Health
See also: List of hospitals in Massachusetts, Massachusetts health care reform, and Governorship of Mitt Romney#Health careMassachusetts generally ranks highly among states in most health and disease prevention categories. In 2009, the United Health Foundation ranked the state as third healthiest overall. However, the study also pointed to several areas in which Massachusetts ranked below average, such as the state's rate of binge drinking, which was the 11th highest in the country. Massachusetts has the most doctors per 100,000 residents, the second lowest infant mortality rate, and the lowest percentage of uninsured residents (for both children as well as the total population). According to Businessweek, commonwealth residents have an average life expectancy of 78.4 years, the fifth longest in the country. 37.2% of the population is overweight and 21.7% is obese, and Massachusetts ranks sixth highest in the percentage of residents who are considered neither obese nor overweight (41.1%).
The nation's first Marine Hospital was erected by federal order in Boston in 1799. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine lists a total of 132 hospitals in the state. According to rankings by US News & World Report, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston is the third best overall hospital in the nation; the hospital also ranked first in psychiatry. Massachusetts General was founded in 1811 and serves as the largest teaching hospital for nearby Harvard University.
Other teaching and medical institutions affiliated with Harvard include Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, among others. Boston is also the location of New England Baptist Hospital, Tufts Medical Center and Boston Medical Center, the latter of which is the primary teaching hospital for Boston University. The University of Massachusetts Medical School is located in Worcester. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has campuses in both Boston and Worcester.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Massachusetts
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)
“Most days I feel like an acrobat high above a crowd out of which my own parents, my in-laws, potential employers, phantoms of “other women who do it” and a thousand faceless eyes stare up.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“The middle years of parenthood are characterized by ambiguity. Our kids are no longer helpless, but neither are they independent. We are still active parents but we have more time now to concentrate on our personal needs. Our children’s world has expanded. It is not enclosed within a kind of magic dotted line drawn by us. Although we are still the most important adults in their lives, we are no longer the only significant adults.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)