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Opinion: Listen: Polio is back in the U.S. Two physicians offer ways to fight its spread
Polio has exploded back into Americans’ consciousness after being out of the spotlight in the…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Hospital financing in black and white
During our training as doctors, we have rotated through safety-net hospitals, elite academic medical centers,…
Opinion: Preventive services can improve Americans’ health, but they are now on trial
Twelve years after the Affordable Care Act was enacted, it appears to be here to…
Opinion: FDA and USDA need to get on board with the CDC about reducing antibiotic use in raising animals for food
The overuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials in raising farm animals for food may not…
Opinion: Surgery needs a new pay model, free from incentives to do more procedures
How will my surgeon get paid? That’s a question few people ask as they think…
Opinion: The White House has a major chance to improve coordination of federal nutrition efforts
At the end of September, the White House will host a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition…
Opinion: 6 tactics to make artificial intelligence work on the frontlines
Artificial intelligence is a transformative tool in the workplace — except when it isn’t. For…
Opinion: Congress needs to preserve seniors’ access to pharmacist care
Covid-19 demonstrated how quickly the United States can mobilize to produce and distribute new tests,…
Opinion: A challenge trial can streamline testing of hepatitis C vaccines
Trade-offs in medicine can be harsh, even when clearly necessary. Chemotherapy can save people from…
Opinion: Listen: A pediatric doctor on the life-or-death decisions some prospective parents must make
Christopher Hartnick never expected his work as a doctor to intersect with political discussions about…
Opinion: Vaccine guarantees can help prevent the resurgence of polio
The first case of polio in the U.S. in a decade has triggered intense debate…
Opinion: Health care needs a Black Friday sale: the case for legalizing discounts on medical services
The best time to buy a car is at model year-end sales, and Black Friday…
Opinion: Medicare needs to update its wheelchair coverage for the 21st century
Both of us have spent much of our lives in wheelchairs. But not just any…
Opinion: Why do people turn down social risk assistance offered by their doctors’ offices?
After decades of research documenting the profound effects of social factors on health, such as…
Opinion: Health care’s shift from covenant to commodity comes with consequences
Norman Rockwell’s 1939 painting “When the Doctor Treats Your Child” depicts a family doctor with…
Opinion: Launch prices: tackling the next drug pricing challenge
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act brings a new era to drug pricing in…
Opinion: Breaking the ‘corporate medical playbook’ that silences physicians’ reports of inequity
As a woman of color who was fortunate to be accepted to medical school 29…
Opinion: Congress should not compel Medicare to pay for liquid biopsies
When the two Republican senators from Mississippi cosponsor legislation with the two Democratic senators from…
Opinion: Listen: A doctor with ALS laments the slow pace for drug approval
During his long career as a pediatric oncologist and cancer researcher, William Woods thought highly…
Opinion: The FDA needs to be more flexible in assessing treatments for rare diseases, like the one that seemed to help my son
Every time I read about clinical trials testing possible treatments for rare diseases, I think…
Opinion: Open access to research can close gaps for people with disabilities
In a long-overdue move, the federal Office of Science and Technology Policy has issued guidance…
Opinion: The FDA got it right with hearing aids. Updating Medicare coverage is next
“You would really benefit from hearing aids, but they aren’t covered by Medicare and cost…
Opinion: Dying of a disease I never knew existed
By this time next year, if the medical forecasts are correct, I will probably be…
Opinion: People with terminal cancer need to know they are dying. Doctors shouldn’t withhold that information
I have worn many hats professionally. The most uncomfortable one is “doctor friend.” At best,…
Opinion: Prediction markets and the future of Covid-19
Forecasters have used all sorts of tools to gauge where the U.S. and the world…
Opinion: Public health needs to be transformed. Health IT can help
Covid-19 pummeled public health agencies and organizations. Future crises, whether from infectious disease, extreme weather,…
Opinion: ‘Food is medicine’ interventions should be the main course at White House nutrition conference
Much of the public’s perceptions around food as an intervention for health are dated. So…
Opinion: As hospitals raise their prices, U.S. workers and businesses suffer
Despite a recent taxpayer-subsidized boon, the hospital industry spent the last several months lobbying for…
Opinion: The No Surprises Act: A Band-Aid protecting business as usual
The No Surprises Act has been hailed as a major bipartisan reform aiming to eliminate…
Opinion: Five years after Kymriah: Ensuring the next cell and gene therapies reach patients
Five years ago today, the Food and Drug Administration issued a landmark approval for Kymriah,…
Opinion: ‘Whose life do I prioritize?’ A choice no parent wants to make
When an obstetrician or midwife cuts the umbilical cord after a child is born, the…
Opinion: Restoring trust in public health: There are no shortcuts
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a bold step in mid-August toward rebuilding…
Opinion: Amazon and One Medical: Minding the data gaps
When Amazon announced its intention to acquire One Medical, a primary care organization that leverages…
Opinion: Polio in New York: A call to action for U.S. pediatricians and public health to work together
A nightmare for pediatricians became a reality earlier this month: Polio, which was previously thought…
Opinion: Monkeypox public health response is lagging for LGBTQ+ community
I’m a 29-year-old gay man living in New York City during the first major wave…
Opinion: Surgeons fold against Medicare’s stacked deck
Casinos dazzle you with flashing lights, high-stakes tables, and the chance to win millions of…
Opinion: Dobbs decision is a huge setback for genetic counseling and the people who need it
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that struck down the…
Opinion: The FDA is at a crossroads for reducing tobacco-related disease and death
The U.S. is at a crossroads for tobacco use, the country’s leading cause of preventable…
Opinion: To improve children’s health in low-income countries, put pediatric surgery on par with preventing malaria or HIV
The devastation caused by malnutrition, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in low income countries is well…
Opinion: Nazi-tainted Pernkopf’s Atlas: A case for acknowledgement, not removal
I was slouched in my lab seat during a lecture on osteopathic principles and practices,…
Opinion: STAT+: How machine learning and automation can solve biomanufacturing scale-up challenges
Biomanufacturing has produced important materials, ingredients, therapeutics, and more for decades, yet it is still…
Opinion: The Biden-Harris administration needs to end fake abortion clinics
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Biden…
Opinion: The Inflation Reduction Act: One step closer to pharmacoequity?
President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday marked a health care law…
Opinion: Investing in health workers can help close the vaccination gap — and improve global health
The sharp decline in routine childhood immunization rates the World Health Organization recently reported is…
Opinion: Biden’s long Covid plan is a good start. But it needs to go further
Two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration released its national action plan to…
Opinion: Genetic research provides new clarity about the “whys” of autism
It was an appropriately hazy afternoon on the day my son Dylan, age two years,…
Opinion: Organ transplantation is at a crossroads. Major reform is needed
In early August, the Senate Finance Committee held a bipartisan hearing co-chaired by Senators Ron…
Opinion: History doesn’t have to repeat itself with stigma and monkeypox
Ricky (not his real name), is a patient of mine: a young, gay man with…
Opinion: Medical error: An epidemic compounded by a culture of silence
Covid-19 turned hospitals into battlefields. Wards burst at the seams, caregivers died in the thousands,…
Opinion: STAT+: Clinical validation will save digital health’s reputation
The meteoric rise of telehealth and other types of virtual care during the Covid-19 pandemic…