内容摘要：Ndeye Lam sends a prayer at the foot of her daughter Mariama’s grave in Dakar, Senegal, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

Ndeye Lam sends a prayer at the foot of her daughter Mariama’s grave in Dakar, Senegal, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

And more employers are offering navigation or advocacy help for people on their insurance plans, according to the benefits consultant Mercer.But these services still aren’t widespread. Alzheimer’s disease patients and their caregivers lack consistent access to such help, said Sam Fazio, a senior director with the non-profit Alzheimer’s Association.

“People are having trouble finding their way,” he said.Making the system better for patients requires big change, said Dr. Victor Montori, a Mayo Clinic researcher who studies care delivery.He said the system must focus more on minimally disruptive medicine, which makes care fit into patient lives. That means things like cutting unnecessary paperwork and surveys, making appointments more flexible and giving patients more time with doctors.

He noted that the burden that falls on patients is not just the time and effort they spend navigating the system. It’s also what they give up to do that.“If you waste people’s time on silly things, you are being unkind to (their) main purpose, which is to live,” he said. “We have to stop thinking of the patient as a part time employee of the healthcare system that we don’t get to pay.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) — People who volunteer to donate a kidney face an even lower risk of death from the operation than doctors have long thought, researchers reported Wednesday.under a bill that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday he would sign soon. The Ohio and South Carolina legislatures are considering similar measures.

Supporters of states’ efforts to ban fluoride said they did not dispute that it could have some benefits but thought people should not be given it by the government without their informed consent.AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on Utah’s ban on fluoride in public drinking water.

“It really shouldn’t be forced on people,” DeSantis said.U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has applauded Utah for being the first state to enact a ban and said he plans to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to