Najifa Farhat
Health ReporterNajifa Farhat is an award-winning investigative reporter covering health for KBIA’s Health and Wealth Desk. Her reporting focuses on the intersection of health and broader issues of well-being, including environmental and climate impacts, food security, marginalized communities, and emerging solutions and technologies. She approaches her work with the belief that every story has a health component.
Farhat holds a master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Montana and has reported extensively across the Mountain West, Southwest Michigan and now, Missouri.
She can be reached at najifa.farhat@missouri.edu
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As hospitals look for ways to better manage pain and reduce reliance on opioids, some emergency departments are placing physical therapists directly inside ERs. At the University of Missouri Hospital, that approach is showing promising results. -
Although winters are becoming less severe as the climate changes, experts say extreme weather events like major snowstorms are an important reminder that snow shoveling can increase the risk of heart attacks. -
State officials have set five-year benchmarks for the program, including a 10% reduction in emergency room visits, a 10% reduction in uncontrolled hypertension, a 5% reduction in low birth weight and a 5-10% increase in the use of pharmacotherapy to treat opioid use disorder. -
A roundup of regional headlines from the KBIA Newsroom. -
The Missouri Immunization Coalition was a non-profit that focused on advocacy, education and training around vaccines. Funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in April led to a loss of funding for the group and they were forced to shutter in summer 2025. -
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Caregivers now spend an average of nearly four hours a day providing eldercare, up from less than three hours a decade ago, reflecting rising demand as the population ages -
While most animal bite incidents are reported during the summer months, officials say the risk also increases during colder seasons and holidays, when people spend more time inside with family, guests and pets -
A Missouri agency says it's operating this enrollment season without any full-time navigator staff, leaving little capacity for outreach or educational events.
