Public Health News

Addiction & Overdose

Get to Know Aron Thiim

In 2023, Massachusetts recorded 2,125 confirmed opioid-related overdose deaths. Bloomberg Fellow Aron Thiim and his team at the Justice Resource Institute’s (JRI) Health Division are on the front lines of this epidemic.

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General

4 Things You Didn't Know Were Public Health Innovations

Public health innovations are all around us - from seatbelts, to water filtration systems, to the 911 line - public health innovations are helping to improve life expectancy in the United States every day. Below, we highlight just a few unlikely public health innovations highlighted by Bloomberg American Health Initiative faculty members:

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Addiction & Overdose

The Role of Drug Checking in Reducing Overdoses and Saving Lives

Between November 2021 and August 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology tested nearly 500 deidentified drug paraphernalia samples collected from eight syringe services programs across Maryland. For almost half of these samples, participants also completed a questionnaire about the substances they had intended to purchase.

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Food Systems for Health

Using AI to Track Food Insecurity in South Carolina

In 2024 over 650,000 people in South Carolina experienced food insecurity. To help address this crisis, Openfields, a social innovation consulting firm, launched the South Carolina Food Insecurity Media Tracker, an AI-powered tool designed to bring real-time insights to food security advocates.

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Food Systems for Health

Medicaid and Summer Meals for Children

Medicaid is more than healthcare—it also helps facilitate access to nutritious meals at school, supporting growth and development for children in America.

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Violence

Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence Who Are Experiencing Homelessness

Approximately 47% of women in the United States will experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. This includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, stalking, and controlling behavior.

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Environmental Challenges

When Washington Steps Back, States Hold the Keys for Health and Climate

Record-breaking drought. Devastating wildfires. Historic winter storms. In the last month, these have ravaged our country, impacting the lives and livelihoods of Americans everywhere. We don’t have to look back too far to recall the devastation of hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall, nor too far ahead to the next summer’s blistering heat, given the increased duration and frequency of heat waves. 

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Addiction & Overdose

A New Approach to Fentanyl Test Strip Distribution

In 2023 more than 73,000 overdose deaths in the United States were linked to synthetic opioids other than methadone, primarily fentanyl.

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Violence

How Income Inequality and Racial Composition Relate to Fatal Police Shootings in the U.S. Counties

In the United States, police fatally shoot more than 1,000 people each year. New research led by Hossein Zare, an associate research professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School and supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, found a rela

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Environmental Challenges

Making Climate Change Activism Accessible

From record-breaking wildfires and devastating floods to extreme heat waves and unpredictable storms, reshaping communities and ecosystems before our eyes the climate crisis is omnipresent in our lives. The scale of the crisis and the urgency of action can make it difficult to know where to start or how to make a meaningful impact. Climate Changemakers is working to change that.  

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Current Public Health News from the Initiative

Get to Know Aron Thiim

4 Things You Didn't Know Were Public Health Innovations

The Role of Drug Checking in Reducing Overdoses and Saving Lives