I love newsletters because they give a good overview of the latest in news and research, without us having to plough through lengthy articles. What’s more, they’re delivered right to our Inboxes, which means that we won’t have to remind ourselves (and forget) to open those news apps sitting idly on our phones and iPads.
After trying out tons of newsletters, I’ve hand-picked the best ones for you. Here’s the list:
My criteria for selecting the ‘best’ newsletters
I choose from newsletters specifically oriented to medicine and healthcare, and generally eschew two types:
- those that merely give a list of headlines with little or no further description (e.g. ScienceDaily, Medscape, LiveScience), and
- those that tend to give ‘health advice’ and information about health conditions targeted towards patients and the general public (e.g. Healthline, Medical News Today).
My top recommendations here are all newsletters that:
- give a brief roundup of each news item or commentary,
- give just the right amount of information, and
- include hyperlinks if you feel like reading any article in full.
1. Axios Vitals
Frequency: Daily – weekday mornings (around 6pm SGT)
Link: Axios Vitals
This is my top pick out of all the newsletters listed here. The content is so well-summarised and relevant that it’s truly a godsend. (I can’t believe I only found out about it recently and didn’t subscribe before my own applications!)
They synthesise news from a wide array of credible sources. This is a huge advantage over other newsletters by a single news site (e.g. If you sign up for a newsletter from The New York Times, all articles you receive will be from The New York Times only).
Thus, it saves you the hassle of signing up for seven different newsletters (because you want more varied sources) and agonising through each of them every morning (or, more likely, leaving them to pile up in your Inbox).
2. STAT Morning Rounds
Frequency: Daily – weekday mornings (around 6pm SGT)
Link: STAT Morning Rounds
STAT is a news site dedicated exclusively to health, medicine, and scientific discovery. I like how they have a paragraph accompanying each headline, which is concise but detailed enough that I would not need to read the original article.
Each newsletter also ends off with a “What to read around the web today” section, giving links to about five articles from varied sources (think Nature, The New York Times, The Atlantic, etc).
They have a whole selection of other newsletters as well, but I find simply subscribing to the Morning Rounds to be sufficient, as it is the most ‘all-rounded’ and comprehensive.
One small shortcoming is that their coverage can be more U.S.-oriented at times.
3. Nature Briefing
Frequency: Daily – weekday mornings (around 1am SGT)
Link: Nature Briefing
Like the other two newsletters on this list, I love Nature Briefing for its amazing summary of each article and its pleasing, easy-to-read presentation.
While this newsletter also covers scientific discoveries that may not be directly related to medicine, I simply skip over those. With the current pandemic, they have a section dedicated to “COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak” that is always worth reading.
I like the fact that they have a more scientific slant, often citing research studies and making reference to other journals.
Resist the urge to ‘oversubscribe’
As with everything is life, minimalism is the way to go. Through personal experience, I’ve found that subscribing to tons of newsletters doesn’t work—not least because I end up with 57 unread emails in my Inbox.
I recommend finding just one newsletter that you like and sticking with it. With newsletters such as Axios Vitals, you need not worry about consuming news from only a single source. Both STAT Morning Rounds and Nature Briefing also link to articles from news sites other than their own.
Have a question? Leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram @thelowkeymedic.