Featured Experts
Health Care
Wendy
Weller
Expertise:
Financing and access to care; health reform; medical outcomes; provider payment
UAlbany Associate Professor of Public Health Wendy Weller teaches courses on the health care system and health policy. She conducts research on improving access to care among the chronically ill, provider payment, and outcomes of surgical care.
Mary
S.
Applegate
Expertise:
Reproductive health; family planning; adolescent pregnancy; sexuality; maternal and child health; breastfeeding promotion; preventive medicine; public health
As Medicaid rolls swell and health care expenses balloon across the United States, legislative leaders are grappling with ways to improve health outcomes while reducing costs. UAlbany School of Public Health Associate Dean Dr. Mary Applegate discusses the role of preventive medicine as a mechanism for improving health.
Q: How are health priorities currently set in the United States?
A: In public health, we worry about questions such as: "What's the most likely cause of death for people in our community?" For many years we looked to the "Cause of Death" line on death certificates to answer that question, and we came away saying that heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the top causes.
Unfortunately, that answer has led us to think that what we need to do to prevent deaths is to build high-tech hospitals and to train highly specialized physicians. Read the full Q&A.
