The World Health Organization's annual health statistics report explains that less international aid from wealthy countries has disrupted medical services and weakened disease surveillance. This, along with the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, is contributing to many dying of preventable causes, CIDRAP reports. [KFF] 

CIDRAP: Fragile Progress On Global Public Health Under Threat

The World Health Organization's (WHO’s) annual health statistics report paints a sobering picture. Too many people are dying of preventable causes, while hard-fought gains are losing steam or even reversing, said Yukiko Nakatani, MD, PhD, the WHO's assistant director‑general for health systems, access and data. (Boden, 5/14)  [CIDRAP-Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy - Research and Innovation Office, University of Minnesota, MN]

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Some people who may have been exposed to a hantavirus that can transmit from human to human returned to the U.S. before the outbreak aboard a cruise ship was known. [MEDPAGE TODAY]

This includes seven Americans who disembarked the ship on the remote island of St. Helena on April 24. MedPage Today broke that story last week. 

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It also includes at least nine Americans who were on the same plane from St. Helena to Johannesburg as the widow of the first cruise ship passenger who died. That woman was symptomatic during the flight, and died not long after landing in South Africa.

State health officials have contacted these people and have advised them to quarantine as best they can, with home monitoring and daily symptom and fever checks. According to CDC's interim guidance, they are all high risk, as they were either on the ship as of April 6, when the first patient died, or were seated close to the symptomatic passenger on the plane.

Some people who may have been exposed to a hantavirus that can transmit from human to human returned to the U.S. before the outbreak aboard a cruise ship was known.

This includes seven Americans who disembarked the ship on the remote island of St. Helena on April 24. MedPage Today broke that story last week.

It also includes at least nine Americans who were on the same plane from St. Helena to Johannesburg as the widow of the first cruise ship passenger who died. That woman was symptomatic during the flight, and died not long after landing in South Africa.

State health officials have contacted these people and have advised them to quarantine as best they can, with home monitoring and daily symptom and fever checks. According to CDC's interim guidance, they are all high risk, as they were either on the ship as of April 6, when the first patient died, or were seated close to the symptomatic passenger on the plane.

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Physician burnout continues to decline across the U.S., a bright spot for an occupation plagued by heavy workloads, pervasive stress and high stakes. But the improvement is not equal across medical specialties, according to new data from the American Medical Association. [HealthcareDive and AMA]

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The AMA surveyed thousands of physicians and found that 41.9% reported experiencing a burnout symptom in 2025, down from 43.2% in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023. The decline likely reflects employer efforts to reduce burnout, including by increasing job satisfaction, the medical association said.

However, burnout rates vary significantly across specialties, and tend to be higher among doctors employed by hospitals, suggesting health systems could be doing more to ameliorate the phenomenon.

Physician burnout is a huge problem in U.S. healthcare. As doctors take on higher administrative burden and longer hours, the physical, spiritual and emotional toll is driving more to leave the field altogether, exacerbating America’s shortage of medical staff. Burnout is also tied to poorer quality of care and lower patient satisfaction.

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Discover Your Perfect Career Path – IOMC Job Career Center

You're busy - Let the Institute Help You 

Open to All - CV Reviews, Coaching and Interview Prep 

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• Complete Confidentiality
• Easily Launch Your Job Search
• Let Opportunities Come to You
• Connect with Qualified Opportunities
• Catch the Eye of Recruiters
• Showcase Your Expertise Across Multiple Platforms

Explore the Institute’s Job Career Center—over 5,000 opportunities waiting for you. 

How to Find Your Dream Job: 9 Career Path Exercises. 

Use these exercises to help you discover your dream job>

More resources here>

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Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation seeks several new Chicago-based board members to help the foundation survive and thrive into its next phase. We are looking for qualified, passionate leaders with an interest in Michael Reese's vision and an interest in healthcare, health equity, and innovation. We are looking for board members with all skill sets but have a particular interest in candidates with experience in finance/accounting, communications, and marketing.  

For more information, view listing on Idealist.org: 

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Despite ongoing efforts to improve maternal and infant health, socioeconomic disparities threaten to undermine population health gains and perpetuate cycles of disadvantage. Although studies have documented disparities by an individual’s poverty status for a range of health outcomes, no recent studies have documented such disparities in birth outcomes in the US.¹ Poverty increases for women around the time of birth, when nutrition and medical costs increase.² Socioeconomic adversities in the perinatal period, including poverty, can have lasting effects for the mother and newborn.^3,4 However, macroeconomic conditions and policies related to poverty and health may have changed the risk of poverty and the nature of its relationship to birth outcomes. This study examined longitudinal trends in birth outcomes by poverty status, using the only multistate surveillance system with detailed information on the prenatal and postpartum periods, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a long-running survey paused indefinitely by the federal government. These results inform policies and interventions to address maternal and infant health inequities. [JAMA  Pediatrics]

Set up free account if you or your institution if needed. 

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• Providing hospital-level care in patients’ homes was linked to better clinical outcomes, suggesting hospital-at-home programs could serve as a safe and efficient alternative to traditional inpatient care, according to a study published this week in JAMA Network Open. 
• Hospital at home was associated with decreased emergency department use within 30 days of discharge and lower in-hospital mortality, according to the research. But patients at hospital-at-home programs saw no significant difference in hospital readmissions within 30 days. 
• Additionally, adoption of hospital at home across the country is uneven, with few rural facilities participating, researchers wrote. The findings “underscore the need to address practical and implementation challenges to broaden equitable access,” they said.

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Outcomes Associated With Hospital at Home vs Traditional Inpatient Stay (Study) JAMA Network>

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Importance  Prepregnancy care and counseling optimize maternal health before conception to improve outcomes for mothers and infants. In the US, 66.4% of reproductive-aged women have at least 1 modifiable risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. [JAMA]

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Conclusions and Relevance  Prepregnancy counseling and care reduce maternal morbidity and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Primary care–based discussion of reproductive goals, immunizations, screening for infections and substance use, and risk-reducing interventions such as folate supplementation can optimize outcomes in individuals contemplating pregnancy.

Full article>   

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Special Olympics began as a grassroots sports movement in 1968. It was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to address the physical, social, and emotional needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and to reduce their social isolation. In 1995, the organization launched Special Olympics Health in response to a stark reality revealed at the World Games at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut: nearly 15% of more than 7000 athletes from 143 countries were unable to compete at their best because of an urgent, unmet medical need based on unpublished data from Special Olympics. [AJPH]

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Tragically, these unmet health needs, many of which are preventable or treatable, persist to this day and carry profound consequences. People with IDD, even after controlling for access to care and comorbidities, live an average of 10 fewer years than their neurotypical peers. This gap in life expectancy is approximately twice that of the current difference between Black and White Americans in the United States. Although racial disparities in life expectancy have rightly received sustained public attention and research investment, the disparity affecting people with IDD has not (https://tinyurl.com/4akvvjvw).

Importantly, Special Olympics Health was designed to serve as a bridge to a better health care system, not as a permanent substitute for one. Yet nearly 30 years later, despite delivering more than two million health screenings worldwide, the program’s overall medical referral rate remains close to 15%, according to unpublished data from Special Olympics. This sobering figure indicates that the underlying system-level failures remain largely unaddressed as our volunteers continue to identify unmet or neglected needs.

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Thirty-one of 108 Illinois hospitals reviewed by the Leapfrog Group received top grades for patient safety, according to the group’s annual spring  report released Wednesday. [Health News Illinois]

It’s down four from when the national nonprofit last graded the state’s general acute hospitals in the fall.

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Twenty-four hospitals received a B, 22 received a C and three received a D.

Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago was the lone hospital to receive an F grade.

Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City did not receive a grade.

Twenty-six hospitals were not assigned a grade. The Leapfrog Group said the new designation is due to a ruling by a federal court in Florida, which sided with five state hospitals in a case challenging the methodology used by the organization to give safety ratings.

While the ruling only applied to the five Florida hospitals, Leapfrog said it did not assign grades to 450 hospitals across the country that did not participate in its 2024 or 2025 hospital survey.

“Leapfrog is pursuing an appeal and reviewing the Safety Grade methodology with its National Expert Panel to ensure the Hospital Safety Grade continues to be useful for consumers,” they said.

Illinois ranked 21st nationally, with 29 percent of its hospitals receiving top marks. That’s down four spots from the fall, when 32.4 percent of Illinois hospitals had A grades.

National data found significant improvement in 17 measures of errors and infections, including healthcare-associated infections, bar code medication administration, computerized physician order entry and five patient experience measures.

“The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives," said Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder. "But not all hospitals are the same.”

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