Summary: Since the bubonic plague killed millions in the Middle Ages, vector-borne diseases - those that rely on insects and animals to spread infection - have posed a serious threat to public health. And today, the mosquito is the most dangerous vector on earth. From malaria to yellow fever to West Nile virus, mosquito-borne diseases continue to threaten the health of millions around the world.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: During the past century, life expectancy more than doubled in developed countries. However, in the last few decades, thirty new infectious diseases have emerged. One of them, AIDS, is perhaps the most devastating epidemic in history. This program examines the most critical threats we face today and the pressing need to strengthen global public health systems.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the 21st century we can prevent, treat, or cure most of the deadliest diseases known to humankind - and yet millions die every year because the benefits of modern medicine and public health fail to reach them. What are the obstacles to providing care to populations in need? This program chronicles innovative health programs and charismatic leaders who are providing care to millions of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pro-life advocates have waged a successful campaign to reduce abortions throughout the country, using state laws to regulate and limit the procedure and creating clinics offering alternatives. This Frontline documentary investigates the steady decline in the number of physicians and facilities carrying out abortions and focuses on local political battles in the states-particularly Mississippi,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: During the 1980s, a new civil rights movement got underway-for people with disabilities. In this program, Larry Paradis, executive director of Disability Rights Advocates, speaks with NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels about the importance of litigation in pressuring companies and communities to comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. But are such legal actions actually...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why have America's health care costs skyrocketed? In this NBC News program, Tom Brokaw follows several cases at Staten Island University Hospital as he explores reasons behind financial turmoil in the U.S. health-care system. Among the patients: a 24-year-old man with no insurance who lost both legs in the Staten Island Ferry accident of October 2003. Another victim: a 62-year-old woman with a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: America's healthcare system frequently leaves patients feeling shortchanged, while physicians are forced to overdose on paperwork and managed care companies are helpless to cap their soaring costs. What is the future of this system, as the tidal wave of Baby Boomers surges toward retirement? This program analyzes the symptoms of America's healthcare ills and suggests a prescription for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Currently, three-quarters of all U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on 100 million people with chronic illnesses and conditions. Will a cost-conscious healthcare system, increasingly driven by the market and oriented toward acute care, give them the proper care? This program examines how the chronically ill are faring today in seeking the high-quality, long-term care they need. Special reports...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Corporate cost-cutting, downsizing, temporary employment, and other business imperatives are making today's pricey health insurance either unavailable or unaffordable for 44 million Americans-of which 85 percent are in working families. With employers cutting back on offering insurance and with shrinking access to charity care as hospitals face their own funding shortfalls, where can America's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: America's managed care system was designed to provide coordinated preventive and long-term healthcare better than individual doctors could in yesterday's fragmented fee-for-service system. Have HMOs lived up to that promise? In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith investigates Kaiser Permanente-the largest nonprofit HMO in the U.S.-and its social mission of lifetime...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is the most costly element of America's trillion-dollar healthcare system? Surprisingly, experts believe it is the medical quality gap and medical errors, which they estimate take more than 90,000 lives each year. In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines New York's tough performance reports on doctors and hospitals doing open-heart surgery; profiles a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Frontline program examines the current controversy surrounding the issue of childhood vaccination in America. Young parents are concerned over the sheer number of shots - up to 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6. Advocacy groups, such as Generation Rescue, view vaccines as responsible for rising rates of autism and ADHD. Yet public health officials tout vaccines as one of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Who is to blame for America's healthcare mess, and how can we fix it? In this ABC News program, John Stossel examines the insurance industry, the need for competition among care providers, and the possibility of combining lower costs with better medicine. Arguing against Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which advocates government-funded healthcare, Stossel interviews Harvard Business School...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Microwave meals—they’re a bonanza for retail giants, but how do they effect public health? Is the old-fashioned home-cooked dinner an endangered species? This program reports on the rise of factory-processed food and its growing impact on the general public’s diet and cooking skills. Viewers meet culinary writer Joanna Blythman, who believes prepackaged meals help perpetuate a hectic lifestyle...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In many ways, American healthcare is number one-but not in overall performance, says the WHO, which ranked the U.S. 37th. Unlike most first-world countries, America does not guarantee care for all of its citizens regardless of ability to pay. This ABC News program seeks to understand what factors contribute to top-notch healthcare as it assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the Canadian...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The deep tan was accidentally popularized by Coco Chanel, yet even when Bob Marley died of melanoma decades later, the general public was still not fully aware of the dangers of UV radiation. This program examines not only the medical and scientific aspects of skin cancer, but its cultural, historical, and social facets as well. Using nationally known experts and dramatic personal testimony, it...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Today's emergency rooms are being used as a safety net for a healthcare system that leaves tens of millions of Americans uninsured-and that net is about to break. Because ERs are required to treat every patient who comes through the door, people with nowhere else to turn are joining the critical-care crowd. This ABC News program reports on America's emergency room crisis, in which many ERs,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Overall well-being requires not only physical health, but psychosocial health as well. What exactly is psychosocial health, and how is it achieved? This program explains the elements that compose psychosocial health, the internal and external factors that influence it, and methods to enhance it. The importance of taking responsibility for one's own psychosocial well-being through...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Providing comprehensive public access to affordable, quality health care is a mammoth struggle-even for wealthy societies with the political will to do so. This CNBC program looks at technological solutions that could potentially slash medical costs, reduce inefficiencies, and create tailor-made treatments for the individual patient. The program begins by exploring issues in personalized...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: How did an obscure chemical compound become an entire generation's drug of choice? Why has law enforcement gone into overdrive to fight it? In Ecstasy Rising, Peter Jennings leads a groundbreaking investigation into the faulty science behind the anti-Ecstasy campaign, highlighting the futility of government scare tactics and how they have damaged the overall credibility of anti-drug efforts....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Decades after Richard Nixon launched his anti-drug campaign, illicit opiates are cheaper, more potent, and easier to obtain than ever. Is it possible to wipe out addiction by keeping narcotics illegal, or has their ban caused more problems than it's solved? This program reveals how the war on drugs started and who its real targets were, examining its consequences and unintended victims. Afghan...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The snack bowl at a "pharm party" includes a mix of prescription drugs-from Adderall to Oxycontin to Xanax-and most of them come directly from the household medicine cabinet. This ABC News program examines a disturbing and rapidly growing trend in teenage drug abuse: getting high on legal drugs, often obtained through parents' prescriptions or from questionable sources over the Internet....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Both the painkilling and pleasurable effects of opium have been known in ancient cultures around the world for millennia. The narcotic arrived in the U.S. with the first Chinese immigrants, but it wasn't until the invention of the hypodermic syringe during the Civil War that opiates infiltrated American society in the same dual role. This program looks at the history of opium's use and misuse,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: In May 1960, the FDA approved the sale of a pill that arguably would have a greater impact on American culture than any other drug in the nation's history. Although a backlash was expected, as soon as the drug hit the market, there was very little protest. In fact, within five years, more than six million American women would make it part of their daily lives. The Pill, from the PBS American...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003