all Harvard School of Public Health stories

Not having health insurance is expensive

404132862 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:00:00 -0400

New findings from researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) demonstrate that individuals who were either continuously or intermittently uninsured between the ages of 51 and 64 cost Medicare more than those who had continuous insurance coverage in the years prior to Medicare eligibility.

School of Public Health professor advising feds on H1N1 policy

404132862 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:10:22 -0400

One thing certain about the flu is uncertainty, according to Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a prominent authority on the spread of infectious disease.

The rise and rapid spread of H1N1 flu virus, known as swine flu, has kept Lipsitch busy in recent months. An expert in computer modeling of disease dynamics, Lipsitch has been part of a team advising federal officials on swine flu’s likely behavior and the government’s response to it.

NIH funds risky, potentially transformative research by Harvard faculty members

404132862 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:17:05 -0400

Eighteen faculty members at Harvard and Harvard-affiliated institutions are among 115 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized today with the announcement of three grant programs by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NIH renews Harvard Center for AIDS Research grant for another five years

404132862 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:22:18 -0400

The National Institutes of Health has renewed for five years - and $18.1 million - the funding for the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (Harvard CFAR).

Harvard is one of only 20 NIH CFAR sites in the U.S. and first received the designation in 2004.

Economy shaping health care reform effort

404132862 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:44:24 -0400

Political and philosophical differences aside, it’s the economic crisis that’s driving the current national health care reform debate.

“Every day the president gets an envelope [that] says, ‘Whoa! Bigger [deficit] this day than yesterday,’” noted Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and management, speaking at the Harvard School of Public Health on Tuesday.

Lifestyle culprit in increase in cardiovascular disease

404132862 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:43:45 -0400

Despite the perception that cardiovascular disease is a problem of industrialized countries, it is the leading cause of death everywhere except Africa, where it is eclipsed by the raging AIDS epidemic, experts gathered at Harvard Medical School (HMS) said Wednesday.

Parents concerned about financial impact of possible school flu closings

404132862 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:30:14 -0400

Substantial numbers of parents who have children in school or day care report that two-week closings in the fall would present serious financial problems for them, according to the results of a new national poll that focuses on Americans’ views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of H1N1 swine flu in the fall or winter.

D. Mark Hegsted, 95, Harvard Nutritionist, Is Dead

50443248 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:45:46 -0400

Jeremiah Mead, architect of respiratory mechanics field, dies

50443248 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:30:57 -0400

Jeremiah "Jere" Mead, architect of the field of respiratory mechanics and professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), passed away on July 4, 2009, at a health care facility in Ells

D. Mark Hegsted, national force in science of human nutrition, dies

50443248 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:16:52 -0400

D. Mark Hegsted, who was instrumental in the development of the federal "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," died Tuesday, June 16, 2009, at the age of 95 at a nursing center in Westwood, Mass.

Hegsted was a founding member of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), among the first such departments in a medical or public health school in the world.

‘Water guy’ John Briscoe stays in motion

50443248 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:55:22 -0400

For someone who deep-sixed his BlackBerry (instant e-mail was taking over his life) and traded the local newspaper for a good book (“What do I need to know about Celtics’ scores?”), John Briscoe ’76 is as worldly a person as you are ever likely to meet.

An expert on water and economic development who most recently served as the World Bank’s senior water adviser and the country director for Brazil, Briscoe has lived in his native South Africa as well as Bangladesh, Mozambique, India, and Brazil.

How growing cells move together

50443248 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:55:14 -0400

Our cells are more than inert bags of proteins and genes whose complex signaling networks confound the world’s most powerful computers. They also have a physical side whose brawny feats may guide our basic good health.

For the first time, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have directly measured the physical forces at play when growing cells move together. The findings open up new avenues for exploring how the mechanical properties of cells sculpt new organs, shape full human beings, close a bleeding wound, form tumors, and propel metastasis.

Chemical leaches from plastic drinking bottles into people

50443248 — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:17:33 -0400

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles, the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA).

Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.

Survey: Many Americans protecting themselves against H1N1

50443248 — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:09:22 -0400

As part of a series about Americans’ response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has released a national poll that finds that many Americans have taken steps to protect themselves and their families against the disease. The polling was done on May 5-6, 2009.

Scholars discuss ‘medicalization’ of formerly normal characteristics

404132862 — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:57:31 -0400

Not long ago, a majority of Americans described themselves as “shy,” a condition of reticence or caution that for ages just seemed natural.

In a discourse on blushing, Darwin thought of shyness — “self-attention” — as an adaptive trait. In a poem, Emily Dickinson described it as something that follows emotional pain: “a formal feeling comes — / The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs.”