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Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Psychiatrist says new UCSD Health policy hits hardest for working moms
Requirement mandates contracted psychiatrists spend at least 60% of their work hours seeing university patients
Oklahoma ACA insurer Mending to end health plans after this year
A health policy analyst says the move comes amid a broader trend of insurer exits as several federal policy changes fuel declining enrollment.
House Health Policy Hears Testimony on Behavioral Health Transport Legislation
Legislation addressing behavioral health transport received testimony in the House Health Policy Committee during the week of June 15, while other key healthcare bills advanced in the Legislature.
RFK Jr. stops in Charlotte to talk health policy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in Charlotte to discuss health policies.
Gross Medicaid Prescription Drug Spending
State level data on Gross Medicaid Prescription Drug Spending from KFF, the leading health policy organization in the U.S.
Health Insurance Coverage of Adults Ages 19 or Older, Multiple Sources of Coverage
State level data on Health Insurance Coverage of Adults Ages 19 or Older, Multiple Sources of Coverage from KFF, the leading health policy organization in the U.S.
Health Insurance Coverage of Adults Ages 19 or Older
State level data on Health Insurance Coverage of Adults Ages 19 or Older from KFF, the leading health policy organization in the U.S.
Behavioral Health Screening Legislation Advances
The House Health Policy Committee advanced legislation addressing preadmission screening assessments for behavioral health patients, as other healthcare bills advanced in the legislature during the week of June 8.
The Ebola story: how risk becomes politics
Ebola coverage shows how outbreak narratives shape fear, public health policy and trust, often faster than the virus spreads.
Rapid changes in federal health policy result in uninsured Americans, Baker Institute report shows
A new health policy research brief from the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice is drawing attention to the sweeping pace of health care policy changes implemented during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Update: What We’re Watching, June 4, 2026
This update covers the latest federal health policy news and its potential impact on Kansas.
House health panel advances bills to combat elevated blood lead levels, fetal alcohol syndrome
The Michigan House Committee on Health Policy voted on Wednesday morning to advance two packages of bills to combat childhood lead exposure and fetal alcohol syndrome. Two of the three bills on lead exposure were not reported, however, and were instead referred to the House Committee on Rules. House Bill 4864, would alter Michigan’s definition […]
Nothing About Us Without Us: A Call for Inclusive Health at the 79th World Health Assembly
Every year at the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) convenes delegations from 194 member states to discuss the state of global health policy and goals for the future, working to usher in greater health and well-being for all.
Here's the No. 1 breakfast mistake Americans make every morning, says oncologist and longevity expert
Ezekiel J. Emanuel has spent 35 years as an oncologist and expert on health policy. He shares his breakfast tips for better metabolic health, energy and longevity.
Myths, Facts, and What’s at Stake When It Comes to Federal Maternal and Child Health Policy
Since January 2025, the Trump administration and Congress have advanced a series of policies that are wreaking havoc on our health care systems, and will
Advancing high-threat pathogen preparedness in WHO South-East Asia Region: 2025 in review
Effective preparedness for high-threat pathogens demands more than technical tools — it requires a coherent strategy, sustained country engagement, and the institutional infrastructure to translate evidence into action. In 2025, the Pandemic and Epidemic Management (PEM) Unit advanced all three, working across the full spectrum of high threat pathogen (HTP) preparedness: from methodology development and evidence generation to country-level technical support, emergency response, and regional workforce strengthening.At the core of the PEM unit's work is building the regional evidence and policy architecture needed to prioritize and respond to HTPs systematically. A major milestone was the development of the HTP Prioritization Methodology — a structured, multi-criteria approach to ranking pathogens by epidemic potential, severity, and national context — and its national pilot in Bangladesh, where SARS-CoV-2, Nipah, dengue, and cholera emerged as the highest-priority threats, informing the PEM unit's contribution to 2026–27 biennium prioritization and workplan development (Access link here).Underpinning this work, the PEM unit advanced the peer-reviewed evidence base for HTP preparedness in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR), with three publications in international journals in 2025: Development of a zoonotic influenza distribution assessment and ranking system (ZIDAR): Technical application in Nepal to support cross-sectoral risk-based surveillance in One Health; Implications for influenza A virus surveillance in Southeast Asian Region countries: a scoping review of approaches for the surveillance of swine influenza viruses at human-swine interfaces in BMJ Public Health; and Operationalizing multisector partnerships: a Theory of Action and Reflection tool for zoonotic influenzas in Health Policy and Planning. Together, these contributions move the Region’s HTP preparedness agenda from practice to science — generating the transferable methodological foundations that will inform evidence-based capacity strengthening in Member States.Country-level engagement in 2025 reflected the breadth of contexts in which HTP preparedness must function. Technical support was provided for Mpox and cholera events across the Region, including coordination of cholera and acute watery diarrhea prevention and control in Myanmar in the wake of the March 2025 earthquake. In Myanmar, the PEM unit contributed technical leadership to the earthquake emergency response — one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the SEAR — as Health Operations and Technical Support lead within the Incident Management Support Team. This included strengthening emergency response planning, supporting operational and after-action reviews, and providing monitoring and evaluation support for both acute and protracted crisis response. The breadth of HTP support provided to emergency operations across the SEAR was documented in the PEM unit’s contribution to the regional report for the Health Security Interface Technical Advisory Group.In Sri Lanka, technical collaboration with the WHO Country Office and the Ministry of Health laid the groundwork for the National Steering Committee's 2026 annual meeting, development of Standard Operating Procedures for specialized emergency response, and a national training programme — all structured around evidence-based risk assessment for specialized hazards including HTPs.Across the SEAR, the unit contributed to strengthening the workforce architecture that underpins HTP response. Technical inputs shaped the WHO South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Workforce Strategy 2025–2030, and the PEM unit supported conceptual development of the health emergency workforce framework for the Pandemic Fund Round 3 proposal.Alongside this, the unit's sustained engagement on the meningitis agenda culminated in the launch of the Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030 at the Seventy-eighth Session of the Regional Committee, ensuring the Region's priorities were reflected in the Global Technical Task Force and expanding the unit's HTP engagement beyond outbreak-prone zoonotic pathogens (Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030).Taken together, 2025 demonstrated that meaningful HTP preparedness is built incrementally — through methodology, engagement, and the steady accumulation of institutional capacity across Member States.Bangladesh piloted the HTP Prioritization Methodology and identified the highest-priority pathogens in the country context (Photo credit: WHO Country Office, Bangladesh).
Update: What We’re Watching, May 22, 2026
This update covers the latest federal health policy news and its potential impact on Kansas.
Why the AI Revolution Is Good for Mental Health
In my two decades of working in mental health policy, I have never been more hopeful than I am today. That’s because there has never been a more opportune
Dashboard Data: Ohio ranks near bottom in health value
Ohio again is not comparing well to other U.S. states when it comes to health values. The state is ranked 43rd in the latest Health Policy Institute of ...
The State of Rural Hospitals in the U.S, 2012-2023
ASPE’s Office of Health Policy has developed an Issue Brief modeling the key determinants of rural hospital closure or conversion as well as an interactive Rural Hospital Dashboard to highlight key characteristics and trends among rural hospitals. The Issue Brief uses a Cox proportional hazards model to identify low occupancy rates, for-profit ownership and proximity to an urban county as key determinants of closure or conversion to outpatient only facilities.
Free primary care for all: Democratic think tank pushes the party on new health policy
The Searchlight Institute wants Democrats to shake up their approach to healthcare and offer a fresh vision for the future.
Colorado’s health care cuts are painful — what comes next could be worse
By Ross Brooks and Beverly Razon Last December, a broad coalition of consumer advocates, safety net providers, hospitals, health plans and physicians statewide published a warning: our state was facing a health care crisis, and fragmented policymaking would make it harder to solve. These members of the Colorado Health Policy Forum called on Gov. Jared […]
Colorado’s health care cuts are painful — what comes next could be worse
By Ross Brooks and Beverly Razon Last December, a broad coalition of consumer advocates, safety net providers, hospitals, health plans and physicians statewide published a warning: our state was facing a health care crisis, and fragmented policymaking would make it harder to solve. These members of the Colorado Health Policy Forum called on Gov. Jared […]
MHA Leaders Present at Michigan State of Reform Health Policy Conference
The 2026 Michigan State of Reform Health Policy Conference convened May 5 in East Lansing, MI, to discuss the most pressing challenges across the healthcare continuum.
Ohio rural healthcare access — an advanced solution?
A report from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found that rural residents are 15% more likely to die before the age of 75. Allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to operate more independently could be a solution to allow better access to care.
Class of 2026: Gati Wambura extends her reach as a ‘global health citi
With her Ph.D. from VCU’s Department of Health Policy, the researcher builds on her Kenyan roots and her experience on other continents.
The National Academy of Sciences Elects Two Berkeley Lab Researchers
Two Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. They are part of a cohort of 120 new members and 25 international members. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — alongside the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations. The 2026 electees bring the total number of active members to 2,705 with 557 international members. Gary Karpen is a biologist senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Biological Systems and Engineering Division and a Professor of Cell and Developmental Physiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. Karpen studies how the structure, organization, and maintenance of genetic material impact inheritance and cell function. His lab focuses on chromatin — a packaged form of DNA strands wrapped around proteins that comprises our chromosomes — with a particular emphasis on centromeres, rarely expressed sequences called heterochromatin, DNA repair, and regulatory RNAs. His research reveals insights into fundamental aspects of nuclear organization and genome regulation that are shared across the tree of life, broadening our understanding of cancer and other diseases, birth defects, and aging. Kam-Biu Luk is a Professor Emeritus of physics at UC Berkeley and a retired senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division. He is an experimental particle physicist whose research has focused on neutrinos: nearly massless, electrically neutral elementary particles that can pass through matter virtually undetected. Neutrinos are created during radioactive decay processes, including the fusion process occurring in stars and the fission process that powers nuclear reactors. Luk initiated and co-led the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, a project based in China with more than 200 international collaborators. In 2012, the Daya Bay experiment discovered a new form of a phenomenon called “neutrino oscillation” in which neutrinos change from one type to another. For this discovery, Luk and his collaborator Yifan Wang received the 2014 American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields W.K.H. Panofsky Prize for outstanding work in experimental particle physics, and he was also the co-recipient of the 2016 Breakthrough Prize. Luk is currently participating in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) hosted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which will investigate any potential difference in behavior between neutrinos and antineutrinos that may shed light on the evolution of the universe, especially why antimatter is absent in the present universe. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
OpenAI's health policy wishlist, CGM news from Dexcom, and more
In this edition of STAT Health Tech: A health policy blueprint from OpenAI, CGM updates from Dexcom, and push back against whole body scans.
Baltic health ministers convene in Vilnius for 20th Baltic Policy Dialogue
Milestone anniversary edition focuses on long-term care investment as ageing populations place growing pressure on health and social systems across the region Vilnius, 6 May 2026 — Health ministers from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are meeting in Vilnius today (5-6 May 2026) for the 20th edition of the Baltic Policy Dialogue (BPD), a milestone that marks two decades of structured, evidence-based health policy cooperation across the three Baltic States. Jointly organised by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the BPD has since 2004 served as a unique sub-regional platform where senior health decision-makers can candidly exchange experiences, examine comparative evidence, and explore policy options. Founded in the wake of the Baltic EU accession, the BPD series was born from a shared ambition: to open a wider window into health systems across Europe and to build lasting cooperation among countries with common aspirations and shared challenges.
ACHI Health Policy Director Jennifer Wessel Discusses Her Path to Career in Public Health
From her interest in health and wellness to a career in health policy and analysis, ACHI Director of Health Policy Jennifer Wessel is the focus of a profile by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
American Public Health Association CEO on Trump's latest nominee for surgeon general
The president's new pick for surgeon general has been both supportive and critical of MAHA health policy. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Dr. Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association.
Health Policy Watch: African leaders declare end of aid era at Nairobi World Health Summit, but the data tell a more complicated story
African leaders opened the World Health Summit Regional Meeting with a unified declaration that two decades of dependence on foreign aid for health is over.
Health Policy Watch: Ghana rebuffs US health deal – but South Africa and Zambia struggle without aid
Ghana became the latest African country to reject the US terms for bilateral health assistance, particularly the requirement to share sensitive health data.
Democrats go hard on health care affordability
The Senate's top Democrat unveiled a health policy outline that calls for lowering patients' costs across the board.
A Dangerous Shift in Maternal Health Policy
The Trump administration is cutting the budget in ways that put the lives of pregnant women and babies at risk, write Stephanie Psaki, Dara Kass, and Liz Tobin-Tyler.
Health Care Affordability in the United States, From Crisis to Action
U.S. health care costs exceed $5T yearly, driving delayed care and debt. Experts urge reforms to improve affordability, access, and health outcomes. delivery of health care; financial stress; health care costs; health policy; patient advocacy
A non-controversial public health policy? The UK’s gradual ban on smoking has been a PR success
The world will be watching to see how the ban for anyone born after 2009 works out. So far it’s been a win with smokers and non-smokers alike, says public health academic Prof Devi Sridhar
Waldrum warns “one-size-fits-all” health policy could harm rural patients and providers
ECU Health CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum testified before a congressional committee Tuesday, urging federal lawmakers to take targeted action to address rising health
Thorndike Library talk: Transgender health through an economic Lens - College of the Atlantic
Cody van Heerden Chair in Economics & Quantitative Social Sciences Dr. Hien Nguyen. Nguyen explores questions around transgender health through the lens of economics, a discipline that has significant influence over current public health policy and debates.
To Lower Health Care Costs, ‘We Have to Address Prices’
Health care spending in the United States continues to climb, with price growth playing a significant role, according to health policy researchers in a recent episode of NCSL’s “Our American...
Data-Driven Research is Helping Health Policy
Dr. William Schpero has seen firsthand how public policy drives patient outcomes at the population level, cementing a core idea that continues to guide his work as a health economist: that policy can be a powerful force for improving health equity — or, if poorly designed, a barrier to it.
Trump said RFK Jr could run 'wild' with health policy. Instead he's reined him in
Some MAHA voters are frustrated with Kennedy's concessions on key issues, as he pivots away from vaccines.
Watch: Acknowledging Health Care’s Great Divide
As part of her "How Would You Fix It?" series, podcast host Julie Rovner chats with health policy expert David Blumenthal about how politics can gum up health policy progress.
College of Health and Human Development names spring 2026 student marshals
Hannah Bucher, a health policy and administration major, and Nicholas Eppley, a nutritional sciences major, will serve as the college marshals for the Penn State College of Health and Human Development’s spring 2026 commencement ceremony.
U.S. Delivers Maternal Health Equipment Across Madagascar - U.S. Embassy in Madagascar
U.S. Delivers Maternal Health Equipment Across Madagascar U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Arnold today provided critical maternal and newborn health equipment that will reach healthcare facilities across Madagascar, demonstrating how U.S. foreign assistance builds a safer, healthier world by helping recipient countries build self-reliant health systems in line with the America First Global Health Strategy. Under President Trump’s America First foreign assistance policy and the America First Global Health Policy, U.S. support serves as a tool of strategic engagement – not global charity. Every U.S. taxpayer dollar is subject to rigorous oversight to ensure measurable results, maximum efficiency, and accountability, with zero tolerance for fraud, waste, or abuse. Through the bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding with Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health, both governments agreed on shared priorities and responsibilities, including a strong focus on maternal and newborn health and Madagascar’s increasing co-investment in its own health system. Madagascar continues to face major challenges in maternal and newborn health, including high maternal mortality rates and significant gaps in access to quality delivery care. In rural regions, many women still give birth at home or in facilities without adequate infection-prevention supplies. Through the U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership Project, the United States is providing essential equipment to healthcare facilities nationwide: calibrated reusable drapes for infection prevention in approximately 1,000 community health centers (CSBs), single-use calibrated drapes for 35 hospitals, and management tools for health workers to improve data collection and care coordination. “U.S. foreign assistance makes America safer by preventing instability and strengthening health systems that can detect and contain infectious diseases before they cross borders,” said Chargé d’Affaires Arnold during the handover ceremony. “Our support is temporary and targeted, designed to help Madagascar build greater self-reliance and reduce long-term dependence on U.S. taxpayer resources.” This U.S. support will help standardize safe delivery practices, strengthen infection prevention, and improve data management systems. Used effectively, these materials will contribute directly to reducing maternal and newborn deaths, especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas where access to quality delivery care remains limited. From major hospitals to remote health centers, U.S.-funded equipment is already delivering results. The nationwide scope of this support ensures that women and newborns across Madagascar benefit from improved infection prevention and safer delivery practices. This targeted assistance helps save lives today while supporting Madagascar’s transition toward a self-sufficient health system, ensuring that today’s U.S. support leads to Madagascar’s future independence from foreign assistance.
San Francisco’s mental health board, drug policy under scrutiny this week; Pyramid to get landmark status
This week, the highlights at City Hall include the likely reorganization of a commission overseeing mental health policy, support for drug-free supportive housing, and the possible landmarking of the city’s most visually distinctive building after over 50 years on the skyline. On Monday, the Rules Committee will have a full docket ranging from an ordinance […]
Curing U.S. Health Care, Part I
In 2008, much to their own surprise, leading Democrats unified around a program of major health care reform. Policy wonks had spent years developing the concepts behind what eventually became Obamacare; big Democratic victories in the 2006 midterms and the prospect of controlling both Congress and the presidency made it possible to imagine turning those ideas into reality. During the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama advocated similar plans, based on those ideas, for expanding insurance coverage. And it happened! The Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. When it was fully implemented in 2014, millions of Americans got health insurance: Impressive as the raw numbers are, they don’t tell the whole story. Before the ACA, even upper-middle-class Americans often found it impossible to get health insurance if they had pre-existing medical conditions. Many Americans were trapped in jobs they wanted to leave but couldn’t for fear of losing their employment-based coverage. Meanwhile, dire predictions from the usual suspects about runaway costs proved wrong. In fact, overall U.S. medical spending has grown much more slowly since the ACA was enacted than before. But the U.S., alone among advanced nations, still falls far short of providing universal health care. As you can see from the chart above, 8 percent of the population was still uninsured in 2024, a number that is set to rise over the next two years as a result of Republican policies. True, many of the uninsured in 2024 were undocumented immigrants, who we don’t try to cover. But there are still a lot of uninsured. Moreover, a significant number of Americans who have health insurance are in fact underinsured. As a result, they are at risk of incurring devastating healthcare costs and are sometimes forced to forgo needed care. This number is set to rise sharply in the next two years as a result of Republican policies adopted under Donald Trump. And not only is the U.S. unique among advanced countries in its under-provision of health care coverage, it also incurs by far the world’s highest healthcare costs per capita. So now may well be a good time to get behind a new push for major health reform — an effort, if you like, to finish the job begun under Obama. Today’s primer is devoted to the economics of health reform. During his failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump famously complained, “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.” Actually, we did know — and it’s not that complicated. Health economists understand the principles very well. And because health policy varies greatly among advanced nations, we know a lot about what works and what doesn’t. This will be the first in a series about health reform. Beyond the paywall I’ll address the following: 1. Why markets can’t be trusted to deliver healthcare 2. Routes to universal healthcare 3. What works? In a follow-up post I’ll discuss the pros and cons of different approaches, and possible paths forward for the United States.
MGB, CVS primary care partnership could inflate health care spending
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission doesn’t have the authority to prevent the partnership from going through, but it can recommend conditions to address its concerns.
Building a mission-ready DAF mental health enterprise for the future fight
Air Force Medical Service leaders advanced the efforts to align mental health policy, training and leadership practices to mission readiness requirements outlined in the Department of War’s 2026 National Defense Strategy, during the Mental Health Leadership and Readiness Symposium in Orlando, Florida, on March 9-12.
State Policy Trends in Cybersecurity and Public Health Preparedness
Learn how states are including cybersecurity in their emergency preparedness work in this Health Policy Update.
Money for Nothing? Universal Basic Income as Health Policy
To make a point, the Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright (1997) once borrowed a character from the 1960s comic strip Lil' Abner: a big blobby creature
3L Rachel Sadler Charts Path in Brain Health, Technology, and Policy Through UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration - UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings)
3L Rachel Sadler studies health law and policy at UC Law SF while researching the legal implications of neurotechnology and other emerging tools that may affect human cognition. 3L student Rachel Sadler shares how UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration prepared her for a career focused on the intersection of brain health, government policy, and technology. Gained a detailed understanding of how U.S. health care is regulated and where policy reform is needed through coursework and research. Interned with state and federal agencies that regulate health care services and worked with a major health care provider’s bioethics department. Plans to pursue a career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy as new technologies reshape healthcare. 3L Rachel Sadler: The Health Law Concentration has given me fluency in one of the most complex regulated industries and the tools to become an effective advocate for better health policy. Before coming to law school, I spent a decade teaching and working with teachers and administrators on high school programming for multilingual learners. Healthcare kept emerging as the most powerful driver of student outcomes. I wanted to understand how to make effective policy change in this area and how to use existing law to defend people’s health rights in California. Through the concentration’s coursework, I gained a sophisticated understanding of how U.S. healthcare is regulated. I also learned where the pressure points for reform exist. The courses gave me space to develop what became my central research interest: how law and policy can be built to protect human cognition and healthy brain development, particularly regarding new technologies such as generative AI and neurotechnology. The health law faculty were instrumental in that process, genuinely invested in helping me and other students define and pursue our own intellectual vision. During law school, I interned at the General Counsel’s Office for Region IX of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I also externed at the California Department of Justice’s Health, Education and Welfare Division. Additionally, I externed at Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Bioethics Department. Alongside those placements, I conducted extensive independent research on mental privacy and emerging neurotechnology, working closely with Professors Emily Murphy and George Horvath. That research became the throughline of my law school experience and the foundation of my current policy focus. I must also credit Nicole Ozer of the Center for Constitutional Democracy (CCD), whose deep knowledge of California privacy law and the public-interest privacy landscape deeply informed my work. I currently serve a research assistant with the CCD, where I spearhead the development of K-12 educational resources in partnership with law faculty and students. I’ve found UC Law SF to be an ideal place for second-career, nontraditional students. There is a tremendous diversity of life and career experience here, and I felt fully welcomed into the community, despite returning as a student at a different stage of life. I came to law school wanting to promote equity in California’s healthcare system. I am leaving with a sharper and more specific ambition: to build a policy career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy from technological intrusion. This is both an urgent and underserved area of law, and I want to be part of defining this landscape going forward. Whether as a practicing attorney or a policy advisor, I plan to work on these issues after law school. I strongly recommend UC Law SF and the Health Law Concentration. When I arrived in law school, I worried the concentration would be narrow and that my non-clinical background would be a disadvantage. The opposite was true. The health law faculty thinks about health expansively, encompassing social determinants of health, structural inequity, and emerging technologies alongside the regulatory mechanics of the industry. The faculty are accessible, intellectually generous, and genuinely invested in students’ development. I found my research vision here, and I deeply appreciate the concentration’s role in this. The Evidence of Success series highlights UC Law SF students as they share how the College’s opportunities equip them with the experience, skills, and confidence to excel in the legal profession.
RFK Jr. says he's launching a podcast to expose 'lies' that have made Americans sick
The show will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country’s health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff.
Week 11 and First Adjournment of the 2026 Session
This edition of Health at the Capitol reviews health policy issues considered by the Kansas Legislature the week of March 23 and actions taken by Gov. Kelly ahead of the veto session.
UC Berkeley Public Health surges to No. 6 in U.S. News Rankings
UCBPH was also ranked as a top 10 school for Environmental Health, Community Health, Epidemiology, and Health Policy & Management.
Affordability and Preventive Public Health Policy
Affordability pressures increasingly shape health risk in the United States, influencing both the upstream conditions that sustain health and the downstream ability to access health promoting resources. Financial stability is a key driver of health, affecting patterns of health, health care use, and the tradeoffs people must make among competing needs. The economic policy landscape aimed at improving financial security for Americans is expansive, complex, and often difficult to organize, making it challenging to discuss how different policies influence financial resilience and population health. We propose the Earn–Keep–Grow framework as a practical way to organize and guide discussion of these policies in population health research and policy decision-making.
Pediatric ICU nurse brings clinical insight to global health policy analysis | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Heesu Shin, SM ’26, helped take care of kids at his hospital in South Korea. Now, he’s working to help them on a larger scale through his research.
News Round-Up: Public Health in Flux
News and expert insights on public health policy, outbreak response, and evolving risks across the US and globally
From classroom to Capitol Hill, UF students help shape health policy
On any given day in the halls of Congress, Ryan Athay may meet with health advocates, research complex policy issues or help write legislation that could impact millions of lives. For Athay, a Master of Public Health student in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, the experience is more than a line on a resume. It’s a front-row seat to policymaking in real time.
The New Ideas Conundrum in Health Policy
In a new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman writes about the "conundrum of health policy ideas" facing Democrats searching for new proposals because of competing, and complex, priorities: rebuilding Medicaid and the ACA after trillion-dollar cuts, reconstructing federal health agencies, and tackling underlying health care costs, when candidates want simple ideas they can campaign on and voters want their costs to come down.
Alumni Spotlight: Caroline Doherty, MHS ’22 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Caroline Doherty, MHS ’22, uses the strong foundation she earned while at the Bloomberg School to make a lasting impact in the field of health policy.
‘Race for the future’: Which countries — and what values — will prevail in science?
In a Yale visit, Harvey Fineberg, a renowned health policy researcher, discussed how the U.S. can keep pace in the global science “race” — and why it will benefit all of humankind.
Alumni Spotlight: Marco Antonio Quiroz, MSPH ’25 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Marco Antonio Quiroz, MSPH ’25, puts his Bloomberg School training to use improving health policy for underserved communities.
The health care fight in the Tar Heel State
Both Republicans and Democrats look to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s and the Congressional GOP’s changes to health policy.
Health Policy Watch: Available cervical cancer vaccines fail to cover the HPV 35 genotype common in Africa
HPV 35, globally associated with only 2% of invasive cervical cancers, has a disproportionately higher prevalence in sub‐Saharan Africa.
The Guardian view on peptides: Robert F Kennedy Jr would leave public health policy to the hucksters
Editorial: The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trials
Health Policy Watch: US withdrawal of global health funding is ‘public health emergency of international concern’
The rapid withdrawal of international health aid by the US constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, according to an analysis in the BMJ.
Casey Means' surgeon general nomination is stalled
The nomination has languished despite ongoing efforts from the White House and Make America Healthy Again activists, revealing how intractable rifts over health policy can be even when Congress has shown deference to President Donald Trump.
Casey Means' surgeon general nomination is stalled
The nomination has languished despite ongoing efforts from the White House and Make America Healthy Again activists, revealing how intractable rifts over health policy can be even when Congress has shown deference to President Donald Trump.
Factbox-Lawsuits Against Trump Administration's Health Policy Changes
March 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked key parts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston sided with medical ...
Akin, an Elite Global Law Firm
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Akin announced today that Molly (Brimmer) Lolli has joined the firm as a senior policy advisor in Washington, D.C., further strengthening the firm’s market leading health policy…
The Trump health policy both parties are bullish on
Blue and red states are embracing a policy finalized during Trump's first term that encourages Obamacare sign-ups.
Democratic doctors run for Congress to challenge Trump, RFK Jr.
Doctors and scientists are running for office, motivated by concerns over health policy, anti-science movements, and cuts to social programs.
Laying the Foundations for an Americas Mental Health Policy Innovation Hub | Johns Hopkins Center for Global Mental Health
The project “Laying the Foundations for an Americas Mental Health Policy Innovation Hub,” led by Dr. María Cecilia Dedios and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Mental Health, aims to establish a regional platform that connects academics, policymakers, and civil society to advance collaborative mental health policymaking across the Americas. The initiative focuses on strengthening intersectoral approaches to population mental health and embedding meaningful community participation and lived experience into policy processes. Through a pilot consensus-building effort with decision-makers in Bogotá, Colombia, the project has begun testing methods for cross-sector collaboration to address shared priorities such as loneliness and underage substance use. Ultimately, the Hub seeks to foster regional learning and develop more participatory, coordinated, and socially responsive mental health policies.
Can ‘Suggestion-Box Science’ Make Public Health More Useful? | Science Friday
Skepticism around public health policy, experts and institutions has left some researchers asking basic questions about their role and relationship with the public. Can public health ...
GOP 'big beautiful bill' poised to deliver 'shock' to ACA marketplace, health policy experts say
The GOP's "big beautiful bill" made administrative tweaks expected to reduce enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace by millions of people.
Policy Brief: Outdoor Recreation and Public Health
States are increasingly exploring the intersection of health policy and outdoor recreation to better understand how these policy areas could be leveraged for the positive benefit of their constituents. While formal partnerships are still relatively novel, Governors have a variety of opportunities to engage with outdoor recreation and health agencies to create long-term benefits. This […]
Health Policy Watch: US speeds up signing of bilateral health agreements
As of 2 March, the US has signed 24 bilateral health MOUs in terms of the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy.
Rewriting the Playbook on Athlete Health: Kier named RWJF Scholar
UNCG's Lexi Kier has been named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar, a prestigious national distinction for doctoral students whose research has the potential to shape health policy across the United States.
How bipartisan health policy is made | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
A Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forum.
New pharmacy professor working to advance mental health policy research
From data to decision-making, Philip Hughes is working to advance mental health policy research
Health Policy Watch: Zambia and Zimbabwe back away from ‘prescriptive’ US health deals
Zambia is unhappy with part of the proposed health aid deal with the US; Zimbabwe halted its bilateral health negotiations with the US.
Older Americans are lonely. It's a public health crisis.
"Loneliness in the second half of life needs to be a focus of public health policy."
City of Pasadena Announces Health Officer
PASADENA, Calif. – The Director of Public Health Manuel Carmona has selected Dr. Parveen Kaur to be the next Health Officer at the Pasadena Public Health Department (PPHD). Dr. Kaur has served as Acting Health Officer since 2023 and will continue to provide medical direction to clinical programs, issue public health policy and guidance, and […]
Americans trust vaccines, school mandates, rejecting Trump agenda, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
A bipartisan majority of Americans believe vaccines are safe and that children should receive them to attend school, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, illustrating the challenges President Donald Trump's administration faces to win broad support for upending decades of health policy.
Your State of the Union health policy watch guide
Tracking President Trump’s health policy plans
Bhattacharya’s growing power in Trump’s HHS worries health experts
Public health experts and former federal staffers are uneasy over National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya’s rising influence over U.S. health policy as he temporarily takes on…
Trump promised RFK Jr. would ‘restore faith in American health care.’ A year in, trust has plummeted
Trust in government health agencies has plummeted, according to health policy and research group KFF, with declines across the political spectrum. And experts told CNN that they fear things could get worse.
RFK Jr. promised to restore trust in US health agencies. One year later, it’s eroding
NEW YORK (AP) — Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services one year ago, he has defended his upending of federal health policy by saying the…
RFK Jr. promised to restore trust in US health agencies. One year later, it’s eroding
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reshaping U.S. health policy as HHS secretary, and doctors say his changes are eroding trust
RFK Jr. promised to restore trust in US health agencies. One year later, it’s eroding
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reshaping U.S. health policy as HHS secretary, and doctors say his changes are eroding trust.
RFK Jr. promised to restore trust in US health agencies. One year later, it’s eroding
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reshaping U.S. health policy as HHS secretary, and doctors say his changes are eroding trust.
One in five commercial health insurance claims denied in 2024, Mass. report shows
The data highlight an overly complex system that burdens providers, insurers, and patients, Health Policy Commission head says.
Faculty Spotlight: Marie Smith’s Commitment to Advancing Health Policy
When Marie Smith (Pharm.D.) isn’t at UConn fulfilling her professor and assistant dean roles, she can be found on a Connecticut legislative workgroup or com ...
MAHA has reshaped health policy. Now it’s working on environmental rules
On New Year’s Eve, Lee Zeldin did something out of character for an Environmental Protection Agency leader who has been hacking away at regulations intended to protect Americans’ air and water.
MAHA has reshaped health policy. Now it's working on environmental rules
MAHA activists who want to hold corporations accountable for harming Americans’ health have found an unlikely ally in a GOP-led Environmental Protection Agency.
CHCF Board of Directors Welcomes Health Policy Leader Jim Wood - California Health Care Foundation
The health policy leader has deep expertise in rural health. He chaired the California Assembly Health Committee for eight years.
MAHA has reshaped health policy. Now it's working on environmental rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — On New Year's Eve, Lee Zeldin did something out of character for an Environmental Protection Agency leader who has been hacking away at regulations intended to protect Americans' air and water.