Health System Design

Stanford Health Policy faculty evaluate and inform how health care is structured, funded and delivered, including tackling fundamental questions related to who gets access to affordable care, why gaps persist, how should risk be distributed, what works for whom, where, when and why.

Stanford's Maria Polyakova stands amid the university's sandstone columns.

Maria Polyakova Wins Health Economics' Coveted Early-Career Honor

Maria Polyakova, PhD, has earned one of the highest honors in health economics, the prestigious ASHEcon Medal, awarded annually to a standout early-career economist under the age of 40 who has made the most significant contributions to the field.

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Photo of a dark-skinned woman using a pulse oximeter

How a Biased Medical Device Is Widening the Racial Health Gap

Pulse oximeter devices routinely overestimate blood oxygen levels in darker-skinned patients—a racial bias that can trigger downstream health harms for Black individuals, compounding well beyond any single inaccurate reading.

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an illustration of an elderly woman in a wheelchair

When Health Care Providers Go Bankrupt, Patients Pay the Price

U.S. health care organizations are filing for bankruptcy at record rates as they increasingly rely on risky debt, leading to increases in staff turnover and harm to patients—particularly elderly ones living in nursing homes.

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Addressing the Harms of Market-Driven Drug Development

Stanford researchers address a persistent flaw in the U.S. health system: prioritizing treatment investment based on market potential rather than medical necessity.

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Promoting Fairness in Screening Programs for Late-Career Practitioners

Late-career physicians (LCPs) are vital to the U.S. medical workforce, particularly as the country faces a critical shortage of doctors. While they bring valuable wisdom and expertise to patient care, SHP’s Michelle Mello writes in this NEJM article, near

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Policy Brief: Addressing Financial Toxicity in Cancer Care Through Medical Financial Assistance (MFA) Policy

"Financial toxicity" describes the financial burden experienced by cancer patients and their families, impacting around half of cancer survivors. High treatment costs and associated expenses contribute to cancer being the leading cause of medical-induced

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Examining US Physician Incomes by International Comparison

SHP's Maria Polyakova and Victoria Udalova compare physician income in the United States, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands. U.S. doctors earn significantly more than their foreign counterparts—but that's largely because Americans across the board earn m

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