Dr. Meredith Rosenthal is the Director of Graduate Studies for the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy and the Faculty Chair for Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. She received her Ph.D. in Health Policy on a Economics track from Harvard University. She primarily focuses her research on policies aimed at enhancing the affordability and quality of healthcare in the United States. Her work has played a significant role in shaping provider payment systems in both public and private spheres. Additionally, she has provided guidance to federal and state policymakers regarding healthcare payment policy development and implementation.

Dr. Bryan Choi, an attending neurosurgeon, specializes in surgical care for patients with benign and malignant brain tumors. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and earned both MD and PhD degrees at Duke University School of Medicine, focusing on tumor immunology.

HHPR Associate Editor Kiran Ebrahimi interviewed Dr. Karestan Koenen, a psychologist and epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School, whose research focuses on the physical and mental effects of trauma and PTSD. Dr. Koenen received her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College, M.A. in developmental psychology from Columbia University, and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Boston University. She is a strong advocate of better support for victims of sexual assault and PTSD. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Rigid adherence to traditional masculine norms typified by self-reliance and restrictive emotionality is associated with poor mental health and education outcomes for boys and young men. Existing approaches to encourage more flexible, positive expressions of masculinity have largely been focused on achieving individual behaviour change. Here we discuss the need for a policy lens on efforts to reduce the influence of restrictive gender role norms for boys and young men. Examples of current solutions span the sensitisation of mental health care for boys and men, alongside embedding of positive masculinity programming into educational policy. In all, applying a policy and systems lens when promoting positive masculinities does due justice to the structural nature of restrictive frameworks of masculine self-expression.

Associate Editor Allie Oh interviewed Henning Tiemeier, MA, MD, PhD, a Professor of Social and Behavioral Science and the Sumner and Esther Feldberg Chair of Maternal and Child Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Tiemeier received both his medical and sociological degree from the University of Bonn, Germany, and his PhD from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Since 2018, he has led the Maternal and Child Center of Excellence at Harvard Chan. As one of just 13 HRSA-funded Centers of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health in the United States, the center trains future leaders in the field. Dr. Tiemeier has worked broadly in pediatric epidemiology for more than 20 years with an emphasis on child developmental research. At Harvard his research focuses on high-risk children, such as preterm children and homeless families. 

HUHPR Senior Editor Beier Nelson interviewed Dr. Mollie Williams, Dr.P.H. Dr. Williams is the executive director of The Family Van, a mobile clinic that utilizes a community-oriented approach to provide free preventative care screenings to Boston’s underserved, neighborhoods. Dr. Williams is also a lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

HHPR Executive Content Editor Evan Hsiang interviewed Dr. Chirag Patel, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Patel’s research seeks to address human health through computational analysis of electronic medical records, genomic data, and environmental exposures. Dr. Patel received his PhD from Stanford University. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

HHPR Senior Editor Nyah Joudeh interviewed Dr. Jack Shonkoff, MD. Dr. Shonkoff is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital; Research Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Dr. Shonkoff completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, medical education at New York University School of Medicine, pediatric training at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and fellowship in developmental pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to assuming his current position, he was the Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and Dean of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

HUHPR Senior Editor Natalie Wing interviewed Dr. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, MD and Alex Potter. Dr. Yang is a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A in biochemistry from Harvard College and his M.D at Harvard Medical School. He also started the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI). Alex Potter is the co-founder and Executive Director of the ALCSI.

Rarely are histories of enslavement, colonial plunder, and neocolonial extraction—along with contemporary unfettered racial capitalism—considered factors that shape global dynamics of illness. By breaking these epistemic confines, global health professionals can expand the range of possibilities for global health interventions to encompass reparative and redistributive justice. Applying this approach to Qatar, one can appreciate that centuries of extractive colonial practices perpetrated by Great Britain on the Indian Subcontinent (which drained $45 trillion in wealth) resulted in the mass poverty that drives migration into the petrostate. Reparations for the colonized nations that are sources of migrant labor could ensure no individual needs to pursue precarious, often deadly, ‘employment’ as the only means of providing for their family.

The potential of digital mental health, whether offered through apps or video visits, to increase access to high-quality care is clear. Yet by all metrics, mental health outcomes continue to worsen. While the rise of social media and the impact of screen time is deleterious to some, its impact alone is not enough to explain the lack of benefit seen from digital mental health.