Harvard University Professor of Economics Michael Kremer will deliver the Biannual Henry George Lecture at Williams College. His talk on "Improving Health and Education in the Developing World" will be held Monday, October 16, at 8 p.m., in The Science Center's Wege Auditorium.
Kremer is the Gates Professor of Developing Countries at Harvard and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is co-chair and co-founder of The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development and a consultant to the Development Economics Research Group of The World Bank.
Kremer has won numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, and most recently the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Best Paper in Health Economics in 2005 by the International Health Economics Association and the Association of American Publishers Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Medical Science for his book "Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases," in 2004.
Recent work has focused on issues of Advance Market Commitments for Vaccines against Neglected Diseases: Estimating Costs and Effectiveness, The Illusion of Sustainability, and Long-Term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Columbia.
In his most recent paper, Kremer discusses how "an advance market vaccine commitment may be sufficient to stimulate substantial research towards a desired vaccine, and from a public health perspective still be extremely cost effective." According to him, "the larger the commitment, the more biopharmaceutical firms will enter the search for a vaccine, and the faster a vaccine is likely to be developed."
He elaborates on this topic in Creating Markets for Vaccines. "Advance purchase commitments for vaccines for diseases concentrated in poor areas," writes Kremer, "have considerable appeal across the ideological spectrum as a market-oriented mechanism that brings the resources of the private sector to address the health needs of the world's poorest countries."
Kremer received his A.B. in social studies from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
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BHS Urgent Care Opening Third Location in North Berkshire
Staff Reports
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Berkshire Health Systems (BHS) today announced the opening of a third Urgent Care location, with a new facility being developed at 197 Adams Road, Williamstown, inside the Williamstown Medical facility.
Berkshire Health Urgent Care North will open on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, and will be open weekdays from 11:00am to 7:00pm and weekends from 8:00am to noon.
"We are thrilled to officially open Berkshire Health Urgent Care North to patients seeking care for minor illnesses and injuries, complimenting the services provided at our highly successful Pittsfield and Lenox locations," said Darlene Rodowicz, BHS President and CEO. "The opening of Berkshire Health Urgent Care North serves as a demonstration of BHS’s commitment to providing accessible care and services for patients across North County and Southern Vermont, keeping care close to home."
Berkshire Health Urgent Care North will provide convenient, accessible care for minor illness and injuries, as well as on-site X-ray services and testing for common illnesses. Like its counterparts in Pittsfield and Lenox, the North site will also provide patients with access to BHS’s coordinated system of care, fostering collaboration across each patient’s team of providers.
"Berkshire Health Systems has consistently supported the healthcare needs of North Berkshire, from opening key services after the 2014 closing of North Adams Regional Hospital to reopening our community hospital in 2024 and now expanding access to urgent care," said Jennifer Macksey, Mayor of North Adams. "This is great news for residents across North Berkshire."
Berkshire Health Urgent Care North will accept a variety of health insurance plans, including private commercial coverage, Medicare, and MassHealth through the Berkshire Fallon Health Collaborative, all of which are also accepted at the Pittsfield and Lenox Berkshire Health Urgent Care locations.
Berkshire Health Urgent Care in Pittsfield opened in September of 2015, and in Lenox earlier this year, providing care for minor illness and injury to thousands of Berkshire area residents and visitors.
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