Public Health

Every Friday, Christine Crawford has a counseling session at a clinic at New York City’s Mount Sinai Health System as she moves ahead with plans for gender transition surgery later this year. In addition to the many medical and psychosocial issues, there are practical ones as well. So, Crawford was thrilled when a Mount Sinai representative said […]

There’s a narrative about the meth epidemic in Montana that says the state tackled the problem in the 2000s yet it’s back with a vengeance because of super labs and drug cartels in Mexico. Within the Fort Belknap Indian Community, though, it never really went away. “Getting high in your car in front of the […]

Minority patients face a double whammy: Not only are they more likely to miss out on effective medical treatments than white patients, but, according to a new study, they’re also more likely to receive an abundance of ineffective services. The study, published in the June issue of Health Affairs, examined 11 medical services identified as “low […]

John Minor of Manhattan Beach epitomized the active Californian. The retired psychologist was a distance runner, a cyclist and an avid outdoorsman, says his daughter Jackie Minor of San Mateo. “He and my mom were both members of the Sierra Club,” Jackie said. “They went on tons of backpacking trips — climbing mountains and trekking […]

To understand why teen pregnancy rates are so high in Texas, meet Jessica Chester. When Chester was in high school in Garland, Texas, she decided to attend the University of Texas-Dallas. She wanted to become a doctor. “I was top of the class,” she said. “I had a GPA of 4.5, a full-tuition scholarship to […]

Republicans in both the House and the Senate are considering big cuts to Medicaid. But those cuts endanger addiction treatment, which many people receive through the government health insurance program. Charlene Yurgaitis is one of the people who’s been helped. She’s 35 and lives in Lancaster, Pa., and once supervised 17 people at an insurance […]

Wilmington, N.C., native Kendra Williams previously used her own earnings to buy clean needles for friends injecting. The state’s law enabling syringe exchanges — and law enforcement’s shift toward harm reduction — has made a meaningful difference here, she says. (Shefali Luthra/KHN) WILMINGTON, N.C. — Former heroin user Kendra Williams, 24, knows she’s lucky. She […]

By the time Stephenie Hashmi was in her mid-20s, she had achieved a lifelong dream — she was the charge nurse of one of Kansas City’s largest intensive care units. But even as she cared for patients, she realized that something was off with her own health. “I remember just feeling tired and feeling sick […]

SEATTLE — Three executives from Japan loom large in a cramped courtroom here — at least their photos do, mounted on a white poster board propped in front of the jury. “They were the key decision-makers,” one attorney said during opening arguments to a lawsuit brought by a local widow against a giant Tokyo-based medical […]