Featured series 
Tag: Health Care
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Campus & Community
Does Infection Boost Prostate Cancer Risk?
In the new study, Jennifer Stark of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues analyzed blood samples from 673 men with prostate cancer who participated in the Physicians’ Health Study, a large, ongoing study examining a variety of health issues.
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Campus & Community
Donations to cancer institute hit $1b
A Dana-Farber Cancer Institute fund-raising campaign has hit the $1 billion mark a year earlier than expected – despite the ragged economy – setting what is believed to be a record for New England health care institutions. The drive’s success, which will be announced today, appears to have few national parallels, although at least one…
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Campus & Community
Insured, but Bankrupted Anyway
Dr. David Himmelstein is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a primary care doctor at the Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts. “Our most recent study found that nearly two-thirds of Americans who declared bankruptcy cited illness or medical bills as a significant cause of their bankruptcies. And of the medically bankrupt, three-quarters…
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Campus & Community
Sorting Fact From Fiction on Health Care
In recent town-hall meetings, President Barack Obama has called for a national debate on health-care reform based on facts.
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Health
Mobile health van returns $36 for every dollar invested
Researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) have developed a prototype “return on investment calculator” that can measure the value of prevention services. Using a Boston-based mobile health program called the “Family Van” to test the tool, the team found that for the services provided in 2008, this program, in the long run, will return $36…
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Health
Acid-suppressive medicines increase pneumonia risk for hospital patients
Ever since a class of drugs called proton pump inhibitors was introduced to the market in the late 1980s, the use of these acid-suppressive medications for heartburn, acid reflux, and other gastrointestinal symptoms has grown tremendously. The widespread use has extended to the inpatient hospital setting, where patients are often routinely given the medications as…
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Nation & World
Health care
HEALTH CARE: Joseph Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School
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Science & Tech
Saving lives, saving money
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.
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Health
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center among top 100 hospitals
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, has been named one of the top 100 hospitals in the United States. The award is based in overall organizational performance, according to the annual study released Monday (March 30) by the health care business of Thomson Reuters. BIDMC was the only Massachusetts…
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Health
Patients untapped resource for improving care
As the United States transitions to a new administration, and as the health care crisis mounts, the debate about how to buttress primary care delivery with information technology is getting louder. While much of the attention — and controversy — is focused on how to better equip physicians, little focus appears to be aimed at…
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Health
Low-income diabetic women at increased risk for postpartum depression
Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the University of Minnesota have found that living just above the poverty line and having diabetes increases by 50 percent a woman’s chance of developing postpartum depression — a serious illness that affects about one in 10 new mothers.
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Health
Clinicians override most medication safety alerts
Computer-based systems that allow clinicians to prescribe drugs electronically are designed to automatically warn of potential medication errors, but a new study reveals clinicians often override the alerts and rely instead on their own judgment.
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Health
Rights, AIDS, past and future
Sixty years after the United Nations declared health care a basic human right, the AIDS epidemic highlights how much work remains to be done as the disease rages on among populations with little access to quality care.
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Health
Early success highlights need for more progress
Many of the 500,000 African babies born infected with HIV each year won’t live past age 2, a fact made even more appalling by the fact that doctors know how to halt mother-to-child HIV transmission.
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Health
Cutler finds decline in cancer deaths
Improvements in behavior and screening have contributed greatly to the 13 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1990, with better cancer treatments playing a supporting role, according to new research from David Cutler of Harvard University.
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Health
Health disparities in Boston focus of talk at HSPH Community Partnership Day
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the city’s top health official, Barbara Ferrer, speaking at the Harvard School of Public Health’s (HSPH) 18th Annual Community Partnership Day, said efforts to end racial health disparities must go forward in the city even as the nation’s economy falters.
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Health
In survey, patients give some high, some low marks to hospitals
The quality of hospitals across the United States is inconsistent. To address this issue, the federal government and private organizations have begun to publicly report data, such as how well hospitals treat certain conditions. But until now, there has been no data on how patients themselves feel about the care they received. A new study…
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Campus & Community
Incoming HSPH dean receives Clinton Global Citizen Award
Julio Frenk, who will become dean of the Harvard School of Public Health in January 2009, has received a Clinton Global Citizen Award. In naming Frenk, along with four other individuals, former President William J. Clinton said, “The Global Citizen Awards are about honoring and inspiring service to humanity. Our award recipients were chosen from…
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Health
Research in brief
BLACKS, HISPANICS LESS LIKELY TO GET FOLLOW-UP RADIATION THERAPY, BLACKS MORE LIKELY TO CHOOSE AGGRESSIVE CARE AT END OF LIFE
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Nation & World
Haiti: Malnutrition
In Haiti, malnutrition is the most serious threat to pediatric health.
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Health
Americans split on socialized medicine
During the course of the presidential nomination campaigns, some candidates’ health care plans have been described as “socialized medicine.” Historically, that phrase has been used to criticize health reform proposals in the United States.
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Health
Ethicists, philosophers discuss selling of human organs
In nearly every country in the world, there is a shortage of kidneys for transplantation. In the United States, around 73,000 people are on waiting lists to receive a kidney. Yet 4,000 die every year before the lifesaving organ is available.
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Campus & Community
Martin wins prize for research, innovation
Internationally renowned Canadian neuroscientist Joseph B. Martin, dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine, was recently named the inaugural winner of the Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research.