HMS in the News
Research Article: Science & Society
In "Beyond the lab: trust, storytelling and the fight for America's attention," authors Aaron F. Mertz, executive director of Science & Society at the Aspen Institute, and Shruti Naik, associate professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, [read more]
Announcement: Launching the Neuroarts Resource Center
The Neuroarts Resource Center offers a comprehensive and continually updated collection of neuroarts-related resources, including the latest research, best practices, funding opportunities, and career postings. Its fully indexed and searchable interface allows users to easily find the information they [read more]
Press Release: Addressing the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Crisis
A new report released by AHSG examines the urgent need to address youth mental health challenges and identifies opportunities for health sector leaders to take action. “Addressing the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Crisis” is the product of a [read more]
Press Release: Expert Working Group Identifies Strategies to Prevent Health Systems from Anticompetitive Practices that Threaten Patient Care
A new report by an expert Working Group Ensuring Access, Affordability, and Quality in the Age of Healthcare Consolidation: Lessons Learned and Insights for the Future looks at the forces driving provider consolidation, the framework in place to regulate [read more]
Press Release: NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative
NeuroArts Blueprint The Music Man Foundation today announced a $1 million award to the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative to catalyze the research, practice, policy, and culture changes necessary to sustain the field of neuroarts. Neuroarts is the study of [read more]
Opinion Piece: Prevention Programs Save Lives and Money — Yet the Budget Process May Undervalue Them
Health, Medicine & Society Co-chairs of the Aspen Working Group on the Federal Budget Process, Dan Crippen and Nancy-Ann DeParle, penned an opinion piece published in The Hill on legislation recently passed by the US House of Representatives [read more]
Recent Releases
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.
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.
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.
