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Call for Contributors

By | November 8, 2022

The Medical Care Blog is always looking for new contributors! We’re especially interested in people who can commit to writing one blog post per month or every 3 months. We are open to contributors at all stages of career development. Prior blogging experience preferred, but not required. Our posts cover a wide range of topics. Many… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Racial Residential Segregation

By | October 31, 2024

Racial residential segregation in the US is persistent and associated with racial health inequities. This month’s special guest is Dr. Kristen Brown, a senior research associate at Urban Institute. We discuss her recent publication Still Separate, Still Not Equal: An ecological examination of redlining and racial segregation with COVID-19 vaccination administration in Washington DC. We… Read More »

Presidential Election Puts Affordable Care Act Back in the Bull’s-Eye

By | October 25, 2024

Note: The 2024 election wraps-up in short order. KFF once again published a thoughtful analysis of competing positions on health care–in this case the Affordable Care Act. And we are republishing that here. Enjoy. -The Editors Health care is suddenly front and center in the final sprint to the presidential election, and the outcome will… Read More »

Centering Disability Justice in Climate Change Efforts

By | October 21, 2024

Disability impacts all of us. Chances are that we ourselves or someone we love lives with at least one disability–a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Around 16 percent of the global population (close to one billion people) lives with a disability. And in the U.S., the rate… Read More »

Compare the Candidates on Health Care Policy

By | October 10, 2024

Note: It’s election season. And time to take a look at the health policy positions of the presidential candidates. KFF published this thorough and well-sourced analysis of the candidates’ competing positions on everything from health care and abortion to public health and gun violence. Enjoy. -The Editors The general election campaign is underway, spotlighting former… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Celebrating Our Blogiversary

By | September 26, 2024

It’s September! That means it’s our blogiversary =) This month marks the 10-year anniversary (blogiversary) of The Medical Care Blog, where we focus on the intersection of public health and medical care. To celebrate this milestone, we are dedicating this month’s podcast to a blog-focused episode featuring special guests Greg Stevens and Ben King, co-editors… Read More »

4 Ways Vaccine Skeptics Mislead You on Measles and More

By | September 19, 2024

This post was originally published on KFF Health News. It is published with open permission by that site. Measles is on the rise in the United States. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cases was about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the four… Read More »

Be a Little Less of an Individual: On Climate Change with Bill McKibben

Caring about the environment can feel like an uphill battle, where our individual efforts can seem small against the colossal issue of climate change. But working together–being just a little less of an individual in this battle–can feel uplifting and make a more significant difference. Environmental activist and author, Bill McKibben, joined Cal State LA’s… Read More »

First, Love Your Community: On Community Environmental Activism With mark! Lopez

“Love your community” was the overriding message from East Side Los Angeles-based community environmental activist mark! Lopez. mark! [spelled as written] was the third guest of the Cal State LA Public Health Department’s annual Book Read project. Love, he said, is the first concrete step that anybody can take to help protect and support their community.… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Local Climate Impact

By | August 22, 2024

How can we understand the local impact of climate change on our communities, now and in the future? All year, we are keeping up our focus on the climate crisis here on the blog and podcast. One of the biggest issues with understanding the impact of climate change is that the data on climate-related deaths… Read More »

Every Little Bit Helps: On Climate Change and Hope With Sammy Roth and Caleigh Wells

Every little bit helps.  That is one of the key messages from our conversations on public health, climate change and hope with climate journalists Sammy Roth and Caleigh Wells. Each visited California State University Los Angeles as part of our Department of Public Health’s annual book read. All faculty and students in the department received… Read More »

Ready or Not: Primary Care Must Prepare for Climate Change

Climate change is a global killer, contributing to over 5 million deaths annually. Extreme temperatures and weather not only worsen chronic health conditions but can lead to new physical and mental health issues. Primary care providers are already facing challenges with managing climate-driven health problems, and are certain to face more. For my primary care… Read More »

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Survival of the Biggest: How Consolidation through Private Equity is Reshaping Primary Care

By | July 25, 2024

Consolidation, broadly, and private equity, specifically, is threatening the survival of primary care. Because of its life-extending, quality-improving, cost-reducing, and equity-promoting benefits, primary care has been declared a common good, worthy of the public stewardship and investment provided to the justice system, highways, and public schools. Through its core functions – coordination, comprehensiveness, access, and… Read More »

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Healthy Intersections Podcast: Ocean Health and Human Health

By | July 17, 2024

Summer is here, and what summer is complete without some time at the beach? But there’s a catch: our health and the ocean’s health are connected in some surprising ways. Beach closures in summer — from algal blooms and red tides, for example — are just one of the ways that the ocean’s health can… Read More »

Private In-equity: Whose Interests Do We Serve?

The pharmaceutical industry is a behemoth in the United States. In 2023, the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies had a market capitalization of $3.78 trillion dollars. Pharma companies spent more than $15 million dollars in contributions through political action committees during the 2020 election cycle. Analysts constantly see new avenues of generating revenues and profits for… Read More »

Upcoming 988 Medical Care Symposium & Utilization of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ Service

Before we introduce this week’s post about important disparities in 988 utilization, by Lindsey Dawson and Heather Saunders and originally published in KFF Health News, we wanted to highlight an upcoming Symposium on Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies being held by the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (among others). The need… Read More »

A Series on Climate Change and Hope

By | June 28, 2024

Climate change is undeniably a bleak story. Recent data–from the top of a remote volcanic mountain–show that carbon dioxide is accumulating in our atmosphere faster than ever. Its concentration has reached levels far beyond those in any other time of human existence. This bad news is balanced, however, against a highly-regarded good news report that… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias

By | June 19, 2024

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month. On this edition of the Healthy Intersections Podcast, we recognize Alzheimer’s Awareness Month by hosting a round-table discussion between Dr. Lisa Lines, principal investigator for the RTI Rarity project; Chloe McGlynn, a research public health analyst at RTI; Dr. Vicki Johnson-Lawrence, social epidemiologist and community-engaged participatory researcher at… Read More »

Successful Aging for LGBTQ+ Older Adults

By | June 13, 2024

Every older adult should have the opportunity to age successfully. And the growing older LGBTQ+ population is no exception. This group is diverse, with unique health and social needs. On average, LGBTQ+ older adults experience poorer physical and mental health, but this is by no means the case for all LGBTQ+ older adults. The adversity… Read More »

Food is Medicine – and Should Be Treated Like It

By | June 7, 2024

Food is life. A consistent, nutritious diet can improve overall health and protect against chronic conditions. But not everyone can access or afford a nutritious diet. In 2022, 1 in 8 households in the U.S. and 1 in 6 households with children were food insecure. Black and Latinx households experience more than double the rates… Read More »

Protecting Black Maternal Health Through Provider Diversity, Innovative Programs

By | May 30, 2024

Research shows time and again that Black women are at least three times more likely to die from a pregnancy or childbirth-related cause than white women. Black infants are also over two times more likely than white babies to die before they turn one. Research also shows that people identifying as Black or African American… Read More »

Selling Fear at a High Price

By | May 23, 2024

I asked the question as a panelist at a health equity gathering, “Who does our health system serve?”. As a family medicine physician who sits perilously between patients and corporations (insurance, pharmaceutical, durable medical equipment, etc.), my answer was quite simple. Our health system serves the profit motives of those with hands in the jar.… Read More »

Post-Dobbs Situation Report

By | May 16, 2024

Abortion Bans Are Driving Off Doctors and Closing Clinics, Putting Basic Health Care at Risk The rush to ban abortion in some US states after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.… Read More »

Alabama embryo ruling threatened access to IVF across the state and possibly nationwide

By | May 9, 2024

After seemingly endless negative pregnancy tests and a few early losses after rounds of alternate fertility treatments, I felt that in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was my only hope of becoming a mother. As I saw others conceiving naturally, or succeeding relatively quickly with less invasive assisted methods, my longing and desperation for motherhood only grew. I… Read More »

Impacts of Climate Change on Health and Health Care Utilization

By | May 2, 2024

For new readers, the editors and the majority of contributors to The Medical Care Blog recently authored and signed onto a special consensus statement about climate change, labeling it the “greatest threat” to global public health. As part of the plan to publish that statement, we also declared that the drivers and health risks of… Read More »

Connections between planetary and human health

By | April 25, 2024

Without a healthy planet, we cannot have a healthy humanity. Every April is Earth Month, an opportunity to reflect on the deep and profound connection between the health of our planet and our own well-being. Our existence is dependent on the web of life that surrounds us. It is our responsibility to nurture and protect… Read More »

Tell Me a Good Story: The Value of Stories in Health Services Research

By | April 19, 2024

I am a health economist, trained to make sense of messy data. I generally work amidst a sea of numbers. But I’ve found that seeking out stories in health services research–those of doctors and patients–can help me anchor what’s truly important in research. These stories may also help researchers communicate the value of their work… Read More »

Suicide Prevention Requires Collective, Systemic Solutions

By | April 11, 2024

Suicide prevention and intervention programs and services are vital. Mental health services are essential to support individuals, families, and communities struggling with mental health, suicide, and after suicide loss. But we must also recognize that preventing suicide requires a larger collective, systemic response.  Suicide deaths are rising steadily every year, with a record high of… Read More »

How Primary Care Is Being Disrupted: A Video Primer

How patients are seeing their doctor is changing, and that could shape access to and quality of care for decades to come. More than 100 million Americans don’t have regular access to primary care, a number that has nearly doubled since 2014. Yet demand for primary care is up, spurred partly by record enrollment in… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: COVID-19, 4 Years Later

By | September 16, 2024

It’s been 4 years this month since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. Where are we now? It’s time to take stock of the real impact of the pandemic. Aside from the burden of illness and mortality, the mental health toll, and the strains on the healthcare system, COVID even… Read More »

Racial/Ethnic Concordance and Doctor Communication

By | March 14, 2024

Patient-provider racial/ethnic concordance (i.e., physician and patient identify as the same race/ethnicity) has emerged as one key suggestion for mitigating healthcare disparities. Past research has underlined its benefits, including improved infant mortality and more appropriate prescription regimens. However, the sum of the evidence remains unclear and many facets of the patient-provider relationship have yet to… Read More »

Health Equity in the Time of Hospital Consolidation

By | March 7, 2024

Competition between hospitals in a given market should provide incentives to ensure quality while also lowering costs. Over the past two decades, hospital markets have increasingly consolidated. This consolidation reduces competition and increases the comparative leverage that hospitals and associated health systems have. While there are some theoretical advantages of increased consolidation such as potential… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Healthcare’s Carbon Footprint

By | February 28, 2024

If the US healthcare industry were its own country, it would be in the top 10% of all countries in greenhouse gas emissions. Welcome to the February, 2024 edition of the Healthy Intersections Podcast! This month, we sit down with David Introcaso, PhD, to discuss the healthcare industry’s carbon footprint. Dr. Introcaso is the host… Read More »

History of Climate Policy and Advocacy by the American Public Health Association

By | February 23, 2024

In January, the Medical Care Blog’s editors published a consensus statement on climate policy and health. This statement was co-signed by many of our authors, editors, and editorial board members of the Medical Care journal. As we look ahead to our focus theme for 2024, we want to begin with a look backward as well.… Read More »

Studying Patient Economic Outcomes

By | February 5, 2024

A special supplemental issue of Medical Care supports the growing recognition that patient economic outcomes matter in health care. Sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the issue highlights studies that explore the relationship between economic outcomes, patient care, health outcomes and equity. Patient-centered… Read More »

Social Determinants of Health Programs Improve Health Outcomes

By | February 1, 2024

The social determinants of health (SDOH), the conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age, have a significant impact on health outcomes. Research shows that a whopping 80-90% of health outcomes are dependent on SDOH factors, while medical care only accounts for about 10-20%. New clinical-community partnerships designed to address… Read More »

Category: All

Healthy Intersections Podcast: Talking About Plastics

By | January 26, 2024

January 2024 Edition Hello, and welcome to the Healthy Intersections Podcast, hosted here at The Medical Care Blog. We’re kicking off a year of climate action here on the podcast and blog. For our first episode of 2024, we interview Dr. Imari Walker-Franklin, a research chemist at RTI International, science communicator, and the co-author of… Read More »

Don’t “Stay In Your Lane”: Why Clinicians Should Be Activists For Social Change

It was the tweet heard around the healthcare world. In 2018, after the American College of Physicians had published their position paper advocating gun control as a public health imperative, the National Rifle Association posted a tweet starting: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” Clinicians immediately began posting images and… Read More »

Trending Toward Medicare Advantage for All

By | January 18, 2024

Medicare for All is Not Happening… 10 years from now will we have Medicare Advantage for All? Grandmother and granddaughter in the same health plan? Others have written that the US should achieve universal health insurance coverage, better health outcomes, and lower costs via comprehensive programs such as “Medicare for All”, as proposed by Senator… Read More »

Climate Change and Public Health Consensus Statement

From The Medical Care Blog: A special consensus statement on climate change and public health In 2021, more than 250 of the world’s leading medical and public health journals released a joint statement about climate change and public health. Published simultaneously, editorial boards of the journals declared climate change to be the “greatest threat” to… Read More »

Weathering and Its Impacts on Health

By | January 4, 2024

What comes to mind when you hear the word “weathering”? Perhaps you think of erosion, depletion, and wearing down. Or maybe enduring, surviving, and withstanding. All of these associations accurately describe what happens to our bodies in response to chronic stress. This particular type of physiological stress affects the brain and other parts of the… Read More »

Top Posts of 2023

By | December 27, 2023

This is the final post of 2023 here at The Medical Care Blog. To toast the year behind us we’ve compiled the year’s top 10 blog posts and highlighted some of the many milestones for our contributors and editorial team. Once again, we want to recognize YOU–our amazing readers and contributors. Since our founding in… Read More »

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Yearning for Change: Youth Activism and Civic Engagement in Public Health

By | December 21, 2023

The need for youth activism and civic engagement in public health has never been greater. A mentor once said, “When public health is doing its thing, you will never hear a word about it.” But today, the profession doesn’t have that luxury. We must act if we want public health to remain a strong and… Read More »

Effects of COVID-19 in ACA markets

In this post, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected frequencies of diagnoses and claims costs in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces in 2020 and 2021. The ACA marketplaces are critical sources of coverage for millions of Americans and were increasingly so during the COVID-19 pandemic due to job losses and coverage disruptions. The… Read More »

Special Issue of Medical Care: Implementation and Cost of evidence-based, patient-centered programs

By | November 30, 2023

As part of its partnership with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Medical Care has published its first PCORI-sponsored article collection, which provides specific information about the costs that healthcare systems can expect to incur in promoting the uptake of specific evidence-based programs. In September’s special issue, five project teams that received Implementation Award funding from PCORI… Read More »

Health Plans With Deductibles See Lower Lung Cancer Screening Rates

By | November 22, 2023

The United States Preventive Services Task Force has recommended lung cancer screening for at-risk groups since 2013, and updated again in 2021. This is a simple procedure involving a low dose of radiation used to take a CT image of the chest. If utilized by most eligible Americans, screening could reduce lung cancer mortality by… Read More »

Healthy Intersections Podcast: November 2023

By | February 17, 2024

This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism. Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for November, 2023. This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism in the United States. Joining us to talk about the new Structural Racism Effect Index (SREI) is Dr. Zach Dyer, lead author on the analysis. Check out the dashboard at SREIndex.com and… Read More »

Making PrEP Accessible to Patients Experiencing Homelessness

By | November 9, 2023

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has gone from a deadly infection to a manageable health condition in the last thirty years. Today, we have medications available that can treat those with HIV and prevent HIV in uninfected people. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, is a medication given to individuals without HIV to keep them from… Read More »

Meet the Blog’s Newest Addition to the Editorial Team: Ben King

By | November 9, 2023

Ben King is joining our editorial team at The Medical Care Blog! Dr. King (he/him) is currently an Assistant Professor of Population Health at the new Tilman J Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston. He has additional appointments in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, with the UH-Humana Integrated Health… Read More »

A Significant Step Toward Single Payer Health Care in California

By | October 26, 2023

California just took a significant step toward single payer health care. On Oct 7, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 770 (Unified Health Care Financing) into law. Introduced by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law directs the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency to research, develop and pursue a waiver framework… Read More »