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LabTV: Curious About Cancer Patients’ Quality of Life

Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins

Katie MartinezKatie Martinez struggled mightily with math in high school, but now she’s eagerly pursuing a biomedical research career that’s all about crunching numbers. So, what happened to Katie? Cancer is what happened, specifically being diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just a few years out of college.

While growing up in Alexandria, VA, Martinez had little interest in science or math, doing so poorly that she even had to enroll in some remedial classes. So, it wasn’t surprising that she chose to major in history when she went off to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. There, Martinez eventually became intrigued by the many ways in which “built environments”—the places and circumstances in which people live—can affect the health of both individuals and communities. Her interest in these social determinants of health led her to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.


Connecting the Dots: The State of U.S. Health, 1990-2010

Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins

Caption: Adapted from Figure 2, The state of US health, 1990-2010: burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. US Burden of Disease Collaborators. JAMA. 2013 Aug 14;310(6):591-608. 

Kudos to the U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators and their recent report on the state of U.S. health from 1990 to 2010. This team, supported by NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, documented how the incidence of various diseases and injuries has changed over the past two decades in terms of toll they take on Americans’ health and well being. That toll is measured in something called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which amounts to the sum of years of life lost due to premature death and years lived with disability.