Education and health experts say this could harm patient care. 

The Trump administration's crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programsopens in a new tab or window could exacerbate an unexpectedly steep drop in diversity among medical school students, even in states like California, where public universities have been navigating bans on affirmative action for decades. Education and health experts warn that, ultimately, this could harm patient care. [MedPage Today]

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued a handful of executive orders aimed at terminating all DEI initiatives in federally funded programs. And in his March 4 address to Congressopens in a new tab or window, he described the Supreme Court's 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in college and university admissions as "brave and very powerful."

Last month, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights -- which lost about 50% of its staffopens in a new tab or window in mid-March -- directed schools, including postsecondary institutions, to end race-based programs or risk losing federal funding. The "Dear Colleague" letteropens in a new tab or window cited the Supreme Court's decision.

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CHICAGO—The Institute of Medicine of Chicago is hosting its Maternal & Child Health Symposium on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM CT at the Cook County Health—Professional Building. The half-day symposium is open to all. This program supports IOMC's "advancing health equity by reducing healthcare disparities" initiatives and was created by the IOMC Maternal & Child Health Workgroup. For more details and to register, visit here. 

“Addressing maternal and child health issues are a critical imperative,” said Dr. Beena Peters, DNP, RN, IOMC-Maternal & Child Health Workgroup, Billings Fellow, and Senior Nurse Executive - Cook County Health, and director on the IOMC Board of Governors. 

Over 146K babies were born in maternity care deserts, thirty-six percent of US counites are designated as maternity care deserts, and 4.7 million women live in counties with limited maternity access (March of Dimes 2025). IOMC addresses these accessibility and transportation issues and mental health, care coordination to decrease pre-term birth, primary care, family planning, and maternal morbidity and mortality, and more.

‘We hope all health leaders and community teams will consider attending this meeting to engage and exchange valuable information and resources.,’ said Dr. Anita Stewart, MD, MPH, JD, MBA, Chair of the IOMC Maternal & Child Health Workgroup; and Billings Fellow, and director on the IOMC Board of Governors. 

Sixteen healthcare leaders will discuss key issues facing maternal and child health. The event includes an interactive panel discussion led by Dr. Ian Jasenof, MD, FACOG, MHA, CPE, Chief Medical Officer, UI-Health—Mile Square, and Fellow and director on the IOMC Board of Governors. 

Speakers from numerous organizations are represented, including the American Academy of Pediatrics—Illinois Chapter, Cook County Health, Cook County Dept. of Health, Family Christian Health Center, Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Family and Health Services, March of Dimes, Melanated Group Midwifery Care, Partum Health, Loyola University, UI Health, West Side Healthy Parents and Babies, and Lurie Children's Magoon Institute.

This Maternal and Child Health Symposium is sponsored by Cook County Health, Golden Square, and Dr. Anita Stewart, MD, MPH, Chair of the Maternal and Child Health Workgroup—IOMC. Sponsorships are available; contact sponsorship@ iomc.org.

The Institute of Medicine of Chicago (IOMC), since 1915, is an independent non-profit organization of distinguished leaders in the health field who collaborate to improve the health of the public. Drawing upon the expertise of a diverse membership and other regional leaders, the IOMC addresses critical health issues through various interdisciplinary approaches, including education, research, communication of trusted information, and community engagement. With the public's health at its core, IOMC is building programs to better meet the needs of its members, Chicago, its counties, and the State of Illinois. Visit www.iomc.org.  

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Measles cases are on the rise in the United States. [NPR]

The Pan American Health Organization declared the disease eliminated in 2000, thanks to widespread vaccination efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it's still an issue globally, which means an unvaccinated person could catch the highly infectious disease abroad and bring it back to the United States. And declining vaccination rates, particularly in young children, are causing public health officials to worry about the impact of emerging outbreaks. [NPR]

That's the case in West Texas and New Mexico, where a growing measles outbreak now numbers around 300 confirmed cases — more than the total number of measles cases reported in the U.S. in all of 2024.

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A bill to reauthorize the Action for Dental Health Act has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. [ Becker's Dental & DSO Review]

The Action for Dental Health Act supports organizations that provide dental care to underserved populations and rural communities, according to a March 10 news release. 

The funding provided through the act helps prevent dental disease, improve oral health education, expand the dental workforce and increase access to oral healthcare. 

Reps. Mike Simpson, DMD, and Robin Kelly introduced the bill for reauthorization, the release said.

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Population growth in U.S. metro areas as a whole was faster between 2023 and 2024 than in the previous year and outpaced that of the nation. Additionally, some metro areas that experienced population declines during the COVID-19 pandemic are now observing population gains, according to Vintage 2024 estimates of population totals and components of change released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Increasingly, population growth in metro areas is being shaped by international migration,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. “While births continue to contribute to overall growth, rising net international migration is offsetting the ongoing net domestic outmigration we see in many of these areas.”

All of the nation’s 387 metro areas had positive net international migration between 2023 and 2024, and it accounted for nearly 2.7 million of the total population gain in metro areas — up from 2.2 million between 2022 and 2023. These trends were measured using an improved method that combines survey data and administrative data from other federal agencies.

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According to survey data, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security. Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions common among economically disadvantaged households. [JAMA]

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) works to improve the health of people nationwide by making evidence-based recommendations on effective ways to prevent disease and prolong life.

Importance

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service’s Current Population Survey, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security.¹ Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions common among economically disadvantaged households. In both children and adults, experiencing food insecurity is associated with negative effects on health outcomes.^2,3

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Researchers at McMaster University have started a phase-2 clinical trial on a next-generation, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine. [ News Medical Life Sciences-McMaster Unviersity]

The AeroVax study, supported by $8M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), will test needle-free vaccines developed to provide protection from SARS-CoV-2.

Led by Fiona Smaill and Zhou Xing, members of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) at McMaster, the multi-centre trial will evaluate the new vaccine in a broad study group, while also confirming safety.

Findings from pre-clinical studies and the soon-to-be-published data from the phase-1 trial indicate that McMaster's inhaled vaccine is more effective at inducing immune responses than traditional injected vaccines are, because it directly targets the lungs and upper airways — where the virus first enters the body.

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Within the next handful of years, patients will have new expectations in terms of convenience and technology when they walk into their dentist’s office. [Becker's Dental & DSO Review]

Patients will want more individualized and tailored treatment plans and want the practice to calculate any co-payments, deductibles and plan maximums. 

Some dentists are also preparing for the possibility of insurance providers not raising reimbursement rates to keep up with inflation, which may lead patients to only go to the dentist for emergency care.

These eight dentists and dental leaders recently connected with Becker’s to give their predictions on how patient expectations will be different in five years compared to today.

Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: How do you think patient expectations will change in the next five years?

Thomas Allen, DDS. Dentist at Old Farm Dental (Millcreek, Utah): In the next five years, I see their expectations still being the same but with more concerns about the long-term effects of the treatment they receive and also concerns as to the effect on their quality of life that their treatment decisions will have.

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Trends show that the number of Americans who inhale vapes has outpaced the number who prefer cigarettes. A separate study found that e-cigarette use increased among young adults over time. More news is about elder abuse, IVF mix-ups, and suicide intervention efforts. [KFF Health News] 

Bloomberg: Vaping Is Growing Faster Than Smoking Is Declining In US, CDC Finds
The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that vaping is climbing more quickly than smokers quit cigarettes. The number of US adults who exclusively smoke cigarettes decreased by 6.8 million between 2017 and 2023, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, approximately 7.2 million adults started exclusively using e-cigarettes, according to the study. (Rutherford, 3/6)

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The CDC is planning a large study looking into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources told Reuters, despite significant research showing vaccines and autism are not linked.

The move comes during one of the largest measles outbreaks in the past decade, with two deaths in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, 198 cases have been identified since late January, and 23 patients have been hospitalized.

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