Altarum Authors
Expert voices from our staff address important health care issues.

David Anderson
Service Area Manager, Altarum Institute
David Anderson is the manager of strategic communications for Altarum Institute’s Health Care Advisory Services group. He leads a team that works with clients to develop and implement health care-related communication and marketing strategies. more
Date: Apr 19, 2012  •  Topics: Health Policy | Military & Veterans Health

After a decade of conflict in Iraq, our troops have come home, producing the largest increase in the number of American veterans since the 1970s.

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Image of Loren Bell
Altarum Institute Fellow
Loren Bell is a nationally known expert in food assistance and nutrition education program policy and program operations. He has more than 25 years experience working with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Food Stamp Programs... more
Date: Mar 13, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Health Policy | Women & Children

The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income, pre

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Image of Barbara Bryant
Publications Manager, Altarum Institute
Barbara Bryant is a writer and editor in Altarum's Alexandria, Va. office. She has more than 20 years of experience in this type of work, most of which has involved writing about medical and general health care topics for nonprofit organizations in or around Washington, D.C. more
Date: Jul 12, 2012  •  Topics: Aging

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in favor of requiring all American citizens to have health insurance coverage has eliminated much uncertainty over who will have access to health care, but

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Date: May 24, 2012  •  Topics: Aging

Your 80-year-old mother, who can’t recognize you due to severe Alzheimer’s dementia, has developed pneumonia after being hospitalized with a broken hip.

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Cathy Call Image
Director, Health Care Quality Research, Altarum Institute
During a career that has spanned three decades, Cathy Call has been instrumental in the development of health care quality improvement initiatives for the Department of Defense. more
Date: Mar 29, 2012  •  Topics: Aging | Care Transitions | Hospitals

According to the Institute of Medicine’s Preventing Medication Errors report, the average hospitalized patient encounters at least one medication error per day.

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Health Policy Associate, Altarum Institute
As a health policy associate, Amarie Campbell provides program support and technical assistance to grantees through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s Access to Recovery program. She has supported a team of project officers and the branch chief to manage a portfolio of 24 grantees by researching, synthesizing and reporting on program updates and grantee progress to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. more

Director, Pharmacovigilance, KAI Research, Inc., An Altarum Company
Hua Carroll, M.D., is the director of the pharmacovigilance group at KAI Research, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Altarum Institute. She has over 10 years’ experience in clinical safety and pharmacovigilance. more
Date: Jan 19, 2012  •  Topics: Chronic Disease | Public Health
Due to the rapid increase in prescription drug abuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared prescription drug abuse an epidemic. The latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that over 70 percent of people who abused prescription pain medications obtained them from friends or relatives, while approximately 5 percent got them from a drug dealer or over the Internet. more

Melissa Connolly
Senior Writer & Editor, Altarum Institute
As part of the Access to Recovery team, Ms. Connolly works as senior writer/editor, providing her skills on a variety of publications and products under the purview of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT). more
Date: Feb 21, 2012  •  Topics: Behavioral Health

When I began working in the field of social work 25 years ago, a huge distinction existed between working with individuals who suffered from mental health issues or physical ailments and those who

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Beth Costello
Senior Analyst, Altarum Institute
Beth Costello, M.B.A., is a senior analyst at Altarum Institute where, since 2006, she has provided analysis and consulting for organizations such as the Military Health System/TRICARE Management Activity, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Centers for Disease Control, San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative, Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan, and Metro Community Development. more
Date: Nov 3, 2011  •  Topics: Public Health | Public Health Preparedness
In your community, do block groups, farmer’s markets, city planners, community clinics, emergency services, and departments of health work elbow-to-elbow, or do they act in organizational silos? Improving population health was an important aspect of the Affordable Care Act, which led to the emergence of new community-based strategies that were launched in part from the public health campaign. more

HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health Lead, Altarum Institute
Antigone Dempsey has more than 19 years of experience in HIV/AIDS program management, organizational leadership, technical assistance, and consensus-based strategic partnership building. She has experience in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programming services, and the co-occurring issues such as addictions and recovery. She was recently selected to serve as a Special Government Employee for the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment (CHAC). more
Date: May 15, 2012  •  Topics: Chronic Disease | Public Health
Today, more Americans are dying from viral hepatitis than HIV/AIDS. more
Date: Apr 26, 2012  •  Topics: Chronic Disease
Decent Care Values is an innovative, values-based model supporting transformation of health care at three levels: individual, social and systemic. more

Director, Medical Epidemiology and Health Informatics
Dr. Durbin has been the Director of Medical Epidemiology and Health Informatics at Altarum since 2010. He has over 17 years of experience in health care, public health and health informatics, and over 20 years of experience in database programming and statistical analysis. more
Date: May 17, 2012  •  Topics: Information Technology | Public Health

The promise of public health surveillance based on near real-time health data is based on the notion that there will be uniform participation among providers, the systems will be easy to utilize,

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Gloria Eldridge, Ph.D.
Director, Altarum Strategic Innovations for Health Care Reform
Gloria N. Eldridge, Ph.D., M.S.C., has worked extensively in health policy and on the politics of national health reform. She is a Senior Analyst at Altarum Institute, most recently engaged in reviewing the major evidence in the field of value based purchasing more
Date: Nov 22, 2011  •  Topics: Aging | Health Reform
Let’s not capitalize on or mourn the loss of CLASS for too long. We have work to do – and we do not have the luxury of time before forging ahead. more
Date: Nov 1, 2011  •  Topics: Aging | Health Reform | Public Health
The Obama Administration abandoned the Community Living Services and Supports (CLASS) Act last month. This public long-term care insurance program was slated to be the country’s first attempt at dealing with an aging Boomer population that is in denial about what it costs to grow old in America. more
Date: Jun 16, 2011  •  Topics: Health Policy | Health Reform
Addressing three dilemmas: Who defines value and how? How can value be measured? Can a value-based system also respect choice? more

Director, Medical Affairs, KAI
As Director of KAI Medical Affairs, Ms. Fogelson leads all activities pertaining to medical communications and pre and post-marketing pharmacovigilance activities including establishing and implementing policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in accordance with FDA regulations and ICH guidelines. Ms. Fogelson manages all current contracts, client communications regarding project tasks/deliverables, project staffing, and serves as a subject matter expert in the development of plans, guidance manuals, reports, and summaries. more
Date: May 8, 2012  •  Topics: Health Policy

Mini-Sentinel is the Food & Drug Administration’s new tool to assist in monitoring the safety of drugs and medical products after FDA approval.

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Senior Policy Associate, Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition
Stacy Gleason is a senior policy associate with Altarum's Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition. She works in Altarum's Portland, Maine office. more
Date: Mar 13, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Health Policy | Women & Children

The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income, pre

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Senior Policy Analyst, Altarum Institute
Erica Griffin is a Senior Policy Analyst with Altarum Institute and works in the Altarum’s Atlanta, Ga. office. In this role, she supports the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (OSELS) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to evaluate the efficacy of existing CDC surveillance systems is measuring the impact of health reform preventive indicators. more
Date: May 17, 2012  •  Topics: Information Technology | Public Health

The promise of public health surveillance based on near real-time health data is based on the notion that there will be uniform participation among providers, the systems will be easy to utilize,

more

Health Economist and Senior Analyst, Altarum Institute
Paul Hughes-Cromwick is a health economist and Senior Analyst at Altarum Institute where he has worked since 2002. He has been involved in healthcare economic and policy analyses since receiving his master’s degree in 1981. more
Date: Aug 17, 2009  •  Topics: Costs & Economic Analysis | Insurance
Health care should be consumer driven for reasons of both efficiency and ethics. When in possession of adequate information and faced with appropriate incentives, consumers make better choices for their own health than does any third party, regardless of whether that third party is motivated by the most worthy of intentions. more

Brock Husby
Senior Lean Health Care Coach, Altarum Institute
Brock has been a Senior Lean Six Sigma coach at Altarum Institute since 2008. He has worked with a variety of different hospitals and systems, from large academic medical centers to small critical access hospitals. more
Date: Feb 2, 2012  •  Topics: Information Technology

With all of the discussions of rising health care costs, technology is often cited as being a major potential factor for reversing this crippling trend.

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David Kindig, M.D., Ph.D.
Altarum Institute Distinguished Scholar
David A. Kindig, M.D., Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of Population Health Sciences and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine. He Co-Directs the Wisconsin site of the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program and also serves as Senior Advisor to the UW Population Health Institute., and Co-Director of its “Making Wisconsin the Healthiest State” project. more
Date: Mar 30, 2010  •  Topics: Health Policy | Public Health
What do we know about the levels of population health and the state of medical care and the many other determinants of health across the United States? Despite years of data collection, it has been difficult to gain a comprehensive view of population health. more

Holly Korda, Ph.D.
Deputy Director for Strategy and Growth, Altarum Institute
Holly Korda, Ph.D., brings career experience as a consultant to nonprofit, public, and private organizations in the areas of performance-based evaluation and decision support, strategic analysis, and identification and transfer of best practice innovations in public- and private-sector health care. more
Date: Jul 6, 2012  •  Topics: Health Disparities | Health Reform
If states turn their backs on Medicaid expansion they leave a lot of federal money on the table. They also leave behind many vulnerable, low income constituents—our friends, families and neighbors—who could receive coverage through Medicaid without purchasing private health insurance (to which they may not have affordable, available options). more
Date: May 31, 2012  •  Topics: Consumer Choice | Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Policy

Overuse of health care is moving into the policy spotlight as a critical—and addressable—cost and quality issue.

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Date: Feb 14, 2012  •  Topics: Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Policy

Innovation in health care products, services, delivery models and processes has emerged as a popular solution to spiraling U.S.

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Sarah Lifsey
Policy Associate, Altarum Institute
Sarah Lifsey, MPP, is a policy associate in Altarum's Community Health Systems business group and provides support in multiple capacities for the projects of the program, planning, and evaluation practice area. more
Date: Jul 19, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Obesity | Public Health
This year, public health stakeholders have launched three key communication pieces to refocus the problem of obesity. Although these pieces are standalone efforts, they show how powerful coordinated efforts between researchers, local public health professionals and the American public can be. Together, these three pieces can give stakeholders at multiple levels concrete actions they can take to combat the problem of obesity. more
Date: Jun 21, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Community Health | Health Reform

Warm summer days and evenings draw many people outside to enjoy the weather and the extended daylight.

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Date: Feb 23, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Women & Children

With the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the United States Department of Agriculture will be revising the nutrition guidelines for the Child and Adult Care Food Program for the first

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Deputy Director, Altarum Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition
Valerie Long is the deputy director of Altarum’s Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition. She possesses more than 30 years of hands-on leadership in the development of nutrition education project interventions and evaluations at the state level, in particular nutrition interventions targeted to SNAP. more

Matt Longjohn, M.D., M.P.H.
Co-Project Director, Altarum Institute Childhood Obesity Prevention Mission Project
Dr. Matt Longjohn provides obesity prevention, public health leadership, and school health expertise to nonprofit organizations, hospitals and healthcare systems, research institutes, foundations, and city and state agencies. He is an adjunct assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. more
Date: May 6, 2009  •  Topics: Health Policy | Obesity | Women & Children
As we begin again to consider health care reform in this nation, the issue of childhood obesity should not be ignored. more

Wendy Lynch Photo
Director, Altarum Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care
For 25 years, Dr. Wendy Lynch has been making the connection between human and business performance. Her career has included roles as faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, senior scientist at Health Decisions International, and principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. more
Date: Jul 5, 2012  •  Topics: Community Health | Hospitals
Given our public interest in safety, one has to wonder how we have become so complacent about preventable illness and injury in medicine. Amazingly, 32 deaths trigger a nationwide recall on melon, but nearly 100,000 annual deaths from hospital infections (more than AIDS, car accidents and breast cancer combined) do not make news. more
Date: Jun 20, 2012  •  Topics: Consumer Choice

At Altarum's Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care, we're working to increase individual involvement in health care decisions.

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Date: May 1, 2012  •  Topics: Consumer Choice | Health Policy

“I’m thinking of getting a full-body CT scan,” Jane said.

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Joanne Lynn
Director, Altarum Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness
Joanne Lynn, M.D., M.A. (philosophy and public policy), M.S. (Evaluative Clinical Sciences), is a geriatrician, hospice physician, health services researcher, quality improvement advisor, and policy advocate who has focused upon shaping American health care so that every person can count on living comfortably and meaningfully through the period of serious illness and disability in the last years of life, at a sustainable cost to the community. She now leads the Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness for Altarum Institute. more
Date: May 22, 2012  •  Topics: Aging | Community Health | Health Policy

Readers of this blog are familiar with—and mostly supportive of—these two claims: (1) that social and environmental factors are stronger than health care services in shaping the popula

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Date: Mar 29, 2012  •  Topics: Aging | Care Transitions | Hospitals

According to the Institute of Medicine’s Preventing Medication Errors report, the average hospitalized patient encounters at least one medication error per day.

more
Date: Jan 31, 2012  •  Topics: Care Transitions

“Care transitions” is the new buzzword in efforts to improve health, improve care and reduce costs.

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Karah Mantinan, MPH, RD
Deputy Director, Altarum Center for Healthy Child and Youth Development
Karah Mantinan is the deputy director of Altarum's Center for Healthy Child and Youth Development and a senior associate in Policy, Planning, and Evaluation at Altarum Institute. Within the Center, she manages a portfolio of partnerships and initiatives designed to evaluate, research, and assist efforts that seek to improve child, family, and systems outcomes related to healthy child and youth development. more
Date: Feb 23, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Women & Children

With the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the United States Department of Agriculture will be revising the nutrition guidelines for the Child and Adult Care Food Program for the first

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Jessica McDuff
Senior Associate, Altarum Institute
Jessica McDuff, MA, is a senior Associate at Altarum Institute specializing in behavioral health and has 12 years of experience working with federal, state and local entities to develop, assess and improve behavioral health systems of care for individuals and families. She is currently supporting several projects within the Center for Healthy Child and Youth Development, including evaluation of health promotion initiatives conducted by the YMCA of the USA and evaluation of the Eat Well Play Hard in Day Care Homes project. more
Date: Apr 12, 2012  •  Topics: Childhood Obesity | Chronic Disease | Obesity

It’s been in the news and at the forefront of public health policy debates—childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years and now represents one of the leading public health threat

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Jesse Milan Photo
Vice President and Director, Community Health Systems, Altarum Institute
Mr. Milan assumed the position of Vice President and Director of Altarum’s Community Health Systems Group in April 2008. Prior to joining Altarum, he spent ten years at the Constella Group, an international health consulting firm, serving as Vice President for Health Communications and most recently as Vice President for Global Health Convergence. more
Date: Apr 26, 2012  •  Topics: Chronic Disease
Decent Care Values is an innovative, values-based model supporting transformation of health care at three levels: individual, social and systemic. more
Date: Mar 15, 2012  •  Topics: Chronic Disease | Health Policy | Public Health
The world’s largest—and most important—conference for bringing together service providers, advocates, policymakers and scientific and social science researchers to learn about and share advances in prevention, treatment, care and policy for an epidemic that counts 34 million living with HIV/AIDS worldwide takes place in Washington, D.C., from July 22 - 27. However, not everyone who could benefit from this conference will be able to enter the U.S. to attend, and it's worrisome that many people here in the U.S. who most need to hear its messages might not pay attention. more
Date: Jun 21, 2011  •  Topics: Public Health
Thirty years ago this month, the CDC released a report documenting the first cases of what we now know as the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Unfortunately, the news was not heard or understood by the millions AIDS would touch. In this the 30th year of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, much has changed. more

George Miller, Ph.D.
Altarum Institute Fellow
Dr. Miller has served on the technical staff of Altarum Institute and one of Altarum’s predecessor organizations, Vector Research, Inc., since 1972. He currently supports Altarum in the application of operations research methods to modeling and analysis of health care issues more
Date: Sep 21, 2009  •  Topics: Health Policy | Managed Care | Public Health
Because “prevention accounts for only two to three percent of health care expenditures,” we could achieve significant savings in future health care costs by devoting more money to preventive measures. Unfortunately, this argument is flawed. more
Date: Oct 1, 2008  •  Topics: Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Reform
Although there is considerable attention paid to addressing cost growth and investing in public health and prevention, the most noteworthy aspect of Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s health care plan is its focus on attempting to make insurance affordable for all Americans more

Michael D. Parkinson, M.D.
Altarum Institute Distinguished Scholar
Dr. Parkinson is the former President of the American College of Preventive Medicine, the national medical specialty society of physicians trained in and committed to disease prevention, health promotion, and systems-based approaches to improving health and health care. more
Date: Aug 31, 2010  •  Topics: Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Reform
When administration officials tout the cost savings potential of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a lead New England Journal of Medicine article (NEJM.org Aug. 12, 2010), one has to wonder if the statute adequately addresses the core drivers of poor health and excessive health care costs in a way which is understandable and actionable by patients and their doctors. more

Kristen Perosino, M.P.H.
Manager of Advocacy Partnerships, Altarum Institute
Kristen Perosino is policy analyst and manager of advocacy partnerships at Altarum Institute. In this role, she works to identify and pursue organizational partnerships that pair Altarum’s research and demonstration capacity with leaders in health-related issue advocacy. more
Date: Aug 24, 2011  •  Topics: Health Reform | Public Health Preparedness
In our current economic climate, community health centers continue to absorb rising numbers of uninsured patients, providing high-quality and affordable care while generating billions in savings to the health care system. more

Heather Pierce
Director of Strategic Communications, Palladian Partners, Inc.
Ms. Heather Pierce is an experienced health communications specialist with more than 10 years’ experience helping clients reach their target audiences with effective, engaging campaigns and messages that result in measurable outcomes and desired behavior change. Her background includes public relations and strategic communications, publications management, editing, and plain language writing. She has applied her critical thinking and strategic planning skills to a broad range of health-related issues—from public health policy and breast cancer advocacy to chronic disease prevention, biotechnology, and consumer health care. more
Date: Jul 17, 2012  •  Topics: Behavioral Health | Health Disparities | Public Health
Palladian worked closely with NIDA staff to develop the first-ever, easy-to-read website on drug abuse, designed for adults with low reading literacy (eighth grade or below reading level). more

Charles Roehrig Photo
Vice President and Director, Altarum Center for Sustainable Health Spending
Charles Roehrig, Ph.D., is a vice president and director of Altarum’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending. A health care economist and econometrician, Roehrig specializes in health sector modeling and analysis. more
Date: Jun 7, 2012  •  Topics: Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Policy | Health Reform

This is my fourth blog on the topic of sustainable health spending (others are here: 1,

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Date: Mar 5, 2012  •  Topics: Consumer Choice | Costs & Economic Analysis | Health Reform

Center for Sustainable Health Spending colleagues George Miller, Ph.D. and Paul Hughes-Cromwick have the following thoughts.

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Janice Lynch Schuster
Senior Writer, Altarum Institute
Janice Lynch Schuster has written extensively about improving care at the end of life. With Joanne Lynn, she coauthored two books on quality improvement for end of life care: Improving Care for the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Healthcare Managers; and Clinicians and A Common Sense Guide to Improving End of Life Care (both from Oxford). more
Date: May 24, 2012  •  Topics: Aging

Your 80-year-old mother, who can’t recognize you due to severe Alzheimer’s dementia, has developed pneumonia after being hospitalized with a broken hip.

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Date: Mar 1, 2012  •  Topics: Aging | Care Transitions

A few days into my 68-year old father’s hospitalization for sepsis, his doctors determined the strain of bacteria that plagued him: streptococcus.

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Date: Jan 31, 2012  •  Topics: Care Transitions

“Care transitions” is the new buzzword in efforts to improve health, improve care and reduce costs.

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Research Director for Innovative Care Delivery, Altarum Institute
Brad Smith, Ph.D., Altarum’s research director for innovative care delivery, helps guide the Institute’s strategic research initiatives related to improving the performance of the health care delivery system. He also continues to lead technical projects in a variety of substantive areas. Before assuming his current position, Dr. Smith served as a senior analyst in Altarum’s Health Quality Research practice area. more
Date: Jul 20, 2010  •  Topics: Health Disparities | Information Technology | Military & Veterans Health
While there is debate about the precise rate of prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the population of service members returning from deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, few would disagree that the sheer number of first and repeat deployments has placed a high demand on the Department of Veteran Affairs and military mental health treatment systems. Compounding the challenge is the key role played by reservists and National Guardsmen in these wars. more

Lincoln Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer, Altarum Institute
Mr. Smith joined the organization when Altarum Institute purchased Vector Research Incorporated (VRI) in 2001. He previously served as President of VRI and as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Altarum. As COO, he oversaw all Altarum research and consulting activities for the Institute. more
Date: Jan 8, 2009  •  Topics: Public Health
With the Mission Projects Initiative, we are attempting to solve pressing health issues facing our nation, problems that now affect the quality of life of millions of Americans. more

David R. Williams, Ph.D.
Altarum Institute Distinguished Scholar
David R. Williams is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies and an Affiliate of the Sociology Department at Harvard University. His first 6 years as a faculty member were at Yale University where he held appointments in both Sociology and Public Health. more
Date: Jun 15, 2009  •  Topics: Managed Care | Public Health
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America, of which I have served as staff director, recently released its report with 10 recommendations that we believe will allow Americans – particularly those who face the greatest barriers to good health – to lead healthy lives. more

Diana Williams
Senior Associate & Project Director, Altarum Institute
Diana Williams MSW, LCSW has 25 years of experience working in the field of substance abuse. She is currently the Director of the Coordinating Center for Behavioral Health Services for Altarum Institute and the Senior Associate and Project Director of the ATR III grant. more
Date: Mar 27, 2012  •  Topics: Behavioral Health

Do you love casinos? How about bingo? Do you bet on the NCAA tournament championship? Do you gamble on the Internet?

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Date: Feb 21, 2012  •  Topics: Behavioral Health

When I began working in the field of social work 25 years ago, a huge distinction existed between working with individuals who suffered from mental health issues or physical ailments and those who

more