Brown University School of Public Health

09/04/2026

"The latest RI Life Index, a survey conducted by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health, showed that the number of households reporting food insecurity more than doubled between 2020 and 2024. Add in last fall’s SNAP crisis, steadily rising food costs, the high cost of living, and ongoing policy changes that threaten food access for even more families, and the need is truly greater than ever."
— Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Melissa Cherney in a new commentary for the Rhode Island Current

The leader of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank reflects on Hunger Action Month, rising food insecurity and why long-term solutions are needed to ensure no Rhode Islander goes hungry.

09/04/2026

COURT WATCH: Nationwide access to the abortion pill by mail-order and telehealth is under threat. On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear oral arguments in Louisiana v. FDA. Professor Liz Tobin-Tyler and her AIM Lab colleague Gabriella Chalker write in a new perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine that "for people in abusive relationships, barriers to abortion can be life threatening."
In fact, Louisiana, the state that's challenging mifepristone access, has one of the highest rates of perinatal homicide by firearm in the country. Most of these homicides are perpetrated by intimate partners. "Policymakers should focus their efforts on applying and enhancing existing domestic-violence laws and safety measures," the AIM Lab researchers write.
Follow the link to read the perspective and listen to a Q&A with Professor Tobin-Tyler.🎧

Antiabortion advocates have asserted that mifepristone must be prescribed in person to prevent reproductive coercion, specifically forced abortions. But this argument targets the wrong culprit.

09/03/2026

Like Dean Beaudoin said, this is our favorite time of the year at ! Thanks to everyone who made Orientation 2026 a great success. 🐻

https://education.sph.brown.edu/students/orientation

09/02/2026

What does it really mean when someone says they “can’t afford their medication”? It can mean:
💊 Rationing medicine
⏰ Delaying treatment
💵 Taking on debt
✈️ Purchasing medications abroad
⚖️ Choosing between a prescription and basic necessities

These are the realities documented in The Price Patients Pay, a new report developed by Brown University's Information Futures Lab with Patients For Affordable Drugs and We Are Mas exploring how high prescription drug prices affect Hispanic and Latino communities.

While polling shows that Hispanic and Latino communities are disproportionately burdened by high prescription drug prices, this report goes beyond the data to uncover the emotional toll of those choices and the strategies patients use to stay healthy.

The report offers actionable recommendations for policymakers, healthcare providers, advocacy organizations, philanthropists, and community leaders to improve prescription drug affordability, hold those in power accountable and help ensure patients can access the medications they need.

A new report from Brown's Information Futures Lab, in partnership with Patients For Affordable Drugs and We Are Más, finds Hispanic and Latino patients are delaying treatment, rationing medication and taking on debt.

09/02/2026

¿Qué sucede cuando los medicamentos recetados que necesitas son simplemente demasiado caros para poder pagarlos?

Para comprender el verdadero impacto de los altos precios de los medicamentos en las familias hispanas y latinas, Patients For Affordable Drugs, We Are Más y el Information Futures Lab de la Universidad de Brown pasaron cinco semanas escuchando a pacientes en el sur de Florida. A través de entrevistas, cuestionarios semanales y conversaciones comunitarias, la mayoría realizadas en español, los participantes compartieron cómo la crisis de asequibilidad afecta su vida cotidiana.

Lo que escuchamos fue claro: los pacientes están retrasando tratamientos, racionando medicamentos, endeudándose, teniendo que elegir entre sus medicamentos y necesidades básicas, y comprando medicamentos en el extranjero. Las consecuencias van mucho más allá de las finanzas: afectan la salud, el bienestar emocional y las familias de los pacientes.
Estas historias muestran lo que las estadísticas nacionales no pueden contar: el costo humano de los medicamentos recetados que son inaccesibles —y la urgente necesidad de un cambio sistémico.

📖 Lee El Precio Que Pagan Los Pacientes: Cómo los altos precios de los medicamentos afectan la salud, las finanzas y la vida cotidiana de las comunidades hispanas y latinas para escuchar directamente a los pacientes y conocer qué debe cambiar: https://es.patientsforaffordabledrugs.org/2026/08/25/reporte-el-precio-que-pagan-los-pacientes/

09/02/2026

What happens when the prescription drugs you need are simply too expensive to afford?

To understand the real harm of high drug prices on Hispanic and Latino families, Patients For Affordable Drugs, We Are Más, and Brown University’s Information Futures Lab spent five weeks hearing from patients in South Florida. Through interviews, weekly questionnaires, and community discussions, most conducted in Spanish, participants shared what the affordability crisis looks like in their everyday lives.

What we heard was clear: patients are delaying treatment, rationing medications, taking on debt, choosing between medicine and basic necessities, and purchasing drugs abroad. The consequences go far beyond finances, affecting patients’ health, emotional well-being, and families.

These stories show what national statistics can’t: the human cost of unaffordable prescription drugs — and the urgent need for a systemic shift.

📖 Read The Price Patients Pay: How Unaffordable Prescription Drugs Shape the Health, Finances, and Daily Lives of Hispanic and Latino Communities to hear directly from patients and learn what must change: https://www.patientsforaffordabledrugs.org/2026/08/25/the-price-patients-pay-report/

09/01/2026

Despite a stated focus on “finding efficiencies,” the current administration has significantly increased the bureaucracy Americans must navigate — from scientists to Medicaid beneficiaries. "The point of these bureaucratic hurdles is to keep people from accessing federal benefits, whether it’s Medicaid or scientific funding," Professor Brandon Marshall and Abdullah Shihipar write in STAT.

This White House has become the paperwork administration, write Brandon Marshall and Abdullah Shihipar.

09/01/2026

“Industry will go to places where they know they can get away with it,” says Professor Erica Walker, of the Brown University Department of Epidemiology. “It’s a signature of frontline communities.”

Elon Musk’s xAI runs one of the nation’s largest data centers in Memphis. It’s powered by about 60 gas turbines that emit a loud, unsettling noise.

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

"We are in this deadly and costly mess because we've allowed vaccination coverage to slip,” Professor Jennifer Nuzzo says.

"Measles is a runaway train with no end in sight,” one expert told Newsweek, as nearly 3000 cases have been recorded this year.