By Austin Frakt The U.S. is the biggest spender on health care in the world, yet national health outcomes do not reflect this massive investment. This fact forces us to question the value of health care spending: are our health care dollars worth it? We can start by looking at longevity. Studies have found that Continue reading [...]

By Austin Frakt The causal pathways from social determinants of health to health outcomes can be numerous and complex. Though some factors (like smoking) are directly related to health, others (like education or income) relate to health in a variety of indirect ways. These facts are conveyed by the chart below from the WHO’s Global Health Continue reading [...]

A conversation with Karen Kwass, Research Assistant to Dr. Byron Good and Dr. Mary Jo Good, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School Continue reading [...]

By Austin Frakt What drives health? This is the big and challenging question my team and I are facing on a new, one – year project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This website is devoted to this question, and we invite you to engage with us as we explore it. This question is Continue reading [...]

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in global health can be both effective – leveraging the resources of the private sector to improve health in areas where governments and NGOs have struggled – and controversial. A year ago, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was sharply criticized for partnering with the Heineken brewing company; the Continue reading [...]

By Kathryn E. Horneffer | HGHI Research Assistant — “Who has heard of Gartner’s hype cycle?” Adam Landman addressed his audience, pointing to an image on the slides behind him. The IT research company Gartner had created the hype cycle concept to represent the typical process of adoption of a technology into society. Most artificial Continue reading [...]