End-of-year post: 2020 edition

This past year at The Medical Care Blog has been quite an adventure. Like the rest of humanity, we were thrown into a whole new reality with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first posts about SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus) and COVID-19 (the disease it causes) began in mid-March and haven’t stopped since.

All told — across 37 posts so far — we’ve published about many aspects of the pandemic:

• Crafting homemade masks – our most-read post this year
• Getting healthcare during the pandemic and who’s at highest risk of severe illness
• The role of local health departments
• The role of, and changing policy landscape around, telehealth (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• The pandemic’s effects on the economy
• The pandemic’s effects on rural health and how to rebuild (1, 2, 3)
• The pandemic’s effects on our unhoused neighbors
• The pandemic’s effects on skilled nursing facilities and other long-term care facilities
• The idea of a regional tiered, coordinated response system
• How public health and medicine are intertwined
• Early hype about treatment and how the pandemic highlights the need for supplement regulation
• The pandemic’s effects on reproductive care and coercion
• Protecting essential workers in and out of healthcare (1, 2)
• Whether reimbursements might incentivize certain treatments for COVID-19
• The risks of inpatient psychiatry and immigrant/refugee detention (1, 2) during a pandemic
• Challenges in translating and communicating the truth in an era of disinformation
• Challenges in measuring quality of care during the pandemic
• Ways that technology could improve community health
• Lessons from the pandemic on climate change strategy and environmental health
• How the pandemic is bringing change to our healthcare and health insurance system (1, 2, 3, 4)
• How the pandemic highlights challenges with access to mental health care
• Issues of equity in allocating resources
• How digital technology can be used to improve contact tracing

We published about lots of other topics this year, too. We’re especially proud of our posts highlighting racism and health equity, especially with the renewed spotlight on these perennial concerns. We also continued our focus on health reform with a thoughtful, three-part series on universal coverage. And we had a number of insightful posts focused on research articles published in Medical Care.

All this great content has not gone unread! We’ve been really happy to see our readership grow to its highest ever this year. Thank you for reading and subscribing, and thanks for telling your colleagues about our work as well.

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Lisa M. Lines

Senior health services researcher at RTI International

Lisa M. Lines, PhD, MPH is a senior health services researcher at RTI International, an independent, non-profit research institute. She is also an Assistant Professor in Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Her research focuses on social drivers of health, quality of care, care experiences, and health outcomes, particularly among people with chronic or serious illnesses. She is co-editor of TheMedicalCareBlog.com and serves on the Medical Care Editorial Board. She served as chair of the APHA Medical Care Section's Health Equity Committee from 2014 to 2023. Views expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of RTI or UMass Chan Medical School.

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Gregory Stevens

Professor at California State University, Los Angeles

Gregory D. Stevens, PhD, MHS is a health policy researcher, writer, teacher and advocate. He is a professor of public health at California State University, Los Angeles. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Medical Care, and is co-editor of The Medical Care Blog. He is also a co-author of the book Vulnerable Populations in the United States.

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