The Burness Effect Blog

Dr. Elliot Krane, of the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University Medical School and a Mayday Pain & Society Fellow, has a goal to end children’s suffering from chronic pain. One of the biggest barriers to better care for kids in his pain clinic is the lack of coverage for the treatments that will make them well.

Scientists' voices are so often missing from the messages because of fear of crossing the lobbying line, because there is no incentive to raise a voice, or because someone else is advocating for them.

BurnessDigital is new, but we’ve been crafting online strategy for several years: we have told the stories of exceptional nonprofits in videos, brought attention to their ideas with social media campaigns and dynamic websites, and worked to “move the needle” by crafting online strategies that advance their communications goals. This launch is the next step in the evolution of our communications approach.

Health insurance costs continue to rise, hitting consumers with high premiums and co-pays despite the downturn in the economy. Adding insult to injury, a new report from Consumers Union (a Burness client) has found that over the past decade, nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurers accumulated vast amounts of surplus cash.

It’s an unfortunate reality: many Americans see oral health as unnecessary or cosmetic. But oral health is critical to overall health. Though largely ignored in national health reform, oral health is important, and for some—like 12-year old Deamonte Driver who died from an untreated tooth infection—it’s a matter of life and death.

"It’s just one sign of many that U.S. government attitudes towards global health are changing. Like many at the second Partnering for Global Health Forum, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next."

This month, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement recognized two extraordinary conservationists grappling with precisely these issues. Dr. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University will join environmental superstars like E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall as Tyler Prize Laureates. (Burness works with the Tyler Prize.

Confronting America’s Primary Care Shortage

The shortage of primary care providers is well-publicized. But, as studies in the May issue of the health policy journal Health Affairs point out, recruiting more primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants to fill that void is only part of the solution.

“Today, 1.4 billion people around the world live in extreme poverty. Many of them are women and children. Most of them are farmers.” That’s World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a video address to the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), an unprecedented gathering in Montpellier, France that brought together researchers, policymakers, farmers, donors, and members of civil society from every region of the world.

Our nation is burdening Americans needlessly with disease— Americans who could be healthy if we tackled the factors that cause obesity: neighborhoods without spaces for physical activity, deficient access to healthy foods, high-calorie school lunches. It’s for this reason that the 42nd President called childhood obesity the “number one public health problem in the country”.