Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records could make care safer and save money. So why aren't more doctors and hospitals using them?

Many people in government and in public health say health information technology—health IT for short—has the capacity to stem skyrocketing U.S. health care costs, which in 2007 amounted to $2.3 trillion, an average of $7,600 per person. But given the obstacles to adopting EHR systems-hundreds of vendors vying for clients, hefty installation and operating costs, and a still-developing effort by industry and government to standardize the technologies—implementation of health IT is, at best, inching along. Debate rages as to whether the free market can quickly winnow competing systems down to a few optimal, compatible choices, or whether government will need to intervene through incentives or mandates. more

TB Super Strains

Few outsiders had ever heard of the rural district of Tugela Ferry, 200 square kilometers of arid scrubland in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, before a frightening outbreak began unfolding there in 2005: At the Church of Scotland hospital, a group of patients suddenly began dying—succumbing, as it turned out, to a tuberculosis “super-bug.”

Similar scattered cases had been recorded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but Tegula Ferry’s outbreak had no precedent. Of 53 people identified as carrying this strain, most of them HIV positive, 52 died. Alarmed, the CDC sped up one multinational TB survey and released the results in March of 2006. Officials christened the deadly disease “extensively” drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. News reports encircling the globe called it “virtually untreatable.” No one knows precisely how virulent XDR-TB might be among healthy people whose immune systems aren’t already enfeebled. But researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) aim to find out. Driving the School’s effort is Principal Investigator Megan Murray, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH. more

A Tale of Two Countries: Q and A with Professor Jennifer Leaning

On May 2, Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar. Ten days later, an earthquake struck China's mountainous Sichuan Province. Both events left thousands dead, missing, injured, and homeless, and focused the world's attention on the actions of China's and Myanmar's governments. more

A Simple Checklist That Saves Lives

A new checklist unveiled on June 25 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and collaborators at the Harvard School of Public Health should help prevent avoidable deaths and disability in operating rooms worldwide. more

Health Insurance and Uncle Sam

To make health insurance more affordable and accessible, reform the federal tax code, says HSPH Professor of Health Economics Katherine Baicker. more

How Genes and Environmental Forces Raise Cancer Risk

Monica Ter-Minassian is scouring the genome for time bombs. Using gene-reading technology and analytic techniques, this HSPH doctoral student is on the hunt for subtle variations in human DNA that might help identify the causes of rare neuroendocrine and esophageal tumors, or provide a deeper understanding of why smoking provokes lung cancer in some people but not in others. more