Major Harvard Chan studies concur: Air pollution boosts U.S. death rates
Twenty-five years ago, the Harvard Six Cities Study drew a strong link between exposure to fine particulate air pollution and increased risk of early death in six U.S. cities. Last year, another Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…
Overstated findings in science and health reporting on social media
Spin. Clickbait. Exaggerated headlines. The rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has changed how health-related research and news is presented to audiences around the world, and it is not unheard of for researchers and reporters…
Living near combination grocery stores linked with obesity in children
Children and teens who live in neighborhoods with many combination grocery/other stores—stores that sell food as well as other items—have higher odds of being overweight or obese than kids who live near fewer of these types of stores,…
Philanthropic Impact: Funding Digital Phenotyping Research
Paul Dagum, founder and chief executive officer of Mindstrong Health The rapidly evolving field of digital phenotyping involves uncovering specific health-related information in the moment-to-moment data created when people use their smartphones. A recent $200,000 gift from Mindstrong…
Commentary: Trump environmental rollbacks could lead to thousands of extra deaths
Rollbacks of environmental policies and regulations proposed by President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt could lead to an additional 80,000 U.S. deaths per decade and respiratory problems in more than 1 million people, according to…
Big data and public health
Researchers are now harnessing vast amounts of information to assess what works in medicine and public health.
“Speed dating” for scientists: Data experts from Harvard and Elsevier make research connections
Researchers from Harvard tackled big questions in data science and explored possibilities for collaboration with executives from Elsevier—an information and analytics company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical information—during a series of roundtables sponsored by the Harvard Data Science…
Data sharing will help India address public health challenges
Strengthening the collection of population health data in India, if done securely and transparently, will help address public health challenges in the country such as maternal health, antibiotic resistance, and non-communicable diseases, according to Dean Michelle Williams of…
Pollution has steep price in lives lost, economic damages
Toxic air, water, and soil contribute annually to 9 million deaths and $4.6 trillion in economic damages globally, according to a new report by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Illness and death related to pollution in less-developed…
Perils of a Missed Diagnosis
MC Photo When Angela Kennedy adopted two children from the State of Louisiana at ages 2 and 4, she received very little information about their medical history. So she began to worry when her daughter, Grace, suffered asthma…