Chasing epidemics in real time
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] As the AIDS epidemic tragically demonstrated, public health has usually been a step behind infections on the run. But today, with sophisticated molecular and communications tools, practitioners can virtually keep up stride for stride…
Working the (health) system
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] A standard medical test that could have been done for a tenth of the cost. A doctor’s momentary lapse in attention that led to grievous injury—or even death. An upside-down health care bureaucracy that…
What's so hard about health care reform?
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] "Change is usually slow. It moves in fits and starts and veers left and right. That’s how behavioral systems move. It’s true in every facet of our government: economic policy, foreign policy, transportation policy,…
Obamacare and obstructionism
With the launch of the new state health insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, HSPH professor Atul Gawande writes in a New Yorker editorial about three forms of obstructionism taking place to hinder the rollout: some states not accepting…
New strategies needed to curb costs among expensive Medicare patients
Preventable emergency room visits and hospitalizations represent only a small part of the health costs among Medicare patients with the highest expenses, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s…
Hospital performance on trio of medical conditions may predict quality of broader hospital care
How well a hospital performs on three major publicly reported conditions—heart attack, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia—may prove a useful tool in signaling overall hospital mortality rates, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study.…
HSPH alumni and faculty part of Boston Marathon tragedy response
Harvard School of Public Health-affiliated physicians were among the hospital emergency department staff called upon to care for victims of the explosions at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Stephanie Kayden, MPH ’06, was the senior physician…
Patients with surgical complications provide greater hospital profit-margins
For immediate release: April 16, 2013 Boston, MA -- Privately insured surgical patients who had a complication provided hospitals with a 330% higher profit margin than those without a complication, according to new research from Ariadne Labs, a…
Checklists in operating rooms improve performance during crises
Teams using checklists were 74 percent less likely to miss key life-saving steps in care during emergency situations than those working from memory alone. For immediate release: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Boston, MA — In an airplane crisis—an engine…
Little lists, big impact
[ Winter 2013 ] If health care workers use simple checklists during critical moments of care such as surgery and childbirth, they can greatly reduce death and complications among their patients. In study after study, Atul Gawande, professor of health…
