Featured series 
Tag: Harvard School of Public Health
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Health
Jeremiah Mead, architect of respiratory mechanics field, dies
Jeremiah “Jere” Mead, architect of the field of respiratory mechanics and professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), passed away on July 4, 2009, at a health care facility in Ellsworth, Maine. He was 88 years old. Working in the 1950s with then-research fellow Mary Ellen…
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Health
D. Mark Hegsted, national force in science of human nutrition, dies
D. Mark Hegsted, who was instrumental in the development of the federal “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” died Tuesday, June 16, 2009, at the age of 95 at a nursing center in Westwood, Mass. Hegsted was a founding member of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), among the first such…
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Science & Tech
‘Water guy’ John Briscoe stays in motion
For someone who deep-sixed his BlackBerry (instant e-mail was taking over his life) and traded the local newspaper for a good book (“What do I need to know about Celtics’ scores?”), John Briscoe ’76 is as worldly a person as you are ever likely to meet.
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Health
How growing cells move together
Our cells are more than inert bags of proteins and genes whose complex signaling networks confound the world’s most powerful computers. They also have a physical side whose brawny feats may guide our basic good health. For the first time, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have directly measured the physical forces at…
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Health
Survey: Many Americans protecting themselves against H1N1
As part of a series about Americans’ response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has released a national poll that finds that many Americans have taken steps to protect themselves and their families against the disease. The polling was done on May…
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Health
Survey: Nearly half of Americans concerned they or their family may get sick from swine flu
Following the declaration of a public health emergency due to the new H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) conducted a poll about how concerned Americans are about the outbreak, how they are responding, and what they believe about transmission, prevention,…
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Health
Outwitting mutating flu during a pandemic
In a global influenza pandemic, small stockpiles of a secondary flu medication – if used early in local outbreaks – could extend the effectiveness of primary drug stockpiles, according to research made available April 30 ahead of publication in PLoS Medicine. Many countries are investing in large stockpiles of a single drug, oseltamivir (Tamiflu). But…
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
Liu wins Wendell scholarship; Nye, Walt, and Ruggie recognized by Trip; Witzel receives recognition; CID awards Quadir prize; Koven-Matasy ’10 named Beinecke Scholar; Cheng named to USA Today All-USA College Academic Team; Satcher to give Richmond Lecture; Allison to receive NAS award
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Nation & World
Michael VanRooyen: Rebuilding places that peace abandoned
“When they put the gun in my mouth, I decided it wasn’t so ridiculous after all.”
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Health
Majority of new cases of diabetes in older U.S. adults could be prevented
Even as science searches for more clues about the causes of diabetes and medications to prevent it, the vast majority of new cases of the disease in older adults could be prevented by following a modestly healthier lifestyle, according to research led by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). In a study…
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Health
Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight top three preventable causes of death in the U.S.
Smoking, having high blood pressure, and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), with collaborators from the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University…
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Nation & World
Jocelyn Kelly: Seeking the whole picture of Congo violence
Jocelyn Kelly stood alone at the airport in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali, wondering whether anyone would meet her.
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Health
Breast cancer danger rising in developing world
Women in developing nations, once thought to have a small chance of contracting breast cancer, are increasingly getting the disease as lifestyles incorporate risk factors common in industrialized nations, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said Tuesday (April 14).
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Science & Tech
Countway marks development of ‘the pill’
The birth control pill, which revolutionized contraception and sparked a cultural reassessment of the purpose of sex and the sanctity of life, was developed by a Harvard fertility doctor who believed people should have children early in life — and as many as they could afford. John Rock, a Harvard College and Harvard Medical School…
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Science & Tech
Narayanamurti named director of Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Belfer Center
Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti will be the new director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Belfer Center director Graham Allison announced April 1. “Dean Venky,” as he is widely known, is the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied…
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Health
Infant weight gain linked to childhood obesity
As childhood obesity continues its 30-year advance from occasional curiosity to cultural epidemic, health care providers are struggling to find out why — and the reasons are many. Increasingly sedentary environments for both adults and children, as well as cheap and ubiquitous processed foods no doubt play a role, but researchers are finding more evidence…
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Health
Newly identified genetic variants found to increase breast cancer risk
A large-scale effort to identify genetic markers of breast cancer has uncovered two common genetic variants that increase risk of the disease in women of European ancestry. The paper, published in advance online in Nature Genetics on March 29, is part of an ongoing effort led by a team of researchers from the Harvard School…
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Health
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…
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Health
President Obama taps Howard Koh for Assistant Secretary for Health
President Barack Obama announced today his intent to nominate Howard Koh, the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), to be assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. Koh is also the school’s Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and…
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Science & Tech
Researchers find majority of fire and ambulance recruits overweight or obese
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston Medical Center, Harvard University, and Cambridge Health Alliance found that more than 75 percent of emergency responder candidates for fire and ambulance services in Massachusetts are either overweight or obese. The findings, which appear online today (March 19) in the journal Obesity, have significant consequences for…
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Health
Glass tables: An overlooked safety threat
Many households harbor a threat to young children that safety regulations, surprisingly, have overlooked: glass-topped tables and tables with glass panels. A review by Children’s Hospital Boston, in collaboration with Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, finds that glass-table injuries aren’t as rare as one might think, and that many could have been…
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Health
Obesity linked to dangerous sleep apnea in truck drivers
Truck crashes are a significant public health hazard, causing thousands of deaths and injuries each year, with driver fatigue and sleepiness being major causes. A new study by Harvard researchers has confirmed previous findings that obesity-driven testing strategies identify commercial truck drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and suggests that mandating…
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Health
Blood type study sheds light on biology of pancreatic cancer
Offering a novel clue about the basic biology of pancreatic cancer, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have confirmed a decades-old discovery of a link between blood type and the risk of developing the disease. The finding, published online by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on March 10, is based on an analysis of…
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Health
Higher temperatures lead to more severe headaches
Although large numbers of headache sufferers, particularly individuals who struggle with migraines, attribute their pain to the weather, there has been little scientific evidence to back up their assertions. Now, a study of more than 7,000 patients, led by Harvard researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), provides some of the first large-scale data…
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Health
Weight loss bottom line: Fewer calories
A new study by Harvard researchers and colleagues shows that eating fewer calories leads to weight loss, regardless of where those calories come from. Many popular diets emphasize either carbohydrate, protein, or fat as the best way to lose weight. Yet there have been few studies lasting more than a year that evaluate the effect…
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Health
Patients are untapped resource for improving care, study finds
A 15-month study of 21,860 patients and 110 primary care physicians at 11 Harvard Vanguard health centers found that patients who received mailed reminders that they were due for colorectal cancer screenings were more likely to schedule screenings than those who didn’t. Forty-four percent of patients who received a reminder in the mail got screened,…
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Health
Surgical safety checklist drops deaths and complications by more than one-third
A group of hospitals in eight cities around the globe has successfully demonstrated that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one-third. The rate of major complications in the study operating rooms fell from 11 percent in the baseline period to…
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Science & Tech
‘Bicycle Environments’ takes HSPH and GSD students for a ride
At a time when the United States scrambles to resolve the country’s obesity epidemic, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and lessen dependency on foreign fossil fuels, this semester the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Graduate School of Design (GSD) have launched an interdisciplinary course that tackles all three problems (and…
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Health
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…