in the May 7, 2025 online issue of JAMA Network Open [https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.8874]. 

The virus that causes COVID-19 arrived in Wuhan, China from its place of origin too quickly for its horseshoe bat hosts to have carried it there — a dispersal pattern consistent with that of the virus that caused the 2002 SARS pandemic, according to a new study.