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Comments on the draft recommendation on obesity screening are being accepted through November 28, 2016.

A recent study has found a positive association between a county’s well-being score and life expectancy, even after controlling for race, poverty, and education. The findings indicated that investing in local well-being initiatives could improve the quality of life and increase longevity for that community.

According to CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the cigarette smoking rate of adults in the United States has seen a significant drop during the decade from 2005 to 2015.

The ban on insurers using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage is hugely popular with voters in both parties.

Get Smart About Antibiotics Week raises awareness about the threat of antibiotic resistance and emphasizes the importance of appropriate antibiotic use.

A study on exercise class attendance found that participants in competitive social network groups went to more classes than those in supportive social networks. The findings also suggest that individual incentives are equally effective as team-based ones for motivating people to exercise.

What we're reading, November 10, 2016: right-to-die supporters start eyeing the next states; healthcare winners and losers after the election; and women are promoting birth control access before the Affordable Care Act is dismantled.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Ad Hoc Palliative Care Expert Panel has developed specific evidence-based recommendations for access to palliative care services for individuals with advanced cancer and for their family caregivers.

Scientific collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals could reveal solutions to block the progression of diseases like Alzheimer's.

Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States on November 9, 2016, defeating the predicted favorite Hillary Clinton. Here is a recap of AJMC’s coverage of the 2 candidates and their healthcare positions in the months leading up to this historic election.

A study published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found that screening for distress tests improves provider confidence and awareness toward person-centered care.

By a large margin, voters in Colorado defeated a proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer system in the state.

Three of the 4 cities to pass taxes on soda are in Northern California, not far from Berkeley, which passed the nation's first soda tax in 2014.

As the Republicans retained control of both the House and the Senate and Donald J. Trump was declared the next president of the United States, it became abundantly clear that President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform legislation was in grave danger.

This Election Day, voters chose to legalize or expand medical marijuana in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota-every state where such a measure appeared on the ballot. Medical marijuana is now legal in 28 states and the District of Columbia.

What we’re reading, November 9, 2016: pharma stocks surge following US election news; Mylan will face an FTC probe over anticompetitive practices with the EpiPen; and Walgreens has filed a lawsuit against its former laboratory testing partner, Theranos.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation has developed a digital tool that can compare coverage of screening tests for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers across health insurance plans available in a specific state.

Medicaid programs throughout the country cover tobacco cessation therapies, but utilization of these benefits tends to be low and varies among states, according to a study published in the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease.

Patients often try, and fail, on medications before settling on one that works for anxiety or depression. A new test can help physicians select the correct medication the first time.

The FDA commissioner and the acting administrator of CMS have published an opinion piece in JAMA that recommends changes with trial design, data collection, and the need for collaboration across public and private sectors.

What we're reading, November 8, 2016: the US may not have a doctor shortage, it may just have an inefficient health system; there is a gap between the richest and poorest countries when it comes to spending on essential medicines; and scientists start another Zika virus vaccine test.

The findings come as epidemiologists have noted rising rates of liver cancer amid falling rates of cancer generally.

A spokesman for The Obesity Society said that lack of payer coverage for obesity may discourage physicians from recording body mass index and making a formal diagnosis.

Based on a retrospective meta-analysis of clinical trial data, authors of a recent paper in JAMA Oncology concluded that BRAF/MEK and programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors were the most effective treatments that were relatively safe in melanoma.

Patient-centered medical homes may improve the performance of process measures of care for patients with type 2 diabetes, including glycated hemoglobin tests, cholesterol tests, foot examination, dilated eye examination, flu vaccination, and adherence to oral hypoglycemic agents during 1 year of follow-up.

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University has found that second opinions did not change treatment choice among men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer.

What we’re reading, November 7, 2016: caretaker fraud within Medicaid’s Personal Care Services program left patients neglected and abused; a proposal to increase shift limits for first-year residents from 16 to 28 hours draws both support and criticism; CDC has identified 13 locally-acquired cases of antibiotic-resistant Candida auris in the US.

A healthcare economist explains that not all experiments with new payment models need to succeed, because failure can show the system what not to do.

Low rates of vaccination among US adults result in preventable diseases and costs to individuals and society in terms of deaths, disabilities, and economic losses from hospitalizations, lost income, and physician visits.

Treating surgical complications with the best quality care while minimizing costs remains a major challenge for hospitals. Especially when dealing with perioperative complications, hospitals have no unanimous standards for cost and care.