Missing Doctor’s Gunshot Wound; COVID Funds Reshuffled; Helpline Chatbot Shut Down

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The body of John Forsyth, MD, the emergency room physician who was reported missing when he failed to show up for work last month at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, Missouri, had an apparent gunshot wound. (AP)

Unused pandemic funds will be taken away from agencies and redistributed by Congress during this year’s budget process, as agreed on in the debt limit deal between Republicans and the White House. (NPR)

Veterans support programs face reduced funding after the loss of pandemic support. (Military Times)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology warns that the debt ceiling deal would put a squeeze on scientists doing cancer research.

The National Eating Disorder Association has quickly abandoned plans to replace human helpline staff with a chatbot. (Fortune)

Patients share their battles with binge eating disorder. (New York Times)

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that two state abortion bans passed last year are unconstitutional; the governor said he is determined to pursue abortion limits in the state. (KOSU)

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) became one of the first Republicans to sign a law protecting abortion. (AP)

In 2022, U.S. birth rates for teenagers fell to a record low of 13.5 births per 1,000 girls, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Under a newly passed law, Illinois is moving toward a fully state-based insurance exchange for the 2026 plan year. (Becker’s Healthcare)

Inside the controversy of how Medicare plans to eliminate S codes for breast reconstruction with deep inferior epigastric perforator flap, potentially disincentivizing these pricey surgeries. (CBS News)

California and Florida topped the list of states ranked by absolute numbers of cancer deaths in 2021. (Becker’s Hospital Review)

A small randomized trial shows that ultrasonography is noninferior to X-rays for the initial diagnostic imaging of forearm fractures in pediatric patients. (New England Journal of Medicine)

The FDA sent warning letters to 30 retailers selling unauthorized Puff and Hyde brand disposable e-cigarettes reportedly popular among young vapers.

The World Health Organization shared details of France’s nine cases of severe neonatal sepsis associated with a recombinant lineage of Enterovirus that was previously not detected in the country.

What if the pre-clerkship years of medical school went fully virtual, the way most students attend class anyway? (NPR)

Canada will soon require individual cigarettes to carry health warnings (e.g. “poison in every puff”) in English and French. (AP)

Compass Medical PC abruptly closed all six of its Massachusetts offices and redirected patients to the nearest emergency room or urgent care for medical attention. (WPRI)

The newly reopened Hunterian Museum of surgery and scientific oddities acknowledges the ethical concerns of its collection at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. (Nature)

Israeli doctors are refusing to examine children of migrant workers as part of a procedure to evaluate their fitness for deportation. (Haaretz)

The retired New Jersey physician who sold a toxic chemical online as a weight loss pill — and later faked a cancer diagnosis in an attempt to avoid trial after a buyer died — was sentenced to nearly 3 years in federal prison. (Philadelphia Inquirer)