HMS in the News
Recent Releases
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.
Talking Health: A New Way to Communicate About Public Health
PHRASES
Public Health Reaching Across Sectors (PHRASES), an initiative jointly launched by the de Beaumont Foundation and HMS, informed and inspired Talking Health, published by Oxford University Press. Ruth Katz, HMS executive director, co-authored the introduction to the book, which builds on the recognition that public health needs to tell its story more effectively. Talking Health offers resources to help public health professionals better communicate about the role and value of their field and form stronger cross-sector partnerships.
Budgeting for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: Improving the Federal Scorekeeping Process
Health, Medicine & Society
This report highlights consensus recommendations emerging from an HMS convening that brought together former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Office of Management and Budget leaders. Their conclusion: Structural changes to current federal costing and scorekeeping practices could clarify the value of clinical and population-level programs that elevate health through prevention activities. Dan Crippen, former CBO director and former executive director of the National Governors Association, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, former director of White House Office of Health Reform during the Obama Administration, chaired the group.
One Health / One Planet: A Special Magazine on Climate Change and Infectious Diseases
Science & Society
One Health / One Planet is a digital collaboration between the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program, housed within HMS, and the science outlet Leaps.org. Published in May 2022, the magazine offers wide-ranging perspectives on climate change, infectious disease, and the intersection between the two.
Reducing the Health Harms of Incarceration
Aspen Health Strategy Group
This Aspen Health Strategy Group report offers five big ideas for tackling systemic issues at the intersection of incarceration and health. 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. Background papers provide a fuller context for these ideas.
Breakthrough Cures, Blockbuster Costs: Future Directions
Health, Medicine & Society
Published by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and HMS, this report examines advanced therapies—biomedical breakthroughs that often treat rare conditions and can transform or even save a patient’s life—that tend to come with extremely high price tags. By 2031, as many as 90 gene and cellular therapies are expected to be approved for use by 550,000 patients, at an annual acquisition cost of $30 billion. A framework for ensuring that high-cost medicines for rare conditions are affordable and accessible to patients emerged from a convening co-chaired by two former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners, Scott Gottlieb and Margaret Hamburg.
