Vaping gets its name from the cloud of water vapor that e-cigarettes produce, and it has become wildly popular among teenagers who believe it’s harmless. It’s not. In fact . . . more

An early morning fire on April 2, at Tamburino’s Deli at 627 Central Ave. in Cedarhurst has closed the popular breakfast and lunch spot for the foreseeable future. more

The drug addicts’ brain scans that Dr. Stephen Dewey takes appear in psychedelic shades of red, yellow, green and blue, each indicating a level of brain activity — or inactivity. Red means excited. Blue is dormant. Dewey is the laboratory director for behavioral and molecular neuro-imaging at the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In that capacity, he’s put hundreds of addicts’ brains to the test — the positron emission tomography test, that is — seeking to understand precisely what happens to the mind when a pot smoker lights up or a heroin junkie shoots up. And, he has found, it isn’t pretty. more

Atlantic Beach lifeguards spotted a potential hazard in the water in June — a Portuguese Man o’ War — which resembles a jellyfish but is a colony of organisms equipped with stinging barbers that can be fatal if they come into contact with human skin and release venom, and since then precautions have been taken to safeguard swimmers and minimize contact between people and this venomous animal. more

Nassau University Medical Center President Dr. Victor Politi and State Sen. Kemp Hannon announced on June 29 the hospital’s participation in an ambitious statewide incentive plan that aims to reform the health care system by focusing on greater care for at-risk, low-income patients to reduce “avoidable hospitalizations,” thereby lowering state Medicaid costs. If successful, the program could net hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding for Long Island and Queens hospitals over the next five years, portions of which would go the NUMC. more

North Shore-LIJ Health System officials said on Oct. 23 that they intend to develop a multi-million dollar biological containment unit at one of its 16 hospitals, designed to c more

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a statewide Ebola plan on Oct. 16 that called for the coordination of health care, Port Authority and Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers to combat a potential spread of the Ebola virus should it cross New York’s borders. He also designated eight hospitals, including Long Island’s North Shore-LIJ, in Nassau County, and Stony Brook University Hospital, in Suffolk, to act as regional centers for treating patients with Ebola. more

Four Nassau County hospitals received the highest grade in a quality-of-care survey conducted by the Leapfrog Group, an organization that evaluates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, injuries, errors and infections, while encouraging transparency and access to health care information. more

When you’re the father of four daughters, it’s always your hope that one of them will marry a doctor. more

Hospitals need to raise funds to stay in the vital business of treating the sick and injured in our communities. Fees for services and government and private insurance payments are insufficient to fund the enormous expenses hospitals incur in salaries, physical plant operations and medical care for thousands of patients. more