The shift away from fossil fuels can bring cleaner air, new jobs and major climate benefits. However, a new CMCC study finds that ensuring a just transition also requires giving affected communities a meaningful voice and respecting their identities, histories and ways of life. “The evidence shows that climate and environmental policies can deliver major benefits, but their costs and benefits may not affect everyone in the same way,” says CMCC researcher and lead author of the study Ireri Hernandez Carballo.

Scheduling follow-up appointments before leaving a doctor's office helps continuity of care and reduces health system cost. But doctors may not schedule on-the-spot follow-up approintments as much as a health system prefers, because they’re afraid of late cancellations and no-shows. 

The solution, Gupta found, is to tweak pay incentives. By rewarding doctors for prioritized follow-ups, healthcare systems can make them easier to get — and improve the systems’ own bottom lines.

“They’re able to ensure continuity of care, as opposed to letting the patient call two or three weeks later,” Gupta says. “If patients try to book an appointment with the same doctor, and they can’t, they might go to a different clinic or health system.”

A nine-year action research project at Hongqiao Kindergarten in Shanghai shows how education for sustainable development (ESD) can become part of young children's everyday learning. By building activities around children's interests, questions, and experiences, the study offers practical approaches for introducing sustainability at an early age.

How has Shanghai built one of the world's highest-performing school systems despite features often criticized by international observers? A conceptual paper explores four "mysteries" behind Shanghai's educational success: equity, resource sharing, leadership legitimacy, and teacher collaboration. The authors argue that Shanghai's performance cannot be explained by any single factor, but rather by the interaction of values, policies, leadership practices, and approaches to teaching and learning.

A new CMCC-led study looks at how European industry can decarbonize without deindustrializing, laying out a future pathway that can combine competitiveness and environmental goals. The study finds that energy-intensive industries in Europe can attain both, but only through targeted investments and policies for specific sectors, whilst focusing on importing green intermediate products and maintaining the final part of the supply chain.  

This issue includes articles on including pregnant women, using humans-in-the-loop with AI models and research ethics oversight, and digital deception with research participant surveys

A recent study led by health services policy and management assistant professor David Anderson has examined changes in Medicare Part D plans (both Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage and standalone prescription drug plans) to assess how insurers may have changed various aspects of the plans in response to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Published in Health Affairs, the researchers findings showed that insurers reacted primarily by lowering premiums and increasing deductibles.

Adolescence is a critical time for nutritional health, given the rapid physical growth, hormonal changes, and neurodevelopmental shifts taking place. Yet diet quality is at its lowest during this pivotal life stage, which is compounded by unique physiological, social, and behavioral factors facing adolescents. In fact, public health guidance has noted that nutrient gaps among adolescents set the stage for a “constellation of potential nutritional risk factors.”¹ This public health challenge is exacerbated by the lack of scientific research and specific, evidence-based dietary guidance tailored to adolescents. To elevate awareness of this issue and identify research needs, the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center (ACNC) partnered with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, on behalf of the Beef Checkoff, to convene Nourish Now: A Science Dialogue on Improving Adolescent Health through Nutrition, including 50 leading nutrition scientists, previous Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members, physicians, registered dietitians, and public health experts. Two manuscripts from this convening have now been published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition: Proceedings from Nourish Now: A science dialogue on improving adolescent health through nutrition; and Call to action: the future of evidence-based, adolescent-focused dietary guidance.