Martha Bebinger is a correspondent for WBUR. She covers health care and other general assignments for the outlet.
Recently published
Mass General Brigham builds AI tool to warn patients about the dangers of extreme heat
Mass General Brigham is partnering with IBM on an artificial intelligence tool to send bespoke heat alerts to the patients most at risk.
Kate Walsh reflects on her time as Mass. health secretary
Monday was Kate Walsh’s first day in semi-retirement. As Massachusetts secretary of health and human services, she oversaw a tumultuous period of hospital sales and closures, increasing public skepticism about...
Leadership change for state's health and human services amid major federal challenges
Massachusetts Health and Human Service Secretary Kate Walsh is retiring after two and a half years in the role. Gov. Maura Healey has appointed Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, the current undersecretary...
Do you know what’s in your pill? In Mass. there’s a way to find out
In 2019, Traci Green started the first statewide community drug-checking program in the U.S. So far this year, her team has tested more than a thousand samples from 20 communities...
Judge orders NIH to restore research funds terminated using political, not scientific criteria
A federal judge in Boston ordered the National Institutes of Health to restore billions of federal research dollars terminated in recent months by the Trump administration. Judge William Young said...
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Healey administration calls proposed food stamp changes ‘reckless and dangerous’
President Trump's signature bill, before the Senate this week, would shift about one-quarter of the cost of SNAP benefits in Massachusetts from the feds to the state. That means state...
Emily started puberty blockers during a raging state and national debate
Emily's family is preparing to move to Massachusetts, or Thailand, if New Hampshire lawmakers make it a felony to provide the puberty suppression drug the 8-year-old takes.
Feds yank funds from Harvard breast cancer, fertility, antibiotics research
The Trump administration is following through on threats to terminate $2.7 billion dollars in federal grants and other funding at Harvard University, punishment for alleged antisemitism on campus. One professor...
In Mass., volunteers pack thousands of abortion pills destined for states with bans
Huddled around a small conference table in Greater Boston, volunteers form an ad hoc assembly line to slip hundreds of pills into padded envelopes. It's not an illegal drug operation,...