HMS in the News
If We Want to Save Black Mothers and Babies, Our Approach to Birthing Care Must Change
Aspen Health Strategy Group
As we honor the 2023 Black Maternal Health Week, former governors and secretaries in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius and Tommy Thompson, recognize the urgent need to overhaul the systems and structures that allow the crisis of maternal mortality to happen. This TIME article spotlights the Aspen Health Strategy Group’s call to action from the 2020 report, Reversing the Maternal Mortality Crisis.
We need more research on guns. Here are 5 questions we can answer.
AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute
Megan Ranney, co-founder of AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute, identifies five research questions that could help lead to solutions for the gun epidemic in the United States, in this Washington Post op-ed.
Could Music Therapy Ease the World’s Dementia Crisis?
NeuroArts Blueprint
Susan Magsamen, codirector of the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative, which is spearheaded by the International Arts+Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University and HMS, is quoted in a Dana Foundation article exploring the therapeutic potential of music. The piece describes the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative and links to the project website.
HHS Secretaries: Looking Ahead, Looking Back
Aspen Ideas Health
An Aspen Ideas Health 2022 conversation with two former US Department of Health and Human Services Secretaries is highlighted in a Health Affairs blog. Alex Azar and Donna Shalala talk about their proudest achievements, the hardest decisions they had to make, how they oversee a $1.8 trillion budget, and the advice they have for their successors. Learn what it’s like to be in the hot seat every day, grappling with Medicaid expansion, disease outbreaks, health at the border, Congressional pressure, food safety, medical research priorities, and children’s wellbeing—sometimes all at once.
Reducing the Health Harms Of Incarceration: Five Big Ideas From the Aspen Health Strategy Group
Aspen Health Strategy Group
Aspen Health Strategy Group cochair Bill Frist calls for more attention to the poor health of the incarcerated population and the widespread harm it causes in an op-ed published in Forbes. Action steps to reduce the harm: repeal the Medicaid exclusion for this population, prioritize health in correctional systems, upgrade quality standards of carceral health, coordinate care within and outside carceral settings, and dramatically reduce the level and consequences of incarceration.
White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis
Aspen Health Strategy Group
The Aspen Health Strategy Group’s report, Reversing the U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis, is highlighted in the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis. Spearheaded by Vice President Kamala Harris, this call to action describes a series of investments and other commitments to support safe pregnancies and childbirth and to reduce post-partum complications.
Recent Releases
Advancing LGBTQ+ People in STEM Careers
Science & Society
In this report, the Science & Society program embarked on convening a roundtable discussion with international, cross-sector, LGBTQ+ STEM colleagues and set out to explore some of the barriers facing LGBTQ+ inclusion in STEM around the world. The aim is to inspire action within the STEM community, including corporate, research, academic, and nonprofit sectors, and pushes for intersectional policy change to build more inclusive spaces that ultimately benefit us all.
Protecting Health Data Privacy and Improving Patient Care
Aspen Health Strategy Group
This Aspen Health Strategy Group report offers five big ideas for protecting health data privacy and improving patient care. Action steps include: Congress should update federal health data privacy laws, health data privacy laws should reflect social norms, all entities that hold health data should have clear policies, health sector leaders should advance a new covenant of health data use and consumer participation in health data privacy practices should become the norm. Background papers provide a fuller context for these ideas.
Clinical Trial Diversity Advancing Scientific Discovery and Equity
Science & Society
Progress Report: Building the Neuroarts Field 2022-2023
NeuroArts Blueprint
Dedicated to strengthening the essential role that the arts can play in advancing health and wellbeing, neuroarts has captured the attention of an expanding network of researchers, practitioners, arts groups, health providers, and other public sector and private sector organizations. Learn how the NeuroArts Blueprint is advancing research, practice, education, policymaking, advocacy, leadership, and communications in this emerging field.
A Blueprint for Equitable AI
Science & Society
The Science & Society Program convened two diverse groups of cross-sector experts to discuss how they would advise building and distributing artificial intelligence for equitable outcomes, and summarized the discussions in a publicly available report, A Blueprint for Equitable AI.
In Favor of Pure Science
Science & Society
This Science & Society report, In Favor of Pure Science, assesses the current state of basic science around the world, creates a forum for discussion among scientific leaders, and provides guidance on how basic science can be supported and advanced internationally. It was developed in collaboration with Aspen Institute international partners in 13 countries.
