Sarah Boden

The Federal Railroad Administration says “serious oversights” led to last year’s train derailment near Station Square.

A report released on Thursday by the agency finds that a broken rail track led to the derailment, on Aug. 5, 2018.

The rate of fatalities caused by the opioid epidemic has begun to wane, according to both national and local data.

Parents of students who attended the recently closed Saint Raphael Elementary want to know what happened to $250,000 they raised in an effort to keep the school open. They’re also demanding increased transparency from the parish and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

People were given free naloxone, the medication that can revive someone from an opioid overdose, at an event at the City County building in downtown Pittsburgh, Tuesday afternoon. 

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala will not charge a Penn Hills police officer in the July 14 shooting death of 20-year-old Onaje Dickinson.

Some hormone replacement therapies for menopausal women might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, which was published the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Women are often prescribed estrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, osteoporosis and vaginal dryness. Compared to oral hormone medication, the transdermal estradiol patch is seen as safer, since it’s worn on the skin.

An audit of Pennsylvania nursing homes warns that staffing levels at these facilities are insufficient and on track to get worse.

An asthma registry for children secured $300,000 in funding from the Allegheny County Board of Health on Wednesday. The registry could illuminate why certain areas of the county have higher rates of the chronic respiratory condition. 

Approximately one in eight sexually active high school girls have experienced reproductive coercion in the last three months, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh.

Seniors today are happier than previous generations, according to new findings from the University of Pittsburgh.

Authorities say an off-duty police officer was critically wounded in a shooting in Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh has received a $5.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research opioid use in Appalachia.

UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh said on Tuesday afternoon that it was likely a visitor introduced the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria to its facility, where it spread to six babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said on Monday that it’s possible to have both clean air and steel production in the Mon Valley.

Fetterman made his comments while flanked by union workers outside the U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.

Western Pennsylvanians breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week when it was announced that UPMC and Highmark had reached a 10-year agreement, though not everyone insured by Highmark will have access to all UPMC medical facilities.

Usually a monopoly results in bigger bills for consumers, since a lack of competition allows a business to demand high prices. But a new analysis from the University of Pittsburgh finds that's not always the case for the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Two western Pennsylvania health care giants have a deal that averts the looming breakup of their business relationship, an agreement that prevents disruption and higher costs for many patients.

Addiction treatment needs to be integrated with other aspects of patients’ lives, according to presenters at the Pittsburgh-based Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions. Those aspects include stable housing and employment, adequate social support and other chronic health issues.

UPMC announced Thursday that the Hillman Cancer Center would accept all insurers, including Highmark commercial and Medicare Advantage plans. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it will post a monthly list of underperforming nursing homes. This comes after Pennsylvania’s two US Senators released a report highlighting a lack of federal oversight of these facilities.

Telemedicine has the potential to connect people in rural communities to health care providers who might otherwise take hours to reach by car. But a new University of Pittsburgh study finds that many of these places lack the infrastructure to actually make telemedicine possible.

The state Supreme Court Tuesday kept alive hopes that people with Highmark insurance can continue using UPMC doctors, finding that a provision in a five-year consent decree was too ambiguous to make a definitive ruling.