The digital divide becomes a new social determinant of health
The rise in the use of telehealth and other digital care tools has highlighted growing concerns over whether access to high-speed internet will further widen health disparities. More
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What Happens When People Stop Going to the Doctor? We’re About to Find Out
A year of missed preventive medical care is endangering minority communities. More
Approval and Coverage of Cancer Drugs in England, Canada, and the US
Most drug approvals are based on surrogate markers, such as tumor shrinkage in a fraction of patients (response rate) or delayed tumor growth (progression-free survival). These surrogates use arbitrary percentage cutoffs and are not optimized to ensure that a drug can improve the length or quality of life. More
Health care — moms can’t wait
The maternal health crisis is an issue where policymakers on both sides of the aisle have and should continue to come together to work toward solutions. More
Vaccine distribution effort falls behind on equity
Ever since Covid-19 vaccines have been in development, policy experts and activists have been concerned about equity in vaccine distribution. Now, it is clear that in our haste to get "shots in arms," we are leaving behind many people who are most at risk of Covid-19 infection and death. More
Opinion: Black Americans should face lower age cutoffs to qualify for a vaccine
It only makes sense for vaccine allocation to acknowledge these health inequities. More
‘A massive gap in information’: Most vaccine clinical trials fail to report data on participants’ ethnicity or race
Of the 230 trials researchers examined, more than 40% did not record participants’ race and about 65% did not report their ethnicity. More
Medicare Cuts Payment to 774 Hospitals Over Patient Complications
The federal government has penalized 774 hospitals for having the highest rates of patient infections or other potentially avoidable medical complications. More
Overcoming the Market Dominance of Hospitals
This Viewpoint reviews the conditions which incentivize consolidation of health systems, hospitals, and physician practices into entities that decrease health care quality and increase prices. More
Health insurance execs’ salaries grew faster than company revenue in 2020
A new report found that average executive pay among health insurers outpaced revenue growth by up to 10 percentage points in 2020. More
What Americans Don’t Know About Their Medications
People who have faced debilitating side effects say we need better warnings on drugs. The FDA hasn’t been enthusiastic. More
Caregivers are missing from the long Covid conversation
The U.S. health system is too overwhelmed to address long Covid. One asset is not being deployed against Covid-19: long-haulers' caregivers. More
Dying on the Waitlist
In Los Angeles County and around the country, doctors have had to decide who gets a lifesaving COVID-19 treatment and who doesn’t. More
U.S. life expectancy fell by a year in the first half of 2020, CDC report finds
The Covid-19 pandemic is likely responsible for “the majority of the decline,” said Elizabeth Arias, lead author of the report. More
EP310: The 2020 Shkreli Awards for the Worst Examples of Profiteering and Dysfunction in Health Care
"Covid was like a blinding flash, a glare of x-ray that revealed the flaws, fragmentation, and dysfunction going on the health care system," said Dr. Vikas Saini. "Most of this behavior is not illegal, it's merely unethical. That's why it's not enough to prosecute, we have to change the cultural norms in health care," said Shannon Brownlee. More
Dr. Bernard Lown, creator of 1st effective heart defibrillator, dies at 99
Bernard Lown, MD, a renowned cardiologist who played a pivotal role in the development of the first reliable heart defibrillator, died Feb. 16. "Bernard Lown was one of the greatest physicians of the last, or any century, and I was privileged to call him my teacher, colleague and friend," said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that advocates for civic leadership and accountability in healthcare founded by Dr. Lown in 1973. "He showed us what it meant to be a healer and a citizen of the world. His commitment to social justice and a radically better healthcare system illuminated his belief that medicine must exist beyond the clinic to be true to its highest calling." More
Opinion: To really lower health-care costs, look beyond prescription drugs
All health-care services must be scrutinized for waste. More
Latinos face barriers like fear, language in getting vaccine
From elderly Cuban Americans in Florida to farmworkers in California, Latinos face daunting barriers to getting COVID-19 vaccines, creating risks for public health as the coronavirus mutates and spreads. More
Statement on the death of Dr. Bernard Lown
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE See Also: Timeline of Dr. Lown’s Life Brookline, MA — Dr. Bernard Lown, pioneering cardiologist, humanitarian, and founder of the Lown Institute, died today at the age of 99. He was a remarkable clinician, scientist, and visionary who will be remembered long into the future. As a scientist, Dr. Lown did seminal […] More
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Bernard Lown Dies
A leading Harvard physician who shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize has died at his home in Newton. The prize was for activism against nuclear weapons. But Dr. Bernard Lown had a vast array of accomplishments. Dr. Vikas Saini is a clinical cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute of Brookline. He joined WBUR's All Things Considered to explain why he believes Lown was one of the greatest physicians of all time. More