By Luke Testa It seems intuitive that providing people with accurate health information will help them make better health decisions. But just providing information backed by research isn’t enough to change minds, let alone behavior. The way people engage with health information is more complicated than just consuming available scientific findings. Beliefs play a major Continue reading [...]

Event recap written by: Louisa Hudson MSc, Research Assistant, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School Mercedes Aguerrebere, MD, MMSc brought to light insightful observations and questions around gender and mental health in Chiapas, Mexico. Dr. Aguerrebere is a physician working in comprehensive primary and mental health care. She has been working with Compañeros Continue reading [...]

The following is an interview with Daniel Polsky, PhD, MPP, Distinguished Professor of Health Economics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Austin Frakt: To what extent should the health system be involved in addressing social needs? After all, these are not traditionally in the purview of health care. Are the boundaries of health Continue reading [...]

The following is an interview with Sandro Galea, PhD, physician, epidemiologist, author, and dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. 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 is driving this phenomenon? Continue reading [...]

By Austin Frakt The community of scholars (including some of us on this project) and the health care industry have been using “social determinants of health” to mean so many things that it has lost its original meaning. Sometimes precise definitions don’t matter too much if everyone knows what is meant from context. But I Continue reading [...]

Considering how much money we spend on health care in the U.S., we might hope that we allocate a good chunk of it toward evaluating the impact of the health policies we have in place. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Austin Frakt explores U.S. health policy evaluation (or lack thereof) in one of his recent Continue reading [...]