A new report ranks America's 405 best hospitals based on their quality of treatment for heart attacks, pneumonia, and other critical ailments. Some of the nation's leading health care providers are not on the list. Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission, the hospital certification organization that conducted the study, said, "We recognize that improvement has been happening across the country on these measures, but there are some hospitals that have achieved extraordinary levels of performance."

A lot of you responded to our conversation Monday about whether or not to go through with pre-natal testing for Down syndrome. One response in particular stood out: mother-to-be Jocelyn commented on our website that her fetus had tested positive for Down syndrome, and she planned to continue the pregnancy. Some of her caregivers, however, had assumed that she would terminate her pregnancy. To respond to Jocelyn's comment, we have Dr. Andrea Price, OB/GYN at the Women's Health Alliance of New Jersey.

A new study shows that Caesarian sections account for about 1/3 of births in the U.S. And that number is expected to rise. Is the C-Section becoming the new natural and safe way to give birth? We want to hear from you: what's so natural about "natural" birth, anyway?

We're following a new development about research into Alzheimer's treatment and prevention. On Tuesday, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly stopped two late-stage clinical trials of a treatment after researchers found an experimental drug was actually making Alzheimer’s symptoms worse. The news is just one more setback in a long series of setbacks for attempts to cure or prevent the deadly disease. 

However, there was some good news recently: determining who will get Alzheimer's. Researchers reported a few weeks ago that a spinal test can predict — with 100 percent accuracy — whether people who are experiencing severe memory loss will get the disease. However, there is nothing medically that can be done, even if you know it's coming.

We’re asking, is it better to know if you're going to get Alzheimer's, or is it easier to stay in the dark? Do you have a relative with Alzheimer's? What would you have done differently if you'd had known it was coming?

For 71 years, Lou Gehrig has been the face of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, now most commonly known as "Lou Gehrig’s disease."

After getting the diagnosis of a disease that would quickly rob him of his muscle strength and control, Gehrig retired from baseball. At a ceremony honoring him at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, his voice full of emotion, he said, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. That I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." He died just two years later of the disease that now bears his name.

Now new research suggests that there is a possibility Lou Gehrig may not have had "Lou Gehrig’s disease," but perhaps something closely related.  

For more than 50 years, students who want to be doctors have dreaded two things above all else: organic chemistry and the Medical College Admissions Test – better known as the MCAT.

But there is one program out there that allows students to skip both of these prerequisites, though it’s been a pretty well-kept secret. The Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City admits a quarter of its class without the traditional pre-med background.

Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics is releasing a new clinical report suggesting that parents let their head lice infested children stay in school.

In an article in this weekend's New York Times Magazine, contributor Emily Bazelon profiles a group she calls "The New Abortion Providers," young doctors who are attempting to move abortion out of clinics and back into hospitals.

The nation is facing a shortage of primary care doctors, and to fill that gap many states are proposing to expand the role of nurse practitioners to allow them to prescribe medication, practice without a doctor's supervision, and even be called doctors if they have a doctorate.