Illinois Public Media News

The farm tour was part of a week-long program designed to introduce future doctors, pharmacists and nurses to rural life.  The goal: Get the students interested in working in rural areas.

Some of the country’s most profound health care challenges are playing out in rural areas struggling with populations that are relatively older and sicker. This is the story of a Minnesota hospital that’s become accustomed to operating in the red.

We’ll hear how emojis actually get made - from some of the people advocating for more emojis that reflect their daily lives. Plus, who gets to talk about history - especially when that history is brutal and hard to talk about in the first place? We revisit a conversation about a play on the topic at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater. Then, Syphilis is one of many preventable diseases that we associate with another time, but it's actually back and on the rise according to public health officials. 

Patricia Powers went a few years without health insurance and was unable to afford regular doctor visits. So the Missouri resident, who lives near St. Louis, had no idea that cancerous tumors were silently growing in both of her breasts.

Jessica Sheridan’s plan was to have her first daughter at the local hospital, five minutes from her house in Iowa Falls. But when she was seven months pregnant, that plan suddenly changed.