Opinion: I grew up in one of Africa’s largest informal settlements. Now I’m helping heal it
I had only lived in Kibera for 15 minutes when I saw a police officer…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Hospices can’t handle the growing number of patients who need wound care
A few years ago, I worked with a patient close to 100 years old. She…
Opinion: Listen: Living in cancer limbo
Fifteen years ago, Mara Buchbinder and colleagues came up with the concept of the “patient…
Opinion: Physician and Rep. Raul Ruiz: The infectious disease doctor shortage threatens future pandemic preparedness
In 2009, I was practicing in the emergency department when the H1N1 pandemic emerged. Then,…
Opinion: What Rosalynn Carter understood about mental health
Few people leave the world with as much grace or influence as Rosalynn Smith Carter,…
Opinion: Filling 12-month prescriptions is one practical way to help the pharmacist crisis
Pharmacies could be called the most “rock solid” entity in our health care system. Even…
Opinion: The FDA is at a crossroads on cell and gene therapies
Cell and gene therapies are the next frontier in medicine and promise long-sought hope for…
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Opinion: What STAT readers think about premed requirements, too much health care, harm reduction, and more
STAT now publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to First Opinion essays…
Opinion: We tried to quantify how harmful hospital ransomware attacks are for patients. Here’s what we found
This article is part of a partnership between First Opinion and Tradeoffs, a nonprofit news organization…
Opinion: I worked for CMS. Even I struggle to help family navigate dual eligibility
Three months ago, my aunt Margaret had a stroke. Days before, she was repainting her…
Opinion: What antidepressants are saying 30 years after the publication of ‘Listening to Prozac’
In 1993, I published “Listening to Prozac,” a book that grew out of my clinical…
Opinion: Hospital systems have to decide: Do they want to be Apple or Android?
Convenience is rapidly becoming a guiding principle for hospital system strategy and competition. As patients…
Opinion: Listen: The true costs of mediocre insurance plans for medical students
For the many high-achieving perfectionists who enter medical school each year, the stakes of their…
Opinion: Patent buyouts could spur vital innovation in antibiotics, vaccines, and other medical fields
The announcement by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that ten drugs will be…
Opinion: Ohio has enshrined the right to an abortion. But major obstacles remain for patients and providers
Last week those of us who work in reproductive health care celebrated a historic victory in Ohio:…
Opinion: Congress must reauthorize the National Advisory Committee for Seniors and Disasters
With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson as speaker of the House, the urgent and…
Opinion: What STAT’s opinion section is trying to do
This piece was adapted from a recent First Opinion newsletter. Sign up to receive the…
Opinion: State and local governments across the country are sidelining science
In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought Texas rain that just wouldn’t stop. After four…
Opinion: The end of affirmative action means it’s time to revise pre-med requirements
Luz (not her real name) could be a great doctor. A Latina student from Arizona,…
Opinion: Pulling probiotics from NICUs can put preemies at risk of necrotizing enterocolitis
Maybe probiotics would have saved my son’s life. I’ll never know because when I asked…
Opinion: Digital health startups need more doctor CEOs
In my decade living in Silicon Valley as a digital health journalist and now an…
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Opinion: Listen: Putting an end to a racist ‘diagnosis’
The term “excited delirium” has been used for years by law enforcement and other first…
Opinion: Many Americans receive too much health care. That may finally be changing
The opioid crisis rocked America, bringing addiction and overdose into the spotlight. But it also…
Opinion: A fertility clinic failure destroyed my chance at motherhood
Kindbody, a fast-growing fertility chain, knowingly exposed countless eggs and embryos to unsafe conditions and…
Opinion: STAT+: The PATCH Act’s approach to securing medical devices actually gives malicious actors a blueprint
In August 2013, the FDA made news when it issued cybersecurity guidance for medical devices….
Opinion: There’s a real risk that harm reduction could be a fad
Harm reduction is having its moment in America. The doors of drug-related harm reduction have…
Opinion: State Prescription Drug Affordability Boards could end up limiting access to the life-saving cystic fibrosis medication Trikafta
I was living on the precipice of end-stage disease when I enrolled in the clinical…
Opinion: The best way to convince healthy people to get insurance is not ‘because it’s in your financial interest’
’Tis the season — open enrollment season, that is. Since before the Nov. 1 start to…
Opinion: Do celebrity vaccine endorsements like Travis Kelce’s actually change behavior?
Once the domain of aging TV stars, hawking health products from vitamins to diabetes supplies…
Opinion: Let’s leverage graduate medical education to increase Medicaid re-enrollment
Lately, we’ve seen two distinct lines at our hospitals. We would all be healthier if…
Opinion: Listen: Sniffing out the power, and limits, of the placebo effect
Have you ever taken phenylephrine for a stuffed-up nose and then felt better? If so,…
Opinion: How the government can help lower the price — not just the cost — of cutting-edge gene therapies
At the bustling Chicago O’Hare airport, my luggage and I collided with an elderly couple….
Opinion: I lost my son to OxyContin. ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is my Sackler revenge fantasy
Editor’s note: This essay contains spoilers for the Netflix show “The Fall of the House…
Opinion: Health care providers need help to treat patients during extreme heat events
The world’s hottest summer on record is now bleeding into the fall. Instead of enjoying…
Opinion: Liquid biopsy for cancer recurrence creates a new kind of patient-in-waiting
My husband’s cancer came back this summer after not being evident for almost two years….
Opinion: Excited delirium: a deadly term finally laid to rest
George Floyd. Angelo Quinto. Elijah McClain. All three men were killed by lethal force inflicted…
Opinion: The pink ribbon of breast cancer awareness needs a splash of blue for men
Everyone knows the universal symbol of breast cancer: the pink ribbon. Promoted by the Union…
Opinion: Want to end historic health care strikes? Fix a broken, outdated reimbursement model
History was made this month as more than 75,000 workers staged the largest health care…
Opinion: Listen: Why don’t the rules of war protect health care workers and facilities in Gaza?
In just two weeks, the brutality of the Israel-Hamas conflict has shocked the world. But…
Opinion: Do dementia villages actually work? We just don’t know
Recently, dementia villages have gained popularity in Europe and Australia as an all-in-one solution to…
Opinion: Insulin is increasingly affordable in the U.S. What about the rest of the world?
In March, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi — the world’s three largest insulin manufacturers…
Opinion: Done right, AI can give patients crucial information on the quality of their care
Almost as soon as ChatGPT was released to the public, doctors began focusing on how…
Opinion: STAT+: How to make the EU’s new Joint Clinical Assessment process work for industry — and for patients
Today, the criteria used to assess the clinical value of new pharmaceuticals and medical devices…
Opinion: A better way for doctors and health plans to manage genetic tests
New technology has a history of overwhelming existing systems that try to manage it, and…
Opinion: Listen: Why long Covid might predate the pandemic
Since the early days of the pandemic, long Covid has haunted us: Even a mild…
Opinion: STAT+: Preventive drugs may be the best solution to the antibiotic resistance crisis
The antibiotics crisis is a silent pandemic that threatens to knock modern society back into…
Opinion: Doctors — and patients — must seek alternatives to long-term steroids
Steroids were once the only treatment option for some chronic conditions. Today, many other treatments…
Opinion: Why Gaza health care facilities and workers have suffered so much violence
In a mere week, the fifth major conflict in the past 15 years between Hamas…
Opinion: Yes, everyone should get an updated Covid-19 vaccine
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone in the U.S….
Opinion: How kangaroo mother care can help millions of babies each year
More than one in 10 infants worldwide are born preterm, many with complications: Nearly 1…