As Congress considers the GOP’s American Health Care Act, there are likely many people out there who don’t know that the proposed legislation calls for the defunding …
Author: Beth Duff-Brown
Taking painkillers with sleeping pills is an increasingly risky business
For those of us following the confounding opioid epidemic, there’s more bad news. Stanford researchers have determined that taking strong prescription painkillers together with sleeping …
Stanford health policy researchers examine new health care bill
As the debate around health care intensifies following the release earlier this week of the House Republican's American Health Care Act, several Stanford-affiliated researchers agreed to …
The current state of women’s health in the United States? Uncertain
I had no idea that before the Affordable Care Act was enacted into law some insurance companies considered pregnancy a pre-existing condition, effectively denying women …
Doctor at Women’s March: “I marched to make sure my patients’ voices would be heard”
Marcella Alsan, MD, PhD, and Burak Alsan, MD, are a power couple here at Stanford Medicine. Marcella is an assistant professor of medicine, a tropical disease …
Stanford researchers exploring consequences of Tuskegee syphilis study
I first learned about the secret U.S. government syphilis study conducted on poor black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, during a college class on ethics. The …
Millions of children live in high-mortality hotspots across sub-Saharan Africa
The good news is that deaths of children under 5 have fallen from nearly 12 million a year in 1990 to fewer than six million …
At Stanford symposium, a look at the next four years of health policy
During talks, health policy expert Bob Kocher, MD, likes to show a slide of the signature page of the Affordable Care Act, which he helped …
Stanford Health Policy symposium to address future of health care in U.S. and abroad
Would the Affordable Care Act survive a Trump administration, or would a Clinton presidency keep the ACA intact? Is the United States prepared for a …
Stanford study shows Medicare Advantage plans pay hospitals less than traditional Medicare
There's much debate among health policy researchers about the performance of the Medicare Advantage plans, which are sold and run by private insurance companies but …
When it comes to health, U.S. men have long benefited from women in power
It’s always great to see the work of one of our researchers shouted out in the New York Times. It’s even better when it becomes the …
Rosenkranz Prize winner to launch microbiome research project in Africa
Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD, has a gut feeling about many medical maladies. That is, she believes that we can fight some diseases by learning more …
Should we invest in HIV prevention for people who inject drugs?
People who inject drugs make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. adult population. But about 10 percent of new HIV infections in this …
Health policy advocates push for federal “Tobacco 21” law
Science and common sense tell us that the teenage brain is more vulnerable to peer pressure and susceptible to nicotine addiction than at any other …
We are woefully unprepared for pandemic threat, says economist Larry Summers
While the world takes dramatic and costly steps to prevent the calamitous impact of climate change, preparations for a worldwide pandemic on the scale of …
It’s a no-brainer: Neuroscience should influence policy on psychoactive substances
Non-smoking campaigns that tell teenage boys that they'll get lung cancer in 30 years if they don’t stop smoking just don’t work. “But prevention programs that …