Ukrainian Doctors Reach Out For Help, American Surgeons Answer the Call

An app that uses A.I. to scans lung X-rays is helping two hospitals in rural and remote parts of India to identify cases of tuberculosis that they otherwise would have been likely to misdiagnose. Medical professionals caution that the app is not a replacement for a clinician's diagnosis but say when used in conjunction with a clinical assessment, the interpretation of a chest X-ray is likely to be more accurate.

Almost a quarter of rural Americans surveyed by NPR had used a telehealth service in the past few years. While new technologies are allowing remote patients to gain new access to healthcare, lack of broadband service and outdated insurance policies are making it hard for more widespread adoption.

Many people addicted to opioids developed their addiction after being prescribed the drugs after surgery, so some states are changing protocols around the drug distribution. From increased counseling about drug safety to a cap on how many pills doctors prescribe, alternatives to the traditional protocol aims to decrease the likelihood of addiction.

The United Kingdom's health-care system – which has been lauded as one of the most equitable models for care – is built around a government agency that decides "which treatments are worth covering, and for whom." Although the measures used to determine these recommendations are controversial and the agency doesn't always sustain public trust in their decisions, the overall outcome has increased both social solidarity and life expectancy.

The Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture has helped the town of Ajo in Arizona distribute affordable and nutrient-dense food to the community after the coronavirus pandemic created a significant financial strain on many families. Additional support has come from the town's participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's program Local Food, Local Places which "provides technical support and expertise to help towns leverage food systems to boost economic development."

Miraclefeet is a U.S. based nonprofit that provides free clubfoot treatment in 29 countries, including 15 in Africa. Following Ponseti, a nonsurgical treatment plan, caregivers gently manipulate a child’s feet by stretching them into the correct position and using plaster of Paris to cast the foot in that position. After 5-8 weeks, children wear braces for 23 hours every day for the first three months, then only while sleeping for 3-5 years, in order to maintain the correction. The brace is made up of a special shoe that is clipped to a bar. The treatment is less expensive and 98% effective when done early.

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, access to safe, legal abortion in the U.S. is scarce. While several states have banned mifepristone and misoprostol — the two drugs that makeup abortion pills — misoprostol, which has been found to be the more effective of the two, can still be accessed at some pharmacies and through nonprofits in the U.S. and overseas like Plan C and Aid Access.

The SimpleVas Vasectomy Clinic is a mobile clinic that travels around to provide easy access to vasectomies by simplifying the entire process. The mobile clinic travels nearly 600 miles around the state every month and has even traveled out to New York City to spread awareness. Through raising awareness of the procedure, the doctor in charge of the clinic now performs about 600 to 700 vasectomies a year.

A pair of doctors are working to make healthcare more accessible and affordable by training area hospitals to use new technology, like ultrasound devices, to detect non-communicable diseases. Through their newly established non-communicable disease clinic staffed with personnel trained to provide more precise medical care, about 1,100 patients have been cared for.

To increase awareness of cervical cancer and the cancer-preventing HPV vaccine, Al-Ansar radio shares information about the disease, the vaccine and works to dispel speculation and misinformation about vaccines in general to those in underserved and hard-to-reach areas, as they’re often hardest to get vaccinated.