Public Health Practice
Worth reading: Infant mortality in Detroit and what the ACA means in Kentucky
A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked:
Karen Bouffard in The Detroit News: Infant mortality rate in Detroit rivals areas of Third World (via Reporting on Health, which has links to other stories in this series)
Stephanie McCrummen in the Washington Post: Life after Jan. 1: Kentucky clinic offers early glimpse at realities of health-care law
Harold Pollack interviews Keith Humphreys at Wonkblog: 100 Americans die of drug overdoses each day. How do we stop that?
Rachel Aviv in the New Yorker: A Valuable Reputation (“After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him”)
Richard Conniff at Yale Environment 360: Growing Insects: Farmers Can Help to Bring Back Pollinators
I read the article about the increasingly high infant mortality rate in Detriot. This article sheds light on issues that contribute to babies passing away at such a young age. For example, the article discusses how prematal care can significantly influence the health of a newborn baby. If the mother is not taking proper care of herself, the baby suffers a much higher risk of being born prematurely and dying. The author also discussed issues with economic standing and how this can affect the medical care the both mother and child receive. I found this blog post interesting and relevant to my life, because I was a premature baby and suffered many complications. Although my life turned out great with the help of physicians and surgery, not every infant is as lucky. Issues like these fuel my desire to become a physician and help other babies who are like me and deserve a fighting chance. This article does not relate a lot to physics, but I feel that this post was important to read and comment on because issues like Detroit’s infant mortality rate need to be discussed and resolved. By making these problems public knowledge, young mothers can be educated on how to prevent premature births and in turn reduce the number of babies that die due to premature complications.