EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Oct-2025 07:10 ET (6-Oct-2025 11:10 GMT/UTC)

Healthy longevity in Singapore: Public demand, policy opportunity

National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

Understanding public awareness, behaviours, and attitudes toward Healthy Longevity Medicine, also called Precision Geromedicine, is essential for shaping future health strategies. This emerging field aims to optimise health and extend the healthy lifespan by addressing the biological processes of ageing throughout a person's life.

Large study uncovers specific impacts of flooding on older adult health

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research examining 17 years of data from Medicare hospitalization claims and major flooding events finds increased rates of skin diseases, nervous system diseases, and injuries or poisonings among adults aged 65 and older following major floods.

Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health
Funder: Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard Graduate Prize Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health

Cracking the code for organ-specific drug delivery

University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new UNLV study by a team of chemical biologists, published in Advanced Materials, details a way to selectively route mRNA to the pancreas by using the body’s own endogenous pathways – systems responsible for moving materials through the body.

Journal: Advanced Materials

Curbing roadway fatalities hinges on shared responsibility and rethinking safety

Virginia Tech
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Safe Systems Approach broadly embraces the concept that road users are not solely responsible for safety and transportation designers, operators, policymakers, administrators, and health care professionals all have a role to play.

Journal: New England Journal of Medicine

Beta-HPV can directly cause skin cancer in immunocompromised people

NIH/Office of the Director
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have shown for the first time that a type of human papillomavirus (HPV) commonly found on the skin can directly cause a form of skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) when certain immune cells malfunction. cSCC is one of the most common cancers in the United States and worldwide. Previously, scientists believed HPV merely facilitated the accumulation of DNA mutations caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation, usually the primary driver of cSCC. The findings were published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

Simple solution to save lives globally: Low-cost ‘SimpleSilo’ offers hope for babies with gastroschisis

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In low-resource settings, babies born with gastroschisis — a congenital condition in which the developing intestines extend outside the body through a hole in the abdominal wall —face life-threatening challenges. While survival rates in high-income countries now exceed 90% thanks to advanced medical tools and neonatal care, infants in resource-constrained medical settings still face high mortality rates, partially because of a lack of access to the lifesaving equipment needed to treat the condition. A team of engineers and pediatric surgeons led by Rice University’s Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies is working to change that. Their innovation? A simple, low-cost and locally manufacturable medical device, known as the “SimpleSilo,” designed to provide lifesaving treatment for gastroschisis at a fraction of the current cost and made from locally available materials.

Journal: Journal of Pediatric Surgery

Fast food, screens, and no greens: A recipe for teen health trouble

University of South Australia

When a cheeseburger costs less than a punnet of strawberries, it’s clear the odds are stacked against healthy choices – especially for teenagers. Now, new research from the University of South Australia shows that it’s not just unhealthy eating habits affecting teens, but an alarming clustering of poor lifestyle choices that’s putting the majority of teenagers at serious risk of preventable diseases later in life.

Journal: Nutrients