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Welcome to the May issue of HSPH
Update, an e-letter for friends of the
Harvard School of Public Health.
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President nominates HSPH's Berwick
 President Obama tapped Donald M. Berwick, a
professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, to be
administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs
health programs insuring nearly one-third of all Americans. Learn more
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Why We Don't Spend Enough on Public Health
 "The field of public health has long been the poor relation of medicine.
Medicine -- in which most resources are used to help cure
individual patients after they have become sick or injured or to help manage already-existing chronic conditions -- is flashy, its master practitioners and innovators lionized,and its accomplishments widely celebrated. In contrast, public health -- in which most resources are focused on trying to
keep something bad from happening in the first place -- is
seemingly mundane, its efforts and prime movers often all but
invisible," writes David Hemenway, professor of health policy, in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read Hemenway's four key reasons for public health's underfunding
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An influential healer
 HSPH's Atul Gawande, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and HSPH, landed a
spot on this year's Time magazine list of the 100 people "who most
affect our world."
Read the profile by former Senator Tom Daschle
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Cut the salt, keep the flavor
 Sodium
is a major culprit in our nation's epidemic of high blood pressure--a disease
that can start in childhood and will afflict nine out of 10 Americans over the
course of their lifetimes. Reducing the amount of salt we consume could save
billions of dollars annually on health costs--and save upwards of 90,000
lives--by lowering blood pressure, and in turn, the risk of heart disease and
stroke. Get practical strategies for
cutting the salt in your own diet from the experts at HSPH's Nutrition Source and
The Culinary Institute of America. |
| From the Harvard Public Health Review |
TB, AIDS, and malaria finding new ways to resist treatment
Rising drug resistance has turned what public health
officials call today's Big Three infections even more fearsome. Together, these
diseases kill millions every year, representing 10 percent of all deaths
globally. Worse, the trio of epidemics is tragically interconnected, with TB,
for example, the leading cause of death among individuals infected with HIV.
"Drug resistance is the product of success: With treatment, we have drug
resistance," explains Eric Rubin, professor of
immunology and infectious diseases at HSPH. Learn more |
Women, welfare & human rights
 HSPH doctoral student Madina Ag�nor
examines government policies and social forces that affect the sexual and
reproductive health of women. Learn more |
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An investment in future benefits
 "When considering a public health investment today (e.g., improving road
safety, preventing mad cow disease, or limiting climate change)
that will potentially yield benefits in the future, many
politicians correctly understand that their administrations will
bear the costs, but the benefits will be reaped on someone else's
watch. They therefore put great effort into putting out today's
fires and relatively little into preventing tomorrow's conflagrations," writes HSPH's David Hemenway in a New England Journal of Medicine commentary on the underfunding of public health. This month, HSPH will launch a new class of tenacious, motivated graduates who are ready to do the hard and unglamorous work it takes to make the world a healthier place. Your gift to the HSPH Annual Fund will help us recruit more promising future leaders to attend HSPH regardless of their financial circumstances. Make a gift to the HSPH Annual Fund today. |
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Commencement
May 27, 2010
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Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health in
the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, will be HSPH's speaker. For updates visit HSPH's Commencement Corner. |
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Is all that sitting really killing us?
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HSPH's Jack Dennerlein contributed
a commentary on office ergonomics to the New York Times. "There is a public health paradox in ergonomics -- we seek to design work
that fits a large population and reduces physical loading on muscles, bones and
tissues. Yet, we know that physical activity is important to reduce chronic
illnesses like diabetes and heart disease," he wrote. Read more |
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