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First Opinion

Perspective and opinion on biotechnology, medicine, and the life sciences writ large, curated by Torie Bosch. View the guidelines for writing and submitting essays here. Send submissions to [email protected]. Sign up for the weekly First Opinion newsletter here.

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First Opinion Jonathan Wolfson

How Tennessee is creating new opportunities for doctors trained outside the U.S.

First Opinion Peter A. Young

PAs need a new name, but ‘physician associate’ won’t cut it. Here’s a better idea

First Opinion Samyukta Mullangi and Vinayak Venkataraman

Newly diagnosed cancer patients need help navigating the system

First Opinion Suhas Gondi

More young people should be getting their cholesterol tested and taking statins

First Opinion Katie McHugh, Gabriel Bosslet, Caroline Rouse and Tracey Wilkinson

Doctors think “advocate” is a dirty word. But it’s our ethical responsibility

First Opinion Peter Grinspoon

In defense of being ‘Cali sober’

First Opinion Dorothy Pomerantz

23andMe had devastating news about my health. I wish a person had delivered it

First Opinion Henry T. Greely

Human reproductive cloning: The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

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First Opinion Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz and Gavin Yamey

When should hospitals require masks?

First Opinion Estelle Willie

Four communication lessons we learned the hard way during the pandemic

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First Opinion Richard Hughes IV

How to protect PrEP coverage, no matter what happens in Braidwood v. Becerra

First Opinion Amy Silverman

The agony of finding decent health care for my young-adult daughter with Down syndrome

First Opinion Danny Nieves-Kim

The DEA needs to officially allow telehealth prescribing for opioid use disorder

First Opinion Podcast Torie Bosch

Listen: Ezekiel Emanuel explains why cancer patients shouldn’t pay out-of-pocket costs

First Opinion Rebecca Gale

More hospitals are offering child care. But they shouldn’t have to

First Opinion Gloria Coronado and Leslie Bienen

STAT Plus: An overlooked way to make participants in clinical trials look more like America

First Opinion Cassandra L. Boness

Adopting the term ‘preaddiction’ would be a serious mistake

First Opinion Miriam A. Bredella and Robert M. Wachter

Opportunistic CT: There’s gold in them there images

First Opinion Lucy Foulkes

What if we’re talking about teens’ mental health too much?

First Opinion Peter D. Kramer

STAT Plus: Will AI soon diagnose politicians’ mental health conditions from afar?

First Opinion Podcast Torie Bosch

How ‘screen and refer’ systems fail to help patients

First Opinion Isaac S. Kohane

STAT Plus: Three ways to test medical AI for safety

First Opinion Ezekiel J. Emanuel

Cancer patients shouldn’t be responsible for out-of-pocket costs

First Opinion Sanjay Basu

Checklists to screen for patients’ social needs aren’t helping

First Opinion Chelsea Clinton and Finn Jarle Rode

Chelsea Clinton: How to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030

First Opinion Arthur L. Caplan

STAT Plus: How I helped Pfizer think through the ethics of Viagra 25 years ago

First Opinion Jeffrey Singer

One simple fix for the primary care shortage: assistant physicians

First Opinion Marc J. Kahn and Paul J. Hauptman

Fix the rural physician shortage by expanding support for resident training

First Opinion Richard J. Tofel

How ‘Lessons From the Covid War’ falls short

First Opinion Podcast Torie Bosch

Do chatbots have more time to be empathetic than physicians?

First Opinion Lydia E. Pace and Nancy L. Keating

New draft recommendations for mammograms take a one-size-fits-all approach

First Opinion Heather Landy

Starting breast cancer screening at 40 saved my life

First Opinion Dinesh S. Thakur and Prashant Reddy Thikkavarapu

STAT Plus: The U.S. needs to pressure India to improve drug safety