Reporting and analysis about the innovation, trends, and business of medicine and health care
Menstrual products are subject to a sales tax, and Democrat Donna Howard has tried to change that since 2017. With support from powerful Republicans, this could be the year.
Cordyceps, a parasitic fungus made popular by the HBO drama, can be added to coffee for a boost of brain energy. A few Texas cafes offer a safe space to try it out.
Twelve states require that insurers pay for egg and sperm freezing before cancer treatment. Attempts to add Texas to the list have failed twice, but now lawmakers are trying again.
A mysterious group with a Tennessee mailing address has filed a suit in the Panhandle city—guaranteeing it would be heard by Matthew Kacsmaryk, a longtime religious-right activist.
A UT Southwestern program highlights how physicians can and should be better trained to discuss healthy eating with their patients.
Many with opioid-use disorders OD again and again. First responders are reaching out to offer a path to recovery.
By not doing so, the state is jeopardizing the health of its most vulnerable populations and leaving billions of savings on the table a year.
Heather Schaefer saw a desperate Facebook plea. Six months later, she had two new members of her extended family—and one less kidney.
There aren’t nearly enough physicians in the state, especially for the more than 7.5 million Texans who primarily speak Spanish.
Many with parosmia, a condition whereby normal scents smell foul, have searched for relief and found hope in a facility in Bryan.
Houstonians Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi have created a COVID vaccine that’s saving millions of lives in developing nations.
Jason McLellan’s groundbreaking research is changing the way vaccines are developed—including those for another formidable pathogen, RSV.
An abortion to save the life of a pregnant patient is “not an abortion,” according to Texas’s junior senator.
We asked for clarification from 99 Texas legislators who support the law, plus the attorney general who will enforce it, for clarification. Only one granted an interview.
Texas leads the U.S. in maternity ward closures, and nowhere is this more of an issue than in the western part of the state.
When a family doctor spoke out about insurance companies ruining his practice, few expected his appeal would still resonate 27 years later.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, employers and workers in the majority-female food-service industry stepped up their fund-raising and travel assistance.
Texas nonprofits are defying state law to distribute harm-reduction tools like fentanyl test strips amid an opioid-overdose epidemic.
Mimi Swartz reflects on her deep dive into Houston’s breast-implant boom and its larger-than-life profiteers.
Mounjaro is a potential lifesaver in a region with a high rate of obesity. Its price tag may prevent many from accessing it.
The latest pandemic-related supply chain disruption prevents patients from getting critical imaging scans.
With an abortion ban looming as the Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe, the heartbreak of trying to provide reproductive care is too much for some.
Researchers at Tarleton State have found an all-natural way to prevent Texans from imbibing quite so many tiny plastic particles.
A team of scientists at Texas A&M has been testing cats and dogs throughout the pandemic. The CDC is furry interested.
“Medication abortion,” already the state’s most common method of ending a pregnancy, has only gained in popularity since the legislature restricted it.
Taxpayers have spent millions for purifiers promoted by former governor Rick Perry. Could they have gotten the same benefits for far less money?
Oil-field medics face long hours, grisly accidents, desolation, and low pay. So why do they do it?
A drive toward optimization and hospital consolidation has left the state with less capacity per capita.
A Plano company claims its immersive experiences—from scuba diving to jazz concerts—represent the future of eldercare.
After surviving a devastating accident that left her disabled, Amber McDaniel felt like she could overcome anything. Then her ten-year-old son contracted a rare condition associated with COVID-19.
A few months ago, Jennifer Bridges’s refusal to abide by Houston Methodist’s vaccine mandate thrust her into the national spotlight. Now she’s become a purveyor of conspiracy theories that have fueled the pandemic’s continuation.
Taysha hopes to commercialize UT Southwestern’s groundbreaking gene therapies to benefit its shareholders—and desperately ill children.
The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has teamed up with a polymath and put his name on a company that aims to change the pharmaceutical game.
Wheal became a guru in the city’s self-optimization scene, hobnobbing with the likes of Elon Musk. But will anyone listen to his warnings about the movement that brought him renown?
Supply-chain disruptions and an increase in COVID-19 cases at job sites are slowing down employment in building.
A highly unusual summer outbreak of RSV and an increase in COVID-19 cases among kids have overrun hospitals.
Working with UT-Dallas's Center for BrainHealth, Bonnie Pitman uses her art expertise to help physicians and people living with debilitating conditions.
For low-income countries, the less-expensive, easier-to-make Corbevax could prove a godsend.
Houston-based Luminare’s software analyzes patient records to detect sepsis.
The group of chefs, servers, and restaurant owners is starting a movement to replace the post-shift drink with a pre-shift run.
Black Texans are embracing plant-based diets that, though widely associated with educated young whites, have long been part of African American culture.
Greg Abbott signed a bill banning abortion once a heartbeat can be detected and letting Texans sue those who “aid and abet” a woman getting the procedure.
Jennifer Bridges says she isn’t anti-vax, but she's now a cause célèbre among skeptics for threatening to sue her employer for requiring employees get the jab.
As clinics across the state offer ketamine therapy for depression, a bill would fund further studies on MDMA use and psilocybin for PTSD treatment of vets.
My symptoms lasted for months and changed my life in ways large and small.
As vaccination rates slow, a Dallas woman who once garnered hundreds of thousands of social followers by expressing doubt about the safety of inoculations now says, “I trust the science.”
Fear of deportation at vaccination clinics and a lack of access to up-to-date information about eligibility have kept many migrant farm workers in Hidalgo County from getting immunized.
As vaccination rollout in their country has been slow, wealthy Mexicans have spent thousands on expensive trips abroad to get inoculated.
With the pandemic spurring officials to keep more high-tech drug manufacturing on U.S. soil, the state stands to benefit.
Roma and D'Amico's, Italian eateries in the Rice Village, have taken opposite approaches after Greg Abbott lifted pandemic-era restrictions on businesses. Both establishments' owners say they're looking out for staff.
