Healthcare
The Consequences of Slashing Medicaid Spending
Congressional Republicans are looking to make deep budget cuts, and Medicaid spending is a target. Yale SOM’s Dr. Howard Forman says that large-scale reductions in the program would hit the poorest states and the most vulnerable Americans especially hard.
Testing Sewage Can Provide an Early Warning of COVID-19 Outbreaks
Earlier this year, a team of Yale researchers showed that the concentration of COVID-19 RNA in sewage mirrors the spread of the disease through a population. In a new study, they find that testing sewage can serve as an early indicator of an outbreak relative to hospitalizations.
Study Finds Hospital Desegregation Didn’t Improve Mortality Rate for Black Infants
Efforts in the late 1960s to desegregate hospitals in the American South did not significantly contribute to improvements in the Black infant mortality rate, finds a new study co-authored by Dean Kerwin Charles.
In Defense of (Mathematical) Models
Epidemiological models have played an influential role in governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yale SOM’s Edieal Pinker takes a look back at one of the most influential models and argues that such rigorous efforts at understanding the likely course of the disease, while imperfect, are critical to good decision making.
What’s the Path to Equity in Health?
We talked to Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale internist and an expert on the structural barriers to equitable treatment and health outcomes for people of color and other vulnerable populations.
Adapting Primary Care to a Pandemic
Dr. Frank Ciminiello ’19 explains how his medical practice has reconfigured to safely meet patients’ needs.
On COVID-19 Vaccines, Big Pharma Knows to Just Say ‘No’
In the face of pressure from President Donald Trump, nine major pharmaceutical companies have signed a pledge to complete testing before submitting vaccines for approval. Yale's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Dr. Albert Ko write that the drugmakers’ caution may help provide badly needed confidence in the eventual vaccine.
Choosing the Wrong Health Insurance Could Kill You
Yale SOM’s Jason Abaluck and his co-authors calculated that the Medicare Advantage plans appreciably influence the survival rates of their enrollees. Shutting down the plans with the highest mortality rates could save thousands of lives per year.
Repurposing with a Purpose
David Browning ’99 explains how a nonprofit doing coffee sustainability verification became a source of crucial public health data.
Three Questions about COVID-19 Infection and Immunity
We checked in with Yale SOM’s Dr. Howard Forman about herd immunity, vaccines, and that case of reinfection in Hong Kong.
Design, Test, Spread
Nicolas Encina ’10 and his colleagues at Ariadne Labs have been demonstrating the potential of a collaborative, multidisciplinary process for designing and scaling simple improvements to healthcare—and also its limits.
