Becker's Hospital Review: Children's Hospital LA 1st To Study Pig Heart Transplant For Infants
A team from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the first in the world to study the use of genetically engineered pig hearts for infants waiting for heart transplantation. The study was led by John David Cleveland, MD, a congenital heart surgeon at CHLA’s Heart Institute, and presented at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation’s annual meeting, according to an April 28 news release from the hospital. (Gregerson, 4/29)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hoag Family Cancer Institute Taps Executive Medical Director
Newport Beach-based Hoag has appointed Steven Grossman, MD, PhD, as executive medical director for the Hoag Family Cancer Institute. Dr. Grossman previously served as physician-in-chief and deputy director for cancer services at Los Angeles-based University of Southern California’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Keck School of Medicine. (Gregerson, 4/29)

Becker's Hospital Review: What 5 Top Health System CIOs Do Differently
The top health system CIOs have been using innovative digital solutions to address some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges. Several health systems were recently named winners of CIO 100 Awards for having the most innovative IT departments. Becker’s reached out to the CIOs of those systems to find out what they do differently. (Bruce, 4/28)

Los Angeles Times: Did Slew Of False Positive Drug Tests Cost Some Inmates Their Freedom?
Thousands of inmates wrongly tested positive for opiate use inside California state prisons last year because of a laboratory mistake, and civil rights attorneys now worry many of them could be denied parole and a chance at freedom because of it. About 6,000 drug tests are believed to have generated false positive results in 2024, according to attorneys at UnCommon Law, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents inmates seeking parole. The organization confirmed the false test results through a series of public records requests, which showed positive test results suddenly spiked across California prisons between April and July last year. (Hernandez, 4/29)

Times of San Diego: Vista Community Clinic Raises Awareness For Alcohol Awareness Month
Vista Community Clinic is shining a spotlight on the serious risks of alcohol misuse this Alcohol Awareness Month, urging the community to prioritize prevention, education, and support for those in need. Alcohol misuse is a serious public health issue that affects people of all ages and backgrounds. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, over 29 million people aged 12 and older had Alcohol Use Disorder in 2022. (Sklar, 4/28)

Capital & Main: A Majority Of Californians Support Affordable Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants, Polls Show
Amid an escalating federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants, a majority of Californians support extending Medicaid benefits to immigrants without legal status, according to two recent polls. This broad public backing in the state contrasts sharply with the increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric emanating from Washington. Advocates hope the findings will shape how California navigates its budget shortfall and looming federal cuts to Medicaid. The state has gradually expanded coverage to undocumented residents since 2016, with notable health improvements among those populations. (Lindenfeld, 4/28)

CalMatters: They Called For Urgent Help With A Mentally Ill Loved One. Why California Police Refused 
In early January, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper met with county behavioral health and emergency medical response partners and dropped a bomb. His department would no longer respond to mental health crisis calls unless a crime had occurred, was in progress, or someone other than the person in crisis was deemed to be in imminent danger. (Romney, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Justices Seem Sympathetic To Student In Disability Discrimination Case
The Supreme Court appeared sympathetic Monday to the arguments of the parents of a Minnesota teen with severe epilepsy who want schools to do more to accommodate the needs of disabled students. The case focuses on whether families must meet an unfairly high burden to show schools are falling short. It is being closely watched by disability advocates and schools, with officials saying a ruling for the girl — identified as Ava in court filings — could make it easier for millions of students to require educators to do more to tailor teaching to their unique situations. (Jouvenal, 4/28)

The Hill: Trump Administration Plans To Limit ‘Forever Chemical’ Discharges
The Trump administration will set limits on the amount of “forever chemicals” producers of the toxic substances can discharge into the water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday. The administration said it will set discharge limits for a class of toxic chemicals known as PFAS. The limitations will apply to companies that make these substances, as well as metal finishers. (Frazin, 4/28)

The New York Times: National Climate Assessment Authors Are Dismissed By Trump Administration 
The Trump administration has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country. The move puts the future of the report, which is required by Congress and is known as the National Climate Assessment, into serious jeopardy, experts said. Since 2000, the federal government has published a comprehensive look every few years at how rising temperatures will affect human health, agriculture, fisheries, water supplies, transportation, energy production and other aspects of the U.S. economy. (Plumer and Dzombak, 4/28)

Bloomberg: Climate Change May Worsen The Spread Of Drug Resistant Infections, Study Warns
Climate change may exacerbate the spread of infections that don’t respond to common antibiotics, with developing nations being most at risk, according to a new study in Nature Medicine. The study challenges the notion that the rise of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is solely due to the overconsumption of antibiotics, putting a spotlight on factors such as healthcare spending, air pollution and raising temperatures. (Kan, 4/29)

Time: Climate Anxiety Is Taking Its Toll On Young People 
A recent flurry of papers has documented significant and growing levels of climate anxiety in the 25-and-under group, with even preschoolers sometimes showing symptoms. “You come across it in children as young as three,” says Elizabeth Haase, a founding member of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. “You find them on TikTok, sobbing about losing their teddy bears or sobbing that animals they loved got killed” in an extreme weather event. (Kluger, 4/29)

The Washington Post: Chemicals In Plastic Linked To Over 350,000 Deaths From Heart Disease
A set of chemicals found in food packaging, plastics, and lotions and shampoos has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart disease, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal eBioMedicine. These chemicals, known as phthalates (pronounced tha-lates), were responsible for more than 350,000 deaths worldwide in 2018, researchers found. About 75 percent of the deaths were in Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific — reflecting growing concern about the amount of plastic proliferating in developing countries. (Osaka, 4/29)

The New York Times: Mexico To Give U.S. More Water From Their Shared Rivers
Mexico has agreed to send water to the United States and temporarily channel more water to the country from their shared rivers, a concession that appeared to defuse a diplomatic crisis sparked by yearslong shortages that left Mexico behind on its treaty-bound contribution of water from the borderlands. Earlier this month, President Trump threatened additional tariffs and other sanctions against Mexico over the water debt, amounting to about 420 billion gallons. (Cameron and Wagner, 4/28)

The Mercury News: DOGE Grant Cuts Hit UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, San Jose State Studies
Dr. Seth Holmes, a UC Berkeley professor, was organizing a conference to generate research findings to improve public health, with a focus on minorities. Oakland-based UC San Francisco professor Diana Foster was leading research into effects of state-level abortion bans on women. (Baron, 4/28)

Los Angeles Times: ACLU Sues To Stop Trump Attacks On Head Start Child-Care Program
The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of six early childhood organizations, including one in California, sued the Trump administration Monday to halt the dismantling of Head Start and restore cuts to the program, alleging that the actions required congressional approval. The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Washington, also alleged that the administration’s directive to strip the program of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is “unconstitutionally vague,” violates the free speech of its teachers and does not provide enough guidance for providers to know what must be done to avoid losing federal funding. (Sequeira, 4/29)

The Washington Post: New Consumer Protections Could End Soon. Here’s What You Need To Know. 
Just before Trump took office, the CFPB finalized a rule that would prevent credit reporting agencies from including unpaid medical bills in credit reports and prohibit lenders from considering medical debt when making credit decisions. Republican lawmakers introduced a CRA resolution to repeal the rule in March. ... Meanwhile, multiple trade associations have filed suit to declare the regulation unlawful and set it aside. In February, a federal judge in Texas paused consideration of that case until June, which the new Trump-appointed CFPB leadership agreed to. If the plaintiffs succeed, their win will overturn the regulation. (Ziegler, 4/28)

The New York Times: New Details Emerge On Trump Officials’ Sprint To Gut Consumer Bureau Staff 
Emails and testimonials from workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau document the administration’s efforts to lay off 90 percent of the employees. (Cowley, 4/27)

Politico: Trump Administration To Close A Civil Rights Office In RFK Jr.'s HHS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will close its civil rights office in June, according to an email sent to staff Monday and viewed by POLITICO. The office closure is part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mass reorganization of his department that has seen the agency downsized by roughly 20 percent. Kennedy and President Donald Trump have also focused on programs and agencies they say promote diversity, equity and inclusion. (Cirruzzo, 4/28)

Stat: RFK Jr.’s MAHA Commission Faces Scrutiny Ahead Of Deadline 
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a little less than a month left to produce a key document that will shape the federal government’s approach to childhood chronic disease. And while administration officials say he is on track to meet that deadline, it’s not clear how the “Make America Healthy Again” commission is conducting its work. (Cueto, 4/29)

CIDRAP: Groups Urge Kennedy To Reduce Antibiotic Overuse In Meat Production
A coalition of food safety, public health, and consumer advocacy groups are urging Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to curb the use of antibiotics in the meat industry. ... The groups have been warning for several years that widespread use of these antibiotics—which are also used in human medicine—in cows, pigs, and poultry is accelerating the antibiotic-resistance threat. (Dall, 4/28)

Axios: 100 Days Of Health Care Upheaval
In 100 days, President Trump and his administration have not only upended the status quo for health care and challenged mainstream science, but slashed the workforce that's supposed to execute on their vision. (Goldman, 4/29)

USA Today: More Than 7 Million Americans Have Alzheimer's. Research Cuts Could Slow The Fight.
A new report suggests up to 7.2 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease, an increase of about 300,000 cases of the mind-robbing disease from a year ago. The Alzheimer's Association's annual facts and figures report released April 29 said the total annual cost of caring for people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will reach $384 billion in 2025. That figure doesn't include the cost of unpaid care from 12 million family members and friends who provide billions of hours of care valued at more than $400 billion, according to the report. (Alltucker, 4/29)

ABC News: Alzheimer's Society Calls On Doctors To Use Newer Early Diagnostic Testing Due To Improvements
New treatments and simple blood tests could change how doctors detect and treat Alzheimer's disease, according to a new report from the Alzheimer's Association. Blood tests to detect Alzheimer's are not yet approved for everyday use, but in research studies, they have improved the accuracy of diagnosis by up to 91%. ... Blood tests could make it much simpler to find early signs of the disease and be more widely available. (Chang, 4/29)

MedPage Today: Alzheimer's Biomarkers Common In People With Other Dementias
Alzheimer's disease pathology was common in people diagnosed with other dementias, a large cross-sectional study in Sweden showed. While most patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's had evidence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau pathology, those biomarkers also emerged in people with other dementias, said Tobias Borgh Skillbäck, MD, PhD, of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Molndal, Sweden, and co-authors. (George, 4/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Martinelli’s Recalls 170,000 Apple Juice Bottles
California-based S. Martinelli & Co. has issued a voluntary recall of more than 170,000 bottles of its popular apple juice due to concerns over potential contamination with patulin, a toxic substance produced by certain molds that can grow on fruit. The Watsonville juice company initiated the recall in March. The Food and Drug Administration classified it as a Class II recall last week, affecting 7,234 cases of 10-ounce glass bottles sold in 4-packs, each with a white metal screw-top lid. (Vaziri, 4/28)

Stat: HPV Vaccine As Effective With One Shot As Two, NCI Study Finds
A clinical trial run by the National Cancer Institute seems to confirm that a single dose of the vaccine used to prevent infection with the human papilloma virus is just as effective as two — and, therefore, also helps to prevent cancer. (Herper, 4/28)