Health

Medical device failures can be debilitating and life-threatening for patients, especially when faulty technologies are not quickly identified and removed from the market. A new system developed by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, will help patients, clinicians, and hospitals spot problems more readily and make real- time assessments on the performance of devices used in patient care. Read More

This brief summarizes findings from an ongoing health impact assessment (HIA) of proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The HIA is being conducted by the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The intent of an HIA is to raise awareness of the potential impacts among policymakers, people... Read More

On July 22, Josh Rising, director of Pew’s medical device initiative, testified before the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, where he discussed how registries can help decrease the time and cost of clinical trials without sacrificing the collection of data on safety and effectiveness. Read More

On Tuesday, July 22, The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted comments on two draft guidance documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designed to expedite patient access to new medical devices. Read More

Pew expert calls USDA’s approach to salmonella ‘wholly inadequate' Foster Farms, the nation’s sixth-biggest chicken producer, announced a voluntary recall of some chicken products July 3, 2014, as victims continue to be identified in a 16-month salmonella outbreak caused by poultry the company processed. Read More

Medical device failures can be debilitating and life-threatening for patients, especially when faulty technologies are not quickly identified and removed from the market. A new system developed by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, will help patients, clinicians, and hospitals spot problems more readily and make real- time assessments on the performance of devices used in patient care. Read More

This brief summarizes findings from an ongoing health impact assessment (HIA) of proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The HIA is being conducted by the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The intent of an HIA is to raise awareness of the potential impacts among policymakers, people... Read More

On July 22, Josh Rising, director of Pew’s medical device initiative, testified before the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, where he discussed how registries can help decrease the time and cost of clinical trials without sacrificing the collection of data on safety and effectiveness. Read More

On Tuesday, July 22, The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted comments on two draft guidance documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designed to expedite patient access to new medical devices. Read More

Medical device registries collect data on a group of patients treated with a particular device to assess the safety and effectiveness of the technology. Registries can be especially helpful in tracking experiences of broader patient populations over longer periods of time, in comparison to premarket clinical trials. For example, hip implants are expected to last for 15 to 20 years but typically... Read More

Pew expert calls USDA’s approach to salmonella ‘wholly inadequate' Foster Farms, the nation’s sixth-biggest chicken producer, announced a voluntary recall of some chicken products July 3, 2014, as victims continue to be identified in a 16-month salmonella outbreak caused by poultry the company processed. Read More

Susan McConnell, a 1989 Pew scholar and Susan B. Ford Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, is one of 15 U.S. scientists who were named 2014 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors. Read More

Read the full editorial at the Washington Post. Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts announced the 2014 classes of biomedical scholars and Latin American fellows on June 24. In addition, Pew and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust named the inaugural class of the Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research, a joint initiative that supports scientists whose work is aimed at finding cures for cancer. Read More

President Barack Obama hosted the first White House Maker Faire on June 18. Presenters demonstrated do-it-yourself techniques optimizing technologies such as 3-D printers. Among the invited “makers” was Manu Prakash, a 2013 Pew scholar and assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Read More

Pew Latin American fellow Leandro Carreño has a long-term goal of improving the research landscape in his home country of Chile. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Steven Porcelli at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he is investigating the role that immune cells play in allergic diseases such as asthma. His work could lead to new treatments for the respiratory tract... Read More

Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the United States, covering both acute and long-term care services for over 66 million low-income Americans—children and their parents, as well as elderly and disabled individuals. This report focuses on the impact of Medicaid on the states, including trends in spending and enrollment, and the anticipated effects of the Affordable Care Act. Read More

State spending for health care services varies widely by state. But the relationship between the services delivered and residents' health status—how "healthy" people are—is complex. The amount a state spends on such services is not necessarily correlated with better or worse health status. Read More

Tens of millions Americans lack access to regular dental care. To address barriers to care, the dental team has been expanded to include different types of providers in Minnesota, Alaska, and California. The concept is similar to using physician assistants and other practitioners in the medical field. These mid-level dental providers perform preventive and routine restorative care. In Alaska and... Read More

Christy Jo Fogarty, an advanced dental therapist at a non-profit clinic in Minnesota, describes working with patients and how she interacts with her supervising dentist. Read More