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Published On January 15, 2013
CLINICAL RESEARCH
Born This Way
The popularity of C-sections is on the rise.
0
Number of cesarean (or “C”) sections likely undergone by Julius Caesar’s mother, who survived his birth to see his triumphs at a time when the procedure was performed only on the dead or dying (the word may actually come from the Latin caedere, “to cut”)
15
“Optimal” maximum C-section percentage rate set by the World Health Organization in 1985; the WHO has since modified the recommendation, stating in 2009 that “the optimum rate is unknown” but that “both very low and very high rates of cesarean section can be dangerous”
32.8
Percentage of U.S. births by C-section in 2010; common medical reasons include breech positioning, previous C-section, stalled labor and the placenta blocking the cervix
60
Percentage increase in U.S. C-section deliveries from 1996 to 2009
46
Percentage of births that occur by C-section in China, one-quarter of which have no medical basis
20
Percentage of C-sections necessitated by failed attempts to induce labor in first-time mothers, according to one study
$13,400
Average amount charged by Massachusetts hospitals for a C-section, compared with $9,700 for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery
$50 million
Estimated amount saved annually in Utah after the Intermountain Healthcare hospital system banned labor inductions that had no medical reason; the savings were attributed to a drop in resulting C-section rates
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Could This One Change Help Curb the Opioid Crisis? To prescribe an effective bridge to addiction treatment, emergency physicians must get special training and receive a waiver. Making that process easier—or eliminating the requirement altogether—could make a big impact.

One Thing Leads to the Next Robert Lefkowitz is best known for revealing the mechanism behind hundreds of drugs in use today. But he thinks of himself as a storyteller first and has a new book out to make his case.

Podcast: The Research Year That Was Medical research labs have faced a difficult stretch of closed buildings and competing priorities. Yet they have also produced milestone discoveries—and not only on COVID-19.

The Shape of Us Two milestone discoveries in protein modeling promise to change the fundamentals of drug discovery.

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