June 4, 2019, Vol 321, No. 21, Pages 2045-2142

In this Viewpoint, John Ioannidis argues against abandoning the notion and language of statistical significance, which has been proposed as a means to diminish oversimplistic interpretations of clinical research. A significance filter in some form is essential for distinguishing signal from noise, he writes, and emphasizes that predefined study design choices, prespecified statistical analyses, transparent and documented deviations from either, and improvement in researchers’ statistical numeracy can minimize overly subjective interpretations of whatever significance measure is used.

In this Viewpoint, Victor Fuchs reviews the evolution of the US employer-based health insurance toward a system favoring higher-income individuals, and proposes reforms in health care financing and in accessibility of lower-cost care as a way to make the system more fair and efficient.

In this Viewpoint the president of NAM and the former CEO of AAAS emphasize the importance of approaching opioid use disorder (OUD) as a chronic brain disease and of using evidence-based FDA-approved interventions to manage it, urging clinicians to overcome any personal biases that might interfere with provision of evidence-based care to help patients with OUD recover from their addiction.

This Viewpoint reviews the global health role of development assistance for health (DAH) and financial or in-kind assistance provided by western countries via international development agencies and foundations to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and proposes best practices to ensure that DAH continues to be a reliable source of support for LMIC health systems and assists them to develop pandemic preparedness.