The winners of the seventh annual D.C. Public Health Case Challenge were announced at this year’s National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Annual Meeting. The challenge aims to promote interdisciplinary, problem-based learning around a public health issue of importance to the Washington, D.C., community.

Medicine regulatory authorities — including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — should strengthen cooperation with other countries’ regulators to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

For severe acute pain due to surgeries and medical conditions, there is a lack of guidance on the appropriate type, strength, and amount of opioid medication that clinicians should prescribe to patients, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends ways to make supply chains -- the systems that provide populations with critical goods and services, such as food and water, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals and medical supplies – more resilient in the face of hurricanes and other disasters, drawing upon lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

The goal of achieving universal health coverage by 2030 — one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals — necessitates that countries strengthen their food and drug regulatory systems as a whole, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The opioid epidemic in the U.S. is driving a simultaneous epidemic of infectious diseases — including HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and bacterial infections, and sexually transmitted infections — but workforce shortages, stigma, and financial and policy barriers are preventing the integration of opioid use disorder (OUD) and infectious disease services, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Although less invasive and more evidence-based approaches are available for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) – a set of 30 disorders that cause pain or malfunction in the jaw joint and muscles of the jaw – some dentists continue to rely on aggressive or costly procedures as a first-line treatment, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

From N-95 masks that are protecting health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to food packaging found in every aisle of the grocery store, plastics play an essential role in our lives.

The Committee on Human Rights (CHR) of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine fully endorses the Call for a Human Rights-Based Approach to COVID-19, issued by the Executive Committee of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (IHRN).

After several months sitting empty and quiet, commercial districts are coming back to life as businesses and offices are being given permission to reopen. When the lights come on and doors are unlocked, will the water that comes out of the tap be safe?

Research and funding priorities tend to shift from one disaster to the next, which has resulted in a sparse evidence base and hampers the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies in the most effective way, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Categorizing workers with generational labels like “baby boomer” or “millennial” to define their needs and behaviors is not supported by research, and cannot adequately inform workforce management decisions, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provides a blueprint and eight overarching strategies for improving health care for the approximately 100,000 people in the United States living with sickle cell disease (SCD).

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today released the final report of a consensus study recommending a four-phased equitable allocation framework that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) authorities should adopt in the development of national and local guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine allocation.

While video games often give us a way to explore other worlds, they can also help us learn more about our own — including how to navigate a pandemic. That was the premise underlying “Jamming the Curve,” a competition that enlisted over 400 independent video game developers around the world to develop concepts for games that reflect the real-world dynamics of COVID-19.

Government personnel and their families at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, in late 2016 and the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, in early 2017 began suffering from a range of unusual — and in some cases suddenly occurring — symptoms such as a perceived loud noise, ear pain, intense head pressure or vibration, dizziness, visual problems, and cognitive difficulties, and many still continue to experience these or other health problems.

Learning experiences in computing that are designed with attention to K-12 students’ interests, identities, and backgrounds may attract underrepresented groups to computing better than learning experiences that mimic current professional computing practices and culture do, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

As it drafts its next decadal strategic plan, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) should shift its focus to providing insights that help society prepare for and avoid the worst potential consequences of climate change, while protecting the most vulnerable, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

In addition to jet propellant 8 (JP8), the U.S. Army should incorporate the use of diesel and renewable biodiesel as the primary sources of energy brought to the battlefield through 2035 to maximize warfighting capabilities, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Communities must move from coping with floods to adapting for them. Kwame Owusu-Daaku, a former Gulf Research Program fellow, explains why living through floods in his native Ghana led him to Florida to help address the link between flooding and injustice.

The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened racial trauma have caused unprecedented disruptions in the lives of young people — bringing increased stress, anxiety, and depression. A new rapid expert consultation offers strategies for schools to support youth mental health as students return to the classroom.

Two new companion reports from a World Health Organization expert panel provide recommendations to the scientific community on the use of human genome editing. The panel’s work was informed by a 2020 report written by an international commission under the auspices of NAS, NAM, and the U.K.’s Royal Society.

The U.S. surgeon general has released a public advisory calling misinformation a “serious threat to public health.” The National Academies have been addressing misinformation in health and science on multiple fronts and are taking steps to help cultivate a fact- and evidence-based information environment.

Although the number of women among new inventors is edging upward, women still make up only about 13 percent of inventors in the economy overall. What keeps more women from engaging in invention and entrepreneurship? A recent workshop explored that question and how to remove the obstacles.

To improve global preparedness for future pandemics, the science academies of the G20 nations issued a statement urging their governments to promote the creation of a global surveillance network that could detect the harbingers of a potential new pandemic.

Some of NASA’s robotic missions to Mars could be subject to less stringent bioburden requirements, which are designed to prevent the unintentional transport of Earth-based microbes, without interfering with searches for indigenous life on the planet.

Safe, effective antimicrobial medicines are essential to modern medical procedures and pandemic preparedness. A new National Academies report recommends a range of policy, regulatory, and financial actions to tackle antimicrobial resistance, spanning human, animal, and environmental health.

In many university departments, graduate students may be wholly dependent on their advisers for funding and academic support — a difference in power that raises the risk of sexual harassment. At a recent summit of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, speakers explored how to diffuse those power differences.

The United States should create a national strategy by end of 2022 to reduce its outsized and increasing contribution to plastic waste in the world’s oceans.

The U.S. should undertake a new research program to better understand the potential risks and benefits of ocean-based interventions to remove or sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and learn how these methods could be used to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Experts discuss the future of ocean-based approaches to carbon dioxide removal — including the ethics of investigating proposed strategies, how research can respond to public concerns, and what we need to know to make informed climate decisions.

Science academies from the G-7 nations issued statements urging their governments to take action on four global challenges — developing antiviral drugs to prepare for future pandemics, speeding progress on decarbonization, protecting the oceans and sea ice, and implementing a One Health approach to zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance.

The CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine should create an effective and innovative quarantine station model to confront new challenges in preventing the spread of infectious diseases in the U.S., and requires new investment and regulatory reforms to do so.

The COVID-19 pandemic shaped many people’s choices about whether and when to have children. A recent webinar explored the pandemic’s impact on birth rates, longer-term trends in U.S. birth rates, and why it matters for policy.

In a statement, National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt and National Academy of Medicine President Victor J. Dzau said that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade “will likely make it even more difficult for women to access high-quality health care in this country.”

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced awards totaling $1,090,463 to support six projects that engage underserved children and youth in place-based educational activities.

The radio frequency spectrum is a natural resource that underpins all wireless activity. A new report assesses the likelihood of harmful interference from operating a radio network near GPS frequency bands, and considers approaches for evaluating concerns.

Among various sources of ocean oil pollution, oil in runoff — primarily from cities and vehicles — is the top source of oil entering the ocean, and is 20 times higher than it was 20 years ago. A new report recommends actions to better understand how oil reaches and affects ocean environments and to minimize oil pollution.

To maintain U.S. global leadership in science and technology, federal agencies should pursue a coordinated risk-management approach that protects the United States’ own capacity to innovate, rather than emphasizing the protection of specific technologies from access by competitor nations.

As the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP27) approaches, a new report recommends steps to improve the accuracy and usability of greenhouse gas emissions information for decision-makers, including creating a global information clearinghouse.

The Triennial Conference of the InterAcademy Partnership and the Worldwide Meeting of Young Academies will take place Nov. 1-3. The conference will convene the world’s senior and young science academies to explore how to make research structures and processes more inclusive, effective, and sustainable.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced awards totaling $997,523 to support 10 projects that will engage communities in co-developing full proposals to advance nature-based solutions to mitigate climate-related hazards.

Congress should take action to facilitate the participation of all land-grant colleges and universities in multistate research projects, says a new report. Funding disparities have prevented many historically Black and tribal colleges and universities from fully collaborating with other land-grant institutions.

World leaders are gathering in Montreal for the U.N.’s COP15 global conference on biodiversity loss. The National Academies have identified opportunities for action that would help reduce the loss of critical species and lessen future climate change, discussed recently during an Academies webinar about the report “Biodiversity at Risk.”

The presidents of the U.S. National Academies warn that the Taliban’s decision to prevent Afghan women and girls from participating in higher education or attending secondary school ignores the scientific evidence on the benefits of education for women and could have “potentially disastrous consequences” for the future of Afghanistan.

Higher education institutions and science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine organizations should go beyond a focus on simply increasing the numeric participation of minoritized racial and ethnic groups. To increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM fields, organizations of all sizes must act to change their cultures and environments.

Two remarkable women who made invaluable contributions to the work of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) died in recent months -- Catherine Kelleher and Jo Husbands. Their accomplishments and qualities have been described well by others, including especially Women in International Security (WIIS). We at CISAC want additionally to honor their work for us.

In a new NAE Perspective, authors Barbara B. Simons and Poorvi L. Vora argue that systematic manual examination of ballots, rigorous ballot accounting procedures, and public compliance audits would increase election transparency and are urgently needed.

Hacktivism is nothing new, but the increasingly fuzzy lines between traditional hacktivism and state-backed operations make it a more potent threat

While AI can liberate us from tedious tasks and even eliminate human error, it's crucial to remember its weaknesses and the unique capabilities that humans bring to the table