Predicting a 90,000 shortage of doctors by 2037, with the greatest shortage in rural areas. | Primary care is the first point of contact for most patients.
[Health Resources and Services Administration; Visual Capitalist]

Why...? Why...? Why...? Jasper whimpered, not just once or twice, but repeatedly. It was January 2026. For one awful week, my friend's 21-month-old grandson was practically inert, spiked fevers to 103^o, and barely ate or drank, all the while voicing his single word of despair. [MEDPAGE TODAY] 

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Meanwhile, his mother and grandmother, who are both physicians in Boston, worried about dehydration, viral pneumonia, even a bacterial super-infection. They were also grieved to see a normally joyous toddler so psychologically distressed.

This year, some version of "Why does my body feel so horrible?" entered the thoughts of many children fighting a newly-mutated strain of H3N2 influenza A that surged early -- and hard. Although its final toll will not be tallied for months, data released by CDC on February 6 confirmed that 60 U.S. youngsters had already perished this season. Five of them were in Massachusetts, a state that last saw a child die of flu in 2013.

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Grateful for the leadership shown and looking forward to our 250th anniversary with optimism!!

The Rural Health Transformation Program’s (RHTP's) $50 billion injection is “a significant step forward” for the rural health safety net but likely comes too late to reverse years of deterioration that have left hundreds of hospitals in jeopardy. [[Fierce Healthcare]

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That’s according to the latest annual report from Chartis on the current state of rural health. This time around, the healthcare advisory services firm warned that 41.2% of all rural hospitals are operating in the red, and 417 are “vulnerable to closure” based on a model Chartis developed that incorporates factors like net patient revenue changes and consecutive years of operating losses.

Those numbers are a slight improvement over last year’s report, which flagged 46% of rural hospitals operating at a loss and 432 vulnerable facilities.

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The first national behavioral health leadership collaborative within the Children’s Hospital Association has merged with a youth suicide prevention initiative to form a network of 30 hospitals focused on the advancement of pediatric behavioral health, Stacy Drury, MD, PhD, psychiatrist-in-chief at Boston Children’s, told Becker’s.  [Becker's Behavioral Health]

“Children’s hospitals are uniquely capable of [redesigning the whole process in a system] because of their commitment to the community and being kid-focused,” she said. 

The collaborative will expand shared data collection to identify which approaches are most effective and accelerate the pace of improvement beyond traditional academic timelines, which can take years to publish findings.

“These are really important networks that allow you to activate data across all of the children’s hospitals around best practices, but also [determine] who in your community do you need to partner with,” Dr. Drury said. “Who do you need to get at the table to design an iterative quality improvement structure that has the same capacity to advance care that has happened with the sepsis network, the Children’s Oncology Network and the Vermont Oxford Network?”

It is designed to apply that data-driven model to pediatric behavioral health, enabling children’s hospitals to share insights and scale effective solutions more quickly.

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Despite medical advancements, maternal mortality rates have doubled since 1987. Yet more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths have been deemed preventable. [American Hospital Association] 

We know that behind every statistic is a mother and child. Hospitals across the country are rewriting the story of maternal care — one data point, one mom, one family and one partnership at a time. 

Working alongside hospitals and health systems, the American Hospital Association’s Better Health for Mothers and Babies (BHMB) initiative aims to eliminate preventable maternal deaths and reduce pregnancy-related morbidity across the United States. This initiative is built on four core principles: Examine quality and outcomes data to guide strategy; consider the causes of disparities in health outcomes; involve patients and community in their own care; and engage the workforce.

During the summer of 2025, the AHA launched its BHMB webinar series, organized around the four core principles, where hospital leaders and clinicians shared how they are putting them into action.

The first session focused on the power of data and quality metrics and featured Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation and Regional One Health. Vicki Buchda, director of care improvement from Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association stated, “We can’t treat what we don’t measure — and we can’t improve what we don’t share.”

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The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law No. 119-21), is a major new federal initiative to strengthen rural healthcare delivery and stabilize essential services. NRHA developed this document to provide a picture of how states are designing and initially budgeting their transformation strategies. 

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All information summarized in this document is drawn from state applications and other publicly available sources. In some cases, it reflects NRHA’s best interpretation of partial or variable information provided by states. As of December 29th, 2025, CMS has announced the RHTP FY2026 funding-level awards for each state. State activities summarized in this brief do not reflect CMS funding decisions and therefore may change. Find CMS’ state application abstracts here and state spotlights here.

Early trends show strong focus on health workforce stabilization, prevention and CDM, and VBP and innovative care models. Many states focus on strengthening rural systems for resilience through hospital sustainability, EMS modernization, mobile and community-based service delivery, and models with regional support and local delivery. Technology modernization through consumer-facing tools, telehealth, interoperability, and cybersecurity are common across states. Almost every state includes behavioral health access and SUD treatment as a priority. Across states, RHTP proposals emphasize strengthening the rural care infrastructure, building local partnerships, and addressing long-standing gaps in access.

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A senior US public health official called on Americans to get vaccinated against measles as outbreaks continue in multiple states and concerns grow that the country could lose its measles elimination designation. Dr Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, spoke in support on Sunday of the measles vaccine. [The Guardian]

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“Take the vaccine, please,” said Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We have a solution for our problem.

“Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “But measles is one you should get your vaccine.”

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MEXICO CITY -- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued a new epidemiological alert following a surge of measles cases across the Americas, with Mexico reporting the highest numbers. It also called for urgent vaccination campaigns, highlighting that 78% of recent cases involved unvaccinated people as reported by MEDPAGE TODAY. 

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Through the first 3 weeks of the year, Mexico led the way with 740 cases

The alert, announced on Wednesday, follows Canada's loss of measles-free status in November -- a setback the U.S. and Mexico could soon mirror. While both governments have requested a 2-month extension to contain their respective outbreaks, the situation is complicated by the Trump administration's January withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the parent agency of PAHO.

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Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took additional steps to support the transition of our nation's food supply from the use of artificial petroleum-based colors to alternatives derived from natural sources. Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain 'no artificial colors' when the products do not contain petroleum-based colors. In the past, companies were generally only able to make such claims when their products had no added color whatsoever — whether derived from natural sources or otherwise.  [US Food and Drug Administration]

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The agency sent a letter to industry providing notice of the FDA's intent to exercise enforcement discretion related to these voluntary labeling claims.

"This is real progress," said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  "We are making it easier for companies to move away from petroleum-based synthetic colors and adopt safer, naturally derived alternatives. This momentum advances our broader effort to help Americans eat real food and Make America Healthy Again."

Additionally, the agency today also approved beetroot red, a new color option, and approved the expanded use of spirulina extract, an existing color additive derived from a natural source. These actions were initiated by two petitions and will further help the industry transition from petroleum-based food colors. This brings the total number of new food color options approved under the current administration to six.

"We acknowledge that calling colors derived from natural sources 'artificial' might be confusing for consumers and a hindrance for companies to explore alternative food coloring options," said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. "We're taking away that hindrance and making it easier for companies to use these colors in the foods our families eat every day."

This work builds on previous HHS and FDA actions to encourage companies to phase out the use of petroleum-based colors in their food products. In April 2025, HHS and the FDA first announced a series of new measures to work with industry to phase out use of all petroleum-based synthetic colors from the nation's food supply—a significant milestone in the administration's broader initiative to Make America Healthy Again. Ongoing progress in removing petroleum-based colors from the food supply is being publicly tracked by the FDA at Tracking Food Industry Pledges to Remove Petroleum Based Food Dyes.

"We are working diligently to facilitate industry's phase out of petroleum-based colors and speed up authorizations for colors that are derived from alternative sources," said Kyle Diamantas, J.D., Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. "The actions announced today give companies even more ways to transition to the use of alternative colors derived from natural sources."

While the FDA encourages manufacturers to transition to alternative colors, including those derived from natural sources, the agency is also reminding manufacturers of their responsibility to ensure color additive safety. Therefore, the agency is issuing a letter that, among other things, highlights resources that may assist manufacturers of authorized color additives in maintaining high standards of safety and purity.

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