Hi, My name is Dr. Ben King and I’m the new Chair of the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). I am beyond excited about what the next couple of years have in store for us as a professional organization. I also recognize that we are entering a time of immense… Read More »
Women’s health is a broad and multifaceted concept that extends far beyond reproductive anatomy and sexual health. Historically, the focus of women’s health care and research has centered on reproduction, often overshadowing other critical aspects of physical and mental health and wellness. However, women’s health encompasses a wide array of issues, from cardiovascular and autoimmune… Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
“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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
This month’s topic focuses on suicide and social determinants of health (SDoH) Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for October, 2023. Today’s podcast focuses on the links between suicide and social determinants of health in the United States. Suicide is one of the causes of deaths of despair, along with deaths from drugs and alcohol.… Read More »
Representation matters to health. Improving pathways into health care and public health is an important way to increase workforce diversity. This is a crucial step in reducing health disparities and advancing health equity in the U.S. Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities face higher rates of chronic and life-threatening health conditions. Yet… Read More »
Happy fall! This month’s Healthy Intersections Podcast focuses on food and climate — a timely topic during the fall harvest months. Food insecurity and food quality are known as important social determinants of health. For example, the percent of residents receiving food assistance (eg, SNAP) is associated with neighborhood life expectancy. On the other hand,… Read More »
What if there was a public health problem so big that even public health leaders were too enmeshed in its grip to be able to warn against its perils? I worry that we are in that very conundrum with regard to our relationship with technology. It has accelerated from being part of our world to… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Trends in Life Expectancy The recent decline in life expectancy in the United States is largely attributed to the well-known COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic. However, these recent crises are not the sole drivers of the stagnation and subsequent drop in… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Anti-LGBTQ laws are flooding the United States. As of June, a historic 491 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in 2023 – a 203% increase from the entire 2022 year. More bills were introduced in the first three months of 2023 than… Read More »
Hi everyone! We’re excited to share the August edition of our Healthy Intersections Podcast with you. This month, we hosted Dr. Amanda Onwuka, a social epidemiologist and health services researcher at RTI International, as well as Jeremy Ney, author of American Inequality. We talk about the epidemic of drug overdose deaths in the US, mental… Read More »
The way we’re addressing substance use and overdoses in the United States isn’t working. Let’s be perfectly clear: the “war on drugs” isn’t, and never was, really a war on drugs. It’s been a war waged on communities who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The war on drugs started well before President… Read More »
Over the past 25 years, significant strides have been made in shifting services for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to home and community settings. Home and community-based services (HCBS) enable people with various forms of dementia to receive care in a familiar setting while promoting their independence, well-being, and overall quality of life. As… Read More »
Public health saved your life today, but you probably didn’t know it. That was one of the valuable take-home messages from Dr. Leana Wen, when she spoke to public health students and early career professionals at California State University Los Angeles. Dr. Wen was the culminating speaker in our semester-long series on public health leadership.… Read More »
Welcome to the June 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, along with Juliet Sheridan, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at North Carolina. We talk about historical redlining, climate change,… Read More »
See yourself as a leader. That is one of the key messages from Jackie Valenzuela, Chief Advisor to the County Health Officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She has held multiple leadership positions within the one of nation’s largest public health departments. And she recounts coming to them by being open… Read More »
Don’t wait to lead. That is a key message from Dr. Chris Chanyasulkit, the president of the American Public Health Association (APHA). And it resonates with many students and early career professionals anxious to make a change. Our conversation with Dr. Chanyasulkit was the first in a series on public health leadership. The Department of… Read More »
Racial justice reframing is the process of shifting our attention from individual choices to the many structural and societal factors that contribute to health inequities. This framing allows us to picture a world where values of equity, shared responsibility, and community care are paramount. We see a world where everyone – regardless of their identities… Read More »
Over the next month, The Medical Care Blog will feature a new series of posts on public health leadership. The goal is to help better prepare public health students and early career professionals for the many leadership challenges that await. Public health has a problem Whether it is COVID-19, drug overdoses or gun deaths, the… Read More »
Welcome to the May, 2023 episode of the Healthy Intersections podcast! This month, we sit down again with Carol Schmitt, Chief Scientist at RTI International, to talk about another of the RTI Rarity interactive state maps. This time, we are looking at Oklahoma. You can watch the episode, download the audio file, and read the… Read More »
The pandemic public health emergency declaration ends today in the United States. Here, I share a look back and what to expect going forward. One thing is clear: with this change in designation, the U.S. has revealed that its public health preparedness was always meant to be temporary. Where we started It was December 12,… Read More »
“Access for the sake of access or inclusion is not necessarily liberatory, but access done in the service of love, justice, connection, and community is liberatory and has the power to transform.” – Mia Mingus, community organizer, disability and transformative justice advocate Are you designing with equity and inclusion in mind? For public health and… Read More »
Originally published April 6, 2023; updated April 24, 2023 to add audio links. Welcome! April 2023 marks a new milestone for the Healthy Intersections Podcast (HIP), sponsored by the American Public Health Association’s Medical Care Section. I’m taking on the role of the main producer of HIP. We’re also moving to a video AND audio… Read More »
Public health has preached a lot of things in the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has promoted social distancing, masks, vaccines, and quarantine to help prevent the spread. And it has helped spread awareness about antivirals for people infected with COVID-19. But what about “social fitnessing”? This is the premise that the… Read More »
An Opportunity to Get Ahead of the Overdose Crisis For many Americans, drug use ‘prevention’ conjures memories of early public health campaigns using fearsome imagery and catchy slogans to deter substance use. Campaigns implored youth to “just say no” to drugs, and the public received stark warnings: “this is your brain on drugs.”
To address calls for improving health equity, organizations could consider using CLAS Standards to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In recent years, health organization leaders have prioritized the need to address systemic inequities. A 2021 survey of health care organizations identified health equity as a top priority [pdf]. This focus has grown since the… Read More »
Community-based clinicians sometimes see patients who have been recently released from immigration detention. Those encounters can be challenging, especially when patients reveal health harms experienced while in detention. It is obviously critical that clinicians provide high-quality medical care and address any health issues potentially brought about or exacerbated by their detention history. But do they… Read More »
It is more important than ever to expand access to a broad range of safe and effective contraceptives that includes long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods. We are living in a new era in the US. As of early November, 2022, abortions are banned from the point of conception in 12 states and severely restricted in… Read More »
In this month’s podcast, Dr. Samy Anand gives an overview of The Medical Care Blog posts published in October and a preview of the journal articles in the November issue of Medical Care. Then, co-editor of the blog, Dr. Gregory Stevens, discusses the results of the midterm election and the results of ballot measures relevant to… Read More »
It’s that time of year again–APHA’s Annual Meeting! This year we’ll be meeting in Boston Nov. 6-9 with a digital event Nov. 14-16. I’m looking forward to seeing colleagues this year and getting to catch up with so many interesting people. Of course, I’m also excited about the excellent Medical Care Section Program. Here’s a… Read More »
The 2022 midterm elections are upon us. And public health is once again prominent on the ballot. Think back to the 2020 presidential election and just how stark a contrast Joe Biden and Donald Trump presented on COVID-19, climate change, and the Affordable Care Act. This year is no different. Voters across the country are choosing… Read More »
Over the last 25 years, researchers have documented the broad impact of behavioral interventions on a range of psychological and physical health outcomes. Despite the promise of evidence-based treatments, a common challenge for practitioners is ensuring treatment adherence to maximize benefits. This is especially challenging for most chronic conditions. Integrating research and recommendations from medication… Read More »