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Public Health

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Public health refers to social, cultural, economic, and geographic conditions that affect a population's well-being. To assist local, national, and international health agencies and organizations, RAND conducts research on public health issues including disaster preparedness and recovery; surveillance, prevention, and management of infectious disease outbreaks; screening for and prevention of chronic diseases; and ways to strengthen the public health infrastructure.

Essay

COVID Could Surge Anywhere. This Tool Helps Hospitals Prepare

Jul 1, 2020

The number of new coronavirus cases is growing in most states. As the pandemic continues to strain U.S. health care systems, a tool developed by RAND researchers can help hospitals prepare for the worst.
Project

Informing the Gun Policy Debate

Mar 2, 2018

RAND's Gun Policy in America initiative provides information on what scientific research can tell us about the effects of gun laws. Our goal is to establish a shared set of facts that will improve public discussions and support the development of fair and effective gun policies.

Explore Public Health

Multimedia

How Can We Achieve Herd Immunity?

RAND senior economist Krishna Kumar describes several factors that could affect the likelihood of achieving herd immunity against COVID-19.

Aug 5, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Linking Statistics with Testing Policy to Manage COVID-19 in the Community

Monitoring the evolution of the pandemic in our society is crucial. This discussion highlights some very important principles of statistical sampling that are relevant to formulating policy.

Aug 4, 2020
Blog

China in 2050, Using Mobile Tools to Track COVID-19, Telemedicine: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the future of U.S.-China competition, privacy concerns surrounding mobile tools used to track COVID-19, how telemedicine can help patients access specialized care, and more.

Jul 31, 2020
Commentary

Out of the Ashes: Forging the Post-Pandemic U.S. Health System

With shifting insights, new problems, and exacerbation of old problems revealed by the pandemic, innovative solutions in the U.S. health system are being adopted where rapid change would normally have been rare. There is both an opportunity and a responsibility to assess how these changes are working and where they can improve health, reduce inequity, and save money.

Jul 31, 2020
Journal Article

The Public Health Value of Opioid Litigation

This article proceeds in three parts: discussions of the general goals and role of public health tort litigation, the demonstrated and potential value of opioid litigation to achieve public health goals, and a conclusion.

Jul 31, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Prevalence and Predictors of Driving After Prescription Opioid Use in an Adult ED Sample

Prescription opioid use and driving is a public health concern given the risks associated with drugged driving. We examined the prevalence and correlates of driving after taking prescription opioids among adults seeking emergency department treatment.

Jul 31, 2020
Report

Report

Data Privacy During Pandemics: A Scorecard Approach for Evaluating the Privacy Implications of COVID-19 Mobile Phone Surveillance Programs

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have deployed mobile phone surveillance programs to augment public health interventions. The authors examine how these programs can be implemented in ways that protect privacy.

Jul 30, 2020
Research Brief

COVID-19 Mobile Surveillance Tools Raise Privacy Concerns

Dozens of countries are using mobile phone tools and data sources for COVID-19 tracking. These tools are beneficial, but they also have the potential for harm. As public health agencies consider using mobile surveillance tools, they will need to address privacy concerns.

Jul 30, 2020
News Release

Project Will Create First Digital Health Dataset That Includes Traditionally Underrepresented Groups

An initiative to create the first large-scale digital health dataset of Americans that is fully representative across all socio-demographic groups—including ethnic and economic groups usually underrepresented—has been launched by the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, the RAND Corporation and Evidation Health.

Jul 28, 2020
Multimedia

Antigen and Antibody Tests: What's the Difference?

RAND's Mahshid Abir describes the two types of tests being used to detect COVID-19 and explains the risks involved with relying on results from antigen testing.

Jul 16, 2020
Q&A

Balancing Public Health and Economic Effects of Physical Distancing: Q&A with Jonathan Welburn

Jonathan Welburn, an operations researcher at RAND, has spent years studying how economic shocks ripple outward like a contagion through the economy. He recently helped develop an online tool that policymakers can use to manage the health and economic effects of COVID-19 interventions.

Jul 13, 2020
Multimedia

What Is Contact Tracing?

RAND's Ben Boudreaux describes how contact tracing can be used to track the spread of COVID-19 and explains the differences between manual and automated contact tracing.

Jul 7, 2020
Blog

Preparing for a COVID Surge, Reducing Police Violence, Media Literacy in Schools: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on helping hospitals prepare for a surge in COVID-19 infections, an approach to reducing police violence, teachers' concerns about students' media literacy, and more.

Jul 2, 2020
Commentary

Revoking the 'License to Drink': Emerging Evidence on Mandatory Sobriety

After counties in South Dakota implemented a 24/7 sobriety program, repeat arrests for impaired driving decreased in the counties by an average of 12%. North Dakota implemented a similar program and also saw decreases in impaired driving. Can the same results be achieved outside of the Dakotas?

Jun 29, 2020
Multimedia

Rethinking the Role of the Strategic National Stockpile

An overview of testimony by Daniel M. Gerstein presented before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 24, 2020.

Jun 29, 2020
Testimony

The Strategic National Stockpile and COVID-19

The United States maintains a stockpile of drugs, vaccines, and other medical supplies to provide for the nation's emergency health security. COVID-19 has highlighted the need to update current stockpiling capabilities to help prepare for future biological events, including pandemics.

Jun 24, 2020
Multimedia

When Should We Stop Social Distancing?

RAND's Jeanne Ringel describes a new decisionmaking tool that models the effect of non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 interventions on health and economic outcomes.

Jun 24, 2020
Commentary

Once a Vaccine Is Ready, Getting People to Take It May Be a Challenge

With COVID-19 vaccine development well underway, implementation of a vaccination program warrants attention. Vaccine effectiveness demands a certain percentage uptake. But since health care delivery in the United States is fragmented, a coherent federal intervention may be necessary.

Jun 9, 2020
Report

COVID-19 Air Traffic Visualization: A New Tool Helps Analyze Commercial Air Travel Involving Infected Passengers

In this report—the first in a series on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic—the researchers introduce a new tool to visualize how COVID-19 infections and commercial air travel have interacted to export infection risk across the world.

Jun 5, 2020

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