Becker's Hospital Review: Sutter Health Launches Systemwide AI Imaging Upgrade
Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health has begun deploying AI-powered imaging equipment across its network, eight months after announcing a partnership with GE HealthCare. The seven-year Care Alliance is one of GE HealthCare’s largest enterprise strategic partnerships, according to a news release from the company. It aims to expand access to advanced imaging technologies, speed diagnostic scan times and standardize equipment across more than 300 Sutter facilities. (Jeffries, 8/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford AI Tool Boosts Ultrasound Efficacy: 3 Things To Know
An AI tool developed and evaluated by researchers at Stanford (Calif.) Medicine was able to identify 44% more lesions than human interpreters when reviewing prostate biopsy ultrasound images, according to a study published Jan. 28 in European Urology Oncology. The tool, called ProCUSNet, was designed by Mirabela Rusu, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of radiology, an Aug. 13 news release from Stanford Medicine said. (Gregerson, 8/15)

MedPage Today: Bias In The Chart? Black Patients More Likely To Be Doubted By Doctors 
Black patients were more likely than white patients to have notes from their clinicians questioning their sincerity or competence, a study found. In a cross-sectional analysis of more than 13 million notes in electronic health records, Black patients had higher odds of having credibility-undermining terms in their documentation compared with white patients (adjusted OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.27-1.32), as well as lower odds of credibility-supporting language (aOR 0.82, 95% CI 0.79-0.85), reported Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues in PLoS One. (McCreary, 8/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: La Jolla Scientists Make ‘Unexpected’ Discovery In Muscle-Building Protein 
Scientists from the La Jolla-based Sanford Burnham Prebys medical research institute have made a discovery that they say “completely subverts” what scientists had known about certain proteins  by showcasing a new role for a critical protein in muscle cell development. (Solomon, 8/16)

Times of San Diego: SD Foundation Awards $500K For Youth Mental Health Access
The San Diego Foundation has awarded $500,000 in grants to nine nonprofits expanding mental health services for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youth and young people aged 15–24 in San Diego County. ... The grants will support programs that provide mental health screening, treatment, and supportive interventions; build intergenerational connections; create leadership and mentorship opportunities for youth; and offer educational resources to reduce stigma and increase access to care. (Sklar, 8/16)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Cut Mental Health Funding For Kids. These L.A. Teens Are Stepping In
There are a lot of reasons why people reach out to Teen Line, a Century City-based hotline that connects young people in crisis to trained teenage volunteers. ... At the heart of almost every call, text or email is the same cry of pain: Nobody is listening.So the teenagers on the receiving end do what they wish adults would make time for more often, the thing nobody seems to be doing enough of these days: They listen. (Purtill, 8/16)

ProPublica: Trump’s Rollback of Rules for Mental Health Coverage Could Lead More Americans to Go Without Care
During his first term, President Donald Trump frequently turned to the issue of mental health, framing it as a national crisis that demanded action. He linked it to opioid addiction, mass shootings and a surge in veteran suicides — and he later used it to argue against COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures. At times, he backed up his rhetoric with action. His administration issued tens of millions of dollars in grants to expand community mental health services and continued funding contracts to help federal regulators enforce the parity law, which requires insurers to treat mental and physical health care equally. (Miller and Kohler, 8/18)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Hands Over Street With Homeless Encampment To Bayer
A plan for the city to give a portion of a West Berkeley street to Bayer is stirring anxiety for the residents of a homeless encampment on the block, who fear the pharmaceutical giant will soon move to evict them. The Berkeley City Council signed off last month on a deal to turn over a roughly 380-foot-long section of Carleton Street, on a dead-end block just west of Seventh Street, to Bayer. The company already owns the properties on both sides of the street, and the agreement is similar to ones Bayer has struck to acquire other portions of the formerly public right of way that runs through its 46-acre campus. (Savidge, 8/15)

The Wall Street Journal: San Francisco Has Embraced A New Tool To Clear Homeless Camps 
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to penalize people for sleeping outside, handing city leaders a new tool with which to clear homeless people from the streets. Since then, San Francisco has been among the most aggressive in wielding it. Between July 2024 and July 2025, the city arrested or cited more than 1,080 people on illegal-lodging charges, over 10 times the number of illegal-lodging arrests during the same period a year earlier. In April 2025, illegal-lodging citations and arrests hit 130, the most in a single month since the Supreme Court’s ruling. (Grether, 8/16)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sebastopol Man Dies From ‘Sporadic Case’ Of Legionnaires’ Disease 
An elderly Sebastopol man has died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease, a serious form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria, Sonoma County health officials said Friday morning. County Interim Health Officer Karen Smith said the death is being investigated as a “sporadic case,” meaning it is considered an isolated incident, not an outbreak. (Espinoza and Windsor, 8/15)

The Mercury News: Hepatitis B, Liver Cancer A Bay Area Health Tragedy ‘Hidden In Plain Sight’
James Kang moved to Milpitas from South Korea in his early 20s with his parents and younger sibling, to a diverse community that included Korean churches, grocers, restaurants, media and traditional medicine practitioners. Eventually, acupuncturists detected potential liver trouble. “I ignored it, just like I ignored the knowledge that it would be better all around not to drink,” Kang, now in his 60s, said in Korean. (Jung, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: FluMist Nasal Spray Launches Home Delivery In 34 States
The first nasal spray flu vaccine, FluMist, can now be shipped to your home. FluMist, made by the drug company AstraZeneca, has been approved in the United States since 2003, but its use was limited to health care settings like hospitals and flu clinics. In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved it for at-home administration, making it the first nasal spray vaccine approved for widespread use at home. (Ho, 8/15)

Los Angeles Times: More California Dogs Are Exposed To Bacterium That Causes Anaplasmosis
Dog owners may need to be on alert for a disease many have never heard of — anaplasmosis, spread by the same tick that transmits Lyme disease. Anaplasmosis can make dogs feverish or lethargic, turn their nose up at food and lose weight, but many show no sign of illness at all. In rare circumstances, though, dogs can bleed from the nose, have neck pain and suffer seizures. (Seidman, 8/18)

Bloomberg: Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Have A Surprising Health Downside
Hundreds of public fast chargers are popping up across the US to serve electric vehicle drivers seeking a cleaner alternative to gas-powered cars. But they come with a surprising risk: Charging stations create air pollution. While EVs contribute vastly less to air pollution than combustion-powered vehicles, fast-charging stations are what a recent study called an “overlooked source of air pollution.” (Alake and Court, 8/15)

Bloomberg: Cencora Directors Reach $111 Million Deal On Opioid Claims
Cencora Inc. directors have agreed to a settlement of more than $111 million to resolve claims by pension funds that they ignored years of red flags about the drug distributor’s handling of opioid painkillers and failed to set up required systems to monitor sales of the drugs. The deal would end litigation accusing directors of turning a blind eye to suspiciously large opioid shipments to reap billions for the firm, which was known until 2023 as AmerisourceBergen Corp. before it changed its name. (Feeley, 8/15)

AP: CBO: Trump's Tax Law Could Lead To $491B In Medicare Cuts
The federal budget deficits caused by President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law could trigger automatic cuts to Medicare if Congress does not act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Friday. The CBO estimates that Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans over age 65, could potentially see as much as $491 billion in cuts from 2027 to 2034 if Congress does not act to mitigate a 2010 law that forces across-the-board cuts to many federal programs once legislation increases the federal deficit. (Groves, 8/16)

Axios: VA Curbs Maternity Leave After White House Cancels Union Contract
New and expecting parents who work at Veterans Affairs are getting approved maternity and paternity leave canceled after their union contract was terminated by the White House, according to two internal memos viewed by Axios. (Peck, 8/15)

Stat: Draft MAHA Report: RFK Jr. Tiptoes Around Pesticides, Food Lobby 
A much-awaited game plan for how the Trump administration will make Americans healthier largely steers clear of policy recommendations, instead calling for more research on nutrition, agricultural chemicals, and “potential benefits of select high-quality supplements,” among other topics. (Cueto, Todd, Cooney, Broderick and Oza, 8/15)

The Hill: HHS Secretary Kennedy Rules Out 2028 Presidential Bid
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday he is not running for president in 2028, denying speculation amid attacks from right-wing activist Laura Loomer. “Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028. My loyalty is to President Trump and the mission we’ve started,” Kennedy said in a post on the social platform X. (Weixel, 8/15)