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Explained

Measuring surgical quality

Not all surgeons are equally skilled with a scalpel. Doctors are developing new ways to test — and improve — operating room performance.

Does online opioid treatment work?

The Covid-19 pandemic brought a sudden shift to virtual health care. That has increased access — and possibly outcomes, too — for patients with opioid use disorder.

America the Unhealthy: Inequality kills

Smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise? Yes, but that’s not all. A researcher tells us what really hurts US life expectancy.

Pandemic puts all eyes on public health

Covid-19 has exposed the weak spots of the US public health system — and that presents an opportunity, says an epidemiologist, for the nation to recognize the problems and act to fix them

Evolution of the US public health system

TIMELINE: From colonial efforts to control smallpox outbreaks to antimalarial campaigns targeting mosquitoes, the American effort grew for centuries. But cutbacks have weakened it in the past decades. 

How health insurance is faring under Covid

Millions of Americans lost employer-sponsored coverage when Covid-19 disrupted their jobs. Can America come up with a better system?

Why probation and parole don’t work as advertised

The current system of supervised release in lieu of imprisonment may do more harm than good, some experts say. How can society do a better job of rehabilitating law-breakers while keeping them from re-offending?

Telemedicine’s tipping point

Sheltering in place has pushed virtual health care into the mainstream. Will we go back to doctors’ waiting rooms?

Why isn’t dental health considered primary medical care?

Ailments of the mouth can put the body at risk for a slew of other ills. Some practitioners think dentistry should no longer be siloed.

Bringing the hospital into the home

A movement to provide hospital-level care for sick patients in their own beds, in the comfort of familiar surroundings, is growing in the United States — a trend already embraced in some other countries

Dignity therapy: Making the last words count

Guided conversations with the terminally ill are popular with patients, families and doctors who’ve experienced them. But are they truly beneficial? Researchers are looking beneath the anecdotal appeal.

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