Faculty News

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

NCCIH funding will allow Brown researchers to evaluate complementary and integrative health interventions and produce a public-facing database to support rigorous systematic reviews.

Experts describe ways to turn down the volume, from earbuds to smartphone apps that detect harmful noise levels

American life expectancy started dropping even before the pandemic. It’s a critical barometer of our nation’s health and a sign that all is not well in the U.S.

Anaridis Rodriguez is joined by Pandemic Preparedness expert, Jennifer Nuzzo, from Brown University, to dig deeper into how we can best prepare ourselves for another pandemic.

To learn from the various health systems across the globe, researchers must devise new methods of working with highly sensitive data despite vast organizational differences between countries. The newest episode of our Humans in Public Health podcast interviews Professor Irene Papanicolas.

Here’s just the tip of the iceberg: $722.50 for a nurse to push a drug into an IV. $21,500 for ten stitches. The prices charged by hospitals are exorbitant and rising. Private health insurance premiums paid by working age adults are rising rapidly. Many Americans skip necessary medical care, while those who do get treated can end up bankrupt. With U.S. health care spending reaching $4.5 trillion in 2022, finding ways to cut costs has become increasingly urgent.

Homicides were down sharply in Boston during the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period in recent years, records show. The city saw just two confirmed homicides in the first quarter of the year, compared to 11 during the first quarter of 2023, according to Boston police statistics. There were five homicides in Boston in the first quarter of 2022, nine during the same period in 2021, and 10 in the first quarter of 2020.

A Texas dairy worker has tested positive for the avian flu, marking the first identified human case of an illness in the U.S. that has sickened cattle across several states over the past few weeks.

An internationally-known public health expert, Professor Malabika Sarker advocates for vulnerable populations around the world. We talked to her about implementation science, the importance of community and advocacy, and why she thinks the School of Public Health is ready to tackle the public health problems of the 21st century.

To promote partnership between local community members, organizations and researchers at Brown, the School of Public Health has established new research awards, with inaugural funding for projects impacting Rhode Island’s children and older adults.

An expert on global health security, public health preparedness and response, and health systems resilience, Jennifer Nuzzo DrPH, is professor of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health where she directs the Pandemic Center. We spoke to her about pandemic proofing the future, and how Brown is uniquely positioned to make impact in the field.

In mid-February, a measles outbreak started at the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in South Florida. There are now at least nine cases in the county and one additional one in Polk County in Central Florida.