Opinion: The hospice industry needs major reforms. It should start with apologies
“How has the clinical work you do affected you personally?” We’d come to the Q&A…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: What the hospital-at-home movement tells us about igniting innovation in health care
As a health care economist who studies innovation, and as a management consultant who helps…
Opinion: Medicine robs physicians of their fertility. Here’s how to fix it
“The Retrievals,” a disturbing podcast from Serial and the New York Times released this summer,…
Opinion: Medicare beneficiaries deserve access to genetic counselors
Precision medicine driven by genetic health care is knocking on the door. It offers hope…
Opinion: The definition of clinical trial diversity must include disabled people
There are people in your life who influence and shape how you see the world….
Opinion: Why it’s so difficult to count the number of heat-related deaths
In late July, as parts of the southern U.S. approached 30 days of temperatures exceeding…
Opinion: The CDC faces $1.5 billion in budget cuts. Layoffs will almost certainly follow
The nation’s health faces a dual threat — one anticipated, the other, self-inflicted. Covid-19 has…
Opinion: Home blood pressure machines are often wrong. The FDA must speak up
Hypertension is considered to be the No. 1 risk factor for death globally. So it’s…
Opinion: The best way for the NIH to reduce drug prices is to address drug spending
As STAT reported recently, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) has…
Opinion: I’m a dentist. I’m begging people not to give up on aspartame
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, an entity within the World Health Organization)…
Opinion: Philanthropic endowments at universities can offer a way out of biotech’s Valley of Death
So many promising medical innovations never reach their full potential as therapies or cures, languishing…
Opinion: STAT+: What Mark Cuban gets wrong about prescription drugs
Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” star, has been making headlines recently…
Opinion: Public pharma is the best solution to the ongoing problem of drug shortages
Drug shortages in the United States are at a record high. At least 14 essential…
Opinion: STAT+: One way to create resilient drug supply chains: incentivize predictive models
My first exposure to pharmaceutical shortages happened in 2017 as a new-to-practice nurse working on…
Opinion: What ‘The Bear’ can teach us about hospitality in medicine
The FX/Hulu show “The Bear” transports viewers inside the tense world of restaurants. In Season…
Opinion: Health care has an ‘LMNO’ problem
On inpatient medical services, it’s common to hear patients’ laboratory results presented with statements sounding…
Opinion: Doctors need to pay more attention to non-physical side effects of health care
When faced with a new diagnosis, a patient knows that the necessary treatment may make…
Opinion: Drugs alone can’t win the war against tuberculosis
Recently, after years of pressure, advocates including author and philanthropist John Green scored victory against…
Opinion: The high out-of-pocket cost of donating a kidney
“All of your medical and surgical expenses will be paid by your recipient’s insurance,” the…
Opinion: Former Sen. Max Baucus: Breakthrough Alzheimer’s drugs are out of reach for many in rural states like Montana
New treatments are delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, giving people aging with memory decline…
Opinion: Without a plan to fight superbugs, the Cancer Moonshot will never achieve liftoff
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health recently outlined strategies to tackle President Biden’s Cancer…
Opinion: ‘Oppenheimer’ is a must-watch for everyone who works in AI and health care
All great stories have complicated endings. But that doesn’t mean they can’t offer simple and…
Opinion: I learned the hard way that U.S. airlines are not currently required to have EpiPens
I was in seat 20C on a flight home this March, when I felt my…
Opinion: The airline industry needs some disaster management lessons. Health care can help
The airline industry is often held up as a model of operational excellence — one…
Opinion: New attacks on the drug industry would have made my breakthrough sickle cell treatment impossible
I was born in Alabama in the Jim Crow South, one of eight siblings in…
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Opinion: I’m a tick biologist whose body seems to kill off ticks
Sometimes people call me “the tick guy,” but I’m a mammal guy by training. Although…
Opinion: Many immigrants are ineligible for important U.S. maternal health initiatives
In the U.S., about 16% of Black birthing people are immigrants. But even as the federal…
Opinion: Doctors in states that ban abortion can still refer patients elsewhere. Why are so few doing that?
For now, abortion remains accessible even in states where it’s banned — at least for…
Opinion: Why new guidelines recommending screening at 40 can’t end the mammography wars
New breast cancer screening guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force give the…
Opinion: Why physicians should let patients call them by their first names
Stephanie W. Edmonds and Ginny L. Ryan are both doctors. Edmonds, a registered nurse, has…
Opinion: Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation shows what happens when you don’t pay attention to lab culture
Last week, Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced that he will resign as president of Stanford over work…
Opinion: Enough with the health care policy patchwork. It’s time for universal insurance
Everyone knows that the United States is the only high-income country without universal health insurance….
Opinion: Q&A: Giving voice to patients navigating cancer, rare disease, and more
Health care is about many things — understanding and treating disease, practicing medicine, developing new…
Opinion: Drug pricing and the ‘impossible trinity’ for patients
You don’t have to be an economist to understand the law of demand: The higher…
Opinion: How do doctors’ personal political affiliations affect how they care for their patients?
This essay is adapted from “Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors,…
Opinion: Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and the new standards of scientific conduct
Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who will step down from his position Aug. 31, was initially…
Opinion: Gain-of-function research is about much more than dangerous pathogens
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve heard a lot about gain-of-function research, and…
Opinion: I introduced the ADA 35 years ago. Now Congress needs to act to ban a practice that devalues disabled lives
Thirty-five years ago, I was proud to introduce the Americans with Disabilities Act in the…
Opinion: A program to bring internet access to low-income people is running out of money. Health care will suffer
This past winter, one of us, Alister, was speaking with the daughter of an elderly…
Opinion: Policymakers who want to regulate AI need to start talking to health care industry representatives
Recently, the fervor over artificial intelligence has given way to expressions of fears of the…
Opinion: Listen: Dance helped this nurse heal from trauma. Now she’s bringing it to others
“You can’t pour from an empty cup” is what registered nurse Tara Rynders learned the…
Opinion: AI can’t replicate this key part of practicing medicine
I’ve heard “WebMD said it could be cancer” countless times in my 15 years working…
Opinion: No one — M.D. or otherwise — should use the honorific ‘doctor’ with patients
Florida legislators recently passed legislation to prevent advanced practice nurses in Florida with doctorates from…
Opinion: Congress can eradicate hepatitis C and reduce the deficit at the same time
Congress faces a historic opportunity to stamp out a disease that kills thousands of Americans…
Opinion: Right-wing politicians are stoking renewed moral panic about HIV
In May, just before Pride Month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released news…
Opinion: Health care systems must stop exploiting nurses’ tender hearts and begin supporting them
“Code yellow!” someone screamed. I dipped in and out of consciousness, in and out of…
Opinion: Sickle cell cures are coming. African children can’t be left behind
The treatment of sickle cell disease is on the cusp of a historic breakthrough, with…
Opinion: What does it mean to be ‘in recovery’? We need a better federal definition
“When I use a word,” one of 19th century British author and mathematician Lewis Carroll’s…
Opinion: A bipartisan opportunity to strengthen America’s pandemic security
In 2006, when many Americans had barely heard the word “coronavirus,” Congress passed the Pandemic…
Opinion: How ARPA-H can master the subtle art of risk-taking
Despite remarkable progress in health and medicine, biology’s final frontiers remain beyond our reach. Humanity…