About The Study: In this cohort study of individuals with an initial obesity diagnosis, uptake of metabolic bariatric surgery was patterned by demographic, clinical, and health care factors. This finding suggests substantial opportunity to improve access to metabolic bariatric surgery through targeted policies and interventions.

A high cost of fresh fruits and vegetables and the need to restock them frequently can be barriers to healthy eating for low-income families. New Cornell University research shows that online grocery shopping, combined with incentive programs, can help.

JMIR Publications released two feature stories in its News and Perspectives section. Shalini Kathuria Narang’s “Can Humanlike Reasoning Be Replicated in Large Language Models for Clinical Decision-Making?” and Sara Novak’s “How Health Care Workers Can Manage Digital Fatigue” offer complementary looks into the capabilities of artificial intelligence in diagnostics, and the real-world exhaustion faced by medical professionals managing digital systems.

Researchers at the Univesrity of Kansas have analyzed data from a website they built to document "lanback" returns, or returns of land to original Indigenous owners. Results show the returns have increased in frequency dramatically in recent years across the country. The returns have not been driven by law or policy, but by returns from private, non-profit, church, government and other owners deciding it is the right thing to do. These returns can help the field of public planning move beyond simple land acknowledgements in how they view land ownership and Indigenous communities, the authors argue.

A new JAMA study finds that federal efforts to expand the physician workforce fall short for primary care and rural communities, despite clear policy goals. The findings raise pressing questions about whether current implementation strategies can effectively address longstanding physician shortages across the U.S.