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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Health as the means, not the end

November 4, 2019

#Drivers of Health  #Health Systems
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? [...]

We have a terminology problem

October 28, 2019

#Drivers of Health  #Health Systems
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 [...]

Which Health Policies Work?

October 22, 2019

#Drivers of Health  #Health Systems
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 [...]

The Price of Social Programs

October 16, 2019

#Drivers of Health  #Health Systems
By Kate Raphael In other blog posts, we’ve discussed U.S. health care spending and outcomes. In short, we spend a lot more on medical care than other high-income countries, yet our health outcomes are often worse. We also spend a lot of money on social programs, which have been shown to be associated with improved health outcomes. It makes [...]

Social determinants of health in the news

October 7, 2019

#Drivers of Health  #Health Systems
By Austin Frakt Social determinants of health comes up from time to time in health policy news or as the subject of reports from health policy-focused organizations. Here are quotes from four stories or reports that caught my eye recently. 1. Investing in Interventions That Address Non-Medical, Health-Related Social Needs, The National Academies Press, August 2019. [...]
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