New Course: Michigan: Human Trafficking (383)

July 17, 2026 Human trafficking (human slavery) is seen in the United States and across the world. Healthcare professionals may be the only ones available to victims that can help them escape their captors and move from victimhood to survivor. This training course covers the legal basics (trafficking involves force, fraud, or coercion for labor or sex, and doesn't require border crossing, unlike smuggling), and explains that traffickers are usually people victims already know, exploiting vulnerabilities like poverty, homelessness, addiction, or prior trauma through tactics like romantic grooming, fake job offers, and debt bondage.

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Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias for Assisted Living Facilities (ALF), 3 units (372)

June 29, 2026 This Florida Department of Elder Affairs approved course is for healthcare workers and providers working in an assisted living facility. The course will increase your awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. It discusses symptoms and behaviors that can occur in a person living with dementia and strategies for managing these potentially challenging behaviors. It outlines best practices for assisting someone with activities of daily living and provides suggestions for individual and group activities.

It describes how stress can affect a caregiver’s life, strategies for managing stress, and recognizing issues and concerns for caregivers. The course concludes with a description and a therapeutic environment, safety and security, and ethical issues faced by caregivers, healthcare workers, and providers working with residents living with dementia.

FL DOEA Approval Number: ALF11394

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New Course: FL Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias for Home Health, 2 units (376)

June 14, 2026 This course provides home health staff with the skills, techniques, and strategies to care on a daily basis for clients with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. It compares Alzheimer’s disease to other types of dementia, provides techniques for verbal and nonverbal communication, discusses symptoms seen at each stage of dementia, relates techniques intended to promote independence in activities of daily living (ADLs), and provides information about how to work with family members and caregivers of people with dementia.

It describes best practices for assisting someone with activities of daily living, discusses individual and group activities, and describes how stress can affect a caregiver’s life. It offers strategies for recognizing and managing caregiver stress. It concludes with a description of a therapeutic environment, safety and security, and ethical issues faced by caregivers and providers working with clients living with dementia.

FL DOEA Approval: This course is approved by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, curriculum approval: #HH11485.

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New Course: FL Alzheimer's Diseases and Related Dementias for Adult Day Care, 3 units

May 25, 2026 Provides information about adult day care service centers that provide care for older adults living with cognitive changes, Alzheimer's disease, and other types of dementia. It discusses symptoms and behaviors that can arise in a person living with dementia and strategies for managing these behaviors.

 A man enjoying an activity at and adult day care center. CDC.

It describes best practices for assisting someone with activities of daily living, discusses individual and group activities, and describes how stress can affect a caregiver’s life. It offers strategies for recognizing and managing caregiver stress. It concludes with a description of a therapeutic environment, safety and security, and ethical issues faced by caregivers and providers working with clients living with dementia.

View the course here: https://www.atrainceu.com/content/370-florida-adrd-adult-day-care-3-units.

New Course: FL Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias for Hospice, 3 units

May 18, 2026 Designed to provide caregivers and healthcare providers with information about older adults living with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia who are enrolled in hospice. It discusses symptoms and behaviors that can arise in a person living with dementia and strategies for managing these behaviors. It outlines strategies for assisting someone with activities of daily living and describes best practices for individual and group activities.

The course describes how stress can affect a caregiver’s life, strategies for managing stress, and how healthcare providers can recognize caregiver issues and concerns. It concludes with a description and a therapeutic environment, safety and security, and ethical issues faced by caregivers and providers working with clients living with dementia.

View the course here: https://www.atrainceu.com/content/373-florida-adrd-hospice-3-units.

New Course: Florida Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias for Nursing Homes

May 15, 2026 Designed to increase your awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. It discusses symptoms and behaviors that can occur in a person living with dementia and strategies for managing these challenging behaviors. It outlines best practices when assisting someone with activities of daily living and describes best practices for individual and group activities.

Learn how stress can affect a caregiver’s life, strategies for managing stress, and recognizing issues and concerns for caregivers. The course concludes with a description of a therapeutic environment, safety and security, and ethical issues faced by caregivers and providers working with residents living with dementia. 

View the course here: Florida: Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias for Nursing Homes, 3 units (374)

Drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee may reduce stress-related conditions, study suggests

March 26, 2026 Now, a large observational study suggests that drinking coffee in moderation, roughly 2 to 3 cups per day, may be associated with a lower risk of developing anxiety and depression.

Read more in this article by Peter Morales-Brown in Medical News Today.

Could the gut be driving age-related memory loss?

March 13, 2026 A new animal study, published in Nature, concludes that memory problems associated with age may be driven by our gut and the bacteria that live within it.

Read more in this article by Tim Newman in Medical News Today.

Rule Change: What’s at Stake for Indigenous Public Health?

February 27, 2027 Across the country, proposed federal policy changes, which would exclude public health degrees (MPH and DrPH) and nursing from a new definition of professional degree programs, could have far-reaching effects on public health education and the future workforce serving Tribal and rural communities.  As the proposed changes remain open for public comment until March 2, 2026, we invited our Co-Director, Dr. Donald Warne, to share his perspective.

Read more in this post from the Center for Indigenous Health.

Free Course: Measles, Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy

February 25, 2026 Discusses measles history, measles causes, types of measles, clinical symptoms of measles, treatment and prevention strategies re measles, and addresses positions of anti-vaccination advocates. It begins with a look at the availability of the MMR Vaccine and its vaccine resistance by some members of the public. Emphasis is on addressing the measles epidemic and wiping out measles altogether.

 Source: NIH

Select this course by Sarah Reith.

Anxiety, Depression, and Care Barriers in Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

February 20, 2026 In this cross-sectional study, U.S. adults with IDDs experienced substantially higher rates of mental health conditions, treatment use, and cost-related barriers compared with those without functional impairments. These findings highlight critical gaps for accessible, affordable, and disability-informed mental health services and policy reforms to address systemic inequities.

Read more in this original investigation by Anthony Osuna et al in JAMA Network Open.

Cognitive speed training over weeks may delay the diagnosis of dementia over decades

February 10, 2026 An NIH-funded study that followed adults age 65 and older over 20 years has linked a specific cognitive training regimen to reduced diagnoses of Alzheimer disease and related dementias. While the authors assessed three different kinds of training, only one, which challenged participants with rapid object detection tasks, was associated with a 25% lower rate of dementia diagnosis, as indicated by Medicare claims data.

Read more in this news release from NIH.

Trump to withhold Gavi funding until all vaccines with mercury removed

February 2, 2026 The US government will withhold funding to Gavi*, the global vaccine alliance, until it stops using vaccines containing thiomersal (known as thimerosal in the US), a preservative containing mercury, officials have said.

*Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against some of the world's deadliest diseases. Learn more here.

Read more in this article by Marty Logan in BMJ News.

Flavanols in cocoa, berries may improve blood flow in sedentary people

December 26, 2025 A new study has found that foods high in flavanols — antioxidants found in plant foods, such as cocoa, tea, and some fruits and vegetables — may improve vascular function during sitting or being sedentary.

Read more in this article by Katharine Lang in Medical News Today.

US flu activity takes big jump as 2 deaths in kids confirmed

December 19, 2025 Influenza activity in the United States has spiked across the country, with 17 jurisdictions (14 states and Puerto Rico; Washington, DC; and New York City) reporting high or very high influenza-like illness and other key indicators rising markedly, signaling the start of the flu season in earnest, the CDC said today in its weekly FluView update.

Source: Zygote Media Group. Used with Permission.

Read more in this article by Jim Wappes in CIDRAP. 

Pregnant women vaccinated against COVID-19 less likely to be hospitalized or deliver prematurely, new data show

December 15, 2025 Pregnant women who develop COVID-19 after being vaccinated are much less likely to be hospitalized, need intensive care, or deliver early compared with women who aren’t vaccinated, a study today shows.

Read more in this article by Liz Szabo in CIDRAP.

South Carolina measles outbreak grows; new case identified in Colorado

December 8, 2025 Health officials in South Carolina late last week reported eight new measles cases and exposures at four new schools. Also on December 5, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed a measles case in a resident of Montezuma County.

Source: CDC

Read more in this article by Chris Dall in CIDRAP. 

Only 3,000 steps a day may help lower Alzheimer’s disease risk

November 5, 2025 Past studies have shown that certain healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating a balanced diet, managing stress, getting sufficient sleep, and engaging in regular physical activity, may help reduce a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia. A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, has found that older adults may be able to lower their risk of Alzheimer’s disease by taking as few as 3,000 steps a day.

 Source: NIH

Read more in this article by Corrie Pelc in Medical News Today.

Weight loss drugs improve heart health regardless of amount of weight lost.

October 27, 2025 Researchers found that the reduction in major adverse cardiac event risk found during their 2023 study was similar regardless of how much a study participant’s weight was at the start of the trial and how much weight they lost over the first 4.5 months of taking semaglutide.

Read more in this article by Corrie Pelc in Medical News Today.

Study finds menopause causes brain changes that may affect memory, mood

October 25, 2025 While we know that menopause is related to some structural brain changes, we don’t have a clear understanding of whether these structural changes cause functional changes or cognitive decline.

Read more in this article by Erica Watts in Medical News Today.

Vaccine Integrity Project

October 21, 2025 CIDRAP's Vaccine Integrity Project is an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the U.S. so that it remains grounded in the best available science, free from external influence, and focused on optimizing protection of individuals, families, and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases. 

Read more at the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP). 

COVID mRNA vaccines may be able to train immune system to attack cancer cells, boost survival

October 20, 2025 COVID-19 mRNA vaccination significantly improves survival in patients with advanced lung or melanoma skin cancer who had started taking immunotherapy drugs within the past 100 days, suggests data presented yesterday at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin.

 Source: CDC

Read more in this article by Mary Van Beusekom at the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.

Viewpoint: We owe parents real data before we mess with kids' vaccination schedule

October 15, 2025 There are no data suggesting the current schedule is unsafe or ineffective. Instead, concerns are being raised based on subjective impressions that children receive “too many shots” too early, rather than basing recommendations on facts or clinical outcomes.

Read more in this article by the Vaccine Integrity Project Staff and Advisers at Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP).

Mediterranean diet may slow cognitive decline in those at high genetic risk

August 29, 2025 A new study recently published in the journal Nature Medicine reports that following a Mediterranean diet may help lower a person’s risk of developing dementia and decelerate cognitive decline.

Read more in this article by Corrie Pelc in Medical News Today.

Phantom limb study rewires our understanding of the brain

August 21, 2025 In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers found that the brain’s control center for a lost appendage can persist long after surgical amputation, which stands in stark contrast to longstanding theories about the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, also known as plasticity. Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues examined human brain activity before and after arm amputation and found that the loss of a limb does not prompt a large-scale cerebral overhaul. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, this study offers new insight into the mysterious phantom limb syndrome and could help guide the development of neuroprosthetics and pain treatments for people with limb loss.

Read more in this News Release from NIH.

Understanding depression in older adults

August 5, 2025 In older adults, in particular, depression can manifest differently than it might in younger people. For example, older adults living with depression might experience fewer classic depressive mood symptoms, instead experiencing more physical, cognitive, or psychotic symptoms.

Read more in this article by Oladimeji Ewumi in Medical News Today.

Can Ozempic help lower your risk of dementia?

July 29, 2025 A new study reports that semaglutide — the active ingredient in GLP-1 medications Ozempic and Wegovy for type 2 diabetes and weight loss — may help lower dementia risk in people with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers say semaglutide targets several dementia risk factors and is anti-inflammatory, which could explain this benefit to brain health.

Read more in this article by Corrie Pelc in Medical News Today.

Can PTSD cause memory loss?

July 21, 2025 Memory loss that occurs due to traumatic events is known as dissociative amnesia. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th revised edition (DSM-5-TR), dissociative amnesia appears in a category of conditions known as dissociative disorders.

A person with dissociative amnesia may forget part or all of a distressing event. Memories may be fragmented, patchy, or missing key details. Alternatively, they may be missing entirely. A person may not remember a specific time period, person, or place.

Read more in this article by Ann Murnan in Medical News Today.

Use of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at National, Regional, and State Levels

July 11 , 2025 The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched nationally in July 2022. Little prior work has quantified use of 988, especially at subnational levels. In this study, we calculated lifetime and past-year incidence rates of 988 contacts and estimated prevalence of 988 use at national, regional, and state-levels.

Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss in Adults

Alzheimer’s disease may damage the brain in two phases

May 29, 2025 Alzheimer’s disease may damage the brain in two distinct phases, based on new research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) using sophisticated brain mapping tools. According to researchers who discovered this new view, the first, early phase happens slowly and silently — before people experience memory problems — harming just a few vulnerable cell types. In contrast, the second, late phase causes damage that is more widely destructive and coincides with the appearance of symptoms and the rapid accumulation of plaques, tangles, and other Alzheimer’s hallmarks.

Read more in this news release from NIH.

NIH researchers discover potential therapeutic target for degenerative eye disease

Study reveals cellular pathology of “dry” AMD.

May 26, 2025 Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered the source of dysfunction in the process whereby cells in the eye's retina remove waste.

Courtesy of NIH

A report by scientists at NIH and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, details how alterations in a factor called AKT2 affects the function of organelles called lysosomes and results in the production of deposits in the retina called drusen, a hallmark sign of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). According to the researchers, the findings suggest drusen formation is a downstream effect of AKT2-related lysosome dysfunction and points to a new target for therapeutic intervention.

Read more in this news release from NIH.