Health

Skip to content

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Keep reading by creating a free account or signing in.

Subscribe|Support Local News

Keep reading by creating a free account or signing in.

News Sports Business Opinion Politics Entertainment Life Food Health Real Estate Philly First Obituaries Jobs

Physician Peter Gliatto visits Carolyn Dickens, a lung cancer survivor who lives alone in the one-bedroom Harlem apartment she’s had for 31 years. Dickens doesn’t know what she’d do without ongoing medical attention from Gliatto. “Having to get up and go out, you know, putting on your clothes, it’s a task,” she says. “And I have the fear of falling.” (Judith Graham for KFF Health News)

Homebound seniors with health problems often have trouble getting care

Nearly 2 million adults over 65 are completely or mostly homebound, while an additional 5.5 million seniors can get out only with significant difficulty or assistance. Almost 40% live by themselves.

Judith Graham, KFF Health News

Hurricane Helene, which hit North Carolina in September, wrecked a Baxter International facility that produces 60% of the IV fluids used in the U.S.

Nationwide IV fluid shortage could change how hospitals manage patient hydration

Jackie Fortiér, KFF Health News

Lankenau Medical Center in Montgomery County is part of Main Line Health

Nine months of inspections at Lankenau Medical Center: February to October

This image provided by the New York City Police Department shows a man wanted for questioning in connection to the investigation of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.

Police release new photos as they search for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO

Michael Balsamo, Jake Offenhartz and Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with Donald Trump at a Turning Point Action rally in Duluth, Georgia, on Oct. 23. (MUST CREDIT: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

How potentially harmful additives have infiltrated America’s food

Anahad O’Connor, Washington Post

A patient receives the monkeypox vaccine at the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity in North Philadelphia in 2022. The Black Doctors Consortium hosted the clinic.

Where to find free vaccines in Philadelphia this winter

Learn where to get free or low-cost COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccines in Philadelphia. Find city health centers, eligibility details, and tips for staying protected this winter.

Some federal funding for COVID vaccines has been cut, but you can still get a free vaccine in Philly

Health officials here say they hope to encourage more residents to get vaccinated ahead of the winter “sick season.”

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits in Washington on Dec. 22, 2021.

Federal program offering free COVID tests is now open

Alexandra Pompan, a customer service associate, gets vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dr. Philip Maceno, pharmacy manager at Walgreens, on Monday, October 23, 2023.

FDA approves new COVID vaccines for fall

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits in Washington on Dec. 22, 2021.

Federal program offering free COVID tests is now open

Alexandra Pompan, a customer service associate, gets vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dr. Philip Maceno, pharmacy manager at Walgreens, on Monday, October 23, 2023.

FDA approves new COVID vaccines for fall

Expert Opinions

Expert Opinion | Brain-training games remain unproven

Finding games that translate into cognitive improvement in the real world can be challenging.

Ian McDonough and Michael Dulas, The Conversation

Could games like Tetris actually do more for training your brain than other games marketed to do so? (Willis Gibson via AP)

Could games like Tetris actually do more for training your brain than other games marketed to do so? (Willis Gibson via AP)

Expert Opinion | Brain-training games remain unproven

Finding games that translate into cognitive improvement in the real world can be challenging.

Ian McDonough and Michael Dulas, The Conversation

Beware of the health-care ‘rabbit hole’ | Expert Opinion

Jeffrey Millstein, For The Inquirer

Jeffrey Millstein is a primary doctor and regular contributing columnist for the Inquirer Sunday Health section. He was photographed Oct. 8, 2024 at his practice at Penn Medicine Woodbury Heights.

Depression can affect the sex drive. Here’s how to cope.

Gregory Scott Brown and MD, Washington Post

Face It, founded in 2009, offers individual and group support for depression, community events and training for mental health professionals. In 2019, the nonprofit launched an unusual program pairing traditional therapy with peer support to see if that combination improved outcomes for men. (Dmitry Volochek/Dreamstime/TNS)

Expert Opinion | Try these simple food swaps to reduce your colorectal cancer risk

Trisha Pasricha, Washington Post

The human colon. Colorectal cancer occurs in the colon or rectum when abnormal growths, called polyps, form and become cancerous over time.

Open enrollment help can be hard to find

Grace McCormack and Melissa Garrido, The Conversation

A trackway of footprints hypothesized to have been created by a Paranthropus boisei individual.

Ancient footprints show two different human ancestors coexisted at the same spot 1.5M years ago

The Giant Heart in the Body Odyssey exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

The big heart is back: Inside the Franklin Institute’s new Body Odyssey and Hamilton Collections Gallery

Peter Dobrin and Stephanie Farr

A trackway of footprints hypothesized to have been created by a Paranthropus boisei individual.

Ancient footprints show two different human ancestors coexisted at the same spot 1.5M years ago

The Giant Heart in the Body Odyssey exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

The big heart is back: Inside the Franklin Institute’s new Body Odyssey and Hamilton Collections Gallery

Peter Dobrin and Stephanie Farr

Snow covers the 2500 block of North 17th Street just above Cumberland in December 2020. No measurable snow has fallen in Philly officially in December in the last four years.

Philly may get its first (barely) measurable snowfall of the season Thursday

Anthony R. Wood

1:22

The Delaware River salt line is 20 miles north of where it should be this time of year

Associated Press, Associated Press

Snow covers the 2500 block of North 17th Street just above Cumberland in December 2020. No measurable snow has fallen in Philly officially in December in the last four years.

Philly may get its first (barely) measurable snowfall of the season Thursday

Anthony R. Wood

1:22

The Delaware River salt line is 20 miles north of where it should be this time of year

Associated Press, Associated Press

Reproductive Health

Four Philly abortion providers talk about the calling that drives them to do emotionally challenging work

“If abortion is legal but there’s nobody to provide them, we don’t have legal abortion,” said Lisa Perriera, medical director of The Women’s Center’s five clinics.

Sarah Gantz and video by Lauren Schneiderman

6:44

6:44

Four Philly abortion providers talk about the calling that drives them to do emotionally challenging work

“If abortion is legal but there’s nobody to provide them, we don’t have legal abortion,” said Lisa Perriera, medical director of The Women’s Center’s five clinics.

Sarah Gantz and video by Lauren Schneiderman

Post-Roe, contraceptive failures carry bigger stakes

Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News

Birth control failures can have big consequences in a post-Roe United States.

Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion provider. Most Philadelphians who go there aren’t ending a pregnancy.

Bobbie Trotenberg, a patient escort, watched as a patient entered Planned Parenthood in Center City after she walked her to the door in Philadelphia on July 20.

How overturning ‘Roe v. Wade’ will affect abortion access in Pa., NJ

People gather outside the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building for the Bans Off Our Bodies rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 2, 2021. The rally is part of demonstrations happening across the country defending women’s rights to seek abortions.

Pa. could see a surge of 8,500 abortion patients from other states

High schoolers from Philadelphia walk through the north portal of Philadelphia's City Hall to meet up with other students to protest for abortion rights on May 25, 2022.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle A. Henry last month.

Health & Pharma

Pa., N.J. join settlement with generic drug firms accused of price-fixing. Consumers may be eligible for refunds.

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits in Washington on Dec. 22, 2021.

Federal program offering free COVID tests is now open

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle A. Henry last month.

Health & Pharma

Pa., N.J. join settlement with generic drug firms accused of price-fixing. Consumers may be eligible for refunds.

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits in Washington on Dec. 22, 2021.

Federal program offering free COVID tests is now open

The Opioid Crisis

A naloxone kit and fliers about the dangers of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer increasingly mixed with street drugs, given out to drug users.

In a first-of-its-kind meeting, Philly doctors discussed how to treat tranq wounds

A staffer dispenses methadone from a mobile clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. Philadelphia health officials say they are on track to spend $1.2 million on a similar program before the end of this year.

The Opioid Crisis

Philly’s first mobile methadone van is on track with $1.2 million spending plan, city says

A naloxone kit and fliers about the dangers of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer increasingly mixed with street drugs, given out to drug users.

In a first-of-its-kind meeting, Philly doctors discussed how to treat tranq wounds

A staffer dispenses methadone from a mobile clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. Philadelphia health officials say they are on track to spend $1.2 million on a similar program before the end of this year.

The Opioid Crisis

Philly’s first mobile methadone van is on track with $1.2 million spending plan, city says

Special Reports

Lily Walker (left) with her cousin Peter Cellucci on the steps of the Washington Monument fountain at Eakins Oval at the 20th annual CHOP Parkway Run & Walk on Sunday in Philadelphia.

A medical mystery: Why two Philly-area cousins, just miles apart, got rare brain cancers

Pediatric cancer is rare. Malignant brain tumors in kids are even rarer. But these two cousins are in treatment for different, though equally aggressive, types of brain cancer — at the same time.

Hazel Rollerson, mother of Elwood Porter, who died of an overdose in the summer of 2021, shown here with the ashes of her son, in her home in Sicklerville, New Jersey, Tuesday, August 16, 2022.

Overdoses are killing a record number of Philadelphians as deaths soar among Black residents

Aubrey Whelan and Kasturi Pananjady

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.

Philadelphia News

From August 2022: Philly FOP picked problematic doctors for police ‘injured on duty’ benefit

Barbara Laker, David Gambacorta, and William Bender

6:44

Four Philly abortion providers talk about the calling that drives them to do emotionally challenging work

Sarah Gantz and video by Lauren Schneiderman

Mary Adamson (center), an ICU Nurse at Temple University Hospital, with other Temple nurses. Adamson wrote a piece about all of the nurses that remain in the profession.

5 medical professionals on why they stay as hospital workers flee post-COVID

Mary Adamson, Maureen May, Uhura Free Russ, Latoya Charise Nesbitt, Carlos Aviles, and Jonathan Ley

© 2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC
Terms of Use/ Privacy Policy/ Cancellation Policy/ California Notice/ California residents do not sell my data request
California residents do not sell my data request