EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jun-2026 15:15 ET (23-Jun-2026 19:15 GMT/UTC)

17-Mar-2026

The next leap for AI scribes provides eyes in the clinic

Flinders University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The introduction of vision-enabled artificial intelligence (AI) to medical scribes – the recording devices used by doctors to document meetings with patients in real-time – could increase the accuracy of patient notes and save valuable time for clinicians.Researchers found that a vision-enabled AI scribe, employing a combination of Google’s Gemini model and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, substantially improved the documentation accuracy of pharmacist-patient consultations and reduced omissions and errors in clinical notes.

Journal: npj Digital Medicine
Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, Cancer Council South Australia

17-Mar-2026

Increased risk of premature births is linked to use of weight loss drugs during early pregnancy, but only when they are used to treat diabetes

European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Weight loss drugs have been linked to an increased risk of premature births among women who took them inadvertently just before or during early pregnancy to treat pre-existing diabetes. The authors of the study, published in Human Reproduction Open, say their findings suggest that it is diabetes rather than the drugs that may be contributing to the increased risk of preterm births.

Journal: Human Reproduction Open
Funder: Novo Nordisk Foundation, AP Moller Foundation, NordForsk, Villum Foundation, Independent Research Fund Denmark and Centre for Childhood Health

17-Mar-2026

Detection of bowel cancer marker in wastewater may offer new early warning system

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Detection of a bowel cancer marker (CDH1) in wastewater may offer a new community level early warning system for the disease, suggests a proof of concept study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Journal: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Funder: Owsley Brown II Family Foundation

17-Mar-2026

Gilead Australia Medical Fellowships open for applications

Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd
Grant and Award Announcement

The Gilead Australia Medical Fellowships, now in their 15th year, support Australian-led clinical research to improve patient care, awarding over $4 million to projects in HIV, chronic viral hepatitis, and hematological malignancies. Applications for the 2027 Fellowships are open until 05/14/2026, with recipients announced in July. For details, visit the Gilead Sciences Australia website. https://www.gilead.com.au/our-purpose/corporate-giving/gilead-australia-fellowship

17-Mar-2026

UCLA to host first Brain Health Summit, bringing together national experts to address a growing public health crisis

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Meeting Announcement

UCLA Health will host its first-ever Brain Health Summit on March 20-21, bringing together leading scientists, policymakers, philanthropists and community advocates from across the country to address one of the most pressing and underfunded challenges in public health.

17-Mar-2026

Brain tumors hijack sugar metabolism to evade immune attack

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered that specialized immune cells within the glioblastoma tumor metabolize fructose to suppress immune responses and promote tumor growth, reports a study published on March 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, the first to identify this sugar pathway as a driver of immune suppression in brain tumors, suggests that blocking fructose metabolism in the specialized cells may improve immunotherapy response and patient outcomes.