MaineHealth Institute for Research Community

 Nature March’s best science images The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by  Nature’s  photo team. By Emma Stoye see more amazing photos here Creepy-crawly courtship .  This shot of a pair of courting crab spiders, taken by nature photographer Sandip Guha in Shiliguri, India, highlights the difference in size between the male and his much larger mate (in some crab-spider species, the female is more than 60 times as big). The photo was a winner at this year’s  London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year  competition. Sandip Guha Alien vibes . This eerie but vibrant snap shows a flower mantis ( Creobroter sp. ) perched on top of the strange fruiting body of a  Cordyceps  fungus. In daylight, this insect is usually green, but wildlife photographer Irina Petrova Adamatzky used strategically placed coloured lights to accentuate its otherworldly appearance and that of the fungus. The shot won a bronze award in the 2025  World Nature Pho...

A great way to get statistics about health in Maine and across the country Explore a new national map of health March 17, 2025 Clean air and water, access to good paying jobs and the chance to have a say in your community. These are all  community conditions that influence your health . At County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R), we provide a snapshot of health-related measures for nearly every county in the U.S. And we know that what influences health isn’t neatly contained within a county or state border. We now have updated methods and a new national map, which offer a broad view of regional and national trends and invite actions to improve health for all. In 2024, we revised our methods and introduced Health Groups, which provide data-informed groupings on a national continuum. Each county (where data are available) is assigned to one of ten Health Groups with a corresponding color shade. Building upon our previous ranking approach that supported comparisons between ...

 Nature News  ‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts. By   Max Kozlov On  health economist Jay Bhattacharya ’s first day as head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the chiefs of four of the 27 institutes and centres that make up his agency — including the country’s top infectious-diseases official — were removed from their posts. The unprecedented move comes amid  massive cuts to research at the NIH . The directors of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) were informed late on 31 March that they were being placed on administrative leave. Together, these leaders were in charge of US$9 billion in fund...

  Government Affairs Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates April 1, 2025 MaineHealth Government Affairs’ Regulatory Changes & Guidance Updates is an internal newsletter that is distributed weekly and includes state and federal proposed and final rules, policy changes, and other pertinent announcements from the state and federal governments. Please note that any formal submissions to the state or federal government on behalf of MaineHealth are coordinated by the Government Affairs Team. State & Federal Rulemaking Federal: None this week. State: None this week.  To comment on proposed rules, please contact   Sara.KahnTroster@mainehealth.org. State Programs & Announcements OMS  issued  an update on the status of the temporary MaineCare payment holds. OMS  published  the recording and presentation from the March 31 kickoff meeting for the rate review process for Interpreter Services. OMS  will be h...

 MaineHealth news Drive Fore Kids Benefiting BBCH - Volunteers Needed MaineHealth is proud to support the 3 rd  annual  Drive Fore Kids  celebrity golf tournament at Falmouth Country Club, June 19-22, 2025, benefiting MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. MaineHealth has committed to providing volunteer support to help continue the success of this event. While the event is based in the Greater Portland area, volunteering is a unique opportunity for care team members across the health system. Last year’s event featured more than two dozen celebrity golfers, including Roger Clemens, Patrick Dempsey, Marshall Faulk, Noelle Lambert and Kevin Millar. A similarly packed field of celebrities is expected again this year! Volunteers are an essential part of a successful tournament, and several volunteer shifts and days are available. From hospitality to on-course services, volunteers make the experience memorable, enjoyable and most importantly, impactful. Golf knowle...

The Impact Project provides objective, transparent, and open-source data to help explain how federal policies, funding, and workforce changes affect our communities. Our first tool, the Impact Map , shows the local impact of federal decisions. Given the limited availability of reliable data, the Impact Map will evolve as new data becomes available. Map data are sourced from local and national news reports and crowdsourced testimonials from individuals directly affected. Story locations are approximate, and in many cases, represent the geographic center of the city or county where the impact occurred, which may include an office location or place where work was being done. The Impact Map provides timely data —as it becomes available—on policy, funding, and workforce changes and their localized effect. This tool is currently in beta and will continue evolving,so you may find areas that need updating. We are actively seeking peer reviewers to further improve the Map. Please reach out via ...