By Rebekah Ninan A recent lawsuit in the Southern District of New York has alleged that the health insurance company Anthem Blue and Cross Blue Shield violated state laws and committed fraud by maintaining “ghost networks” of mental health providers. Ghost networks are directories for insurance companies that contain outdated or inaccurate information about providers…
By Jessica Samuels For 100 years, food fortification, the practice of deliberately increasing the content of vitamins and minerals in a food, has been essential to combating public health crises. However, these practices have continued into the modern era. Because overconsumption of nutrients has been linked to toxicity and diseases, public health officials should continue…
By Rupa Palanki The United States increasingly faces a crisis in maternal and infant health care. Over 2.3 million American women of reproductive age live in maternity care deserts — counties with little to no access to birthing centers and obstetric care. These deserts often result from rural hospital closures, health care provider shortages, and…
Photo credit: Melisa Slep By Rishita Nandagiri and Lucía Berro Pizzarossa Discussions about abortion tend to be dominated by considerations pertaining to medicine (e.g., “safety”) and law (e.g., “legality”). Medication abortion — misoprostol alone or in combination with mifepristone — has dramatically shifted these discussions. Brazilian women used misoprostol to self-manage their abortions in the…
by Donrich Thaldar As the era of genomic medicine dawns, large-scale genomics projects are becoming increasingly central to health care advancements. Projects like FinnGen in Finland, the UK Biobank, and the All of Us initiative in the United States are charting new frontiers in precision medicine, enabling researchers to unlock the genetic codes underlying a…
by Rebekah Ninan This summer, a startling study from researchers at University of California, Berkeley revealed tampons from several brands contain toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium. This finding follows the 2023 discovery that many menstrual products contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), even those marketed as PFAS-free. All of these contaminants are…
By Abeer Malik Imagine: Overjoyed at your pregnancy, you eagerly track every milestone, logging daily habits and symptoms into a pregnancy app. Then tragedy strikes—a miscarriage. Amidst your grief, authorities knock at your door. They’ve been monitoring your digital data and now question your behavior during pregnancy, possibly building a case against you using your…
by Alice Bryk Silveira The alarming rise in diabetes and obesity rates in the United States has placed significant strain on health care systems and poses a serious public health threat. Americans’ overconsumption of ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats is a concerning contributor. Globally, poor nutrition from such dietary habits plays…
By Jessica Samuels On October 8, 13 states and the District of Columbia sued TikTok, alleging that the social media company’s algorithm is designed to “promote excessive, compulsive, and addictive use” in children. While each state’s complaint was filed separately in state court, the cases are coordinated around the claim that TikTok’s design is deliberately…
By Spencer Andrews What makes a city livable? The answer, some say, is more “third places,” spaces distinct from one’s home (the first place) and one’s workplace (the second place). A third place, like a café, park, or library, fosters the sense of community and connection that makes a neighborhood great to live in. This…
