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Activists push for more diverse hospital board for Salinas

In Salinas, a group of activists say the local hospital board doesn't represent the people it serves, and they're pushing for change.

Banned Pesticide Use Remains High in CA Strawberry Fields

In some of California’s top strawberry-growing counties, levels of banned methyl bromide — a chemical known to cause reproductive harm — remain nearly as high as they were a decade ago, despite a mandated phaseout in 2005. Concentration remains nearly as high as in 1999, resulting in treacherous working conditions on farms and danger to residents in surrounding areas.

California's Physician Shortage Likely to Get Worse

Health care reform law will increase demand, but low salaries are discouraging young doctors from entering primary care.

Cancer Costs Put Treatments Out of Reach for Many

The skyrocketing cost of new cancer treatments is putting advances in fighting the deadly disease out of reach for a growing number of Americans.

Speech Disabled Can Now Use iPad to Communicate

A San Francisco-based entrepreneur conceptualized the idea behind Verbally - an application that allows people suffering from speech disabilities to use their iPads to communicate - while watching his aunt Nirmala Godhwani struggle to speak after she was diagnosed with ALS.

With help from Planned Parenthood, pregnant field workers try to protect themselves from pesticides

At a Planned Parenthood clinic near Salinas, farm workers who plan to have children in the near future are learning to protect themselves against pesticide exposure on the job. "This is dangerous work," said Jessica Dieseldorff, a nurse practitioner who's heading up the pilot education program.

HIV/AIDS Shows Alarming Rise Among Asian American Women

The increase in HIV infections has risen alarmingly among Asian American women, and will soon surpass the rate of infections in high-risk populations unless intervening measures are taken, noted a panel of experts in San Francisco on May 17.

Fish farming makes a splash in Chicago

Startup companies bet locally sourced fish, produced in self-sustaining habitats, can win over city-dwellers

Two Healing Traditions Meet on the Plains

The National Library of Medicine plans an exhibit of Native American healing practices this fall. In preparation, its physician-director met and questioned nine renowned Indian medicine men in Bismark, ND, a rare encounter.

Proposed bill aims to keep doctors in Central Valley

To encourage more doctors to work in underserved areas, state Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno, proposed a bill for the Steven M. Thompson Medical School Scholarship Program to help students pay for medical school. The bill, Assembly Bill 589, has a condition: The students contractually commit to work their first three years after residency in an underserved area.