Category Archives: Health equity

Whole Person Health: A Path to Health Equity (Part 2)

In our first blog post of this series, we discussed how the current medical approach misses so much of what influences health, and how it perpetuates health inequities in our society. In this post, we go in-depth on the elements of Whole Person Health (WPH) that are necessary components of a just and equitable approach… Read More »

Whole Person Health: A Path to Health Equity (Part 1)

Our current U.S. medical system doesn’t work. It is not able to adequately care for the sickest, most vulnerable, and least resourced people. It often excludes those seen as “other” in our society. To become a just system, we need a new focus on Whole Person Health (WPH). Very briefly, WPH cares for the whole person and… Read More »

Social drivers of cancer mortality

By | March 28, 2022

In 1981, Doll and Peto published a well-known paper estimating that roughly 75-80% of cancer mortality was preventable. Forty years later, cancer mortality has declined some overall – but we still see vast disparities. Some of these disparities have gotten worse over time. With the Biden administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot initiative, combined with a renewed… Read More »

To Address Synthetic Opioids, These Public Health Strategies Must Play a Vital Role

By | February 14, 2022

The opioid epidemic and substance use disorders have garnered national attention as overdose deaths continue at an alarming rate. Synthetic opioids – chiefly fentanyl – are the culprit in many of those deaths. The Commission’s report Earlier this month, the bipartisan Congressional Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, with representatives from many Federal agencies and… Read More »

February 2022 Podcast

By | February 10, 2022

In this episode of our podcast series, Samyuktha Anand, secretary-elect for the Medical Care section, recaps the blog posts we published in January. Next, Jess Williams, co-editor, interviews Nien Chen Li about her recently published paper — a winner of the APHA Medical Care Section’s Student Paper Award in 2020. Dr. Li’s paper is about… Read More »