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RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors, and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. Our body of research includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, and health information technology, as well as obesity, substance abuse, and PTSD. RAND findings also help inform policies that aim to improve the health of seniors and the care they receive.

  • A young woman waiting for a nurse to get a syringe ready for an injection, photo by Lacheev/Getty Images

    Report

    Does Racism Affect Patient Safety?

    Aug 8, 2022

    Rates and types of patient safety events vary across patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, with minoritized patients more likely to experience safety issues. The factors that lead to these disparities are complex and intertwined, but there is growing sentiment that racism may play a role.

  • Covid-19 Prevention Opener B101 Crop

    Multimedia

    Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy with Research

    Jul 26, 2022

    RAND senior physician policy researcher Courtney Gidengil reveals the biggest driver behind the hesitancy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Topics in Focus:

Explore Health, Health Care, and Aging

  • Health care workers prepare to receive walk-up patients at a coronavirus testing center at UMC Hospital in Washington, April 6, 2020, photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

    Commentary

    Learning, Relearning, and Not Learning the Lessons of COVID-19

    Several recent announcements have demonstrated how little has been learned from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the potential need for a national reckoning to assess shortfalls and develop recommendations for preparing for and responding to future pandemics and other biological risks. To this end, the United States should create a national commission—not unlike the 9/11 Commission—to develop a way forward.

    Aug 12, 2022

  • Dissertation

    Dissertation

    Assessing Program Sustainability for Public Health in Low-Resource Setting

    Explores program sustainability for public health in low- and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Aug 12, 2022

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Impact of Telephone Triage on Access to Primary Care for People Living with Multiple Long-Term Health Conditions: Rapid Evaluation

    We aimed to evaluate whether or not the increased use of telephone triage would affect access to primary care differently for people living with multimorbidity than for other patients.

    Aug 12, 2022

  • Stressed-looking male teacher leaning against a desk with one hand on his forehead, photo by SolStock/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Educators' Poor Morale Matters, Even If They Don't Quit. Here's Why

    State and district education leaders can take steps now to reduce teacher principal stress this fall in two ways: Recognize that job-related stress is systemic and that educators closer to the classroom may experience more of it, and talk with teachers and principals about the sources of stress in their job, and what could alleviate them.

    Aug 11, 2022

  • A diverse group of medical staff sitting at a table, listening to a Black doctor speaking, photo by FatCamera/Getty Images

    Commentary

    In Search of an Equity Lens: A Physician's Journey

    Patient health outcomes, communication with providers, and overall patient satisfaction improve when patients and providers share a similar background. Further, diverse work environments may positively impact health care provider job satisfaction. Increasing diversity in health care work settings is a first important step that could help to increase equity and inclusion in these environments.

    Aug 11, 2022

  • Four educators in a school office, one holding her head and looking stressed, the other listening to her, photo by DGLimages/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Will Teachers Quit? What Surveys Can and Can't Tell Us

    There is no single source for reliable current data about teacher and principal turnover or job openings, so it's understandable that journalists rely on survey data to monitor the health of the teacher and principal workforce. But media coverage that focuses only on the connection, or lack thereof, between teachers' intentions to leave and actual turnover stands the risk of minimizing the clearly stated dissatisfaction that educators are expressing.

    Aug 11, 2022

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Estimated Wasteful Spending on Aducanumab Dispensing in the U.S. Medicare Population: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

    Aducanumab, a weight-dosed Alzheimer's drug, is available in two fixed-dose vial sizes. This may result in large amounts of discarded drug and wasteful spending. More-efficient vial sizes could save Medicare money if the drug is approved for widespread use.

    Aug 11, 2022

  • James Smith, photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND Corporation

    Announcement

    James P. Smith, Economist and Former Director of RAND's Labor and Population Studies Program, Dies at 79

    James P. Smith, an economist and expert on aging who directed the Labor and Population studies program at the RAND Corporation for nearly two decades, shaping a research agenda that focused on domestic labor markets, demographic trends in the United States, and economic development in developing countries, died on August 4. He was 79.

    Aug 10, 2022

  • Andrew Briscoe Elementary School's principal greets and distributes hand sanitizer to students while a teacher takes their temperature before they enter the building, in San Antonio, Texas, January 11, 2022, photo by Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Reuters

    Report

    Educators' Views on Politicized Topics in School

    A survey in January 2022 asked educators about policies for COVID-19 safety in schools and classroom conversations about race, racism, or bias. Almost half of principals and 40 percent of teachers reported that the intrusion of political issues and opinions added stress to their jobs.

    Aug 10, 2022

  • Tool

    Tool

    RAND HRS Longitudinal File 2018 (V2) Documentation: Includes 1992-2018 (Final Release)

    This tool is a cleaned, easy-to-use, and streamlined data product containing information from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal household survey that facilitates research into different aspects of population aging in the United States.

    Aug 9, 2022

  • Blog

    Our New CEO, Algorithmic Bias, Equity in the Workplace: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on what RAND’s new president and CEO envisions for the future, addressing bias in health care algorithms, creating equitable change in the workplace, and more.

    Aug 5, 2022

  • Lila Blanks makes a phone call to her insurance company following the death of her husband, Gregory Blanks, who died from complications from COVID-19, at her home in San Felipe, Texas, February 12, 2021, photo by Callaghan O'Hare/Reuters

    Testimony

    Health Care Affordability: State Policy Options to Control Costs

    When the costs to provide employer-sponsored health insurance increase, it burdens workers and their families. What are some potential policy options to address these high costs, particularly in markets like Texas where 48 percent of people have health insurance through an employer or union?

    Aug 4, 2022

  • A concerned young woman looks at a pregnancy test, photo by VioletaStoimenova/Getty Images

    Commentary

    How Policies That Punish Pregnant Women Backfire

    There is overwhelming evidence and consensus from the medical and public health communities that supportive approaches are what help pregnant women with substance use disorders. Unfortunately, the overturning of Roe v. Wade has opened the door for more policies that police and punish women rather than evidence-based solutions that we know can, do, and will save lives.

    Aug 2, 2022

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Legal Review of State Emergency Medical Services Policies and Protocols for Naloxone Administration

    We provide data on the authority of providers at different emergency medical services licensure levels to administer naloxone. We also describe relevant policies regarding which administration routes and dosages are permitted for each licensure level.

    Aug 2, 2022

  • Four people having a meeting in a conference room, photo by ljubaphoto/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Seven Ways to Build a Truly Equitable DEI Strategy

    Despite growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) roles worldwide, not much has changed with the power structure in DEI spaces, which still center on the C-suite and tend to be populated with groups that are less knowledgeable on research in DEI. Here are seven strategies for building a more-equitable DEI program.

    Aug 1, 2022

  • Young Black man having blood drawn, photo by miodrag ignjatovic/Getty Images

    News Release

    Predicting Patients' Race and Ethnicity Can Improve Equity in Health Care Delivery

    Algorithms designed to guide medical care can contribute to racially inequitable outcomes, but eliminating information about patient race and ethnicity as an input to algorithms is not the right way to address the issue.

    Aug 1, 2022

  • Blog

    Talking to Russia, Racial Bias, Mine-Hunting Dolphins: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on preventing escalation of the war in Ukraine, how racial bias compounds over time, why the Navy should stick with its mine-hunting dolphins, and more.

    Jul 29, 2022

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    How Much Illegally Manufactured Fentanyl Could the U.S. Be Consuming?

    This article provides guidance through two thought experiments that provide a hypothetical upper bound on U.S. consumption of fentanyl.

    Jul 28, 2022

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Playing Defense? Health Care in the Era of Covid

    This paper presents evidence that the quality of health care interactions changed in important ways during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Jul 28, 2022

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