Richard Knox
Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.
Among other things, Knox's NPR reports have examined the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, North America, and the Caribbean; anthrax terrorism; smallpox and other bioterrorism preparedness issues; the rising cost of medical care; early detection of lung cancer; community caregiving; music and the brain; and the SARS epidemic.
Before joining NPR, Knox covered medicine and health for The Boston Globe. His award-winning 1995 articles on medical errors are considered landmarks in the national movement to prevent medical mistakes. Knox is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Columbia University. He has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Universities, and is the author of a 1993 book on Germany's health care system.
He and his wife Jean, an editor, live in Boston. They have two daughters.
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Half of Americans say they've had a major stressful event in the past year, according to a poll by NPR, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Here's how it hurts. -
India's Supreme Court says drug maker Novartis can't hold onto its patent for the pricey cancer drug Gleevec simply by tweaking its chemical formula. That means generic drug makers can keep making a form of the drug at a tenth of Novartis's price. Consumer advocates call it a major advance for access to generic drugs. The drug industry says it will chill companies' willingness to produce innovative products.
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Women who took aspirin at least a couple of times a week for five years or more cut their risk of melanoma by 30 percent. The new study adds to the mounting pile of research suggesting that cheap, common aspirin lowers the risk of many cancers, including colon, breast, esophagus, stomach, prostate, bladder and ovarian cancer.
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The 2012 mammography debate was a continuation of a controversy touched off three years ago when a government task force said women under 50 don't need regular mammograms. And one recent analysis found that regular screenings haven't reduced the rate of advanced breast cancers.
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A recent study found 1 in 10 American men and 1 in 14 women has had a kidney stone. Being obese or diabetic seems to raise the risk of getting them. Now lasers are becoming the treatment-of-choice for kidney stones in academic medical centers.
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Nearly every German has ready access to doctors, cheap drugs, high-tech medicine, dental care, nursing homes and home care. All this — and Germany spends half what the United States does per person.
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With resources and legal authority limited, a CDC simulation of a flu pandemic reveals a tough choice: focus on containment of known outbreaks, or screen for new infections at the borders?
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When Congress expanded Medicare to include drug coverage, it ordered the National Institute of Medicine to look at what should be done to minimize medication errors. The agency says medication errors harm at least 1.5 million Americans every year.
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A measles outbreak in Boston is showing how the global economy opens opportunities for one of the world's most contagious viruses. Disease detectives say a computer programmer from India brought the virus to Boston's tallest office tower. The outbreak reveals that millions of Americans in their 30s and 40s are vulnerable to measles, even though they were vaccinated years ago.
