This year, STAT published a cornucopia of stories on health and medicine, bringing our signature analysis, insight, and investigative skills to readers. Here’s a sampling of some of the important coverage you may have missed:
What the killing of a health insurance executive revealed
As a rule, we don’t cover criminal justice. But the targeted killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, unleashed a concerted backlash, as we’ve tried to explain. Our long-running coverage of the nation’s largest health insurer might shed some light on the subject: Last year, STAT’s Bob Herman and Casey Ross investigated UnitedHealth Group’s use of an unregulated algorithm to deny claims. This year, STAT published a multi-part series (reported by Herman, Ross, Tara Bannow, and Lizzy Lawrence) on how UnitedHealth became Health Care’s Colossus, squeezing profits out of patients, pressuring physicians, and pursuing questionable diagnoses.
Speaking of multi-part series and investigations…
In addition to our extensive reporting on UnitedHealth, this year we delivered a number of other compelling special reports to readers. “Embedded Bias,” by Katie Palmer and Usha Lee McFarling, explored the struggle to remove racial algorithms from clinical care. In “Coercive Care,” Eric Boodman detailed how physicians have steered sickle cell patients toward sterilization. In “The War on Recovery,” Lev Facher wrote about how people with opioid addiction have been denied the lifesaving medicines buprenorphine and methadone. And a special report from a team led by Katherine Eban revealed that brain biopsies being performed on vulnerable patients at Mount Sinai had set off alarm bells at the FDA.
Will Donald Trump and RFK Jr. Make America Healthy Again?
STAT has reported on how legal protections for vaccine makers and vaccine approvals might change under the new administration. We’ve explored why pharma isn’t lobbying against RFK Jr. to be HHS secretary, and his “tough love” approach to addiction treatment. We also wrote about the views of Trump’s picks to run the FDA, CMS, the NIH, the CDC and, of course, HHS. And a month ahead of the election, STAT readers learned about the MAHA movement, whose twists and turns reporter Isabella Cueto and others have been covering ever since.
Should we be worried about H5N1 bird flu?
Just as it spearheaded early coverage of a mysterious virus emerging from China five years ago, STAT has been on the case writing about H5N1 bird flu from early reports of it appearing in U.S. cattle. (STAT’s Helen Branswell has kept us apprised of measles, mpox, Marburg, and Oropouche developments as well.) Readers learned why it might be difficult to know whether it’s time to freak out about bird flu, and why human cases have been relatively mild to date. Meanwhile, we took you to an Iowa state fair, while we also went undercover to buy raw milk.
CRISPR therapies keep advancing…
STAT’s Megan Molteni introduced readers to a fetal surgeon who’s forging CRISPR’s next frontier by editing genes in the womb, the race to build better CRISPR delivery vehicles, and the prospect for transplants of CRISPR-edited pig livers. She also caught up with “CRISPR baby” researcher He Jiankui, who’s getting support from a cryptocurrency entrepreneur.
…and GLP-1s keep proving their worth
First, in 2023, STAT brought you “The Obesity Revolution.” This year we kept reporting on GLP-1s and how their use might improve cardiovascular health. Then how they might impact Alzheimer’s, liver ailments, sleep apnea and arthritis. Soon, perhaps: Parkinson’s and addiction. Growing demand for GLP-1s this year led telehealth prescribers to jump on the bandwagon, while compounders tried to address shortages and lower prices with copycat drugs — resulting in a regulatory brouhaha. And while we kept our “Obesity Drug Tracker” up to date, we also tracked certain human costs of the focus on weight, including with our special report “Black voices, Black bodies: Life in the age of Ozempic.”
Food, food, food — and alcohol
“Food is medicine” has become a mantra. STAT profiled a researcher at the National Institutes of Health studying the dangers of ultra-processed foods, and explored why some food experts think it’s too soon to move to restrict them. Meanwhile, some are also recommending a greater emphasis on plant-based diets. When it comes to beverages, we learned more about the risks of alcohol consumption, even in small amounts.
Everything you always wanted to know about drug patents (but were afraid to ask)
No question, the topic is complex. Why can’t generics gain market share? How do drug companies keep boosting drug prices on top-selling drugs and where are the regulators? What are patent thickets anyway? What is the Hatch-Waxman Act, and why does it matter? In a series of stories by Ed Silverman and videos by Anna Yeo, STAT laid it all out.
AI is…everywhere
This year it seems that AI was the keyword. We wrote about AI in protein design, AI in radiology, AI scribes, AI in clinical trials, AI regulators, and Nobel-winning AI. We reported that AI is now being used to fight health insurers’ AI-generated claim denials. We profiled companies like Recursion that are using AI to speed drug development. And we told you how Trump’s approach to AI in health care could be different from President Biden’s.
What’s happening in the lab
Advances in the life sciences this year yielded a roundup on researchers trying to come up with cancer vaccines, a story on efforts to refine a placenta-on-a-chip, and a piece on mounting evidence of a viral cause for dementia. STAT’s Megan Molteni took a deep and nuanced look at the collaboration between Nobel-prize winning microRNA researcher Victor Ambros and his wife and lab manager Rosalind Lee. And STAT continues to follow the work of the leading scientific watchdogs challenging scientific papers, and even travelled to Wales to interview one of the sleuths.
Achieving health equity remains a huge challenge
In 2024, STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling wrote about how rank and race affect military medicine, about the only tribal medical school in the country trying to boost the number of Indigenous doctors, and profiled University of Minnesota professor Rachel Hardeman, who’s studied structural racism in health care delivery and policy. And she reported from Portugal, which spends 20% of what the U.S. does on health care per person, yet has a life expectancy four years longer. STAT’s new disability reporter Timmy Broderick wrote about how new gene therapies are prompting deaf people to question whether they want “a cure,” while exploring the impact of deadly heat on people with disabilities, as well as computer-brain interfaces for people with ALS, a new procedure for below-the-knee amputation, and a robotic aid for children with cerebral palsy.
And in closing…
One of STAT’s core coverage areas is biotech and pharma, and some of our best work last year chronicled the ups and downs of these companies, including: Sarepta, 23andMe, Eli Lilly, Amylyx, Nvidia, Cassava, and Vertex. We reported on the little-known Chinese company whose drug beat Keytruda in lung cancer, and told readers about the U.S. biotech outsider who’s scored a win with that drug. We made sure to tell the stories of patients, families, patient advocates, and even researchers working on their own behalf, as startups and established pharma companies alike try to bring new cures to market. And if you wanted to know what’s happening in Washington that could affect pharma companies, you could have followed our reports on lawmakers looking at reining in pharmacy benefit managers, pushing the BIOSECURE Act, dealing with drug shortages, and more.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tune in for more great coverage in 2025!