Esther M Johnston, MD MPH FAAFP

Sovereignty vs. Multilateralism Is the Wrong Debate in Global Health | Think Global Health Seed Global Health CEO: countries need a global health model where sovereignty sets the agenda and multilateralism enables it

💯 Vanessa Kerry @seedglobalhealth.bsky.social: we must resist global health approaches that create "artificial trade-offs: prioritize pandemics or primary care, climate resilience or maternal health...inseparable components of a functioning health system"
www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/sove...

Family medicine delivers high quality primary care to help achieve the goal of universal health coverage
#PHCforUHC
@woncaworld.bsky.social

By the end of 2025, US total spending on halloween candy surpassed US total spending on humanitarian aid.

"A more balanced global evidence base is essential to ensure that primary care innovations are applicable, sustainable, and equitable worldwide."

Proud to have written this w/colleagues Drs. Garcia-Huidobro, Cuba, Prasad, Adams, @shailey.bsky.social @klausvonp.bsky.social & @pilarastier.bsky.social

Sharing the recording of our Grand Rounds presentation, for those who were unable to join us live: "From Global Health to Globalism - Evaluating Approaches to Global Engagement"
with @shailey.bsky.social
mediaspace.umn.edu/media/t/1_ds...
#medsky #PublicHealth #AcademicSky

An excellent summary of current US political discourse: a game of rock paper scissors from hell in which some approaches temporarily triumph, & meaning too often loses.

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming / A theory of political speech under the second Trump presidency

An incredible public health success story.

Shutting down food insecurity report only serves to hide hunger The USDA’s cancellation of its annual food insecurity report leaves families — and especially children — at risk of being overlooked.

Proud of my colleague Katie Loth for writing and sharing this important essay - when we stop measuring food insecurity, that doesn't make the problem go away.
www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

"we spent more than 100 years working at the C.D.C...We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations...we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Exclusive | RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs The task force determines which preventive services insurers must cover at no cost to patients.

RFK Jr. has now officially stated that he will dismantle the United States Preventive ServicesTask Force (USPSTF).

This is an independent body of expert scientists who volunteer their time to review data and provide guidance to Americans on important things like cancer screenings.

Heard from #AHRQ that the entire grants staff has been let go! They are unable to issue funds for grants already funded, let alone fund new grants. This is outrageous and will make Americans poorer and sicker. Why? A brief thread about just some recent AHRQ-funded research: #MedSky #HealthPolicy

"In these first few months after arrival, I have become, in many ways, an intern again."

Esther Johnston, MD, MPH (@esthermjohnston.bsky.social) reflects on the challenges and opportunities that come with professional change.

"Everything Old Is New Again": journals.stfm.org/familymedici...

#PrimaryCare #FamMed #FMSky #FMRevolution #MedicalEducation #MedSky #MedEd

A tribute to colleagues who have been so supportive as I learned the ropes in a new place this year, & to all the learners who juggle the cognitive load of trying to master new systems while bringing their best selves to their patients encounters, each & every day:
journals.stfm.org/familymedici...

@ihjm.bsky.social

The call for abstracts is now open for the North America Conference to End Race Based Medicine, which will be FREE to attend and held in Detroit October 17-18, 2025. Submissions are encouraged from students, residents, fellows and faculty from all disciplines.
#academicsky #medsky
bit.ly/NACERM2025

'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers Instructions in preprints from 14 universities highlight controversy on AI in peer review

Concerning on so many levels: that peer reviewers are farming out a critical role in ensuring academic integrity to AI (recognizing the broken system of academic publishing that => overloaded peer reviewers) & that this shortcut is so easily subverted. #Academicsky
asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tec...

Time To Rethink Global Health Recruitment As Africa’s Health Workers Deserve Better - EUROPE SAYS When Dr Biira* qualified as doctor in Uganda, she was hopeful about her future. Instead, she faced a common barrier: no job. Despite a huge shortage of

An excellent article by Martin Msukwa and Isaac Ntwiga of @seedglobalhealth.bsky.social summarizing some of the key barriers to recruitment and retention of health care workers in countries with HCW shortages, and needed policy solutions.
www.europesays.com/2147801/

The MAHA report, promoted by RFK Jr. as “gold-standard science,” is riddled with bogus citations:
⭐️ 7 studies don’t exist — one author: “The paper cited is not a real paper.”
⭐️ Key conclusions misquoted
⭐️ One study exists only in the report
⭐️ Dozens more have broken links #BlueSky #Medasky #SciSky

In this editorial, a group of family medicine global health practitioners based in South Africa, India, and the United States collectively reflect on the question, “What should lie at the heart of global health partnerships in family medicine?”

journals.stfm.org/familymedici...

May's special global health issue of Family Medicine attracted submissions from around the world, reflecting collaborations and partnerships between family physicians and colleagues.

Read the editorial from Cindy Haq, MD, and Esther Johnston, MD, MPH: journals.stfm.org/familymedici...

Interest in training opportunities and ethical engagement in global health among medical trainees continues to increase. Preparation activities and formal curriculum for trainees traveling for international rotations vary widely across programs: journals.stfm.org/primer/2025/...

9/ This isn't about whether you need a booster. It’s about how vaccine decisions are made—and who gets to make them. Americans deserve public health policy grounded in evidence, transparency, and debate—not declarations from two contrarians with an agenda.

RFK Jr. Took His Grandkids for a Dip in a Sewage-Contaminated Creek For Mother’s Day The National Park Service bans swimming in Rock Creek due to “high levels of bacteria.”

RFK Jr. celebrated on Sunday by taking shirtless selfies and swimming in an E. coli-ridden, sewage-infested creek where swimming, notably, has been banned by the National Park Service, thanks to the whole...poop water issue.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

Cynthia Haq, MD | Esther M. Johnston, MD, MPH

Deeply proud to have served as a guest editor of this special global issue of Family Medicine; & grateful to my colleagues who contributed their writing & research, & served as peer reviewers. May we never stop engaging as a global community in our shared learning.
journals.stfm.org/familymedici...

US universities’ faculty unite to defend academic freedom after Trump’s attacks Indiana University leads the push for a pact among 18 institutions as Donald Trump targets diversity

“If a pact is formed, the universities shall “commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund”. The fund will be in turn used to provide “immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement.”

#defendhighered

Re-introducing ourselves: IHJM was born out of a desire to facilitate national movements, to re-imagine a new medicine that ends racism in clinical algorithms and builds on the work of advocates before us. We envision an interdisciplinary hub - a community, research epicenter, and dialogue space.