Tag: Harvard School of Public Health

  • Nation & World

    A deadly foe

    By the end of the conference, “Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century,” a few recommendations for international controls stood out: Consider public health a basic human right, and tobacco promotion a violation of that right.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Weight and mortality

    In January, when the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a meta-analysis of 100 studies that probed the relationship between body mass index and mortality — studies that found slightly overweight people have lower all-cause mortality than normal weight and underweight people — media around the globe trumpeted the news.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cutting costs, buoying health care

    A Harvard Medical School lecturer and former head of the federal agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid shared his experiences pushing for improved health care quality, saying that teamwork, cost curtailment, and a focus on patients are keys to success.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Sunshine vitamin’ looks a little brighter

    Adequate levels of vitamin D during young adulthood could cut the risk of adult-onset type 1 diabetes by as much as 50 percent, according to new findings by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Worldwide, women’s inequality

    A U.N. official said Thursday that the world has made progress in reducing poverty and in meeting some of its eight Millennium Development Goals, but that entrenched inequality of women will slow efforts to meet equality and maternal mortality targets by 2015.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Fighting a global menace

    Students at the Harvard School of Public Health are joining forces to draw attention to World Cancer Day on Feb. 4, organizing a symposium of experts to talk about the problem and collecting signatures for a declaration of cancer-related global health priorities.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Inside India’s pop-up city

    Every 12 years, the Kumbh Mela, a centuries-old Hindu pilgrimage, temporarily transforms an empty floodplain in India into one of the biggest cities in the world. This month, an interdisciplinary team of Harvard professors, students, and researchers set out to map the gathering for the first time.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Whole grain’ not always healthy

    U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans consume at least three servings of whole-grain products daily, and the new U.S. national school lunch standards require that at least half of all grains be whole-grain rich. However, no single standard exists for defining any product as a “whole grain,” according to a Harvard…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Considering gun violence

    Panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health urged both regulatory and cultural changes in how America handles guns, saying change will only come if people speak out and urging a shift in how society views guns in the home.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Green incentive for going green

    Two new initiatives are being rolled out by Harvard’s CommuterChoice Program this winter. The expanded benefits will offer bicyclists tax-free reimbursements for bike-related expenses, including purchase and repair, and will provide Emergency Ride Home services to faculty and staff commuters who do not travel by car.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    EdX expansion set for spring

    EdX, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced its spring course and module offerings, including four at Harvard.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gun violence in America

    The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School should galvanize Americans to view gun violence as a public health crisis, says David Hemenway, professor of health policy and author of “Private Guns, Public Health.”

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lessons for the next Sandy

    Disaster relief dollars flowing to those affected by hurricanes like Sandy and Katrina represent an important opportunity to ensure that communities are better able to withstand the stronger storms and higher seas likely coming as climate change worsens, panelists said.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    TB test offers rapid results

    A new rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) could substantially and cost-effectively reduce TB deaths and improve treatment in southern Africa — a region where both HIV and tuberculosis are common — according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    NFL chief talks player safety at HSPH

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell highlighted recent moves to make the game safer and affirmed a commitment to player safety Thursday (Nov. 15) during a talk at the Harvard School of Public Health.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Having it all’ at Harvard

    After an Atlantic magazine cover story launched a national debate on how women balance career and family, a group of Harvard women is continuing the conversation, and is looking for new ideas on how to make the work-life juggling act a little less stressful.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Green light for Obamacare

    Health care specialists discussed post-election Obamacare, including potential bumps in the road, in a panel talk at the Harvard School of Public Health.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Crossing the river of myths

    Grasp the right facts, said a renowned medical statistician, and the world is more complicated and interesting, with fewer myths that divide one region from another.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Coaching tips from Gawande

    “The biggest factor in determining how much students learn isn’t class size or standardized testing, but the quality of their teachers,” said Atul Gawande in a Harvard Graduate School of Education talk on ways teaching can be improved through coaching.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Aspirin’s impact on colorectal cancer

    Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute find that aspirin therapy can extend the life of colorectal cancer patients whose tumors carry a mutation in a key gene, but it has no effect on patients who lack the mutation.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Health care could swing voters

    A new analysis of 37 national opinion polls conducted by 17 survey organizations finds that health care is the second most important issue for likely voters in deciding their 2012 presidential vote. This is the highest that health care has been ranked as a presidential election issue since 1992.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The early days of discovery

    A recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry investigated the workings of cell receptors, the basis of his groundbreaking research involving the complex process of how the body’s cells communicate and interact, while a young medical resident at Harvard.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A close eye on population growth

    Joel Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller and Columbia universities, looked at the latest projections for world population growth, and factors that could alter them, in a Harvard talk.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mothers in peril

    Every 90 seconds, a mother dies in pregnancy or of childbirth complications — a tragic statistic, but one that may drive efforts to improve health care in developing countries, said public health specialists in a Harvard talk.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Kids are what they eat

    Sugary cereals, oversized soft drinks, and quarter-pound cheeseburgers are among the unhealthy food choices kids face daily. Junk food, most of it highly processed, and sugar-sweetened beverages are major contributors to the childhood obesity epidemic.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    For a health reform model, try Brazil

    Scholars and public health experts gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health to examine Brazil’s progress toward meeting the United Nations’ Millennium Development goals, and to see if there are lessons that can be applied to other countries.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The sharing of the green

    At orientation sessions, Harvard’s Schools provide students with information on how to live more sustainably and help the University to reduce its environmental footprint.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    After 9/11, health lessons ignored

    The public health lessons of 9/11 and subsequent anthrax attacks haven’t been learned, said Pulitzer Prize-winning author Laurie Garrett during a talk at the Harvard School of Public Health.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Vitamin D’s impact on infection

    A study led by Harvard researchers of Mongolian schoolchildren supports the possibility that daily vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk of respiratory infections in winter.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Toward better aid

    Three Harvard specialist draw from field experience in a discussion of the past and future of humanitarian aid.

    9 minutes