How likely are you to crowdsource a diagnosis for a mysterious medical condition? 

Sometimes quantity is better than quality. That’s the thinking behind CrowdMed, a website that allows an online community of medical professionals, patients, and laypeople to solve cases for patients with undiagnosed medical conditions.

The American Red Cross recognizes January as National Blood Donor Month. Here’s an infographic on what we have — and what we need. 

Regina Vasquez ended up homeless after her father passed away. Embarrassed by incontinence caused by Crohn’s disease, she found living out of her car a more dignified alternative to life in a public shelter. She worried constantly about her next visit to Sutter’s emergency department, and whether she would need yet another surgery. She estimates she made six to eight ER visits per year during her time on the streets.

Too many pregnant mothers know the feeling of horror: The ultrasound reveals something wrong. Perhaps it’s nothing. But maybe it’s life-threatening, a disease or a disability. Maybe it’s the unthinkable. For hundreds of thousands of years, the unthinkable — babies doomed to die or develop impairments before drawing their first breath — meant only tragedy and heartache. Now there is hope.

Nicole Castles teaches UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento. Castles is the sole instructor for all school-aged children in the pediatrics ward, as well as school-age patients in other wings of the hospital. In a given week she’ll schedule bedside sessions with as many as 30 students.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has spent much of the past decade looking to enact rate regulations on the health insurance industry, first as an Assemblymember and now as the state’s top insurance regulator. We sat down with him recently to talk about Proposition 45, a November ballot measure he supports that would give him the power to reject health insurance rate hikes.

In civic and business circles, we often hear the lament that Sacramento has never been a corporate headquarters. Many believe this hampers our ability to fully prosper and grow. But, in addition to the attractive traits Sacramento does possess, it has a powerful economic catalyst in its backyard: a top-10 public research university that can be the lifeblood of a stronger, deeper and more resilient regional economy.

There are 6 million people in the United States who are paralyzed. Wide-spread, thought-controlled medical solutions won’t be available tomorrow or next month or even next year. But what if, some day, all of those people could walk again?

Think of your best friend, a friend that knows all your ticks, hobbies and vices. Now imagine this friend happens to be a doctor, and she’s your doctor.