Excited to share this letter led by our brilliant @harvardmed.bsky.social student, Katie Gao, with reflections on @sethaberkowitz.bsky.social's seminal clinical trial.
Optimizing Food-Is-Medicine Programs for High Blood Pressure url: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
…Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel – not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
Evergreen from WEB Dubois: “It is ridiculous to seek to excuse Robert Lee as the most formidable agency this nation ever raised to make 4 million human beings goods instead of men…
Oh actually they randomly sent me a copy of the rejection email too, want me to forward it?
Happy to be on the @peoplespharmacy.bsky.social podcast to talk about nutrition interventions to improve health. #foodismedicine
www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/sho...
But I think current practitioners keep bumping up against the limitations of the method so I advocate a different approach (building on what we know about the level and distribution of harms) that I think is more useful for improving health equity. Happy to send you a copy of the book if you’d like!
Definitely agree. Some of this is “inside baseball” between Atheen and I because he helped me with my book where I talk about a lot of these issues (esp in Chapter 2). Certainly the disparitarian approach has been useful in calling attention to problems
😭😭😭 every little bit helps!
Ah, maybe I misinterpreted their piece. Appreciate the kind words! Hope your book project is making progress!
In other words, I think comparing observed health outcomes Y between group A and group B creates problems. Would be better to compare counterfactual health outcomes YA0 (outcomes for group A under unjust exposure/policy regime) and YA1 (outcomes for group A under more just exposure/policy regime).
Focusing on injustices that harm health as the way to think about health inequity works better than measuring health (in)equity as differences/inequalities between groups, IMO.
The relates back to the idea that the way you measure health equity is to compare health outcomes in a less well off (along some dimension) group to a more well off group. This tells you whether there are ‘inequalities in health’. But I think the approach of comparing two groups doesnt work well.
I don’t think this really gets at the concern I was trying to raise (not that clearly). The part that I think goes astray is their definition of health equity “We use the term health equity to refer to the absence of inequalities in health that are preventable.”
Would be a major advance, IMO, to think about health inequity as injustice that harms health, and make counterfactual comparisons (eg, health outcome for focal group under one policy regime vs another). A lot of problems in the field stem from using a less useful conception of health equity.
Certainly agree with their points about the need for conceptual clarity and methodological rigor but the way they are thinking of health equity still seems based in a “disparitarian” idea that the way to think about health equity is as differences in health outcomes (or not) between groups.
Great new perspective led by Kurt Hager in @jamainternalmed.com about the importance of nutrition interventions in #Medicaid
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Could I offer a (shameless) recommendation for 2026? Very much looking forward to Against Money, btw.
www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Really enjoyed this podcast and the associated article collection (open access):
Also, check out the rest of the great articles in the @adapubs.bsky.social Diabtes Care Special Collection relating to the symposium on How to Fix a Broken Healthcare System at the 2025 @amdiabetesassn.bsky.social ADA Scientific Sessions #diabetes
3) high U.S. healthcare spending is mostly driven by high prices, which are in turn the result of our private, multi-payer approach to healthcare finance that precludes the monopsony power needed to control prices, and 4) how we can get better even, or perhaps especially, in the current moment.
In more detail: I discuss 1) why the problems are less interrelated than they are often presented to be, 2) that the roots of poor population health lie in inequitable social policy, rather than healthcare
🚨📢New paper in discussing a key problems in U.S. health: high personal healthcare $$$ along with poor population health.
Big picture: what’s keeping the U.S. from better population health is us. But we can fix that!
#medsky #episky #econsky
Open access link:
diabetesjournals.org/care/article...
If you’re interested in the social policy we need to improve everyone’s health, I’ve got you covered!
www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Happy to see @npr.org covering the Healthy Food First trial results today:
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
Congrats!
Grateful to be able to comment on a great new study in @jamanetworkopen.com from @monahanna.bsky.social Sumit Agarwal and H. Luke Shaefer on how the Rx Kids program in flint improve prenatal care outcomes
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Results of the Healthy Food First trial in @jamainternalmed.com today, showing that a food subsidy led to lower BP than a food box for adults with #hypertension and #foodinsecurity
#medsky #episky
Happy to be on Food First Michigan talking about the health harms of #foodinsecuirty , how our weak income supports policies worsen health, and how to use public policy to improve population health
#episky #medsky #econsky
m.soundcloud.com/foodfirstmi/...
