All News

Explore highlights from this year’s Commencement & Reunion Weekend at Brown University.

Biomedical and public health research in the United States now finds itself in an existential moment. The government’s proposed changes, if allowed to take place, will absolutely decimate not just the nation’s but the world’s ability to study disease, therapeutics, and health outcomes.

With private equity firms gobbling up health care facilities at a skyrocketing pace, researchers in the School of Public Health are working to uncover how rapid health care consolidation impacts patients, prices and physician practices.

In 2010, Rhode Island attempted a lively experiment in health care costs by limiting how much hospitals could increase the prices they charge. Fifteen years later, a new study led by a team of Brown University researchers suggests the hospital price growth mandate worked, not only cutting hospital prices directly, but also flowing downstream to lower consumer spending on health plan premiums.

Next week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, 193 member countries of the World Health Organization (with the U.S. notably absent) are expected to adopt the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Agreement, also known as the Pandemic Treaty. In anticipation of its adoption, the final agreement has been celebrated as a triumph of multilateralism. The co-chairs of the negotiations described the agreement as a plan to “protect future generations from the suffering and losses [experienced] during the COVID-19 pandemic” and to ensure that in the next pandemic, “the response will be faster, more effective and more equitable.”

The number of people who died of drug overdoses in the U.S. dropped dramatically in 2024, a promising sign amid a national fentanyl crisis that has fueled a surge in drug-related deaths in recent years. “This progress is encouraging, but it’s fragile,” said Alexandria Macmadu, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University’s School of Public Health. “We can’t mistake this progress for victory. Sustained investment is essential if we want to build on this momentum instead of backsliding.”

Professor Ronald Aubert's course aims to help students understand the complexities of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, identifying the factors that result in such high prescription drug prices.

Professor Alex Macmadu, an epidemiologist who has spent her career studying the opioid and overdose crisis, shares insights on Rhode Island’s bold step in opening the first state-approved overdose prevention center in the U.S. and what her research reveals about community attitudes toward harm reduction.

Nyameyo puts her online MPH training into action through Lulu-Afrika, the nonprofit organization she founded to address food insecurity, women’s health and safety and the well-being of orphans and prisoners throughout Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan.

In Rhode Island, the terminations have come in steadily since February, officials at both Brown University and the University of Rhode Island said, and it’s not clear when they will stop. The Trump administration is also seeking to slash overhead costs for research across the board, and has threatened to freeze an unspecified $510 million from Brown, roughly double the Ivy League institution’s annual federal funding.

A new study by researchers from Brown University School of Public Health reveals that a simple writing exercise could be used as a harm reduction tool for heavy-drinking college students.

Professor Jason D. Buxbaum explains how billions in federal relief improved hospitals' financial stability during the pandemic but did not result in increased spending on patient care or staffing.

Five years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health experts look to Washington as they weigh in on where our biosurveillance tools and preparedness systems stand now: What’s changed, what hasn’t and what must be built to make us ready for the next pandemic?

Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, Tewari has dedicated his career to making roads safer in India and across the world.

The health equity advocate and mentor has been honored with the School of Public Health’s 2025 Alumni Impact Award for his service to Rhode Island’s communities.

At the 26th annual Barnes Lecture, environmental law expert and former U.S. Special Envoy Monica Medina issued a stark warning about the urgent health and safety risks posed by climate change, urging sustained public attention and investment in science-driven systems like NOAA to safeguard lives and the planet.

With the United States facing its largest single measles outbreak in 25 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will direct federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for the disease, including vitamins, according to an H.H.S. spokesman. The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the nation’s top health official that experts fear will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.

Avoidable deaths are rising in the U.S. while they’re decreasing in other high-income nations. It’s a worrisome trend, which is partly responsible for the growing gap in life expectancy between the U.S. and its peers.

By getting serious about accelerating emissions reductions, we will see immediate health benefits in communities across the region.

Cuts to the Veterans Affairs department aren’t just about budgets — they’re about whether we, as a nation, truly honor those who’ve served, writes Dean Ashish Jha in a Boston Globe Opinion.

For sexual and gender minorities, stress and stigma can undermine conventional tobacco cessation efforts. Brown SPH doctoral student Garrett Stang is examining smoking behaviors within these communities to inform more effective, evidence-based strategies for quitting.

Disease trackers say cases are likely not connected, but definitive answers may prove elusive....“Without additional information, no conclusion can be reached: if it is due to chance, or some potential work-related exposure,” said Tongzhang Zheng, an epidemiology professor in the Brown School of Public Health, who is not involved in the Newton-Wellesley investigation.

The School of Public Health community gathered to celebrate community members’ achievements in research, teaching and innovation.

Research out of Brown University is making its way to the national spotlight. It concerns the overdose prevention center in Providence.

What happens when private equity firms buy hospitals and doctor’s offices?

Aggressive deportation tactics have terrorized farmworkers at the center of the nation’s bird flu strategy, public health workers say, including Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University.

A complementary approach called Counter-Attitudinal Advocacy has been found to help young adults reduce the harms related to heavy drinking by shifting how they think—not how much they drink.

There’s a theory of cancer causation that I’ve been thinking about recently called the two-hit hypothesis. It proposes that cancer begins with two mutations: one that can be inherited and one that is influenced by environmental or other factors. Public health seems to be in the midst of experiencing two hits. The result could be deadly.

As the United States faces one of its worst measles outbreaks in decades, a new analysis finds that nearly a third of young children who were eligible to be vaccinated against the disease did not get their first shot on schedule.

Everyone knows that Europeans tend to live longer than Americans. But a new study has a surprising twist: Even the richest Americans only live about as long as the poorest western Europeans.

Our Community-Academic Research Partnership Fund is powering collaborative, community-centered projects that will positively impact public health and strengthen local partnerships.

What are the biggest threats to the health security of the American people? There are some strong candidates. Avian influenza is spreading in birds, cattle, and 50 mammalian species. Measles cases are surging at home and abroad. COVID-19 is still spreading and could mutate into a more deadly strain. Farther afield, Uganda continues to respond to an Ebola outbreak and Mpox has been seen in 127 countries. But perhaps the biggest threat to America’s health could be self-inflicted.

If the administration acts immediately, it will protect the economy now
and lives in the future.

Fatalities from drugs including fentanyl are down from recent peaks.

Professor Jennifer Sacheck, new chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, brought decades of diet and physical activity expertise to Brown University when she joined the School of Public Health last month. What inspired Professor Sacheck's public health journey and what are her plans? We sat down with her to find out.

On the 5th anniversary of COVID-19’s arrival, Professor Jennifer Nuzzo delivered a Presidential Faculty Award lecture on the U.S. response to COVID, the infectious disease threats we face today and the steps needed to prepare for the public health emergencies of tomorrow.

If you ask anyone, they remember the exact moment that they realized that COVID-19 was going to change the world. For most of us, that moment came during the second week of March 2020. Schools were shut down. Many jobs became remote. But by the time most of our lives were changed by the pandemic, public health experts had already spent weeks or even months trying to stop the spread.

A friend called recently asking about measles. She’s the mother of four very young kids and wanted to know if she should be worried. She’d heard about the large measles outbreak in northwest Texas. Since January, more than 159 people are known to have been infected, and the outbreak has resulted in two deaths and dozens of hospitalizations. Now, this measles outbreak has spread into nine other states, and there’s an alert to travelers passing through the Los Angeles Airport

Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn government tear will have lasting effects on global health.