April 8th, 2009

Longevity conference April 15-16 features CHP/PCOR faculty

Much of the world's population is living longer, and the consequences of this change will be among the subjects to be covered at the East-West Alliance Conference that will take place on the Stanford University campus April 15-16 in the Clark Center auditorium. Read more »

April 7th, 2009

Hlatky's coronary disease treatment comparison study continues to capture global press coverage

Faculty fellow Mark Hlatky continues to garner media coverage for his Lancet article comparing coronary artery bypass surgery and percutaneous coronary interventions for multivessel disease. Featured in hundreds of publications worldwide, Hlatky is also interviewed in the April 4th Lancet podcast.

• » Listen to the Lancet podcast

April 6th, 2009

Stanford study first ever to show U.S. AIDS relief program saved a million lives

Stanford health policy researchers Eran Bendavid and Jay Bhattacharya show in April's Annals of Internal Medicine that an ambitious U.S. government program begun in 2003 has cut the death toll from HIV/AIDS through 2007 by more than 10 percent in targeted countries in Africa, though it has had no appreciable effect on prevalence of the disease.
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March 19th, 2009

Miller receives Presidential Fund grant to test pay for performance health incentives among anemic in China

Core faculty Grant Miller received an award for his proposal "Paying for Performance in China's Battle against Anemia" and will begin the program in rural northwest China this fall with Stanford Assistant Professor of Education Jennifer Adams. Read more »

Enthoven describes 'wedlock' of employer based insurance system in the Economist

Core faculty Alain Enthoven is quoted in the British newsmagazine's article "Labour Mobility: The Road Not Taken."

• » The Economist: "Labour Mobility: The road not taken"

March 18th, 2009

Symposium to focus on AIDS, poverty's impact on African youth

A two-day symposium on addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS and poverty on children in sub-Saharan Africa will be held April 2-3 at Encina Hall's Bechtel Conference Center. The symposium will feature leaders from African nongovernmental organizations, as well as Stanford students and faculty, engaged in a series of panel and roundtable discussions. Read more »

Heart Bypass Surgery Better than Angioplasty for Certain Patients, Stanford Study Shows

CHP/PCOR fellow Mark Hlatky is the lead author for a Lancet article revealing the effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery versus the less-invasive angioplasty procedure on specific groups of patients for the first time. After three years working with investigators from 10 different clinical trials around the world from Brazil to London to Pittsburgh, Hlatky and other Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have pooled enough individual patient data for the extensive comparison. Read more »

March 5th, 2009

Enthoven discusses health care reform options on KQED's forum

CHP/PCOR core faculty Alain Enthoven was a featured guest on National Public Radio's "Forum" program about health care reform. Enthoven spoke about the proper political approach to bring about vast changes to the insurance system, and then laid out changes to the health care system that he believes should be made. Enthoven also engaged in a debate with other featured guests-- John R. Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute, and Helen Halpin, professor of health policy at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and director of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies-- about what changes to the health care system are feasible. Read more »

Fuchs outlines health reforms for Obama Administration in JAMA Commentary

CHP/PCOR core faculty Victor Fuchs applies his 40 years studying health care to clarify what challenges the Obama Administration will face in reforming the system and to identify where changes are most needed. Fuchs writes in the most recent Journal of the American Medical Association that the climate for health care reform today in many ways mirrors 1993. Just as Bill Clinton's young administration learned, Americans then, as they do now, lack the intense desire for a mass overhaul of the health care system. Fuchs, however, sees an opening in the current economic climate if Obama's health reforms focus on both coverage and cost issues. Such new health policy, Fuchs writes, must address three persistent problems: the uninsured, the high and rapidly increasing cost of care, and significant lapses in quality.

• » Reforming US Health Care: Key Considerations for the New Administration

March 4th, 2009

AIDS Expert to Speak at Stanford Conference

Peter Piot, former director of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), will be the featured speaker at the second Stanford Health Policy Forum. Scheduled for March 11 from 11-12:30, Piot will spend the first 45 minutes fielding questions from Paul Costello, Director of the School of Medicine's Office of Communication & Public Affairs. The audience will have a chance to interview the AIDS expert for the second half of the program, with CHP/PCOR associate Keith Humphreys and School of Medicine Dean Philip Pizzo moderating. Read more »

February 25th, 2009

Deborah Zarin, Director of ClinicalTrials.gov, addresses CHP/PCOR community

The NIH senior scientist gave two consecutive lectures Tuesday, Feb. 24, on registering clinical trials and implementing results databases. Audio transcript available 2 presentations available
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February 9th, 2009

NYT columnist references Grant Miller's 'remarkable study'

In an op-ed about women's role in the economy, Nicholas Kristof highlights CHP/PCOR core faculty Grant Miller's work on the policy shifts that happen when women are enfranchised. Referring to Miller's "remarkable study" in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Kristof details Miller's findings that when females receive the right to vote in a country, a significant amount of new public money goes to public health programs. Further, these same nations see a sharp decrease in child mortality.

• » Women's Suffrage, Political Responsiveness, and Child Survival in American History

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February 3rd, 2009

Alain Enthoven discusses integrated health care systems in the New York Times

CHP/PCOR core faculty member comments on the "the disruptive innovation we need to turn loose on the rest of America." Read more »

Health care reform in the Obama Administration: Garber weighs in

In a podcast interview with Stanford School of Medicine's Paul Costello, CHP/PCOR Director Alan Garber discusses the pieces needed-- and barriers involved-- to bring substantive change to the United States' health care system.

• » Listen to the podcast

January 29th, 2009

Wise comments on California's pediatric care

CHP/PCOR core faculty member Paul Wise, a children's health expert, talks to the LA Times about California's diminishing pediatric care network. Read more »

October 24th, 2008

Health Care Reform in 2009: Fuchs Offers Inconvenient Truths

As Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls advance solutions to reform U.S. health care, CHP/PCOR core faculty member Victor Fuchs offers three "inconvenient truths" that may serve as a starting point to address and inform health care policy. In a recent article published by the Commonwealth Fund, Fuchs asserts (1) that health care expenditures must be reduced; (2) that medical technology and interventions are largely responsible for cost increases; and (3) that universal coverage cannot be attained without subsidization and compulsion.

• » The Commonwealth Fund: "Noted Economist Offers 'Inconvenient Truths' About Health Care"

October 19th, 2008

NY Times References Miller's Research on Economic Volatility and Health Outcomes

CHP/PCOR faculty member Grant Miller was mentioned in a recent article by the New York Times on the current recession and the societal changes that may occur. Scholars question whether the economic downturn will signify a rise in adverse health outcomes. According to some scholars, a downturn could potentially result in health benefits that are not measured by the market. The New York Times cited Miller's work on coffee price fluctuations and child survival in Colombia as an example. In a recent study, Miller found that infant and child mortality rates fell as coffee prices slumped, a result of parents having the ability to invest more time in taking care of their children. Read more »

October 13th, 2008

CHP/PCOR conference brings entrepreneurs, industry leaders together to discuss innovation in health care reform

On September 16, 2008, the Center for Health Policy (CHP) and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR) hosted a unique conference at Stanford University, "Better Health, Lower Cost: Can Innovation Save Health Reform?" in honor of their 10th anniversary. Video available 5 papers available
Read more »

September 22nd, 2008

The Russian mortality crisis: A case of economic transition or an anti-alcohol campaign gone wrong?

In the mid-1980s, life expectancy in Russia suddenly improved and then took a drop downward for the worse in the 1990s, leading many to believe that economic transition "kills people." But researchers at the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR) are studying a little-examined phenomenon in that decade when Mikhail Gorbachev -- then the general secretary of the Communist Party in Russia -- launched a large public health campaign against alcohol abuse, which reduced alcohol production and imposed strict measures to limit its distribution. Read more »

September 16th, 2008

Lecture on health care policy at Stanford

Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, presented a federal perspective on health care policy and costs at the 10th Anniversary Conference and Celebration for the Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research on September 16, 2008. In his presentation and recent post, Orszag discusses how research on behavioral economics can inform efforts to improve efficiency in health care delivery.

• » Better Health, Lower Cost: Can Innovation Save Health Reform?
  
• » Congressional Budget Office, Director's Blog

August 1st, 2008

Severe Disability Rates Increase in Working-Age Populations

In an August 2008 interview with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), CHP/PCOR faculty member Jay Bhattacharya discusses the constraints that vulnerable populations face when making decisions that affect their health status. Although the United States has seen a decline in rates of severe disability among its' elderly population, continued improvements in elderly health should not be taken for granted. Recent work has shown that rates of severe disability, measured by the inability to perform basic activities of daily living, have been rising in working age populations. The rise of chronic diseases such diabetes, strokes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may play a substantial role in fueling the disability rate among the working age population. In a recent study, Bhattacharya and colleagues examine the extent to which chronic disease trends explain the disability trends among younger populations.

• » Chronic Disease and Severe Disability Among Working-Age Populations

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June 2nd, 2008

Bhattacharya awarded patent on flexible spending accounts

CHP/PCOR core faculty member Jay Bhattacharya was awarded a patent on an algorithm he worked on as part of a RAND research team in 2000. Read more »

June 1st, 2008

Humphreys discusses the rebuilding of Iraq's mental health care system

CHP/PCOR associate Keith Humphreys has been helping rebuild Iraq's mental health care system since 2004. In this article, he discusses the situation in Iraq. Read more »

May 23rd, 2008

Probiotics may help adult weight loss, study finds

CHP/PCOR associate John Morton was quoted in various articles discussing probiotics, the "good" bacteria found in yogurts and supplements. According to Stanford researchers, probiotics can help adult gastric-bypass patients lose even more weight. Morton was also quoted in a separate article in the Los Angeles Times that discusses bariatric surgery. Weight reduction surgery is performed on about 200,000 Americans a year and is recommended only for people considered morbidly obese. Morton provides comments on the procedures in the article.

• » Los Angeles Times: Bariatric surgery by itself isn't enough

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May 12th, 2008

Shortfalls still exist in blood pressure screening, treatment, control

Despite the well-known dangers of high blood pressure, major shortfalls still exist in the screening, treatment and control of the disease, according to a new Stanford study. CHP/PCOR faculty fellow Randall Stafford, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, is mentioned in this news brief.

• » Forbes: "High blood pressure still slipping past doctors"