Opinion: ADHD is often overlooked in females. They need help, too
Boys aren’t the only people who develop attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It also affects girls and…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes
As diligent taxpayers breathe a sigh of relief that the hassle of filing their tax…
Opinion: Readers respond to OTC antidepressants, personalized medicine, restoring trust in public health, and more
STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to First Opinion essays to…
Opinion: H5N1 bird flu in U.S. cattle: A wake-up call to action
The recent detection of H5N1 bird flu in U.S. cattle, coupled with reports of a…
Opinion: Needed for reproductive justice and autonomy: women in design
Powerful groups of mostly men are making major decisions about biology and bodies they know…
Opinion: Congress: Protect patients and enact the Nuclear Medicine Clarification Act
If a preventable error that might cause harm occurs during medical care, should there be…
Opinion: To rebuild trust in public health: Better communication, fewer mandates, and small wins
It’s no surprise in today’s corrosive political environment that trust in government is near an…
Opinion: Mental health screening tools for kids are 30 years out of date
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among children aged 10 to 14 in…
Opinion: Cancer is a killer. So is the fear of it
The widespread attention to the recent revelations of cancer diagnoses by Princess Catherine, actress Olivia…
Opinion: As a rule, rape exceptions for abortion don’t work
A year before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Texas implemented Senate…
Opinion: The time has come for over-the-counter antidepressants
Anyone can now walk into a pharmacy in the United States and buy oral contraceptives…
Opinion: STAT readers on biotech and national security, liquid-only diets before colonoscopy, and the value of weight loss drugs
STAT now publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to First Opinion essays…
Opinion: Personalized medicine: We’re not there yet
When Francis Collins, then-director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, testified before Congress in…
Opinion: Does addiction make you un-American?
Should Prince Harry be deported from the United States due to his past drug use?…
Opinion: How climate change is driving a global epidemic of immune health problems, and how to stop it
Many of the effects of climate change play out at a very large scale: Heatwaves…
Opinion: Hospital care costs are out of control. Price caps can help
Here’s just the tip of the iceberg: $722.50 for a nurse to push a drug…
Opinion: For national security, the U.S. must maintain its biotech dominance
For more than a century, the United States has been the undisputed leader in medical…
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Opinion: Medicare coverage of weight loss drugs could save the U.S. billions of dollars
The latest weight loss drugs are good. Really good. They can save lives and could…
Opinion: I saw the promise of diversity efforts in health care. A moment later I saw its critical gaps
Health care was once moderately immune to the anti-diversity, anti-equity, and anti-inclusion craze. Not anymore….
Opinion: A nation with too few pediatricians could see health care costs soar
This year’s National Residency Match, the day when medical graduates learn which health system they…
Opinion: Banning teens from social media won’t help their mental health. Here’s what might
Since the U.S. surgeon general’s 2023 advisory on social media and teen mental health, public…
Opinion: The U.S. needs a bipartisan industrial policy for the life sciences
President Biden’s efforts to revitalize the nation’s technology-based industries, which began with semiconductors and electric…
Opinion: Oprah kicked off a national conversation on obesity and GLP-1 drugs. Let’s have it
Oprah Winfrey, true to form, is forcing America to yet again grapple with a complex…
Opinion: Primary care physicians should be at the heart of treating Alzheimer’s
When the results of President Biden’s annual physical were released last month, many wondered why…
Opinion: Eliminate the waiting period for sterilization covered by Medicaid
It’s time to acknowledge when a law intended to right an egregious wrong has become…
Opinion: Methadone treatment has been reformed for the better. States shouldn’t go back to the old ways
Since the Food and Drug Administration approved methadone for treating opioid use disorder in 1972,…
Opinion: What the public might learn from Kate Middleton, the latest ‘famous patient’
There was a time when the last thing a celebrity would do would be to…
Opinion: STAT+: Medical devices makers are trying to take a page from Uber’s playbook
In a recent survey of U.S. companies, medical device makers reported spending $31 million on…
Opinion: The influential adverse childhood experiences questionnaire should ask about gun violence
The adverse childhood experience (ACE) questionnaire has become a critical part of public health. It…
Opinion: Sabbaticals for nurses could help fight worker shortages and burnout
A new study suggests that the nursing shortage is easing, but that doesn’t mean the health care…
Opinion: The evidence is clear: A liquid-only diet before a colonoscopy is unnecessary
Since colorectal cancer is on the rise in people younger than age 50, national guidelines…
Opinion: Lessons for scientists from the All of Us Research Program backlash
Scientists are taught early in our training that criticism is a fundamental part of the…
Opinion: Prescription for resilience: Health care needs financial sector-inspired regulation
In the early days after it was hit by a cyberattack on Feb. 21, Change…
Opinion: Good health care price transparency rules are at risk if Congress doesn’t act
Consider shopping for cereal in the grocery store. Buyers easily know how many grams of…
Opinion: No parent who has seen the children I’ve treated for measles would refuse a vaccine
Over the past year, I have watched many children die of measles. In the final…
Opinion: Disabled scientists are often left out of academia. The NIH can help change that
Despite being the largest minority in the nation, disabled people like us have been structurally…
Opinion: STAT readers on new CDC Covid guidelines, weight loss drugs and mental health, and new psychiatric meds
STAT now publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to First Opinion essays…
Opinion: STAT+: It’s time to rethink everything about our approach to psychiatric drug development
In many ways, psychiatry is still flying blind. People experiencing mental health conditions are prescribed…
Opinion: Free tuition won’t fix medicine’s diversity problem without admissions reform
Medical students at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York City gathered last week…
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Opinion: The CDC’s new, relaxed Covid isolation guidance makes perfect sense
What makes for good public health guidance? That’s the conversation I was having with a…
Opinion: Charging patients to message their doctors mostly benefits major hospital systems
Thinking about messaging your physician about a weird rash? You may want to hold off…
Opinion: How ideas from ancient Greece like ‘a bun in the oven’ continue to affect reproductive health policy
On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v….
Opinion: Missing data is making it difficult for the pharmaceutical industry to help LGBTQ+ people
Lack of health data on LGBTQ+ people has real-world consequences. A participant in a 2020…
Opinion: Too many donor organs go to waste. Here’s how to get them into the patients who need them
As I was getting ready to perform a kidney transplant from a deceased donor on…
Opinion: New federal guidance is hurting cancer patients, especially those in rural areas
I recently started a patient with metastatic triple-positive breast cancer patient on a targeted therapy…
Opinion: Medicare Advantage is bad for patients and bad for investors
In 2023, enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private insurers, surpassed…
Opinion: IVF bans like Alabama’s could cost the lives of children already born
When my wife, Laurie, completed her ninth in vitro fertilization cycle in the spring of…
Opinion: Palliative psychiatry offers a new path for some people with serious mental illness
The Canadian surgeon and urologist Balfour Mount is considered the father of palliative care in…
Opinion: A new Louisiana capital-punishment bill would fundamentally alter physician licensing
After the recent nitrogen gas execution in Alabama of Kenneth Smith, state Attorney General Steve…
Opinion: What STAT readers think about octogenarian presidents
STAT now publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to First Opinion essays…