RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. RAND's body of research—conducted primarily through the RAND Health division—includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, health information technology, and women's health, as well as topical concerns such as obesity, complementary and alternative medicine, and PTSD in veterans and survivors of catastrophe.
In light of Congress's upcoming discussion about reauthorization of the Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), five RAND experts discuss, in this August 2011 Congressional Briefing, the significant ways in which the U.S. public health system has improved since 9/11, as well as areas to which future improvement efforts should be targeted.
In this July 2011 Congressional Briefing, Lois Davis discusses adjustments made by law enforcement agencies to strengthen their counterterrorism and homeland security capabilities, and the new funding challenges faced by police departments since 9/11.
On May 24, 2011, the RAND Corporation presented “Rising Costs of Health Care” as part of its Issues in Focus public outreach series in Santa Monica, California. The program featured Arthur Kellermann, vice president and director of RAND Health.
In this May 2011 Congressional Briefing, behavioral scientist Rajeev Ramchand presents RAND research and analysis on recent increases in suicides among members of the U.S. military.
The Allegheny County Maternal Depression Initiative is a quality improvement effort aimed at improving screening, referral, and engagement in treatment for low-income women at risk for maternal depression. This training session covered topics including risks of depression during pregnancy, treatment planning, management of mood disorder and medication treatment concerns in pregnancy, and psychotropic drugs during lactation.
In this September 2010 Congressional Briefing, Neil Wenger describes a yearlong study on improving end-of-life care that can help policymakers address payment systems and other issues pertaining to quality of care for critically ill patients.
This web-based mapping tool from RAND can help health care decisionmakers in Missouri identify community-level hotspots where suboptimal health care exists, in particular when it is related to low health literacy.
A voter initiative to legalize marijuana has qualified for the November 2010 ballot in California. In this July 12, 2010, Congressional Briefing, the codirector of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center discusses the projected revenues, costs, and effects on price and use that may come from legalizing, regulating, and taxing marijuana in California.
Describes a web-based mapping tool to help healthcare decisionmakers identify neighborhood-level ''hotspots'' of suboptimal health or healthcare that may be due to low health literacy.
California's dirty air caused more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005 to 2007 as people sought help for problems such as asthma and pneumonia that are triggered by elevated pollution levels.
Beth McGlynn, associate director of RAND Health, highlights findings from the RAND COMPARE analysis of U.S. Senate health reform proposal H.R. 3590 and contrasts them with a similar analysis of the House health reform proposal, H.R. 3962.
At this January 2010 Policy Forum, experts discuss ways communities can help solve America's obesity epidemic.
In this Congressional Briefing held on September 14, 2009, researchers Christopher Nelson and Edward Chan discuss RAND's recently published evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative, which helps the nation's largest metropolitan areas develop the ability to rapidly deliver life-saving medications and other medical supplies to their populations. The study has implications for pandemic influenza and other federal public health preparedness programs.
President Obama and several Congressional leaders have recently expressed support for the idea of allowing citizens to buy into a public insurance program as part of any health reform legislation. The intensity of the ensuing debate has been fascinating given the lack of specifics that have been offered by either side.
In this Congressional Briefing held on August 17, 2009, economist Christine Eibner presents findings about which strategies to reduce health care spending in Massachusetts are most (and least) promising. Lessons learned in this Massachusetts study are broadly applicable and could help Congress navigate cost containment proposals in the ongoing health reform debate.
In this Congressional Briefing held on August 10, 2009, Rebecca Kilburn, director of the Promising Practices Network on Children, Families and Communities and of RAND Child Policy, discusses the disparities for boys and men of color relative to their white counterparts across specific socioeconomic, health, safety, and school readiness indicators in California.
The RAND Summer Institute consists of conferences addressing critical issues facing our aging population. Select sessions from the 15th Annual RAND Summer Institute, held July 7-10, 2008 in Santa Monica, California, are available for online viewing.
In a webinar given on November 19th 2008, researchers from the RAND Center for Public Health Preparedness provide guidance on applying quality improvement (QI) methods to public health emergency preparedness.
Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. Lynn E. Davis examines a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety.
RAND experts field questions from the media on the report Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery.
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