In this article, the authors describe a new data infrastructure project being developed at the Minnesota Population Center. The Integrated Spatio-Temporal Aggregate Data Series (ISTADS) will make it easier for researchers to use publicly available aggregate data for the United States over a time span that covers virtually the entire life of the nation: 1790-2012. In addition to facilitating acc...

The Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) health care system was once considered one of the worst in the United States. For many veterans, it was the last resort. In the early 1990s, in fact, its system had deteriorated so much that Congress considered disbanding it. However, since then, it has undergone a dramatic transformation and is now considered one of the best health care systems in the...

Outlays for health care in the nation reached $212.2 billion in calender year 1979--12.5 percent higher than in 1978, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Health Care Financing Administration. This estimate represented $943 per person in the United States and was equal to 9.0 percent of the Gross National Product. This latest report in the annual series representing national health ...

There has been considerable evolution in epilepsy healthcare for children over the last decade in the United Kingdom. There has been no single explanation for this. The development of national clinical guidelines, locally delivered but nationally designed educational programmes, nation-wide clinical audit, clinical networks and development of designated services have all had complimentary roles...

It is now widely accepted that the United States is on the cusp of deepening shortages of physicians. This article will briefly review how these shortages could have been anticipated, how they are being manifested, and how policymakers were drawn to the contrary conclusion, and it will discuss the challenges that now exist as the nation undertakes to expand undergraduate and graduate medical ed...

The abuse of psychotropic drugs and addiction to them is an undeniable health issue. Based on United Nation reports, 185 million individuals across the globe are afflicted with illicit drug abuse. Considering the 2 billion alcohol consumers and at least one billion cigarette smokers, the need to conduct further studies and designing more effective treatments is even more apparent and considered...

Abstract Desertification is one of the fundamental problems that threaten many arid and semi-arid areas. The formulation of the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), adopted in Paris, 1994 and ratified in 1996, with the active participation of Egypt, gave emphasis on combating the major threats to sustainability of dry lands. Recently, different models were developed to fo...

With NIH support, scientists across the United States and the world conduct wide-ranging research to improve the health of our nation. Groundbreaking NIH-funded research often receives top scientific honors. In 2017, these included 4 NIH-supported Nobel Prize winners and 2 NIH-funded recipients of top awards from the Lasker Foundation. Here’s just a small sampling of the research accomplishment...

orty million immigrants (foreign-born) reside in the United States, including more than 21 million from Latin America and 11 million from Asia.1 Hispanics represent 35 percent of U.S. Catholics and accounted for 40 percent of newly registered parishioners from 2005 to 2010.2 As these numbers indicate, the vitality and success of the nation and the Catholic Church increasingly will turn on the c...