FEATURED STORY | blog,Pandemics

HGHI, HU CFAR Host Virtual Grand Rounds on Lessons from HIV for Global Equity During Pandemics

Ongoing global Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutic inequities threaten to prolong and exacerbate the pandemic for all countries. As advocates, academics, and policymakers alike call for the U.S. and other wealthy nations to share these lifesaving resources with the world, it is prudent to consider the lessons learned from the HIV pandemic that can be translated

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Drivers of Health Archive

Racial bias in medicine

By Kate Raphael The response to drug epidemics cuts along lines of race and class. In my recent piece with Toni Monkovic in the New York Times’ Upshot Dr. M. Norman Oliver, Virginia’s health commissioner, said, “At the beginning, the opioid epidemic was centered in rural Appalachia, and as long as it involved poor rural whites, it [...]

Let’s Retire Myths About Individual Behavior and Health

This post, by Carmen Mitchell, originally appeared on The Incidental Economist. Carmen Mitchell is currently a fourth-year health policy doctoral student in the Department of Health Management and Systems Sciences at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS). She is currently affiliated with The Afya Project, an interdisciplinary research initiative seeking [...]

Social determinants of health in the news

By Austin Frakt Social determinants of health comes up from time to time in health policy news, reports, and scholarly articles. Here are quotes from five of these that caught my eye recently. 1. Confronting Structural Racism in Research and Policy Analysis, Urban Institute In November 2018, the Urban Institute hosted a roundtable discussion with 23 [...]

Healthy behavior matters. So are we responsible if we get sick?

This post, by William Gardner, originally appeared on The Incidental Economist. Dr. Gardner is a psychologist. He is the Senior Research Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. He tweets at @Bill_Gardner. I have been warned my whole life that [...]

The Price of Food Insecurity

By Kate Raphael The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering cutting food stamps for 700,000 Americans, and while this change would supposedly save money in the short run, it could have untold costs in the long run. Research has shown that programs like SNAP and WIC are associated with better health and reduced spending on [...]

The Shifting Boundaries of Health Care

The following is an interview with Patrick Scott Romano, MD, MPH, FACP, FAAP, Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UC Davis Health and C0-Editor in Chief of Health Services Research. Austin Frakt: Among health care systems, plans, and programs, there has been increasing discussion of, if not investment in, approaches to addressing social needs. What [...]

Accelerating progress rests on effective health care leadership

The following is an interview with Lisa Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP, President and CEO of AcademyHealth, with input from several senior staff at AcademyHealth. Follow her on Twitter @DrSimpsonHSR Among health care systems, plans, and programs, there has been increasing discussion of, if not investment in, approaches to addressing social needs. What is driving this [...]

Driving Health Forward Across Communities

This is a guest post by Bechara Choucair, MD, the Senior Vice President and Chief Community Health Officer at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals. He spoke on one of our panels in Cambridge and reflects on the meeting in this blog.  One of every three Americans is not confident in their ability to access basic social needs such [...]

Housing and Health: What Does the Literature Tell Us?

By Kate Raphael It is well documented that housing is closely associated with health. The location, condition, and context of where we live intersect many factors that indirectly affect health. Our housing literally encompass environmental (think: dust and exposure to the elements) and social factors (think: isolation and crime) that directly affect health. A person experiencing [...]

Education and Health: What Does the Literature Tell Us?

By Kate Raphael Across many disciplines, greater educational attainment is closely associated with health. People who have obtained more schooling are significantly likelier to live longer, healthier lives. The mediating pathways that facilitate this connection are myriad and complex. A number of pathways have been proposed, including ones involving health literacy and behaviors, employment opportunities, and social and [...]
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