The flip of a switch in April 2014 that led to the massive water contamination in Flint, Michigan, is now a public health crisis that will take years and millions of dollars to remedy. The immediate challenge is to replace the corroded pipes that are carrying contaminated water as soon as possible, and to ensure that the city of nearly 100,000 has access to clean water.
Roe v. Wade Anniversary Reminds Us of Need to Protect Reproductive Freedom | US News: The Report
In November, a study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project found that more than one in five women, ages 18 to 49, from across that state reported that they or someone they knew had tried to end a pregnancy on their own.
This may come as alarming news to those in public health who are preparing to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on Jan. 22. But it is a stark reminder that, while Roe v. Wade was transformative, the provision of abortion care in the U.S. remains challenging.
The Precision Medicine Chimera | Project Syndicate
BOSTON/NEW YORK – US President Barack Obama’s administration recently issued an appeal for ideas to advance its “precision medicine initiative,” which will channel millions of federal research dollars toward efforts to tailor clinical treatment to individual patients. The idea of personalized medicine, which builds on dramatic advances in genetics and molecular biology, certainly sounds appealing – and not only in the United States, but also in Britain and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the assumption that precision medicine will benefit public health by improving clinical practice does not hold up.
This Is Why You Can't Always Trust Data | Fortune
Innovation. Ideation. Out-of-the-box problem-solving. Creative decision-making. So much of what we value in the brave new economy depends on people having fertile, expansive, and dynamically open minds. So it may come as a surprise to many that the default state for our minds seems to be, well, “closed.” Or at least inhospitable to ideas that differ from the ones already set in our consciousness.
Studying gun violence is the only way to figure out how to stop it – but we don't | The Conversation
It seems that not a week passes without a new report of a mass shootingin the United States.
The gun epidemic, long simmering, has in the past few weeks seemed to reach a new phase in the public discourse. The shootings in San Bernardino, California occasioned a nearly unprecedented front-page editorial in The New York Times, the country’s “paper of record,” together with comments, once again, from the president, urging congress to act on regulating firearms and firearm violence.
Secondosis: A Tale of One Treatable Disease, Left Untreated | HuffPost
Recently, 115 Democratic members of Congress wrote a compelling letter to the House leadership, calling for an end to a longstanding de facto ban on federal funding for research into a health problem they called a pressing epidemic.
I have written previously about how that lack of funding weakens our efforts to make communities healthier. But now I want to cast the problem in an allegorical framework that illustrates some of the challenges we face in dealing with a disease that could be prevented, were it not for cultural and political entanglements.
Doing Right by Veterans: Dealing With the Long-Term Consequences of War | HuffPost
As we celebrate the contributions of our military service members this Veterans Day, many of us are heartened by the recent drawdown of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 2.7 million men and women have served in those conflicts to date, many of them on multiple tours.
But our collective relief should not obscure the reality that many of our service members have come home with significant challenges, especially in mental health. We are, in fact, entering a phase in which our returning troops will need attention to their health more than ever, as they face the long-term consequences of war.
Recognizing Mental Health Illness Among Veterans is an Educational Competency | in-House
Over the course of residency and fellowship training, it’s likely that almost all trainees will encounter veterans through rotations at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities.
With mandates from Title 38 and long-standing relationships with academic institutions nationwide, the Veterans Health Administration plays a significant role in shaping the education of future medical professionals. Over 90 percent of accredited allopathic medical schools and over 75 percent of osteopathic medical schools are affiliated with VA medical centers and independent outpatient clinics, which are also used by over 2,600 Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs. In 2013 alone, over 40,000 residents and fellows — along with over 20,000 medical students — received some or all of their clinical training in VA.