Research Library

Participants in the 2015 student-led Public Diplomacy and Global Policy Program report their research findings on education, energy, health and gender and equality issues in Doha, Qatar. Edited by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen and Ariana Marnicio.

The 340B Drug Pricing Program, which allows uninsured or low-income patients to buy prescription drugs at discounted prices, is under attack.

Health care providers add multiple processes to the care of complex cancer patients, believing they prevent and/or ameliorate complications. However, the relationship between these processes, complication remediation, and expenditures is unknown.

In this commentary, the authors examine the roots of the United States’ reluctance to embrace universal health care, concluding that it "is neither sound nor ethical in a nation that promulgates fairness and equal opportunity" to deny coverage.

Genomic testing is a rapidly growing field, especially in cancer medicine, where it can be used to match patients to the most effective targeted treatment. In the past decade, we have seen rapid growth in the number of new genomic tests that are available. However, genomic testing is usually very expensive, raising the question of whether the testing is worth the cost.

In 1972, a National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, comprising establishment figures chosen mostly by President Richard Nixon himself, issued a report that declared that “neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety” and recommended that Congress and state legislatures decriminalize the use and casual distribution of marijuana and seek means other than prohibition to discourage use. President Nixon ignored the report and Congress declined to consider its recommendations, but during the 40-plus years since its publication, at least 37 states have acted to refashion a crazy-quilt collection of prohibitions, nearly always in the direction favored by the commission. The specifics vary by state, but most reform legislation has followed one of three formulas: decriminalization of marijuana possession, legalization of marijuana for medical use, or legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use. In this issue brief, authors Katharine Neill and William Martin examine the facts and fears surrounding each of these options.

Regionalization of care is associated with improved care and outcomes for patients with complex cancers.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) affects over 80 million Americans, causing more than 40,000 cases of HPV-associated cancers in the U.S. In 2006, the FDA licensed the first HPV vaccine, which could help save thousands of lives; no cure for HPV currently exists. However, the political controversy raised by the vaccine has limited its acceptance and use. Such resistance potentially jeopardizes an opportunity to reduce cancer rates in Texas and the broader United States.