Early anecdotes about Paxlovid’s effects on long COVID are intriguing, but no one’s testing them in clinical trials yet. Vineet Menachery, a coronavirus expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch, believes long-term infection is probably “more common than we think,” he told Katherine Wu.

American medical facilities typically have access to the latest healthcare technology and generally boast low readmission rates among heart attack patients. New research reports that America’s one-year heart attack death rate is one of the highest among studied high-income nations. Dr. Peter Cram, professor and chair of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Center at Galveston, was one of the research collaborators. “From a U.S. perspective, our heart attack care is good, but the one-year mortality rate is concerning,” Cram said. “If dying is one of the things we want to prevent, then we have work to do.” News Medical, All Health Books, World Health and Medical Economics also reported on this comparative studied published in The BMJ.

The Texas Department of State Health Services recently recognized the University of Texas Medical Branch’s League City campus as a Level III trauma facility. “Our hospital continues to provide higher levels of care as it continues to grow,” administrator Christine Wade said. “We are proud to be the first trauma center to serve League City.”

League City registered nurse Nori Head is heading in new directions after retiring from her position as the nursing program manager and senior research nurse coordinator in the neuropathology and infectious disease division at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She's acting in plays in local community theaters and working part-time as a nurse with a vaccine research group.

People with immunocompromising conditions might be unsure whether their COVID-19 vaccinations will protect them from severe disease. Many may also be unaware aware there’s now a treatment, Evusheld, that can protect and allow them to lead more normal lives. Drs. Meagan Berman and Richard Rupp explain in the latest Vaccine Smarts column.

“Now for the first time, artificial intelligence was used in conjunction with the standard colonoscopy to reduce the rate at which polyps are missed by nearly a third,” write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in the latest Medical Discovery News column.

Among older adults, such memory concerns represent a daily complaint in the primary care setting. Most patients fear that the slightest forgetfulness predicts progressive senility, dementia or even Alzheimer’s Disease. Drs. Victor S. Sierpina and Michelle Sierpina write that forgetting things once in a while can be healthy.