First Opinion

Perspective and opinion on medicine, biotechnology, and the life sciences writ large, curated by Patrick Skerrett. Please send submissions to first.opinion@statnews.com. View the Author Agreement here. Sign up for the weekly First Opinion newsletter here.

Hospice patient

First Opinion

Fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicare hospice program is ‘repellent’

By Joanne M. Chiedi

Medical students - Miami

First Opinion

Free tuition for aspiring doctors? Few medical schools could pull off that feat

By Daniel Thomas and Daniel Charytonowicz

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Pills on chessboard

First Opinion

John Arnold: Are pharmacy benefit managers the good guys or bad guys of drug pricing?

By John Arnold

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Ebola vaccine

First Opinion

An ‘indefensible’ decision: not vaccinating pregnant and lactating women in an Ebola outbreak

By Ruth Faden, Ruth Karron, and Carleigh Krubiner

MCCain nameplate

First Opinion

For people with cancer, John McCain was a leader to the end

By Adam Hayden

Doctor and patient

First Opinion

Professionalism isn’t something medical students absorb. It must be taught

By David Rothman

Tuberculosis patient

First Opinion

Ending tuberculosis will take continued private-sector innovation

By Adrian Thomas

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Medicine organizer

First Opinion

Imagine there are no PBMs. It’s easy if you try

By Sally Welborn and Pramod John

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Medicine not covered

Opinions Plus

Rare diseases are losing their immunity in formulary exclusion lists

By Jeremy Schafer

CVS pharmacy

First Opinion

CVS announcement of cost-effective benchmarks puts ICER in the spotlight

By Ami Gopalan

pregnant woman

First Opinion

Maternal deaths represent the canary in the coal mine for women’s health

By Eugene Declercq and Neel Shah

Stethoscope and laptop

First Opinion

Healing the ‘moral injury’ of clinicians will take a village

By Andrew Morris-Singer, Stuart Pollack, and Matthew Lewis

Kidney dialysis

First Opinion

Kidney disease is a killer. More precise classification can help tame it

By Franklin W. Maddux

White Coat Ceremony

First Opinion

NYU medical school students are getting free tuition. But everyone will reap benefits

By Eli Cahan

Orlando Regional Medical Center

First Opinion

The Pulse nightclub tragedy changed how one hospital treats foreign patients

By Eric Alberts and John Corfield

Pregnancy and blood pressure

First Opinion

State review boards can change the trajectory of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S.

By Mary-Ann Etiebet

A side-by-side of two mammograms showing the difference between a dense breast and a fatty breast.

First Opinion

Dense breast tissue can complicate mammograms. Women need to know if they have it

By Nancy M. Cappello

Patient is meeting a doctor

First Opinion

Medicare should pay doctors more, not less, for treating the sickest patients

By Timothy Sullivan

Rep. Chris Collins

First Opinion

The real Chris Collins scandal: lax conflict-of-interest rules in Congress

By Matthew S. McCoy and Genevieve P. Kanter

Prescription pills

First Opinion

Transparent pharmacy benefits: a path to rational drug costs

By Dave Chase

Bleeding Edge Screen Cap

First Opinion

Lessons for physicians from ‘The Bleeding Edge’: If you see something, say something

By Erich Anderer

Health history form

First Opinion

Congress should listen to addiction patients — not corporate interests — about confidentiality

By H. Westley Clark

IV Drip

First Opinion

Using CRISPR for the ‘smaller wins,’ like making chemotherapy less toxic

By Eric B. Kmiec

Student Laboratory

First Opinion

Graduate biomedical education needs an overhaul. Here’s our version

By Gundula Bosch and Arturo Casadevall

President Lyndon B. Johnson

First Opinion

The tale of two Medicares: Canadian and American

By Andrew S. Boozary

Capcapitol building/pharma illo

First Opinion

Congress needs a commission, not the pharma industry, for its drug policy ideas

By Scott Levy

Nursing home patient

First Opinion

Grassley: Congressional oversight of health care is essential for a healthy America

By Chuck Grassley

A photo of a neurosurgery team at the Mulago National Referral Hospital

First Opinion

A drug priced out of reach in Africa could save lives from a neglected killer

By Patrick Adams and Cameron Nutt

A CT of a face transplant patient.

First Opinion

Face transplantation edges toward mainstream medicine. Insurance should cover it

By Miguel Dorante

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