His more recent projects have involved air quality and children with asthma and susceptibility genes for childhood asthma. Bracken has consulted for the World Health Organization, international corporations and agencies on various health related issues, evidence-based medicine, and epidemiology. He has served on a number of study sections and committees for the National Institutes of Health including the Council of the National Institute of Deafness and Communicative Disorders, Epidemiology and Disease Control Study Section, and the Expert Panel on Genes and Environment. He has also participated in advising the Institute of Medicine on special panels. His first book titled "Perinatal Epidemiology," published in 1984 by Oxford University Press, was one of the earliest compilations of in-depth investigations and research methods in the modern field of perinatology. Bracken co-edited his second book titled "Effective Care of the Newborn Infant" with John C. Sinclair published in 1992 by Oxford University Press. The book focuses on interventions in neonatal care and the use of statistical methods, systematic research, and clinical trials for informing health care providers. The book served as a key cornerstone in the foundation of the international Cochrane Collaboration and was named as one of the most influential books in evidence-based medicine by "The British Medical Journal." His most recent book "Risk, Chance, and Causation: Investigating the Origins and Treatment of Disease" was published by Yale University Press in the summer of 2013 and received honorable mention by the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence PROSE and the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in the Health Sciences Category in 2013. Written for a broad audience, the book provides an overview of the field of epidemiology and evidence-based medicine.