Publications from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provide objective and straightforward advice to decision makers and the public. This site includes Health and Medicine Division (HMD) publications released after 1998. A complete list of HMD’s publications from its establishment in 1970 to the present is available as a PDF.

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  Review of NASA's Evidence Reports on Human Health Risks ... Released: January 06, 2017

  The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine at the request of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) and with guidance from the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments, has established a committee to review NASA’s Evidence Reports on Human Health Risks. These evidence reports focus on human health risks for long-duration and exploration spaceflights. To review the eight NASA evidence reports that were examined in 2016, the National Academies assembled a 13-member committee with multidisciplinary expertise.
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  Review of WIC Food Packages: Improving Balance and ... Released: January 05, 2017

  Among the nutrition assistance programs available to low-income families, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is the only one that specifically targets the nutritional needs of pregnant, breastfeeding, or postpartum women; infants; and children less than 5 years of age. With support from the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened an expert committee to review and assess the nutritional status and food and nutritional needs of the WIC-eligible population and provide specific recommendations based on its review and grounded in the most recently available science.
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  Driving Action and Progress on Obesity Prevention and ... Released: January 04, 2017

  Have we begun to tip the scales towards achieving a healthy weight for all Americans? What are the best bets and most promising opportunities that will drive future progress and action in obesity prevention and treatment, and what obstacles need to be overcome? The Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled, “Driving Action and Progress on Obesity Prevention and Treatment” to address these questions.
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  Exploring the Development of a US Department of Labor ... Released: December 30, 2016

  More than 168 million children are affected by child labor worldwide, with a predominance of child labor occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia International Labor Organization estimated in 2012 that 6 million children and more than 15 million adults were victims of forced labor. While strides have been made in understanding the problems of child labor and forced labor, as well as in approaches to reduce the global burden of both issues, additional research could help fill the remaining gaps in knowledge. To these ends, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop, at the request of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Bureau of International Affairs (ILAB) Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) to illuminate the current gaps in knowledge within the research fields of child labor and forced labor.
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  Nutrition across the Lifespan for Healthy Aging: Proceedings ... Released: December 29, 2016

  More than 46 million people over the age of 65 years were living in the United States in 2014 and more than 70 million are predicted by 2060. Education, living arrangements, and other demographic characteristics of this older population are changing, with noted variability by sex and race/ethnicity. Health status indicators, including life expectancy and heart disease death rates, have shown improvement, as have economic indicators. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Food Forum convened a workshop with five objectives
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  Exploring Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival ... Released: December 20, 2016

  Cardiac arrest often strikes seemingly healthy individuals without warning and without regard to age, gender, race, or health status. Following the release of the 2015 Institute of Medicine (IOM) consensus report, Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act, eight sponsors asked the Health and Medicine Division to hold a workshop to assemble diverse stakeholders who would explore the barriers and opportunities for advancing the IOM recommendations.
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  Big Data and Analytics for Infectious Disease Research ... Released: December 08, 2016

  With the amount of data in the world exploding, big data could generate significant value in the field of infectious disease. The Forum on Microbial Threats determined that the broader applications and implications of big data in these areas ought to be explored, where “big data” refers to any voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for insights and information.
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  The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa: Proceedings of a ... Released: December 06, 2016

  The most recent Ebola epidemic that began in late 2013 alerted the entire world to the gaps in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. Building on previous outbreak workshops, the Forum on Microbial Threats convened this workshop to understand the recent developments in incidence, prevalence, and intervention strategies used to mitigate the disease in an increasingly interconnected world. Recognizing the opportunity to learn from the countless lessons of this epidemic, this workshop discussed the challenges to successful outbreak responses at the scientific, clinical, and global health levels.
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  Enhancing BioWatch Capabilities Through Technology and ... Released: December 05, 2016

  In response to the 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report Biosurveillance: DHS Should Not Pursue BioWatch Upgrades or Enhancements Until System Capabilities Are Established, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a workshop to further explore the findings of the 2015 GAO report and discuss the impact these findings may have with regard to the future development of the technical capabilities of the BioWatch program.
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  Health Insurance and Insights from Health Literacy: Helping ... Released: December 01, 2016

  The Roundtable on Health Literacy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on health literacy in the context of health reform in the United States. The workshop was the most recent health reform–related activity of the roundtable, noted Bernard Rosof of the Quality in HealthCare Advisory Group, in his opening remarks.