health tech
Emojis have entered the (medical) chat
Stephen Lam/Getty Images
The appearance of emojis in clinical records is rare — for now. A new study analyzing emoji use in clinical notes at one Michigan medical center between 2020 and 2024 found that fewer than two in every 100,000 notes included them. But by the last quarter of 2025, emoji appeared in more than 10 notes per 100,000.
Most emojis used were, as STAT's Katie Palmer put it, "in the smiley lexicon." The classic eyes-closed smiley topped the list of most frequently used emojis with more than 1,772 uses in notes. But others were more complicated to decipher: A maple leaf was sixth with 382 uses, while clinicians used the reddened sweating face with a tongue out 21 times.
"It does raise a question: Is that the right thing to do? And I don't have the answer to that," lead author David Hanauer said. Read more from Katie on how experts are weighing the potential risks and benefits of this trend, as well as one expert's best guess on what the maple leaf stands for.
notable quotable
'You see that beautiful milk?'
That was President Trump, speaking yesterday from the White House where he signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. The law allows schools to offer whole milk and reduced-fat milk for the first time since those options were eliminated as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2012. STAT's Sarah Todd recently wrote about the peculiar politics of whole milk's return to U.S. schools.
one big number (added)
$9 billion
That's the new annual payout endorsed by the Gates Foundation governing board, according to an announcement yesterday. The move fulfills a commitment the organization made four years ago to increase the annual payout to $9 billion by this year. It also keeps the group on track to spend $200 billion before its planned shutdown in 2045.
Funding will increase for programs focused on maternal health, polio eradication, American education, and vaccine development. It's needed work as global aid reels from U.S. disruptions over the last year. Still, Bill Gates is adamant that his money can't replace federal funding. "It's just not our role to say, OK, the U.S. government wants to save money and so we'll help them do that," he told STAT's Matt Herper last summer.
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