--- title: How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates description: Why we need more details on death certificates, how Russia is winning the information war and more. canonical: https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-01T16:00:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:56.765Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 1, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 1, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**What can a death certificate tell us? A lot, if we let it.**](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/01/479440834/in-opioid-crisis-it-s-important-to-know-which-drugs-caused-a-death) By Jeff Cohen on NPR **2\.** [**Russia is winning the global information war. Here’s how.**](http://observer.com/2016/05/russia-is-winning-the-information-war/) By Ronn Torossian in the Observer **3\.** [**How do internet hoaxes spread? It’s our fault.**](http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/staff-editorials/16726/internet-hoaxes/) By Ryan Scott in the Kernel **4\.** [**As we honor fallen veterans, we should remember the Merchant Marine.**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/merchant-marine-were-unsung-heroes-world-war-ii-180959253/) By William Geroux in Smithsonian **5\.** [**Watch how trained falcons are keeping commercial airliners safe.**](http://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/falconry-keeping-birds-at-bay) By Great Big Story  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/"},"headline":"How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates","datePublished":"2016-06-01T16:00:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:56.765Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/","keywords":["Innovation","russia","Veterans","Internet","Air travel","opioids"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4353399/how-to-save-lives-with-better-death-certificates/","name":"How to Save Lives With Better Death Certificates"}}]}] ```