Answer ALS today announced the full release of its comprehensive ALS clinical and multi-omics dataset, marking the culmination of a multi-year research program and a groundbreaking collaboration with the ALS Therapy Development Institute. For the first time, the complete data from over 1,100 individuals who participated in the Answer ALS study, along with ALS TDI’s ALS Research Collaborative study data, are available in a unified, cloud-based platform. This milestone builds upon the already unprecedented resource to scientists worldwide, integrating two of the largest ALS datasets into the Neuromine Data Portal. Researchers can now interrogate over 150 terabytes of harmonized data spanning more than 2,500 ALS patient profiles to accelerate the quest for new therapies and insights into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A new report proposes a range of initiatives to substantially reduce the harm caused by firearm violence in the United States over the next 15 years. The report, to be published Nov. 3 in the journal JAMA, proposes a range of initiatives. These include using artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies to detect concealed weapons, and expanding programs that address poverty, social distrust and other factors behind violence in American communities. Since 2000, more than 800,000 Americans have been killed and more than 2 million injured by firearms. The report summarizes discussions of 60 experts in public health, criminology, sociology, social work, public policy and other fields. “We really tried to step back and think about what innovations are needed to address the firearm problem in a new way — realizing we live in a country with a Second Amendment and somewhere around 400 million firearms in private hands,” said Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He chaired the summit. 

Since 2019, overall rates of nicotine vaping have declined among U.S. youth, but those who continue to vape are showing signs of worsening addiction, according to new USC research. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of current users who vaped every day increased from 15.4% to 28.8%. Over the same period, the share of daily users who tried to quit but were unable to rose from 28.2% to 53%. The researchers analyzed the past five years of data from Monitoring the Future, an annual in-school survey that asks 8^th, 10^th and 12^th graders across the country about their substance use.  Over the study period, the demographics of youth vapers also changed. By 2024, more vapers were female, non-Hispanic Black or from a rural area. More youth vapers also reported using other substances, including alcohol and cannabis. Among youth in rural communities, daily vaping jumped dramatically—from 16.4% in 2020 to 41.8% in 2024, a spike that has prompted the study team to examine further. Masonbrink is now planning a follow-up study with youth in urban, suburban and rural areas to explore their experiences with nicotine product marketing and product access, as well as prevention and public health messaging.

The findings of this study suggest that the U.S. youth nicotine vaping population recently became increasingly represented by daily use and unsuccessful quit attempts, a trend of which clinicians and policy makers should be aware. 

Provincial governments that partner with for-profit virtual health care companies need to be cautious to protect public trust in the health care system, according to an analysis article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250639.