Co-authored by Beth Hoffman.

There's a killer at large in our communities linked to 1 out of 5 deaths in the United States. Is this killer on the FBI's Most Wanted List? No. Why not? Because the killer is tobacco, the leading preventable cause of death in the United States....

Co-authored by Denis Cortese, M.D.

At the heart of current health care reform discussions -- which focus on expanding access to care and establishing mechanisms to finance broader coverage as well as reduce rapidly escalating costs -- must be the promotion of good health and the prevention of disease.

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Chrystan Skefos, Josh Oppenheimer, and Alissa Clarke*

Over a century ago, Thomas Edison suggested that "the doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of...

Co-written with Yi-An Ko

On National HIV Testing Day, we are reminded that 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV in the United States, yet one in five of them do not know their status. For those who have been tested, more than one-third learn they are infected...

By Susan Blumenthal, MD, Former US Assistant Surgeon General, Bowen Jiang and Yi-an Ko

The recent emergence of H1N1 "swine" flu is a powerful wake-up call to the health challenges ahead, reminding us of the important roles prevention and public health preparedness play in mitigating the spread of disease and...

By Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, MPA, with Justin Mutter and Alissa Clarke

America's health crisis does not have either a single cause or a silver bullet solution. Previous attempts at reform have often focused too narrowly on the financing and delivery of health care. In a report released today, a...

by Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D. and Yi-An Ko

Past U.S. Presidents have provided innovative leadership that shaped the landscape for our national health and science institutions. President Lincoln established the National Academy of Sciences; President Truman's foreign policies inspired the creation of the United States Agency for...

By Susan Blumenthal, MD, and Melissa Shive

For two months, ostracized and alone, nineteen year-old Marvelyn Brown slept on the gray vinyl seats of her 1996 Nissan Sentra in the parking lot of a Nashville, Tennessee, Walmart. When she visited her family, she used paper plates and plastic...

Additional writing by Yi-An Ko, and Justin Mutter*

"The first wealth is health." Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these words recognizing that good health is essential to the prosperity of the American people. During periods of economic downturn in our nation's history, however, Americans' health has often been among the first...

By: Susan Blumenthal, M.D. and Melissa Shive*

With an historic election in the United States occurring tomorrow, it is critical that the next President make it one of his top priorities to eradicate HIV/AIDS in America and around the world. There are 33 million people infected with HIV globally,...

By: Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A.*

Health care is a top issue that American women want their next President to address. Currently, women comprise 51% of the population in the United States, 61% of the population over the age of 65, and 70% of the population over age 85. Yet,...

By: Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A., Yi-An Ko, Elizabeth M. Moore, and Erica L. Cook*

With the 2008 Presidential election less than a week away and the devastating impact of the current financial crisis on Main Street and Wall Street, health care must be high on the list of top...

co-written by Melissa Shive

There is a city where 1 out of 20 people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but it is not located in the developing world. It is Washington, DC, where the infection rate is higher than that of Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Nigeria. In...

by Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D. and Kathleen Tran, M.Sc.

Yesterday's signing into law of the reauthorization and expansion of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Mexico City provide an opportune time to re-examine the current landscape of the global AIDS epidemic....

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A., Raaj Mehta, and Stephanie Safdi*

Today, on National HIV Testing Day, we are reminded of the fact that one quarter of the million Americans who are living with HIV/AIDS are unaware of their status. Over the last five years, the United States has made...

In 2008, thanks to the triumph of public health and medical interventions, Americans will live 30 years longer, on average, than they did a century ago. These advances have resulted in a shift in the threats to Americans' health. In the early 1900s, the leading killers were infectious diseases like...

By Susan Blumenthal, M.D., Yi-An Ko, Stephanie Safdi, Beth Hoffman and Julie Chen*

As thousands of people pour into emergency rooms and millions line up to be vaccinated, Brazil's public health officials and recently even its military are fighting to control vector-borne diseases. Mosquitoes are carrying illnesses like dengue and...

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, and Melissa Shive*

Despite 25 years of progress in diagnosing and treating HIV/AIDS in the United States, at least one major impact of the illness has not changed -- the stigma surrounding the disease. Motivated by the changing face...

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Yi-An Ko, Beth Louise Hoffman, and Melissa Shive

With health care being a top concern of Americans this primary season and a major focus of the debates, it's time to compare the presidential candidates' proposed plans and initiatives to improve the health of Americans and...

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Stephanie Safdi, and Yi-An Ko*

There is a killer at large that claims 7.6 million lives each year worldwide. This is a death toll equal to five times the population of Manhattan and higher than the number of deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria...