The number of women entering fields like science, engineering and medicine have been growing in recent decades. However, as women’s representation has grown in these fields, the incidence of bias and sexual harassment has kept pace, according to a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report.

There have been a number of stories in the media recently about women dying or nearly dying during pregnancy or shortly postpartum. Once thought of as a largely historical issue, or one that only affected women in the developing world without access to modern medicine, people around the country seem to be increasingly recognizing the problem.

Although disparities between the health of rural residents and city dwellers is well studied, researchers are finding health and life expectancy differences between populations that are much closer in proximity—say, for instance, in neighboring ZIP codes. A baby born in a ZIP code in the French Quarter of New Orleans has a life expectancy of 55 years. A few miles away, a baby born in a different ZIP code has a life expectancy of 80 years. In another example, two large cities in Texas, Austin an

In the days since the Republican’s replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), failed to garner enough votes to make it through the United States Congress and was pulled from consideration, people have been asking why it failed.

Imagine that the next time your doctor orders a round of tests, in addition to cholesterol and vitamin D, she also orders a genome sequence. It sounds like science fiction, but the day might come sooner than you think. Precision medicine—in which each patient’s prevention and treatment decisions are tailored for them—has been a buzzword in the health care industry recently. President Barack Obama launched his Precision Medicine Initiative, and other countries have similar projects underway. Wi

With the possible exception of newborn identical twins, no two people are alike, so it should come as no surprise that practicing medicine can be more of an art than a science as practitioners use the best tools at their disposal to treat patients. Even in the case of a simple bacterial infection like strep throat, although everyone who tests positive gets an antibiotic, the physician determines which drug to prescribe based on a number of a factors, including the patient’s age, weight and know

Most us know that we should vaccinate our children against measles, but what about adults who aren’t sure if they are protected?

It’s that time of year again: time to get your flu vaccination. Here’s what you need to know to stay ahead this flu season. Every year, local clinics begin providing flu vaccinations in the fall. While flu can be detected year-round, the virus is most common during the fall and winter. During typical flu seasons, influenza activity peaks in January or later.

Mumps may seem like a contagion relegated to history books, but like many other diseases of the past now preventable with a vaccine, mumps has been making a resurgence. Cases are at 10-year high and are especially common on college campuses across the country. Now the Dallas area is seeing the largest outbreak in Texas in years. Cristie Columbus, MD, vice dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine’s Dallas campus and an infectious disease specialist, explains what people need to know about the mu

Darwin Prockop, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Scott & White, answers your questions about this complex and rapidly developing field. Stem cells have the ability to divide and create more cells—both new stem cells and differentiated cells—indefinitely. What do they do? We’re still discovering some of the amazing capabilities of these cells, but based on research at the Texas A&M Health Science Center recently, we do know tha