Aaron Zaks, a family medicine intern (first-year resident) at Shasta Community Health Center in Redding, CA, did not set out to practice medicine on the Sacramento River, deep in the shadow of the Cascades foothills where Chinook salmon spawn.
In...
For the first time since 1929, the GOP controls the White House, the Senate, the House, and most governorships and state houses. Never before, in most of our lifetimes, have Republicans been in a better position to coordinate and...
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time...
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States irrespective of ethnicity, the most common cause of death from cancer in Hispanic women, and second most common cause of cancer deaths among all other...
Maternal mortality rates have been increasing nationwide, but if Texas was a country, it would have the highest in the developed world.
For the first five years of the new millennium, Texas maternal deaths were steady, hovering at around 18 deaths...
Have you ever stopped to think how much better healthcare could be if all technology available was utilized? Could technology help reduce healthcare cost or even improve outcomes? Can technology decrease the need for long trips to visit a...
It is not just our obligation to care for military veterans. It is an honor. There is a significant amount of discussion about the responsibility of the Veterans Administration and the federal government to care for returning soldiers. However,...
Alabama currently has eight counties with no hospital. Over the past six years, Alabama has had five rural hospitals close. This is tied with Georgia for the second highest number of rural hospital closings among all 50 states. Texas,...
Prescription drug abuse is a powerful addiction, and addiction rates are steadily increasing across the country. People are losing the battle—and their lives—daily. And these people are not just faceless strangers. They are our friends and our neighbors. They...
Tumbleweeds rolled past in windy West Texas as we travel US Highway 87 from Lubbock to the bustling small town of Lamesa. It is a two-hour round trip to meet with staff of the rural hospital and specialty clinic...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Obama proposed an agricultural ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos based on research documenting the risks for farmworkers and communities, including links to brain damage in children.
Donald Trump’s administration, however, has rejected the science and announced...
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed an executive order to abolish the state's Office of Rural Development. The office's director, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks, will lose his job as a result.
In a statement about the decision, Ivey says she...
Lost Rivers Medical Center in Arco, Idaho is the "Tiny Hospital That Could."
The little brick hospital tucked away in the mountains was in danger of closing its doors in 2013, but now it is setting the example for other rural...
More than 200 rural hospitals have closed their birthing units between 2004 and 2014, according to the University of Minnesota’s Rural Health Research Center. That’s left millions women of reproductive age facing longer drives to deliver babies. Studies show these distances...
