Mary Duke Biddle Scholar Jason Nagata on the need for adolescent medicine research in developing world

Today, the world has more than a billion young people aged 10 to 19. With 97% of deaths in that age group occuring outside the world's wealthiest countries, there is a need for better adolescent medicine research in low- and middle-income countries. In a new study, Stanford pediatrics resident Jason Nagata, MD, and colleagues polled researchers across six continents to determine research priorities in eight areas of adolescent health. The research was part of his global health scholary concentration as a Stanford pediatrics resident and Mary Duke Biddle Clinical Scholar.

The U.S. government has invested $1.4 billion in HIV prevention programs that promote sexual abstinence and marital fidelity, but there is no evidence that these programs have been effective at changing sexual behavior and reducing HIV risk, according to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study.  “Overall we were not able to detect any population-level benefit from this program,” said Nathan Lo, a Stanford MD/PhD student and lead author of the study.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine are releasing a new version of a web-based video game that will harness the creative brain power of thousands of nonscientist players. The goal in coming months is for Eterna Medicine players to design a molecule that could help spur the development of a new tuberculosis test.