Florida's Latest News

Health care bill that carried parts of ‘Rural Renaissance’ package falls to Governor’s veto pen

Legislation that included portions of Senate President Ben Albritton’s “Rural Renaissance” priorities couldn’t make it past Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

The Governor vetoed a bill (HB 1427) that directed health care resources to nursing education programs. DeSantis in a veto message said his problem was the level of bureaucracy that comes along with it.

He wrote that the state has already made workforce investments in nursing with fewer strings attached.

“To meet the needs of the state’s aging and growing population, Florida has made significant investments in healthcare workforce education including funding for new facilities, PIPELINE funding to reward the highest quality programs, and LINE funding to foster partnerships with local healthcare enterprises,” DeSantis wrote.

The legislation “impedes these investments by establishing unnecessary burdens on nursing education programs,” the message reads.

“The bill also institutes bureaucratic overreach by allowing the Board of Nursing to impose a host of additional regulations on nursing programs and their directors,” DeSantis wrote. “These policies will deter programs from accepting students, encourage them to focus on test preparation rather than training students to work in healthcare, and will hinder the state’s ability to recruit and maintain nursing programs and directors in the first place.”

Gov. DeSantis signs ‘Emily Adkins Family Protection Act’ to better screen, track deadly blood clots

A bill aimed at improving the screening, treatment and public awareness of venous thromboembolism (VTE) — potentially life-threatening in-vein blood clots — is now law.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed HB 1421, which mandates that all Florida hospitals with emergency departments and ambulatory surgical centers develop and implement protocols for asserting VTE risk using nationally recognized tools.

It also requires hospitals to train non-physician clinical staff on policies and procedures for giving appropriate medical attention for patients at risk of VTE and amends state statutes to include VTE among Florida’s recognized chronic diseases.

A central provision of the law, titled the “Emily Adkins Family Protection Act,” is the creation of a statewide VTE registry. The Florida Department of Health must contract with a qualified nonprofit to maintain the registry at no cost to the state.

Beginning July 1, 2026, hospitals must report VTE-related data — demographics, diagnosis methods, treatments and outcomes — to the registry, which will be used to monitor care quality and outcomes.

A paralyzed patient at UM just got Elon Musk’s brain chip. Here are 5 takeaways

A paralyzed military veteran, identified as RJ, has become one of the first individuals in the U.S. to receive a brain chip implant from Neuralink, a company co-founded by Elon Musk. This groundbreaking procedure is part of a clinical trial at the University of Miami aimed at helping paralyzed individuals control electronic devices with their minds.

The Neuralink chip, known as the Link or Telepathy, was implanted by surgeons at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, marking the first such procedure at a Miami hospital. The chip allows RJ to wirelessly control a computer, as demonstrated by his ability to play video games using only his mind.

RJ, who was paralyzed after a motorcycle accident, expressed that the implant has restored his sense of purpose and drive. He is among seven individuals in the U.S. who have received the implant, with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis being a key site for these clinical trials.

Neuralink’s trials aim to test the safety and effectiveness of the chip in individuals aged 22 to 75 with paralysis from spinal cord injuries or ALS. The company has also received approval to conduct similar trials in Canada, the UK and the UAE.

Scientists transplant crossbred corals to help save Miami's reefs from climate change

A team of scientists from the University of Miami, the Florida Aquarium and Tela Marine in Honduras is working together to transplant crossbred coral fragments onto a reef off Miami's coastline that was devastated by coral bleaching two years ago.

They're looking for ways to help reefs survive increased ocean temperatures caused by global warming and climate change.

"It's the end of a very long process," Andrew Baker, professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab, said Tuesday as divers planted the corals off Miami.

The plan of introducing corals from the Caribbean evolved over the past few years.

"We had this idea that we really needed to try to help Florida's coral reef by introducing more diversity from around the Caribbean, recognizing that some of the biggest threats to corals, like climate change, are really global phenomena and if you try to have Florida's reefs save themselves on their own, we could give them some outside help," Baker said.

Coral breeding has also been done in Hawaii, where in 2021, scientists were working to speed up the coral's evolutionary clock to breed "super corals" that can better withstand the impacts of global warming.