Faculty News

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

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.

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.

Two weeks into the Trump administration, external communication from federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the nation and world has gone dark.

Last week, the National Institutes of Health abruptly cancelled long-scheduled grant review panels and shut down external communications — with little explanation.

With federal health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under a temporary freeze on public communications, some data and publications have not been released on their normal schedule.

The U.S. has recorded its first death of a person infected with bird flu.

The patient was a resident of southwest Louisiana who was hospitalized last month with the first known severe case of bird flu in the country.

From weight-loss drugs to nonopioid pain killers to AI, here are some important -- and positive -- trends in health care.

Experts are skeptical that USDA’s theory of viral spread is telling the whole story.

For older patients with dementia, can beloved music from their teenage years provide comfort in moments of anxiety and stress? Professor Ellen McCreedy studied a personalized music intervention’s power to improve the quality of life for older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias.

Health insurers and hospitals increasingly treat patients less as humans in need of care than consumers who generate profit.

Professor Alyssa Bilinski set out to answer a seemingly simple question: how often are pregnant people included in medical trials? But finding the answer was anything but simple. With 90,000 records to analyze, she turned to AI for help—but ensuring the accuracy of the results required a creative approach.

As opioid-related hospitalizations rise, skilled nursing facilities could offer a crucial bridge to recovery for patients with opioid use disorder. However, stigma, regulatory hurdles and funding challenges limit their potential. New research highlights policy solutions to ensure these facilities can better meet the needs of a growing and aging population with OUD.

81% of children in the United States are categorized as "flourishing": indicating the presence of physical, mental and developmental well-being. A new Brown research study looks closer at these numbers, and how parental health has an impact on a child's flourishing.

Canadian health officials announced Tuesday that a teenager infected with H5N1 bird flu from an unknown source is in critical condition.

This fall there was a deadly disease outbreak in the east African country of Rwanda. But you may not have heard about it, and according to Professor Craig Spencer, that’s a good thing.

Researchers around the globe are tinkering with viruses far deadlier than covid-19.

Firearms are dangerous, but their ammunition holds a silent threat: dangerously high levels of lead. Brown doctoral student Christian Hoover teams up with Professor Joseph Braun to examine the connection between guns and elevated lead levels in America’s children and adults.

In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that high-risk adults get a second updated Covid vaccine to bolster their protection against the virus.

NEW YORK — A pig at an Oregon farm was found to have bird flu, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. It's the first time the virus has been detected in U.S. swine and raises concerns about bird flu's potential to become a human threat.

What must be done to reduce the harmful health effects of major storms and make our communities ready for the short- and long-term impacts of severe weather events?

The School of Public Health welcomed scholars from across the country to celebrate the 30th anniversary of biostatistical research and education at Brown University.

Some states are funding projects with little chance of making a difference, write current and former members of the Rhode Island Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee

Brown researchers are developing a mobile app aimed at reducing high-risk alcohol use among young adults.

Cheered on by friends and family, Associate Professor Rachel Cassidy competed on an episode of the televised quiz show, which aired Wednesday evening.

Picture a coal power plant: a building with tall smoke stacks with big plumes of gasses coming out of them. By now, we know that those gasses aren’t great for our health or the environment. But how bad are they? That’s where Professor Cory Zigler comes in.

What is the cost of homelessness in Rhode Island? Do we measure it in dollars, hours, square footage? Or is it measured by sleepless nights, persistent coughs, uncertain futures? The reasons Rhode Islanders remain unhoused are varied, but the results are the same: marginalization and the fight to keep a stable footing.

A team of Brown faculty members is conducting the first study of its kind to investigate whether MDMA-assisted therapy can relieve the suffering of Veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder.

WHO currently deems the risk of spread to nearby countries as high, but global spread low.

Inside your refrigerator and pantry, plastic is everywhere. There’s plastic wrap, storage bags and bins, clamshell takeout containers, beverage bottles, and condiment tubs, of course. Plastics (synthetic polymers) are also a component of the multi-layer material that make up chip bags and encase granola bars. Tin, steel, and aluminum cans, like the type that might hold beans or a soda, are lined with plastic. Even many paper products, such as paper cups and frozen food trays, are coated in–you guessed it–plastic.

With over half of America’s doctors now employed by large health systems rather than physician-owned practices, a team of Brown researchers is examining how this trend toward consolidation impacts health care costs, patient access and market competition.

A team led by Professor Erica Walker has received federal funding to conduct the first air-quality and community noise assessment of Mississippi communities impacted by the production of wood pellets.

Taking an HIV test in the privacy of your own home is as simple as swabbing your cheek. A new study from Tyler Wray finds compelling evidence that mailed tests could be a game changer.

After falling short in his first show appearance, this Brown professor made it all the way to the Jeopardy Wildcard Tournament.

As much as we would all love to ignore COVID, a new set of variants that scientists call “FLiRT” is here to remind us that the virus is still with us.

When I began my Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary environmental studies program, students further along in the program warned it was going to be particularly hard for us to get academic jobs. They pointed out that among the brilliant and productive faculty who enthusiastically taught our program, none had in fact received training like ours— they all had Ph.D.s in clearly defined fields.

Brown researchers compared assisted living residents in Florida who evacuated during Hurricane Irma to those who sheltered in place in order to determine the health risks inherent in long-term care disaster planning and response.

Brown researchers examined hundreds of thousands of veterans’ health records to determine if exposure to burn pits on military bases correlates with elevated risk for respiratory and cardiac health conditions.

Erica Walker explores the hidden health impacts of wood pellet production in her home state of Mississippi