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60 stories tagged ‘Health Care Policy’
Health reform alone may not increase access to physicians or reduce healthcare inequality gaps
In a new study, Harvard researchers looked at the effects of the 2006 Massachusetts Health Reform and found that the legislation has led to improvements in insurance coverage as well as a decline in financial barriers to care but has not increased people’s access to a personal physician or improve their self-rated health. Neither has [...]
Medical School revises conflict of interest policy
Harvard Medical School (HMS) released a series of revisions to its conflict of interest (COI) policy today that strengthens its commitment to transparency and financial disclosure while recognizing the School’s commitment to industry collaboration. Among many provisions, the new policy includes a streamlined central system for reporting faculty financial interests with industry; requires the public disclosure of certain [...]
Warning: Your reality is out of date
When people think of knowledge, they generally think of two sorts of facts: facts that don’t change, like the height of Mount Everest or the capital of the United States, and facts that fluctuate constantly, like the temperature or the stock market close.
New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage
Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and [...]
Economy shaping health care reform effort
Political and philosophical differences aside, it’s the economic crisis that’s driving the current national health care reform debate. “Every day the president gets an envelope [that] says, ‘Whoa! Bigger [deficit] this day than yesterday,’” noted Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and management, speaking at the Harvard School of Public Health on Tuesday. Couple [...]
Health, life insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks
More than a decade after Harvard Medical School researchers first revealed that life and health insurance companies were major investors in tobacco stocks – prompting calls upon them to divest – the insurance industry has yet to kick the habit, they say. A letter about insurance company holdings, published in the June 4 issue of [...]
Video can help patients make end-of-life decisions
Viewing a video showing a patient with advanced dementia interacting with family and caregivers may help elderly patients plan for end-of-life care, according to a study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers. See the advanced dementia video More videos from the same researcher In their report in the journal BMJ, the investigators found that [...]
Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients, study finds
A new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) found that only about half the patients diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer discuss hospice care with their physician within four to seven months of their diagnosis. “Many terminally ill patients who might benefit from hospice aren’t discussing it with their physicians and may not [...]
New study assesses quality and cost of care at nation’s hospitals
Costly care isn’t necessarily better care at the nation’s hospitals. New research conducted by a team including Harvard Kennedy School Professor Amitabh Chandra represents one of the first nationwide analyses of quality and spending at the level of individual hospitals in the United States. The study is published on the Health Affairs Web site. The [...]
Universal coverage may narrow gaps in health outcomes
Health care disparities in the United States have long been noted, with particular attention paid to the gaps separating racial and economic groups. And while some research has looked at how insurance — and lack of insurance — contributes to this imbalance, few, if any, studies have quantified the impact of universal coverage on differences [...]
Mexican program successful at reducing crippling health care costs
Seguro Popular, a Mexican health care program instituted in 2003, has already reduced crippling health care costs among poorer households, according to an evaluation conducted by researchers at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers in Mexico.
U.S. hospitals slow to adopt electronic health records, citing cost
There is broad consensus that electronic health records (EHR) have the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care providers. Yet, to date, there has been no reliable estimate of the prevalence of EHR use among U.S. hospitals. In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Massachusetts General [...]
Policies regarding IRB members’ industry contacts often lacking
At a time of heightened concern about conflicts of interest posed by relationships between academic medical researchers and commercial firms, a new study finds that a significant number of academic institutions do not have clear policies covering the industrial relationships of members of institutional review boards (IRBs), committees charged with ensuring that clinical studies uphold [...]
Blumenthal named national coordinator for health information technology
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today (March 20) the selection of David Blumenthal as the Obama administration’s choice for national coordinator for health information technology. A physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Blumenthal is also director of the MGH Institute for Health Policy and Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine [...]
Supply of board-certified emergency physicians unlikely to meet projected needs
The number of physicians with board certification in emergency medicine is unlikely to meet the staffing needs of U.S. emergency departments in the foreseeable future, if ever. In the December issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, the investigators report finding that staffing every emergency department with board-certified emergency physicians does not appear to be feasible, given [...]
South African AIDS policy tied to 330,000 lives lost
More than 330,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa from 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program was not implemented, assert researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in a study published by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS). In addition, an estimated 35,000 [...]
Decline in cigarette smoking in U.S. significantly offset by increase in other tobacco products
While trends in cigarette smoking and sales have declined in the U.S. for the past decade, sales of non-cigarette tobacco products have been on the rise. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, led by Professor Greg Connolly, director of the Tobacco Control Research Program at HSPH, and Hillel Alpert, research associate in the [...]
NIH awards Harvard Medical School $117.5 million, five-year grant for patient-centered research
The National Institutes of Health today announced that Harvard Medical School (HMS) will receive $117.5 million over the next five years for the establishment of a Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) that will transform patient-oriented, laboratory-to-bedside research at HMS and its affiliated hospitals. Harvard University, HMS, and a number of the affiliated hospitals are [...]
Life expectancy stagnating, worsening, for large segment of U.S. population
A new, long-term study of mortality trends in U.S. counties from 1960 to 2000 finds that an overall average life expectancy increase of 6.5 years for men and women is not reaching many parts of the country. Instead, the life expectancy of a significant segment of the population is actually declining or at best stagnating. [...]
Dramatic increase in ER waiting time for seriously ill patients
Patients of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status are facing ever-increasing waits for care in emergency rooms, according to a study published online today by the journal Health Affairs. The problem is particularly acute for those who are severely ill, Harvard Medical School researchers at Cambridge Health Alliance found. The study, which analyzed the time [...]
Symposium addresses disparities in Native American health care
Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children. Dwojak’s mother was 48. “My grandmother said our family ‘just wasn’t lucky,’ and my aunt said that ‘longevity doesn’t run in our family,’” Dwojak said. Growing up, she saw many of her family members [...]
Almost two million veterans lack health coverage
One in every eight (12.2 percent) of the 47 million Americans without health insurance is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers based at the Cambridge Health Alliance. The study is published in the December, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Just [...]
Economic motivation could underlie some ordering of imaging tests
A new study by researchers at Institute for Technology Assessment in Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Department of Radiology finds that physicians who consistently refer patients to themselves or members of their own specialty for imaging studies, rather than to radiologists, are more likely to order such studies for a variety of medical conditions. The results [...]
Medical schools’ departments, department heads often have industry relationships
BOSTON – A study led by members of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy (MGH-IHP) has found that institutional academic-industry relationships – financial relationships companies have with medical schools or teaching hospitals rather than with individual physicians or scientists – are as common and pervasive as individual relationships. Their report, the first nationwide [...]
U.S. lagging in adoption of electronic health records
With fewer than one in 10 doctors making full use of electronic health records and as few as 5 percent of hospitals using one form of them, the U.S. health care industry is way behind in adopting new systems that can improve patient care and reduce medical mistakes, according to a new report co-authored by [...]
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