An attorney representing three women in cases against an Atlanta-area dermatologist known for singing and dancing while performing surgery says nearly 100 other women have contacted her office to claim they, too, suffered under the doctor's scalpel.

An Arizona family whose son was diagnosed with croup on Christmas day received a $42,000 air ambulance bill — until they objected publicly to the cost that their insurance company would not cover. Ezra Brunner had a sore throat that became a cough by dinner. Then, after he had gone to sleep, he began struggling to breathe. His parents called 911, and a ground ambulance rushed the 4-year-old to the closest hospital from their Camp Verde home.

“Leon” is a young Brazilian man who has long struggled with depression. He keeps an anonymous blog, in Portuguese, where he describes the challenge of living with a mental illness that affects some 300 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Leon is among the roughly 30 percent of those patients with treatment-resistant depression. Available antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors do not alleviate his depressed mood, fatigue, anxiety, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.

A new 3D color medical scanner invented by father and son scientists in New Zealand recently scanned its first human subject, according to a news release from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. The novel imaging device, called the MARS spectral x-ray scanner, can capture enhanced detail of the body's chemical components—such as fat, water, and disease markers—by measuring the x-ray spectrum to produce images in color. Producing more detailed images than MRI or CT may allow physicians to identify and diagnosis diseases earlier.

A "concussion pill" under development in Miami using cannabis is showing progress for treatment of traumatic brain injuries. In a pre-clinical study, the combination of a hemp-derived cannabinoid and an NMDA amino acid anesthetic is showing improved cognitive function in rodents with traumatic brain injuries compared with individual components.

Authorities in China have ordered an investigation into a vaccination scandal as panic grows over product safety. Last week vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology Co was found to have falsified production data for its rabies vaccine. The firm has been ordered to halt production and recall rabies vaccines. There has been no evidence of harm from the vaccine, but the scandal has sparked a huge outcry in China.

The Education Minister of Japan has condemned gender discrimination following reports that Tokyo Medical University allegedly rigged entrance exam scores to lower the ratio of female students.

Experimental gene therapies have yielded promising results in early trials. But the drugs have left some patients worried that success will not last. Scientists are edging closer to defeating a longtime enemy of human health: hemophilia, the inability to form blood clots. After trying for decades to develop a gene therapy to treat this disease, researchers are starting to succeed. In recent experiments, brief intravenous infusions of powerful new treatments have rid patients — for now, at least — of a condition that has shadowed them all their lives.

With an anti-vaccination trend on the rise in Turkey, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy chairman Sefer Aycan proposed a new legislation on Thursday, introducing a minimum mandatory prison sentence for parents who don't vaccinate their children. The MHP's Kahramanmaraş Deputy Aycan proposed to introduce a prison sentence of a minimum six months to two years for such parents or guardians in hopes of eradicating contagion of illnesses like tuberculosis, hepatitis, AIDS and many more.

A weight-loss pill has been hailed as a potential “holy grail” in the fight against obesity after a major study showed it did not increase the risk of serious heart problems. Researchers say lorcaserin is the first weight-loss drug to be deemed safe for heart health with long-term use. Taken twice a day, the drug is an appetite suppressant which works by stimulating brain chemicals to induce a feeling of fullness.

A Texas hospital that charged a teacher $108,951 for care after a 2017 heart attack told the patient Thursday it would slash the bill to $332.29 — but not before a story about the huge charge sparked a national conversation over what should be done to combat surprise medical bills that afflict a growing number of Americans.

Children whose mothers take fish oil supplements during pregnancy have more muscle and stronger bones in early childhood, a new trial has found. Research from the University of Copenhagen has found that women who took the omega-3 fatty acid pills daily from halfway through their pregnancy had children with a higher BMI by age six. X-ray scans revealed these children weren’t simply carrying more unhealthy fat as they also had more lean muscle, and higher bone density than the children whose mothers took an olive oil placebo pill instead.

Probiotics are a booming business, with sales in the billions of dollars each year and millions of customers in the US alone. Companies claim that the microbial concoctions can help consumers do anything from lose weight to sleep better, but researchers report inconsistent effects on people’s microbiomes.

Someday doctors may prescribe sugar pills for certain chronic pain patients based on their brain anatomy and psychology. And the pills will reduce their pain as effectively as any powerful drug on the market, according to new research. Northwestern Medicine scientists have shown they can reliably predict which chronic pain patients will respond to a sugar placebo pill based on the patients’ brain anatomy and psychological characteristics.

A Rutgers University–New Brunswick-led team of researchers is calling for the creation of a global microbiota vault to protect the long-term health of humanity. Such a Noah’s Ark of beneficial germs would be gathered from human populations whose microbiomes are uncompromised by antibiotics, processed diets and other ill effects of modern society, which have contributed to a massive loss of microbial diversity and an accompanying rise in health problems.

Jered Chinnock's mantra was “lift the leg, kick the foot out.” The paired actions were all part of a tough, years-long rehabilitation routine the Wisconsin man took on after a snowmobile accident left his lower limbs paralyzed when he was 26 years old. Coupled with the arduous rehab, Chinnock had a device implanted in his lower spine, relaying electrical signals from brain to muscles under battery power.

Much of the published medical research goes unread by the general public and medical community, despite being largely funded by the federal government and private foundations. To reach more people, medical journals have begun using social media to promote new research. A new Northwestern Medicine study has found social media editors lack established best practices and support from their journals and home institutions, making it difficult for them to successfully promote new research.

Studies have found an association between cannabis use and transient psychotic symptoms, such as unusual thoughts, suspiciousness, and hallucinatory experiences. A new study suggests that this relationship is mostly attributable to genetic predisposition. But the research, which appears in JAMA Psychiatry, found that person-specific factors also influence the association between psychotic-like experiences and cannabis use to a lesser extent.

Drone delivery really only seems practical for two things: take-out and organ transplants. Both are relatively light and also extremely time-sensitive. Well, experiments in flying a kidney around Baltimore in a refrigerated box have yielded positive results — which also seems promising for getting your pad thai to you in good kit.

Shining a light onto the skin could become a new test to see if people are in the earliest stages of diabetes and heart disease. The approach may offer a way of screening people for these health conditions that’s quicker and easier than current methods that include blood tests, and assessing risk factors such as people’s weight and family history.