Medical artificial intelligence (AI) faces a fundamental challenge: uncertainty quantification. Artificial neural networks are largely unaware of the limits of their training data and can become overconfident when confronted with unfamiliar inputs. Suppose you train a neural network to distinguish among African mammals. If you then present it with an image of a South American jaguar—an animal it has never encountered—the model cannot say “unknown.” Instead, it may confidently declare the jaguar to be a leopard.

Cambridge researchers have shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening.

Sri Lanka is deploying the military to contain the spread of mosquito-borne dengue fever, as health authorities warned Tuesday that hospitals are being overwhelmed with more than 1,000 admissions a day.

The last eight American passengers who endured 42 days in a specialized hospital quarantine unit after exposure to an unusual hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that killed three people have left the Nebraska facility.

Researchers have developed an AI tool that may help doctors better understand how high blood pressure damages different organs in different people. This development potentially paves the way for more personalized treatments in the future. The study, published in Circulation, was led by the University of Oxford.

Language barriers are a recurring reality in clinical practice in public health care centers across Catalonia. They negatively affect the relationship between health care personnel and patients who are not fluent in any of the official languages: Catalan, Aranese or Spanish. There is a lack of resources and protocols to manage these situations, and therefore professional and stable coordinated policies are needed that can guarantee interpreting and mediation services across the country to prevent inequalities.

Mexico, Kenya, Italy and other nations around the world are experiencing one to two more months of heat stress than they were several decades ago, new research published Monday says, and some areas even more so. Regions previously untouched by heat stress are now feeling it, too.

Millions of men face a decision about whether to be screened for prostate cancer. National guidelines say that decision should begin with a conversation about the risks and benefits of testing. But a new Medical University of South Carolina study suggests those conversations may not be happening nearly as often as they should. Researchers found that discussions about prostate cancer screening were documented in only a small fraction of primary care visits. Yet when those conversations did occur, men were far more likely to get screened.

Middle-aged women have the highest levels of problematic alcohol use, a new national survey shows, yet they may be the least aware that drinking can increase breast cancer risk.

Many conditions that cause vision loss share a common feature: the gradual breakdown of the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye. Although scientists know some of the structural changes that ensue as this damage progresses, less is understood about the molecular signals that shape how the retina copes with disease.

A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), in collaboration with the University of Zurich, has uncovered the first comprehensive map of how the anti-aging protein Klotho operates in distinct regions of the kidney, resolving long-standing scientific uncertainties about its physiological roles.

The benefits of dietary fiber extend beyond digestive health, as dietary fiber-derived metabolites produced by gut microbiota can influence immune function. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are secondary metabolites produced by the gut microbiota through the fermentation of dietary fibers. Notably, soluble dietary fibers such as inulin and pectin can be metabolized by gut bacteria into SCFAs, including butyrate. They act as important signaling molecules that reduce inflammation and balance the immune system.

Diets rich in sugars and fats are associated with metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and diabetes. During development, these imbalances can have a particularly significant impact, as the body must coordinate growth, maturation and hormone production.

West Nile virus (WNV) is transmitted by mosquitoes and is increasingly relevant for Europe and worldwide. It can cause severe brain infection and death, yet there is no specific antiviral treatment or approved human vaccine. A collaborative study published in Immunity analyzed blood from WNV convalescents in Serbia to understand antibody immune responses and identify protective human monoclonal antibodies with potential to prevent or treat WNV and related orthoflavivirus infections.

Football is a lab for studying the many dimensions of head injury. From defensive backs running at the pace of a sprinter downhill into a 220-pound muscular running back at full speed, to 400-plus-pound linemen knocking heads nearly every play, the NFL is a breeding ground for concussive and subconcussive head injury exposure.

Paneth cell metaplasia (PCM), long viewed as a consequence of chronic inflammation in ulcerative colitis, may also help protect and repair the intestine, according to researchers at Science Tokyo. The study found that inflammation increases IL-22 signaling, which promotes PCM and the production of REG3A, a protein that helps heal the intestinal lining. The findings suggest PCM may be a protective response but should be monitored because persistent PCM could increase cancer risk.

Even as biomarker testing has become increasingly important for selecting the right lung cancer treatment, the time it takes to order these tests hasn’t improved. Overall, the time from biopsy to biomarker results is about twice as long as most doctors think it is, and that wait can affect whether patients get started on the correct first-line treatment to match their cancer, such as targeted therapy or immunotherapy.

The Cancer Metabolism and Tumor Microenvironment Laboratory at the University of Liège has uncovered a previously unrecognized mechanism that promotes cancer cell survival under therapeutic pressure. Published in MedComm, the study shows how a key enzyme in lipid metabolism, stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1), cooperates with an epigenetic regulator to support tumor growth.

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have found that how quickly an older adult can execute a voluntary step—especially when distracted (concurrently performed cognitive task)—may serve as a valuable clinical predictor of survival. The exploratory study suggests that dynamic balance assessments capture an integration of neuromuscular vitality and central cognitive processing, offering a window into an individual’s long-term functional health.

For patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injection followed by a dexamethasone (DEX) intravitreal implant demonstrates noninferior efficacy and comparable safety to a conventional treatment regimen, according to a study published in the June issue of Eye Discovery.