Twenty years ago, when I started working with federally qualified health centers, I once performed a walkthrough and shadowed a routine medical exam. English was not this patient’s first language, and a translator was readily available and assigned immediately to ease communication. During the intake process, the patient mentioned an unstable housing environment, food insecurity, […]

Everyone has those movies they love to watch over and over again. For STATus Report host Alex Hogan, the 1993 thriller “The Fugitive” has been in rotation since he was 8 years old. Recently, Hogan realized the movie’s plot — centered around a pharmaceutical company scandal — is exactly the kind of story STAT would […]

Nancy’s blue eyes scanned the page I held before her. “What do you see?” I asked. Her concentration was the intense gaze of a student before a painting in a museum. Her lips parted. She was thinking. “I see … S’s.” She traced these images with her right index finger. “S’s,” she repeated. “Many S’s.” […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he is investigating the Food and Drug Administration’s rejections of rare disease treatments. The Wisconsin Republican is requesting denial letters, called complete response letters, that the FDA sent to makers of rare disease treatments for conditions including ataxia and Sanfilippo syndrome. He said he’s heard that some of the […]

Food and Drug Administration official Vinay Prasad self-destructed last week. The FDA announced Friday evening that he would step down next month after a series of controversial decisions about vaccines and gene therapies. His unique ability to attract criticism — even when his bosses, including the president, wanted him to keep his head low — […]

WASHINGTON — Vinay Prasad, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration who has been at the center of recurring public controversies, is exiting the agency for a second time. Prasad will leave the FDA at the end of April, and his replacement has not yet been identified, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told The […]

Megan Molteni reports on discoveries from the frontiers of genomic medicine, neuroscience, and reproductive tech. She joined STAT in 2021 after covering health and science at WIRED. You can reach Megan on Signal at mmolteni.13. There’s a new mystery involving Jeffrey Epstein and a Harvard genome sequencing project that he participated in. Somebody appears to […]

Bob Herman covers health insurance, government programs, hospitals, physicians, and other providers — reporting on how money influences those businesses and shapes what we all pay for care. He is also the author of the Health Care Inc. newsletter. You can reach Bob on Signal at bobjherman.09. Elevance Health will no longer be able to […]