The number of babies born with drug withdrawal symptoms from opioids grew substantially faster in rural communities than in cities, a new study suggests.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, highlights a dramatic and disproportional rise in opioid-related complications among rural pregnant women and their infants.

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Many breast cancer patients who have a mastectomy will consider breast reconstruction. But for a portion of these women, radiation therapy is also recommended ---- and that can alter the tissue around the breast, impacting reconstruction efforts.

A new U-M study finds that women who have implant reconstruction following radiation therapy had more complications from the surgery and were less satisfied with the result than women who had implants but no radiation.

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Parents' to-do lists before traveling with toddlers this holiday season may include packing an emergency stock of snacks, activities and wardrobe changes. But what some may not plan for ahead of vacation: accidental poisoning risks, gun safety and Uber rides.

A new report from the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll suggests that some parents may overlook safety risks to kids during travel, including car-seat use during taxi rides or rideshares and preventing easy access to medications, cleaning supplies and even weapons at a place they're staying.

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This week, President Obama is expected to sign into law the national defense budget for fiscal year 2017, and set in motion an effort to give active-duty and retired military personnel and dependents access to a health insurance concept developed at U-M by Mark Fendrick, M.D., professor of internal medicine.

Called Value-Based Insurance Design, or V-BID, the approach departs from the traditional "one size fits all" approach to health insurance out-of-pocket costs. V-BID lowers cost-sharing to encourage the use of high-value services and providers. Under the provision in the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act, the TRICARE health insurance program will test V-BID in a pilot program.

Meanwhile, on December 6, 2016 the bipartisan Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2016 was introduced in the Senate. The legislation includes an expansion of the CMS Medicare Advantage V-BID demonstration to all states by January 1, 2019, and requires the Secretary to allocate funds to design, implement, and evaluate the expansion of the model.

According to an annual data report from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS), hospitalization and mortality rates for patients with chronic kidney disease continue to decline in the U.S.