Professor of law and public health at Drexel University, blogger for Philadelphia Inquirer, author of Mother of Invention: How Govt Created Free-Mkt Health Care
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Articles by Robert Field
Study: Simultaneous high-risk fire days have more than doubled in 50 years
The extreme heat, high winds, and severe dry conditions that produce towering, fast-moving flames that advance by the acre are not just becoming more common; new research shows that these factors are increasingly arising in multiple regions at the same time, creating the conditions for simultaneous wildfires around the world.
A Fire‐Driven Shift in Canadian Air Quality Concerns Mirrors Trends in the US
1 Introduction The 2023 fire season in Canada was extraordinary: 15 Mha burned compared with a previous 1986–2022 maximum of 6.7 Mha in 1989 (Jain et al., 2024). Smoke from biomass burning impacted Canada from May to September of 2023 (Figure 1). There were high aerosol emissions in northwestern Canada and Québec (Figure 1a) where the large fires were (Jain et al., 2024).
[2510.05985] AI-Enabled Capabilities to Facilitate Next-Generation Rover Surface Operations
arXiv:2510.05985 (cs) View PDF HTML (experimental) Comments: Subjects: Robotics (cs.RO) Cite as: arXiv:2510.05985 [cs.RO] (or arXiv:2510.05985v1 [cs.RO] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.05985 Submission history From: Cristina Luna [ view email] [v1] Tue, 7 Oct 2025 14:45:45 UTC (2,958 KB) Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer () Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)...
Genetic Privacy in Bankruptcy: A Path Forward After 23andMe
Dear Editor, Cohen and colleagues raise key concerns regarding genetic data privacy amid 23andMe’s bankruptcy.¹ We offer additional perspective on recent developments in the space.
All of us are Medicaid beneficiaries — whether we realize it or not | Opinion
Imagine a major city with no streetlights. It would be more difficult to navigate at night, its downtown would be empty after dark, businesses would avoid locating there, shops and restaurants would close early, and crime would flourish. The well-being of every resident, even those who never venture downtown, would suffer. Now, imagine a major city with no hospitals. As with streetlights, the ripple effects would diminish the well-being of every resident.
Does Private Equity Harm the Welfare of Residents in Nursing Homes?
Robert I. Field argues that private equity’s impact on price competition among nursing homes is limited because prices are mostly determined by Medicaid. However, private equity does impact quality and labor outcomes, which deserve greater government scrutiny. This article is part of a series that explores how private equity reduces competition in the United States healthcare sector and the ways in which enforcers can respond. You can read the rest of the series as it is published here.
Cutting Medicaid would force even more hospitals to close
How much austerity can our hospitals take? It’s a frightening question — and Congress is threatening to find out the answer. America’s health care infrastructure is shrinking. Since 2018, more than 100 hospitals have closed across the U.S. When hospitals close, doctor visits go down, death rates go up and job losses are severe. Now, Republicans in Congress are threatening to slash the Medicaid budget, which would strip even more hospitals of desperately needed funding.
Double resonance spectroscopy reveals structure and dynamics near transition states - Nature Communications
A shared ambition of molecular spectroscopy and molecular dynamics is to establish the truths of chemical intuition on solid physical bedrock. Experimental characterization of the transition state was thought unattainable, but modern techniques have begun to achieve the incredible. What is meant by direct observation of a transition state?
Mitigating climate change by abating coal mine methane: A critical review of status and opportunities
Methane has a short atmospheric lifetime compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), ∼decade versus ∼centuries, but it has a much higher global warming potential (GWP), highlighting how reducing methane emissions can slow the rate of climate change. When considering the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to current global warming (2010–2019) relative to the industrial revolution (1850–1900) levels, methane contributes 0.5 °C or ∼ a third of the total.
Opinion: Pa. medical experts compare Trump, Harris on drug prices, find clear winner
Show Caption Hide Caption Biden Administration sets new rules for federally funded nursing homes Vice President Kamala Harris announced new rules for federally-funded nursing facilities and home health care companies to improve quality of care.
Correction to “Self-Assembled 2D Glycoclusters for the Targeted Delivery of Theranostic Agents to Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells”
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Cite this: ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2024, XXXX, XXX Click to copy citationCitation copied! . This publication is available under these Terms of Use. Learn about these metrics Article Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.
Tandem One-Pot Biocatalytic Oxidation and Wittig Reaction in Water
Since its first disclosure more than 70 years ago, the Wittig reaction has become a preferred method for the synthesis of alkenes in organic chemistry. (1) Since then it has been extensively studied from a mechanistic perspective and improved upon from a practical one. (2) A particularly sought practical improvement is the exclusion of organic solvent(s) from the reaction medium, promoting an environmentally sustainable prospect for a Wittig reaction in water (Figure 1a).
Tandem One-Pot Biocatalytic Oxidation and Wittig Reaction in Water
Since its first disclosure more than 70 years ago, the Wittig reaction has become a preferred method for the synthesis of alkenes in organic chemistry. (1) Since then it has been extensively studied from a mechanistic perspective and improved upon from a practical one. (2) A particularly sought practical improvement is the exclusion of organic solvent(s) from the reaction medium, promoting an environmentally sustainable prospect for a Wittig reaction in water (Figure 1a).
The Effect of a Low Degree of Fluorine Substitution on Cotton Fiber Properties
The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.
The Devil in the Details: State Medicaid Administrative Rules as Enrollment Policy
Medicaid is a mainstay of the American health care system, covering more people than any other insurance plan. In 2021, its rolls exceeded 82 million people, about a quarter of the United States population. For many of these people, this health care coverage has meant the difference between life and death. Eligibility is based on having an income below a threshold for most beneficiaries and on having specific kinds of diseases and conditions for others.
Build a Next.js storefront in minutes!
Today, we’re excited to announce it’s now even easier to get started with Elastic Path by using our full-featured Next.js starter kit.Our customers love our clean and focussed APIs that allow you to build almost any shopping experience. However APIs are only part of what’s needed to build great websites and apps. Composable Frontend now provides a modern CLI for generating Next.js storefronts.
Complete biosynthesis of the potent vaccine adjuvant QS-21 - Nature Chemical Biology
Abstract QS-21 is a potent vaccine adjuvant currently sourced by extraction from the Chilean soapbark tree. It is a key component of human vaccines for shingles, malaria, coronavirus disease 2019 and others under development. The structure of QS-21 consists of a glycosylated triterpene scaffold coupled to a complex glycosylated 18-carbon acyl chain that is critical for immunostimulant activity.
Data Protection for Genomics and Brain Data:
European Data Protection Law Review > Volume 10 (2024), Issue 1 Vol. 10 (2024), No. 1 > Pages 30 - 42 pp.
The Effect of a Low Degree of Fluorine Substitution on Cotton Fiber Properties
1 Introduction Homogeneous and heterogeneous phase chemistry methods are widely employed to directly replace cellulose hydroxyl groups in anhydroglucose units (AGUs) with other functional groups (e.g., esters, methyl, silyl, etc.).[1] This allows for specific customization of properties such as solubility, mechanical strength, compatibility with other materials, and thermal stability.[1, 2] In certain cases, this transformation can be achieved via indirect routes, including the production of...
Novel phenotype of SIN3A-related disorder diagnosed in adulthood with multi-system involvement - European Journal of Human Genetics
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $259.00 per year only $21.58 per issue Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Data availability Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
Retraction Note: New land-use-change emissions indicate a declining CO2 airborne fraction - Nature
Retraction to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04376-4 Published online 16 March 2022 The Matters Arising paper by Bennedsen et al.1 has revealed flaws in the Monte Carlo setup we used to assess the significance of the trend in the CO2 airborne fraction. In our paper we showed that this trend becomes negative if we use our new findings on emissions from land use and land use change to construct the airborne fraction.
Fluorinated nucleosides, nucleotides and sugar nucleotides
This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council (grant no. MR/T019522/1). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
European Skew in Genetic Research Databases Won’t Abate Without More Concerted Effort
By Robert I. Field, Anthony W. Orlando and Arnold J. Rosoff The “pangenome” project that is mapping the genetic sequences of 47 diverse human beings from around the world is a much-needed step forward for science and humanity. The lack of racial diversity in genetic databases used in research has been noted for some time, and it has raised growing concerns about the development of clinical applications based on research results.
How the legal history of witches impacts abortion
Should history guide our understanding of abortion rights today? It did for Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade and declared that the United States Constitution does not protect the right to abortion. Since that decision was issued in late June, total bans have taken effect in eight states, bans after the sixth week of pregnancy have taken effect in another four, and more bans may follow.
The Clearest Road To An ACA Public Option Runs Through The States
As the Affordable Care Act (ACA) celebrates its 12th anniversary, President Joe Biden has proposed fixes for some of its most glaring shortcomings, most notably the family glitch in eligibility for premium subsidies. However, he and congressional Democrats have cooled to one of the more promising ideas for reform: creating a public option to compete with private plans in the Marketplaces.
Hospitals in Poor Rural Counties Face the Greatest Financial Threat from COVID
By Robert I. Field and Anthony W. Orlando The latest wave of COVID cases and hospitalizations has raised concerns about the financial resilience of many hospitals in the United States. Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed shortages of medical supplies, exhaustion of frontline workers, and the overflow of patients beyond the physical capacity of hospital beds and buildings.
COVID-19 devastated Native American health care. Why slash new funding for it now?
Roselyn Tso is venturing into one of the hardest jobs in America. If the Senate confirms her nomination, Tso will take over the Indian Health Service (IHS), just as the long-term damage to the American hospital system is coming to the forefront. Nowhere is this challenge greater than on Native American reservations throughout the Southwestern United States. Health outcomes for Native Americans already fall well below those for the rest of the U.S. population.
One high-tech Philly industry that is creating lots of jobs
First came decades of research, full of setbacks. Then lab work slowly resumed, culminating in the first drug approval in 2017, followed by two more. Now more than 40 companies in the Philadelphia region are working in cell and gene therapy, producing a stream of new jobs and even a run on lab space. Gene therapy, a technology to replace defective genes that cause incurable diseases with new ones, is having its moment in medicine.
Independent doctors’ offices are disappearing as more physicians work for hospitals and companies
The days of the stalwart solo physician, hanging out a shingle and seeing patients as he or she sees fit, are rapidly drawing to a close. Consulting firm Avalere Health reports that almost 70% of physicians in the United States now work as employees of a hospital, health system, or private corporation. That’s a 12% increase over just two years ago, and is likely to accelerate after the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Proposal for Localized Review to Safeguard Genetic Database Privacy
By Robert I. Field, Anthony W. Orlando, and Arnold J. Rosoff Large genetic databases pose well-known privacy risks. Unauthorized disclosure of an individual’s data can lead to discrimination, public embarrassment, and unwanted revelation of family secrets. Data leaks are of increasing concern as technology for reidentifying anonymous genomes continues to advance.
Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare makes health care business more predictable
Opponents of Obamacare must have thought the third time would be the charm. The Supreme Court struck down two previous challenges to the law, but the objectors returned again. Their luck was no better this time. For businesses throughout the health care industry, Thursday’s ruling makes the future more predictable by ensuring that key provisions will remain in force. The ACA expanded the availability of health coverage in several ways.
Vaccine passports? Let market decide
‘No shoes, no shirt, no service.” You’ve likely seen a sign with those words outside a store near a beach on a summer day. How about — “no vaccination, no verification, no visit”? Might we soon start to see these words posted ? The CDC says you can now go shopping without a mask if you have been vaccinated. Several large retailers, including Walmart, Target and Costco, have dropped mask requirements in response. How do they know you’ve been vaccinated if you walk in maskless? You are on your honor.
Israel Owes Its COVID-19 Vaccination Success To A System of Universal Coverage And Community Infrastructure
Israel leads the world in vaccination against COVID-19 with 44 percent of its population of nine million fully vaccinated as of the first week of March. The runner up, Seychelles, lags well behind at 25 percent. In the United States, only about 9 percent of the population has so far been fully vaccinated, and it is frantically trying to catch up.
Why Biden needs to make genetic data privacy a top priority | Expert Opinion
At this very moment, someone, somewhere, might be exposing your intimate genetic data. They probably don’t realize they’re doing it. They may not even know who you are. But they have valuable segments of your genetic code — data that tell a story about your family, your medical history, and all sorts of potential vulnerabilities. If your DNA sample is submitted to a genetic testing company, they may be sharing that data with countless researchers, law enforcement, and even the general public.
Connecting Crop Productivity, Residue Fires, and Air Quality over Northern India
Abstract Northwestern India is known as the “breadbasket” of the country producing two-thirds of food grains, with wheat and rice as the principal crops grown under the crop rotation system. Agricultural data from India indicates a 25% increase in the post-monsoon rice crop production in Punjab during 2002–2016.
Obamacare insurance policies will likely improve under Biden and be crucial during the coronavirus
Obamacare has a long-standing friend in President-elect Joe Biden. The program enacted while he was vice president extends health coverage to 22 million Americans who would otherwise be unable to obtain it, including many in the gig economy who work without health benefits. It could be a lifeline if you’re among the five million who have lost employer coverage since COVID-19 began or are among the millions more who may suffer a similar fate.
Obamacare challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court fields tough questions, including from conservative justices
The Affordable Care Act faced its third life or death encounter at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, and skeptical questioning from the justices suggested it may survive this one too. Since the Court upheld the law still popularly known as Obamacare in 2012 and 2015, the panel has gained three new conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump, giving heart to the law’s challengers.
New Mexico Permian Basin Measured Well Pad Methane Emissions Are a Factor of 5-9 Times Higher Than U.S. EPA Estimates
Methane emission fluxes were estimated for 71 oil and gas well pads in the western Permian Basin (Delaware Basin), using a mobile laboratory and an inverse Gaussian dispersion method (OTM 33A). Sites with emissions that were below detection limit (BDL) for OTM 33A were recorded and included in the sample. Average emission rate per site was estimated by bootstrapping and by maximum likelihood best log-normal fit.
Why Is Health Care Regulation So Complex?
P T. 2008 Oct; 33(10): 607–608. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer Dr. Field chairs the Department of Health Policy and Public Health and is Professor of Health Policy at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. The array of regulations that govern health care can seem overwhelming to people who work in the industry.
Daily Legal News
Common Pleas Commercial Docket Date Filed June 10, 2020 Case Number 933275 Case Type Commercial Docket Judge Judge W. Collier Plaintiff Filed by. Amicon Construction, Inc. 51 Meadow Lane Northfield, OH 44067 Plaintiff's Attorney Dinn, Hochman & Potter, LLC 5910 Landerbrook Dr Mayfield Heights OH 44124 Defendant Robert Field 2505 Deep Hollow Road Oakwood, OH 45419 About your information and the public record.
What if past crises had evoked leadership like we have today for COVID-19? | Expert Opinion
It’s always tempting to look back and imagine what-ifs. Had our nation’s leaders acted differently in times of crises past, where might we be today? The spread of COVID-19, one of the greatest crises in our history, has been met with a national leadership style unlike any we have seen before. What if our country’s past leaders had followed that approach?
Novel economical three‐stage slug bubbling process in a large‐scale flat‐sheet MBR of double deck configuration
SEPARATIONS: MATERIALS, DEVICES AND PROCESSES Bing Wang Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China College of Environmental Science and Engineering/Sino‐Canada Joint R&D Centre for Water and Environmental Safety, Nankai University, Tianjin, China Search for more papers by this author Kaisong Zhang Corresponding Author E-mail address: kszhang@iue.ac.cn https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0969-0648 Key Laboratory of Urban...
Should the U.S. Favor Public Health or the Economy? History Shows they’re Inseparable
by Robert I. Field Robert I. Field holds a joint appointment as a professor of law at the Kline School of Law and a professor of health management and policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. He is an expert in public health law and policy and a member of The Inquirer’s Health Advisory Panel. If we have learned anything from the horrors of this pandemic it is that lesson. Economies don’t flourish despite public health. They flourish because of it.
Should the U.S. favor public health or the economy? History shows they’re inseparable. | Expert Opinion
Is it better to dig a strong foundation or build a solid house? Say that again. You can’t build a solid house without a strong foundation. They’re inseparable. The question is ridiculous. It’s not as ridiculous as you might think. The United States is currently embroiled in a vitriolic political debate over a question that is just as nonsensical – should we favor public health or the economy?
If protesters really want to end lockdowns, they should bring their protests to the White House — Public Health Law Watch
By Robert I. Field We all eagerly await the time when we can emerge from lockdown and society can be reborn. No one more so than those thrown out of work and desperate for their paychecks. The slow pace of economic revival has brought protesters to state capitols, egged on by President Trump’s encouraging tweets. But for all the political tumult, the time when social distancing can successfully end is no mystery.
If protesters really want to end lockdowns, they should protest the White House | Opinion
We all eagerly await the time when we can emerge from lockdown and society can be reborn. No one more so than those thrown out of work and desperate for their paychecks. The slow pace of economic revival has brought protesters to state capitols, egged on by President Trump’s encouraging tweets. But for all the political tumult, the time when social distancing can successfully end is no mystery.
Coronavirus lesson #1: You never know when you, and everyone around you, will need public health | Opinion
Never let a pandemic go to waste. You might learn something. A month, ago how much did you know about self-quarantine, social distancing, contact tracing, flattening the curve, or disease testing kits? Now, most of us know that they may save our life – and the lives of millions of others. A month ago, could you name the director of the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases? Now, this government official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, holds the entire country’s welfare in his hands.
Off-Site Flux Estimates of Volatile Organic Compounds from Oil and Gas Production Facilities Using Fast-Response Instrumentation
Flux estimates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from oil and gas (O&G) production facilities are fundamental in understanding hazardous air pollutant concentrations and ozone formation. Previous off-site emission estimates derive fluxes by ratioing VOCs measured in canisters to methane fluxes measured in the field.
Brexit wasn’t the only issue for British voters. Health care is big too. l Opinion
Does the British election hold lessons for the United States about what is on voters’ minds? Absolutely. But one of the main concerns may surprise you. It is not immigration or social issues - or even Brexit. It is health care. Nothing scares the British more than the possibility of losing their cherished National Health Service, known for short as the NHS. It guarantees health care for everyone and inspires devotion that has been likened to a kind of religion.
Americans’ health care - and preexisting condition coverage - is again at risk l Opinion
If you are sick and in need of health insurance, you’d be well advised to get it quickly. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is once again in legal jeopardy, along with its protections for those with preexisting medical conditions. A year ago, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the entire law must be struck down because its mandate to obtain insurance is unconstitutional. The decision was appealed, and this week, an appeals court agreed that the mandate must go.
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