Biomedical Research

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RAND President and CEO Presenting to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

RAND President and CEO Jason Matheny appeared on February 28, 2023, before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His remarks covered advances in synthetic biology and artificial intelligence and their potential impact on national security.

Jason Matheny @JasonGMatheny

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Brain and Machine Confluence Requires Multi-Sectoral Regulation to Maximize Gains

As the commercialization of brain-computer interface technology expands, it would be prudent for international policymakers to consider how this technology should be regulated, in order to reap its benefits and minimize its risks.

Sana Zakaria @drsana_zak, Joana Gomes Beirao, et al.

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Improving How Medicines R&D Is Financed Could Support Innovation and Benefits for Patients

Tackling chronic and infectious diseases depends to a large extent on the ability to develop innovative and affordable medicines that are available to patients in need. Policymakers will need to tackle challenges from multiple angles to avoid reducing barriers in one area at the expense of exacerbating challenges in another.

Sarah Parkinson, Sonja Marjanovic @SonjaCambs

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U.S. Labor Market, 988 Hotline, Firearm Homicides: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the U.S. economy’s uneven pandemic recovery, a new national mental health hotline, firearm homicides, and more.

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Doubling NIH Funding for Women's Health Would Yield Substantial Return on Investment

The scientific evidence base generally is biased toward the male body as a result of a long history of generous funding for diseases that predominantly affect men and underfunding for those that predominantly affect women. But the cost of the science pales in comparison to the price we continue to pay for what we don't know about caring for women.

Chloe E. Bird @ChloeBirdPhD

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Microbiome-Based Health and Wellness Innovation: Reflecting on Regulatory Challenges and Needs

Microbiome research and development may lead to an increasing number of therapeutic and well-being breakthroughs. But regulating microbiota-related products poses a challenge that could require innovative approaches.

Mark Cabling, Zuzanna Marciniak-Nuqui, et al.

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Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in Health Care Innovation: Considerations for Future Research, Policy, and Practice

For health care innovations to have the fairest and broadest possible benefit to society, efforts could be made to attend to all stages of the innovation pathway to identify opportunities to mitigate biases through diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Robert J. Romanelli, Sonja Marjanovic @SonjaCambs

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Science and Security: Setting the Direction for the UK's Research Relationship with China

UK-China research has the potential to sustain the very forms of academic excellence that a more-isolationist approach sets out to protect, while also raising the possibility of bridge-building and tackling shared problems. For this to become a reality, knowledge and understanding of China in the United Kingdom must improve.

Peter Carlyon

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Underfunding of Research in Women's Health Issues Is the Biggest Missed Opportunity in Health Care

For far too long, the medical sciences have treated men and women as interchangeable subjects, favoring men's health for funding and the male body for study. This approach creates a problem, not just for women but for everyone. Not only does it miss a large and critical slice of the population, it leaves an unknown amount of science unexplored.

Chloe E. Bird @ChloeBirdPhD

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Global Health Data Sharing: The Case of China and the Two Coronavirus Pandemics

Tensions over the coronavirus seem to be prompting China to isolate itself in terms of data sharing. But the first coronavirus pandemic in 2003 actually helped open China to health collaborations with other countries. World leaders may be doing their citizens a disservice when they allow toxic geopolitics to undercut trust and international collaborations that took decades to build.

Jennifer Bouey @BoueyHuang

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The Pivotal Role of Remote Working in the Journey to Jab the Nation

Pulling the UK COVID-19 vaccination program together was an immense logistical and technical effort. Had it not been for the working practices mandated by the lockdown, it would have been even more difficult. What changed over the pandemic to allow this to happen?

Michael Whitmore

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The Internet of Bodies Will Change Everything, for Better or Worse

The rise of devices that connect the human body to the web is accelerating rapidly. This Internet of Bodies could revolutionize health care and improve our quality of life. But without appropriate guardrails, it could also jeopardize our most intimate personal information and introduce several ethical concerns.

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Brain-Computer Interfaces Are Coming. Will We Be Ready?

Brain-computer interfaces give humans the ability to directly control machines with their minds. Before this emerging technology matures, it's important for developers to weigh the opportunities against the risks.

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Biosecurity Is the Lesson We Need to Learn from the Coronavirus Pandemic

Biological outbreaks have been a fear among experts for decades and human activities present windows of vulnerability. To address this, America needs to have a new approach to biosafety and biosecurity that addresses the full range of biological threats that humankind and the global environment will face in the future.

Daniel M. Gerstein @Daniel_Gerstein, James Giordano

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An Uneven Future: An Ageing Population Needs Innovation, but Not at the Expense of Equal Care

Expected increases in life expectancy together with increasingly complex physical and mental illness will continue to exert huge pressures on health systems. How should the UK prepare for the challenges ahead?

Camilla d'Angelo

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AcademyHealth Presents Ateev Mehrotra with Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award

RAND congratulates physician researcher Ateev Mehrotra on receiving AcademyHealth's 2013 Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award. The award recognizes early-career health services researchers who “show exceptional promise for future contributions.”