Improving child and adolescent health and well-being in Europe: the imperative for a new regional strategy.

Despite significant progress during the Millennium Development Goals era, recent trends show stagnation or regression in key health indicators for children and adolescents in Europe. Obesity rates are rising, adolescent mental health is deteriorating, the digital environment poses risks, breastfeeding rates are low, many children face developmental risks, and displaced children encounter significant health challenges. To address these issues, we need a comprehensive strategy for children and adolescents in Europe, leading to increased investment, protection from commercial harm, effective governance, and accountability to improve health outcomes.

Developing and piloting a set of quality-of-care indicators for Romanian public hospitals as part of a national programme to fund quality.

Background: Healthcare systems aim to enhance the health status and well-being of the individuals and populations they serve. To achieve this, measuring and evaluating the quality and safety of services provided and the outcomes achieved is essential. Like other countries, Romania faces challenges regarding the quality of care provided in its public hospitals.

Transcriptional, developmental, and functional parallels of lymphatic and venous smooth muscle.

Lymphatic muscle cells (LMCs) are indispensable for lymphatic vessel contraction and their aberrant recruitment or absence is associated with both primary and secondary lymphedema. Despite their critical role in lymphatic vessel function, the transcriptomic and developmental basis that confer the unique contractile properties to LMCs are largely undefined. In this study, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), lineage tracing and imaging to investigate the basis for the hybrid cardiomyocyte and blood vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) characteristics that have been described for LMCs.