Conversations on Health Care: Recent Episodes
Federal News Network | Hubbard Radio
Conversations on Health Care® is a radio show about the opportunities for reform and innovation in the health care system. In addition to health care headlines, the centerpiece of each show is a feature story and conversation with an innovator in the delivery of care from around the globe.
Originally broadcast October 9, 2025 $44 billion in drugs that help Americans are purchased through a little-known federal discount program called 340B. The program is recognized for successfully helping hospitals, community health centers and others that fund care for low-income patients. But that program is now facing big challenges from drugmakers, and the current government shutdown has brought new uncertainty. Reporter William Newton of 340B Report tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that the shutdown has delayed approvals...
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Originally broadcast October 2, 2025 The federal government is shut down and the ripple effects are being felt. Legislation tied to the budget impasse also means Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the Acute Hospital Care at Home program expired early Wednesday morning. “Most providers and hospital systems are taking calculated risks to continue care during this time, but long-term continuity depends on action by our telehealth champions in Washington to restore these flexibilities and ensure retroactive reimbursement,” says Kyle Zebley, senior...
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Originally broadcast Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Happy anniversary to “Conversations on Health Care”! We posted our first program 16 years ago on Sept. 23, 2009. Now, we’re bringing back our first two guests to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going in health care. Nancy Pelosi was serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and trying to get the Affordable Care Act passed when she joined us on that inaugural show. Today, she continues to serve...
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Dr. Wayne Jonas, who formerly led the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine, now directs the Healing Works Foundation, which has a mission to “make whole person, integrative care regular and routine.” “The data is very clear: most health does not come from going to your doctor and getting a diagnosis or treatment,” Jonas tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. “The body is continually healing.” Jonas shares the story of a man he calls “Joe,” a grandfather...
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Next week former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez will testify in a Senate hearing. The reporters who cover health care in Washington think there could be big revelations about why Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired her. Sandhya Raman, health care reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call, and Michael McAuliff, who covers policy for Modern Healthcare, join our Reporters’ Roundtable. McAuliff says no matter what is discovered during the testimony, Kennedy’s...
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Supporters say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is fulfilling his vision to be “pro-safety,” not anti-vaccine. His recent actions have included restricting COVID eligibility, dissolving expert panels, installing skeptical voices and defunding mRNA development. Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, is pushing back and says, “I’ve never in my 50 years in public health experienced anything like this in terms of the threat to good public health.” Osterholm and...
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Originally broadcast Wednesday, August 27 Dr. Victor Montori, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist, internationally recognized researcher, and author of “Why We Revolt,” joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to talk about what it really means to fix a health care system that he believes has lost its way. Montori leads The Patient Revolution, a global movement aiming to make health care more elegant with “no waste or haste, focused on the biology and biography of each person, responsive to each...
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Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s FitnessGram is on the ropes. President Trump recently reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test; over 10 years ago, the government replaced the test with Dr. Cooper’s FitnessGram, “the first student fitness report card.” Dr. Cooper has a cautious reaction. “Whether they’re going to be using exactly as the test [in the new process] is not really known. I am delighted to see that they realize the importance of childhood fitness.” To him, it just makes sense to measure...
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The post “Father of Aerobics” at 94: Dr. Cooper’s Unrelenting Health Advocacy appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast August 14, 2025 One in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness, yet only a fraction of philanthropic dollars goes toward mental health, addiction, and well-being. Alyson Niemann, CEO of Mindful Philanthropy, joined Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to share how her organization is closing this gap and inspiring bold new investments. “We issued a challenge … to increase the funding to mental health, addiction, and well-being to $35 billion annually by...
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Originally broadcast August 7, 2025 Experts who believe in the “food is medicine” concept say recent decisions made in Washington could have a devastating effect. Dr. Hilary Seligman, a nationally recognized expert on food insecurity and health outcomes at the University of California San Francisco, spoke to “Conversations on Health Care.” The interview highlighted that cutbacks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are projected to reduce federal spending by $186 billion over the next decade. She believes this could...
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Americans are living longer for many reasons and experts credit Medicare and Medicaid for some of this success. This week, these federal programs are celebrating their own birthdays. Sixty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. However, recent moves are expected to result in decreased enrollment and payments to health care providers. “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Mark Updegrove about this situation. Updegrove is the president and CEO...
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“I would have never, ever in my whole life have said, ‘we’re going to cure addiction.’ I think we now have knowledge and tools that could potentially, definitely lead us to a cure for addiction.” — Dr. Nora Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Volkow shared her attention-getting belief with “Conversations on Health” at Aspen Ideas: Health. Healthcare providers and society at large have spent decades dealing with substance use disorders and the loss of life has been...
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Dr. Betancourt, president of the influential The Commonwealth Fund, is committed to “Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.” Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter interviewed him at Aspen Ideas: Health at the Aspen Institute. Here are some of the Fund’s top concerns right now: Dr. Betancourt, the first Latino to lead the Fund, is also proud of health equity as he defines it: “My lived experience informs a lot of my ideas around how our foundation can go forward…it’s about...
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The post Pretend You Have Millions to Fix Health Care: What Would You Do? A Doctor Gives His Answer appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4 and now leaders such as Stephanie Carlton are in charge of implementing it. She’s the deputy administrator and chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Carlton and the administration see the law’s benefits because Medicaid reimbursement rates “were allowed to go up to commercial rates and states are at varying levels towards that cap. But as we sat back and looked at...
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The post Dr. Oz’s Second-in-Command Explains Need for Medicaid Reimbursement Cuts as “Big Beautiful Bill” Passes appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
ENCORE – Originally aired November 7, 2024 There’s a lot of attention right now around “super agers.” Yet the facts are that current life expectancy at birth is 74.8 years for males and for females it’s 80.2 years in the U.S. Does it catch your eye when you hear about predictions we’ll be able to live to 100 and beyond? Some researchers are throwing cold water on those notions. “We’ll be lucky if 5% of the age cohort makes it...
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Originally broadcast May 15, 2025 Millions are still living with the effects of Long COVID and new research shows that for older adults, the consequences may be profound and lasting. In part one of a special two-part series on “Conversations on Health Care,” Dr. Gabriel de Erausquin, a neurologist and leading Long COVID researcher at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, shares groundbreaking findings from his global study of over 3,500 patients. His work reveals a troubling connection: many...
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The post Unlocking Long COVID Mysteries: Dementia-Like Symptoms & Pre-Existing Conditions appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
It’s a troubling situation: Nearly one in three high school students report persistent feelings of hopelessness. At the same time, many communities have a lack of mental health professionals to counsel and help young people.Leaders from philanthropy, public health, and private sectors think they have a path to a solution: Youth Mental Health Corps. This program, which launched a year ago, places young adults as mental health navigators in schools and community organizations. These navigators provide peer-to-peer support, connect young people and families...
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Description: Dr. Igor Koralnik, the co-director of Northwestern Medicine’s Comprehensive COVID-19 Center, is one of the world’s leading Long COVID researchers. For instance, he’s been involved in a first-of its-kind study that’s giving experts an idea of how Long COVID affects the body by looking through the eyes. Patients at his center receive coordinated care across 14 different specialties to address the many ways Long COVID affects the body. In the second part of our two-part series on Long COVID,...
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Dr. Leana Wen, a health news commentator for The Washington Post and CNN, is known for trying to have an open view toward untraditional opinions. For instance, she tells “Conversations on Health Care” that the new National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration directors are both “qualified individuals who have credentials from major medical institutions, who have worked in those fields.” She says her hope is that “behind the scenes they will act as tempering force… against the...
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Very early this morning the U.S. House passed a bill that would result in more than 7 million people losing Medicaid coverage if it became law; that estimate is from the Congressional Budget Office. As the bill was coming together, the chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News shared her analysis. Julie Rovner highlighted that to get a bill across the finish line was going to require overcoming the skepticism of some politicians. “There’s a growing group of Republicans who...
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The post Breaking News: House Budget Hawks Victorious Over Medicaid Defenders appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast May 15, 2025 Millions are still living with the effects of Long COVID and new research shows that for older adults, the consequences may be profound and lasting. In part one of a special two-part series on “Conversations on Health Care,” Dr. Gabriel de Erausquin, a neurologist and leading Long COVID researcher at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, shares groundbreaking findings from his global study of over 3,500 patients. His work reveals a troubling connection: many...
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The post Unlocking Long COVID Mysteries: Dementia-Like Symptoms & Pre-Existing Conditions appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast May 8, 2025 Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and melanoma is its deadliest form. Cases have tripled in the past 30 years, particularly among younger people — even as rates for other common cancers have gone down. Marc Hurlbert, Ph.D., CEO of the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), joins “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to talk about the urgent need for more research, the role of philanthropy, and...
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A recent survey surprisingly found only 41% of physicians were “very confident” about their ability to provide equal quality care to patients with a disability. Megan Morris, Ph.D., and her allies are trying to figure out why and how to boost that percentage. STAT News’ STATUS List recently added Morris to its prestigious collection of influencers because of her role as founder of the Disability Equity Collaborative. In an interview with “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret...
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The post Healthcare Disability Advocate, Fueled by Personal Experience: Megan Morris appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast April 22, 2025 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. will phase out the remaining eight artificial food dyes from America’s food supply within two years. This is a move that leading nutritionist and author Marion Nestle, Ph.D., has long advocated for. “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter spoke to her before today’s news conference. She says, “I’m all for getting bad chemicals out of the food supply,...
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Originally broadcast April 17, 2025 The U.S. healthcare system could save up to 500,000 lives and $1.5 trillion a year by embracing the right technology, says Dr. Robert Pearl, a Stanford University professor and a noted healthcare influencer. Pearl, who co-authored his new book “ChatGPT, MD” with the help of generative AI, says the tech’s strength lies in its access to the entirety of medical knowledge. “We shouldn’t think of [generative AI] as just another AI tool. This is as...
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The post “ChatGPT, MD”: Author Says AI-Empowered Patients, Doctors Take Control appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast April 10, 2025 Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes founded his eponymous Medical Institute over 70 years ago devoted to “unlocking the fundamentals of biology and building an open, inclusive future for science”. Some say Howard Hughes Medical Institute is bringing its founder’s vision into the future with its one-of-a-kind Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. On this 281-acre parcel of land, integrated teams of lab scientists and tool-builders pursue a small number of scientific questions with potential for transformative...
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Originally broadcast April 3, 2025 Roughly 85% of respondents to a survey cited by Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, say they would rather do their taxes than get a colonoscopy. “We need to do a better job of talking to the public about the barriers,” Sapienza tells “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. Sapienza, whose mother died of the disease at age 58, says people may be less than excited to do the...
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The post ‘If Ryan Reynolds doesn’t get you to do it…’: Colorectal Cancer Alliance CEO talks screening appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast March 27, 2025 Two young innovators are leading a movement that proves food isn’t just fuel—it’s medicine. In this episode of “Conversations on Health Care,” Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk with Christian Heiden, founder of Levo International, and Alissa Wassung, executive director of the Food is Medicine Coalition, about how their work is shaping the future of healthcare through food. For Heiden, hydroponic farming offers an innovative way to get fresh, nutritious food into the hands of...
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The post Food is Medicine: How Young Changemakers are Transforming Healthcare appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast March 20, 2025 Mary Bono has left the halls of Congress, but she’s still winning with her efforts to stop the misuse of both prescription and illegal drugs. Bono, co-founder and chair of Mothers for Awareness and Prevention of Drug Abuse, wants to see a focus on solutions from lawmakers. With a greater presence of fentanyl in the drug supply, “everything [has] changed because there’s no longer time for experimentation,” Bono says. “‘One pill can kill’ is a [Drug...
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Originally broadcast March 13, 2025 Emmy award-winning actor Michael J. Fox shocked the world when he announced over 25 years ago that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Since then, he’s devoted his talents to eliminating Parkinson’s in our lifetime. Researchers with The Michael J. Fox Foundation now have impressive progress to report. They’ve developed a biomarker test to measure the protein alpha synuclein that’s helping to diagnose Parkinson’s with more than 90% accuracy, even proving effective at identifying...
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Originally broadcast February 15, 2024 About 1 in 5 colorectal patients are now under the age of 55, and colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under age 50 and the second for women under 50. During Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, we present this encore presentation of our interview with Dr. Alan Venook. Dr. Venook is with the University of California-San Francisco and is one of the nation’s leading colorectal cancer researchers. He explained to...
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The post Colorectal Cancer Rising for Millennials & Gen Z: How to Reverse the Trend appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast February 27, 2025. How reliable is the current research into the cause of Alzheimer’s disease? Award-winning author Charles Piller’s new book is “Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s”; it’s raising important questions about certain images that may have been manipulated to bolster the amyloid hypothesis as the cause of Alzheimer’s. Piller tells “Conversations on Health Care” that “what you have are a multitude of images — not just in Alzheimer’s disease but in...
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The post Alzheimer’s Researchers Under Fire: Acclaimed Journalist Explains Why appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Dr. Louis Sullivan walked the halls of Congress and testified before committees when he was secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That experience, working in a bipartisan fashion in the President George H.W. Bush administration, is valuable now. During Black History Month, we revisit our interview with Dr. Sullivan for lessons about leadership and the challenges that still exist in our healthcare system. Dr. Sullivan advocates for more Blacks to train to become doctors and explains...
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Originally broadcast February 13, 2025 $4.95 — that’s the record high price of a dozen of Grade A eggs in U.S. cities. Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, says expect them to go even higher. That’s because H5N1, a form of bird flu, has affected more than 156 million commercial, backyard and wild birds in the United States in the last three years. Osterholm, with nearly 50 years of experience investigating infectious...
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The post Egg Prices Up: Hear From Experts About Why appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast February 6, 2025 Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing health care—but how do we ensure it’s safe, effective, and responsible? Dr. Brian Anderson, CEO of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), explains to “Conversations on Health Care” how his organization is working to establish clear guidelines for responsible AI in health care. Formed in 2021 during the pandemic, CHAI has grown from eight organizations to nearly 3,000, bringing together healthcare leaders, tech companies, and policymakers to build industry-wide best practices....
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The post Guardrails for Health AI: How, Why and When appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast January 30, 2025. Noted healthcare leader Dr. Sachin Jain has been publicly releasing his annual predictions for the sector for five years and is proud of his “pretty accurate” track record. He’s out now with his list of top 10 predictions for the healthcare industry for 2025. Dr. Jain states that “Heretofore fringe ideas about wellness and disease causation and medications will continue to go mainstream.” Dr. Jain has held top positions at the Centers for Medicare and...
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Originally broadcast January 23, 2025 President Trump’s first days in office have resulted in a number of important changes in the healthcare landscape. President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization, rolled back drug pricing policies and limited gender-affirming care. In addition, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., awaits his confirmation hearing to serve as secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter are bringing together...
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Originally broadcast August 22, 2023 As the year begins, some patients remain concerned about how far artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into the exam room. But AI has been part of health care longer than most realize, according to Dr. Isaac Kohane, a Harvard University professor. Kohane is the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine’s first publication devoted to AI; it’s a groundbreaking role and we’re proud to share an encore presentation of the interview. He told hosts...
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Originally broadcast June 8, 2023 The World Health Organization has issued a statement expressing concern about artificial intelligence in health care. In 2023, Mayo Clinic’s then-Chief Information Officer Cris Ross joined us to discuss it. He led innovation projects at Mayo Clinic for over 30 years and told us “perhaps” we should be worried about ChatGPT. “These technologies are value-neutral but their usage is not necessarily value-neutral. Bad people can use good technology for bad purposes. So I think there’s...
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The post Healthcare Providers & ChatGPT Will See You Now: Our Brave New World appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast January 2, 2025. Conversations on Health Care hopes the new year is off to a great start for you! But before we completely turn the page on 2024, we want to look back on our top issues and interviews from the past year. We spoke to leading experts about the health care policies that were part of the presidential race; the promise and peril of artificial intelligence; the research into happiness; and many other issues. As President Trump,...
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Originally broadcast December 26, 2024 Dr. Amit Sood is called the “Happiness Doctor” for a good reason; his resilience approach has been included in over 35 clinical trials. The holiday season, occurring right after an intense election, is an ideal time to learn from Dr. Sood about how to recognize stress and reprogram the brain to deal with it. One of his top pieces of advice: Ask yourself if what is upsetting you will matter in five years? If the...
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Originally broadcast December 20, 2024 Billionaires who dream of extending human life, including Elon Musk, believe they will have very supportive partners in the incoming Trump administration. They’re excited that President Trump has nominated Jim O’Neill for the number two spot at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services because of his history in the anti-aging movement. David Gobel, the co-founder and CEO of the Methuselah Fund, says, “Jim O’Neill really understands the value of avoiding the suffering…of diseases...
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Originally broadcast December 12, 2024 Nurse practitioners, at 385,000 strong in the U.S., are increasingly seen as a key part of the solution to the primary care provider shortage. What are the challenges and opportunities to ensure everyone can get the care they need when they need it? Our guest is the president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Stephen Ferrara, DNP. He also serves as the inaugural associate dean of artificial intelligence and a professor of nursing at...
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Originally broadcast December 5, 2024 HIV/AIDS experts are cautiously watching as President Trump and his administration near inauguration day. On one hand, they remember how President Trump announced in 2019 his initiative called Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America. It included Ready, Set, PrEP, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative that provides free access to the HIV prevention medication PrEP for thousands of qualifying individuals. But there are worries “about the next four years because...
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Originally broadcast on November 27, 2024 Dr. Amit Sood is called the “Happiness Doctor” for a good reason; his resilience approach has been included in over 35 clinical trials. The holiday season, occurring right after an intense election, is an ideal time to learn from Dr. Sood about how to recognize stress and reprogram the brain to deal with it. One of his top pieces of advice: Ask yourself if what is upsetting you will matter in five years? If...
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The post “Dr. Happiness” on Surviving Family Discussions at Thanksgiving appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast November 21, 2024 TV ads focused on health care issues — including transgender care, abortion and costs — ricocheted across the airwaves in the months leading up to election day. Erika Franklin Fowler, Ph.D., is a co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political ads. She joins “Conversations on Health Care” to discuss a controversial anti-transgender surgery ad from the Republicans that also benefited from free media attention, as well as House and Senate candidates picking up...
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The post Did the millions spent matter? Election ’24 Health Care Ads appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast November 14, 2024 There are 27 million Americans who have medical debt on their credit reports right now—a drag on their pocketbooks and our health care system. Urban Institute researchers say they’ve found an interesting fact about those with medical debt: They live in communities with less healthcare competition because of common ownership. The data show that communities of color and people living in the South are disproportionately affected. Fredric Blavin, Ph.D. and Breno Braga, Ph.D. say medical...
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Originall broadcast September 5, 2024 Did you know private equity now owns one-third of private hospitals in the country and the percentage is growing? Private equity is a controversial type of financing typically seen in the technology and media sectors that’s now attracted to health care. It’s a trend that greatly troubles Erin Fuse Brown. She’s a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University’s School of Public Health and its Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research....
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Originally broadcast August 29, 2024 Gallup reports that a record-high 32% of U.S. voters say they will only vote for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion. Indeed, the upcoming November presidential election will be the first one since the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion. The Washington reporters who cover health care policy and political maneuverings join us on “Conversations on Health Care” to discuss how Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the contrasts...
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Originally broadcast August 22, 2024 Some patients are concerned about how far artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into the exam room. But AI has been part of health care longer than most realize, according to Dr. Isaac Kohane, a groundbreaking Harvard University professor. Kohane is the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine’s first publication devoted to AI. He tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that “In the 1980s, automated interpretation of an [echocardiogram] would have been considered...
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The post NEJM’s First AI Editor: Yes, AI is Here to Stay appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Originally broadcast August 15, 2024 Dr. Aaron Carroll raises eyebrows with statements that highlight contradictory health advice: “‘Eggs are going to kill you because of cholesterol’ — ‘oh, it actually doesn’t matter. Eat as many eggs as you like.’ ‘Red meat will kill you.’ ‘Oh no, read meat can be part of a diet.’ ‘Drink no alcohol’ … ‘Oh, no no. Drinking red wine is perfectly healthy.’” Dr. Carroll has devoted his career to advocating for scientific and research communities...
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Originally broadcast August 8, 2024 The director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) knows the eyes of the nation are on her. Renee Wegrzyn, Ph.D., leads the billion-dollar effort charged with leveraging research advances for real-world impact. Wegrzyn talked with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter at Aspen Ideas: Health about the agency’s initiatives, including a $100 million sprint for women’s health and creating tissue-specific delivery of therapies. “How can we pursue some of these breakthroughs —...
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Originally broadcast August 1, 2024 The defining health care issues in this year’s election are crystalizing with reproductive rights remaining at the top of the list. Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, has covered health policy fights for nearly four decades. She said, “I think this may be the first time that abortion rights drive people out to vote. The anti-abortion movement has always been the one that has been able to gin up their base, and...
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Originally broadcast July 25, 2024 The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which was first published 141 years ago, is grappling with modern challenges as the most widely circulated general medical journal in the world. At the forefront is Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, its relatively new editor-in-chief. Dr. Bibbins-Domingo took the helm at a tumultuous time and has a clear vision for how JAMA should deal with equity in medicine and the public’s lack of trust in health care. She...
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Originally broadcast July 18, 2024 With most of the country suffering through a sweltering heat wave, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services has found the right time to unveil its nationwide Heat and Health Index (HHI). “Conversations on Health Care” learned all about it from Admiral Rachel Levine, M.D., the department’s assistant secretary for health. “We are seeing heat-related injury and health impacts globally,” says Levine, particularly in vulnerable populations, such as children, seniors and people who work...
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Originally broadcast July 10, 2024 “Conversations on Health Care” went on the road to Aspen Ideas: Health. We start this series with Gregory Jackson, A White House official with one of the toughest assignments: tackling gun violence, Gregory is deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
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Originally broadcast July 1, 2024 Experts praise community health workers as the keys to building a more equitable and fair health care system in America. Is there a way to unlock more success for hiring and retaining them? Dr. Shreya Kangovi thinks so; she developed the IMPaCT Care program, which is saving money and quickly growing. We’re proud to share this encore “Conversations on Health Care” interview. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talked to Dr. Kangovi about how it’s a...
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Originally broadcast June 28, 2024 Five times during the COVID pandemic Dr. Anthony Fauci took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to share with “Conservations on Health Care” his latest insights. Now, he returns to reflect not only on COVID but also on the entire scope of his career, including his efforts to bring attention and resources to the AIDS fight in the 1980s. Dr. Fauci explains he had to speak truth to power during the pandemic in order “to...
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Originally broadcast on June 20, 2024. Is the way we’re going about suicide prevention all wrong? And how are those misperceptions affecting efforts to stop veteran suicides? Clinical psychologist Craig Bryan is an Iraq War veteran and studies the issue. He’s the author of “Rethinking Suicide: Why Prevention Fails, and How We Can Do Better” and says we need a better focus on firearm safety. In 2021, 72% of veteran suicides involved firearms. The veteran suicide rate is currently 1.5...
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Originally broadcast June 13, 2024 More than 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2023, the highest number on record. Data from 2021 found that over 12 million American adults thought about suicide and 1.7 million attempted it. American Psychiatric Association President Dr. Petros Levounis, who’s finishing his term, is at the center of efforts to prevent suicides. His focus continues to be on substance use addictions. He and the 38,000 APA members have launched a campaign called “Confronting Addiction: From...
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Originally broadcast June 5, 2024 What if we say there’s a way to have healthier pregnancies, improve children’s health and create better economic outcomes? And it all begins with a knock on the door? That’s the way Nurse-Family Partnership works. It’s an evidence-based, community health program with 45 years of research showing significant improvements in the health and lives of first-time moms and their children affected by social and economic inequality. The initiative succeeds by having specially educated nurses regularly...
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Originally broadcast May 29, 2024 You know about the Army and Navy, but have you heard about the USPHS Commissioned Corps? It is one of the nation’s uniformed services — a branch committed to the service of health. Its over 6,000 officers advance the nation’s public health, serving in agencies across the government, as physicians, nurses, dentists, veterinarians, scientists, engineers and other professionals. President of the Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Foundation Gene Migliaccio spoke to “Conversations on Health Care”...
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Originally broadcast May 22, 2024 This week we’ve brought together some of the brightest minds who run many of the best and most innovative community health centers across the country. From Long Island to San Francisco, community health centers served over 31 million patients last year. How are they keeping pace with their success while always working to improve the quality of the care? The guests are part of the Community Health Best Practices network and serve as CEOs of...
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Join us for a unique conversation with an innovative nonprofit leader and the grantmaker who’s helping support her efforts. Morgan Dixon is the co-founder and CEO of GirlTREK, which she calls a “life-saving sisterhood.” Their campaign seeks to heal intergenerational trauma, fight systemic racism, and transform Black lives by organizing women walking teams. While participants walk, they also mobilize community members to support advocacy efforts and lead a Civil Rights-inspired health movement. The Community Health Acceleration Partnership (CHAP) says it’s...
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Black children ages 5 to 12 are twice as likely to die by suicide as their white counterparts, and the rate of suicides among Black teens is rising faster than any other racial/ethnic group. Those statistics are alarming to most people, but they’re not surprising to Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) Chief Resident and Child Psychiatry Fellow Dr. Amanda J. Calhoun. “Experiences of anti-Black racism affect kids before they are even born,” says Dr. Calhoun. The stress of anti-Black racism...
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Originally broadcast on May 2, 2024 In the wake of recent bipartisan policy wins in Washington, can health care policy follow suit? Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), spoke with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about how the best solutions emerge from a solid understanding of the issues and the eventual give-and-take of political opponents. For example, The Milbank Memorial Fund’s 2024 Scorecard Report of The Health of U.S. Primary Care declared that...
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As we mark Earth Day, we have just experienced the hottest March on record. But climate change’s impact isn’t stopping with the weather; it’s also affecting our mental health, says Dr. Gary Belkin, director of the Billion Minds Project at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Climate anxiety, which refers to having distressing feelings related to climate change impacts, is increasingly prevalent in communities where the impact is the most severe. And the problem is only getting worse. ...
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What happens when music therapists and neuroscientists team up? Patients win, says Dr. Francis Collins. From adults with Parkinson’s disease to children with autism, music has the power to help people walk, talk, ease pain and so much more. Dr. Collins recently stepped down from his role as the longest-serving director of National Institutes of Health. As he faces a personal battle against prostate cancer, he’s exploring the promising impact that music and art therapy could hold for patients with...
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Originally published April 9, 2024 She’s received worldwide praise for singing at the Super Bowl, during a presidential inauguration and regularly for The Metropolitan Opera, but Renée Fleming is stretching her voice in new ways. She’s the editor of “Music and Mind,” a curated collection of essays from leading scientists, artists, creative arts therapists, educators and health care providers about the powerful impacts of music and the arts on health and the human experience. Renée shares how she discovered her...
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Originally published April 4, 2024 It’s about seven months to election day and our regular panel of health care journalists sees a lot of divisions in the electorate. Joyce Frieden, who’s in charge of MedPage Today’s coverage of Washington and health policy, says the debate over abortion is driving voter interest. Yet Ben Leonard, a health care reporter at POLITICO, notes that Republican voters place issues such as immigration ahead of health care. Meanwhile, Nathaniel Weixel, a health policy reporter...
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Originally published March 28, 2024 Medicare just announced that it will pay for weight loss drugs if patients using them also have heart disease and need to reduce the risk of future heart attacks and strokes. Medicare has already been covering the costs of the GLP-1 class of drugs to treat diabetes problems. However, Medicare Part D plans are still restricted by law from covering obesity medications used for chronic weight management alone. It’s a decision the American Diabetes Association...
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The recent death of former college football player Craig Roh from colon cancer at age 33 has brought attention to the “alarming” increase of colorectal cancer in young people. The American Cancer Society reports colon cancer is now the most common cause of cancer deaths in men under 50 and second for women under 50. Dr. Alan Venook at the University of California-San Francisco is one of the nation’s leading colorectal cancer researchers. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and...
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Originally broadcast on March 14, 2024 The family planning revolution has a new chapter and journalist Valerie Bauman is both documenting it and participating in it. She and others pursuing alternatives say they’re frustrated with fertility clinics because of the cost, what they call the discriminatory nature of the system and the lack of insurance coverage. Bauman explains how she met her sperm donor and why others like her say it makes sense for them. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret...
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Originally broadcast on March 4, 2024 Even as Alabama scrambles to enact a law protecting in vitro fertilization in the state, the Biden-Harris Administration sees additional challenges that legislation may not be able to quickly fix. Carole Johnson leads the Health Resources and Services Administration, the part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department tasked with strengthening the health workforce and connecting skilled professionals to rural, urban and tribal underserved communities. Johnson explains that some health care providers were...
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Originally broadcast on February 29, 2024 Americans say nursing is the most respected profession, but nurses say their challenges tell a different story. They’re sounding the alarm on staffing shortages, violence in the workplace and racism (63% of nurses say they have personally experienced an act of racism in the workplace). The American Nurses Association is also fighting an American Medical Association policy recommending advanced practice registered nurses be licensed and regulated by both state medical and nursing boards. Our...
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Originally broadcast on February 22, 2024. U.S. spending on primary care fell again, to a mere 4.6% of total health care dollars spent. Primary Care Collaborative is the only national multi-stakeholder organization focused on whole-person primary care. Primary Care Collaborative President & CEO Ann Greiner joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss better compensation and reimbursement for primary care clinicians and efforts to increase training, expanding access to community health centers, and opportunities for primary care to help...
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Originally broadcast on February 15, 2024 Across the board, children of color in America receive less treatment and fewer life-saving interventions than white children, according to a research review published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. The data find that strongest disparities between whites and children of color involved pain management; kids of color are less likely than their white peers to get painkillers for a broken arm or leg, for appendicitis or for migraines Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, pediatrician and...
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Originally broadcast on February 8, 2024 How is the long-held image of a psychiatrist with a couch in an office being replaced by artificial intelligence? And what are the promises and perils of using technology to help treat depression and anxiety? Dr. Jodi Halpern is a psychiatrist, noted author and co-founder of the University of California’s Berkeley Group for Ethics and Regulation of Innovative Technologies. Research shows that 26% of adult Americans have a diagnosable mental health situation each year,...
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Originally broadcast on January 25, 2024 There are many ways to address the social determinants of health but do we need to pay more attention to the one right in front of us? The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative thinks so, and it’s focused on addressing health inequities by making homes healthier, safer and more energy efficient. Ruth Ann Norton leads the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, a national nonprofit operating in 65 communities that’s helping residents understand that unhealthy...
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Originally broadcast on January 18, 2024 Experts praise community health workers as the keys to building a more equitable and fair health care system in America. Is there a way to unlock more success for hiring and retaining them? Dr. Shreya Kangovi thinks so; she developed the IMPaCT Care program, which is saving money and quickly growing. “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talked to her about how it’s a standardized, scalable program that transforms the...
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Originally broadcast on January 11, 2024 Less than three months ago, Alondra Nelson, Ph.D., proudly watched as President Biden unveiled the administration’s blueprint for an artificial intelligence bill of rights, which is focused on ensuring safe, secure and trustworthy technology. Nelson had a big role in developing the strategy as she served as deputy assistant to the president and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Since then, major health care companies have agreed to...
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Originally broadcast on January 4, 2024 A new year brings hope for breakthroughs for our most complex health care issues. The leading thinkers have been sharing their perspectives with us. We’ve captured the highlights from our recent interviews covering vaccinations, abortion, mental health and all the top stories with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. Plus, we have important updates for 2024. Conversations on Health Care features in-depth discussions on health policy and innovation with industry newsmakers from around the...
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Originally broadcast on December 28, 2023 The diagnosis and treatment of Long COVID made many advancements in the past 12 months and “Conversations on Health Care” covered all of them. We’ve collected the most important insights from leading researchers and clinicians as this medical mystery continues. Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as they highlight the perspectives of guests ranging from NIH researchers and patients, to the leader of the Mayo Clinic’s COVID Activity Rehabilitation Program. Conversations on Health...
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Originally broadcast on Thursday, December 21, 2021 The advice from one of Washington’s health care policy reporters is to rest up and enjoy the holidays because 2024 is going to be a very intense time. The top items on the agenda include a federal fight over the budget (including health care) that could lead to a government shutdown at the beginning of the year, a presidential campaign that will place health issues at the forefront, continuing concerns about AI and...
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Originally broadcast on December 14, 2023 This is a critically important time for Dr. Ken Duckworth as the chief medical officer for NAMI— the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It’s the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. Yet the holidays often bring increased instances of depression, which is especially troubling for a country already experiencing the highest rates of suicide in over 80 years. Dr. Duckworth...
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Our guests were looking for a book that told real-life stories about Latinas in nursing, but they couldn’t find one. So they took the job upon themselves and wrote their own book, titled Latinas in Nursing: Stories of Determination, Inspiration, and Trust. The book is a compilation of the beautiful stories of the challenges, growth and discovery influential Latina nurses share about their journeys, including during the COVID pandemic. Right now, Hispanics make up 19% of the total U.S. population...
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Originally broadcast on November 30, 2023 The United Nations Climate Change Conference (known as COP28) is underway and on Dec. 3 it will feature a “Day of Health.” This is the first time the world leaders on climate change will devote an entire day to how climate change is affecting our physical, mental and emotional health. Dr. Vanessa Kerry, the World Health Organization Director-General Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health, joined us with an overview of what to expect...
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Originally broadcast on September 28, 2023 Dr. Lisa Sanders grew up reading Sherlock Holmes. Now, she’s looking to solve health care mysteries as the medical director of the Yale New Haven Long COVID Multidisciplinary Care Center. She recently explained her patients are getting better through a variety of approaches and she’s hopeful the caseload will continue to decrease. Dr. Sanders, well-known for writing The New York Times “Diagnosis” column, rejects Long COVID skepticism because she says she has seen clinical...
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Originally broadcast on November 16, 2023 Did you catch environmental engineer Linsey Marr, Ph.D., on “60 Minutes” explaining how she was confident she knew COVID was an airborne virus (even when the World Health Organization was saying otherwise)? Learn more about her insights and latest observations as she joins “Conversations on Health Care” this week. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also discuss air quality and energy efficiency with Peter Templeton, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council,...
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Originally broadcast on November 9, 2023 Experienced health care executive Dr. Kyu Rhee, recently named as the president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers, says member organizations are working on three big goals: Being the provider of choice, the employer of choice and the partner of choice. As he and NACHC members focus on these items, they’re also nervously awaiting congressional action. In late September, Congress passed a short-term extension of funding for community health centers,...
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Originally broadcast on November 2, 2023 Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, served on the National Security Council and elevated the role of development as part of our nation’s foreign policy while he was USAID Administrator. Dr. Shah, our guest this week on “Conversations of Health Care,” explained that the war in Gaza requires a need to balance defense, diplomacy and development. His new book Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, takes readers inside past efforts to...
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Originally broadcast on October 26, 2023 Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, says their most important clinical care and public health issue right now is preventing veteran suicides. The data show that 17 vets a day die by suicide. Their work includes making sure vets know that the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline is available for them. He also explained that the VA has communicated to the U.S. Attorney General and...
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Originally broadcast on October 19, 2023 Dr. Mandy Cohen, the new CDC director, is facing big hurdles as she tries to explain to Americans the benefits of three vaccines now available at the same time: the updated COVID and the flu vaccine (for everyone 6 months and older) and the RSV vaccine (for eligible older adults). There’s vaccine skepticism and have been some issues with insurance payments. At the same time, she’s trying to rebuild trust in the CDC when...
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While both parties in Washington dig in for a longer fight over the budget, health care policy hangs in the balance. Ben Leonard with POLITICO and Nathaniel Weixel with The Hill both cover health care policy and join us for a reporters’ roundtable to go over the pending issues as the government faces another funding shutdown in mid-November. Join us as hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter highlight how the direction of Congress will impact America’s health care system. Conversations...
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Portions of this broadcast previously aired in May 2021. As we mark Hispanic Heritage Month, we hear from Dr. Elena Rios, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, which represents the interests of the nation’s 50,000 Latino physicians. This is an encore presentation from 2021 yet many of the issues we discussed then are still relevant, including Latino vaccine hesitancy and the pandemic’s mental health toll. Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter for their conversation about how...
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Researchers just announced they have found clear differences in the blood of Long COVID patients—this is the scientific proof that some in the health care sector want to see. Right before this news broke, we asked Dr. Lisa Sanders, the director of the new Yale New Haven Long COVID Multidisciplinary Care Center, about the lack of a Long COVID blood test. She pushed back on skeptics because she has seen clinical evidence of the condition. Now, it appears Dr. Sanders...
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Lola Adedokun is executive director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group, which advances a portfolio of programs focused on health and prosperity in the U.S. and around the world. This work includes a focus on what she calls powerful women who are redesigning health systems to better meet the needs of families. Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as Adedokun explains how local leaders are at the forefront of designing solutions that work for local populations. Conversations on Health...
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Two of the leading and most influential experts in LGBQT+ health issues join “Conversations on Health Care” to discuss what the Human Rights Campaign calls its community’s “state of emergency.” Dr. Marwan Haddad is the immediate past chair of the HIV Medicine Association and the medical director at the Center for Key Populations at Community Health Center, Inc. Dr. Carl Streed is the president-elect of the US Professional Association for Transgender Health and the research lead for the GenderCare Center...
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Dr. Ashish Jha, the former White House COVID Coordinator, says he expects vaccines updated for this fall will provide a “great deal of protection” but he acknowledges there are questions about whether a young person should get the booster. “My best read of the literature is that, yes, they should [get the COVID booster shot]. A reasonable person could read the literature and say, ‘I don’t know if that’s true and let’s have that debate.’” Dr. Jha says, unfortunately, that...
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The director of Mayo Clinic’s COVID Activity Rehabilitation Program says they’re seeing a decrease in Long COVID cases, likely due to variant changes and the effectiveness of vaccines. Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn describes Long COVID as a group of symptoms that linger longer than the normal COVID recovery period. He says fatigue and physical complaints decrease but patients have lingering cognitive effects like brain fog. Unfortunately, Dr. Vanichkachorn says patients can still face stigma for the condition and he says some...
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Federal provisional data shows more people died from suicide in the United States last year than any other year on record. American Psychiatric Association President Dr. Petros Levounis is at the center of efforts to prevent suicides, with substance use addictions a key part of his focus. He and the 38,000 APA members have launched a campaign called “Confronting Addiction: From Prevention to Recovery.” Dr. Levounis discusses vaping, opioids, alcohol and the rapidly growing addiction to tech. Hosts Mark Masselli...
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The nation’s expanded focus on community health and family (or primary) care didn’t just occur by chance. It took the dedicated commitment of professionals across the country to make it happen. This week we present a special edition of “Conversations on Health Care” with Dr. Carl Lecce. For 45 years he’s served as a family physician with Community Health Center in Middletown, Connecticut. Our hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter have worked closely with Dr. Lecce through the years and...
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Millions look to NBC News Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. John Torres for advice and insights about their health. But how is he coping with surveys that show Americans lost trust in mainstream media during the pandemic and are increasingly turning to social media for health news? He gives us good advice about where to go for verified information. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also ask him about his role with NATO Special Forces on a variety of initiatives including...
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Scientists say this July was the Earth’s warmest month on record in “hundreds, if not thousands, of years.” The City of Los Angeles is taking a unique approach to help its people deal with the record-breaking temperatures through the leadership of Marta Segura, one of the few appointed chief heat officers in the world. Her work is focused on finding solutions when the weather causes physical and mental health issues and she’s keeping equity at the forefront of their efforts....
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We’re on location at Aspen Ideas-Health, talking with the leaders of a new innovation effort. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is backed by $2.5 billion dollars in federal money with a mandate to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone. The initiative aims to work outside of traditions with a “range of performers and a variety of approaches to solve” health care’s biggest hurdles. Can they find a way to reduce cancer deaths? That’s one of the questions hosts...
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One of the nation’s top experts on Long COVID explains that it’s still a mystery why virus symptoms remain months and sometimes years after an infection. Dr. Leora Horwitz helps lead the National Institute of Health’s study of Long COVID. She’s the director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science at NYU Langone Health, where they’re integrating the research activities of almost 200 clinical sites. She says they have found evidence of the virus persisting as well as...
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joins “Conversations on Health Care” to answer questions about the big issues he’s facing as the nation’s top health official. Most importantly, he’s dealing with the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision turning abortion law over to the states. Secretary Becerra says, “A woman is three times more likely to die of a complication during pregnancy if she happens to reside in a state that restricts her access to abortion...
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Dr. Kenneth Davis, CEO of Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, juggles a multitude of challenges operating one of the largest systems in the U.S. These include trying to overcome hurdles with a population health initiative as an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service insurance model and defending its Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Davis also reflects on how he and his colleagues traversed the early COVID wave. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talked with Dr....
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Dr. Anthony Fauci shared a sobering message with “Conversations on Health Care”: In the past year about 20% of Americans have received the COVID booster vaccine; “that’s not good if you really want to get a degree of immunity that you can lift up,” he says. Fauci explains that getting to 50% should be the goal. “What we’re hoping is that people who come in with the uptake of a flu vaccine would also come in…at the same time, the...
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Law professor and public policy advocate Christina S. Ho’s new book, “Normalizing an American Right to Health,” boldly makes the legal case for health as a right that should already exist in the United States. She explains why and unpacks how reinsurance and a Health Impact Assessment fit into her analysis. Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as she wonders why we can provide government subsidies for things like fracking, which has negative health effects, but avoid doing more to guarantee health for all. In addition, Ho answers critics who say access to care can’t be universal.
June 24 will mark the one-year anniversary since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling, taking away the constitutional right to abortion. That decision negated nearly five decades of legal precedent and pushed the abortion question to the 50 state legislatures. This week’s guests explain the effect of the ruling on women and maternal health in ways that are just now starting to be fully understood. Dr. Herminia Palacio is president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, which seeks...
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The World Health Organization recently issued a statement expressing concern about artificial intelligence in health care. Mayo Clinic’s Chief Information Officer Cris Ross, who’s been leading innovation projects for over 30 years, says “perhaps” we should be worried about ChatGPT. “These technologies are value-neutral but their usage is not necessarily value-neutral. Bad people can use good technology for bad purposes. So I think there’s a very robust debate about whether these technologies should be regulated, whether they can be regulated,...
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As many Americans start the summer stressed about their physiques and health, there are important developments. Drug-makers report successful mid-stage trials for oral compounds that could soon join the injectable prescription medication to treat obesity that’s already on the market. Dr. Jamy Ard, president-elect of The Obesity Society, says he believes oral obesity medications offer new options for those not comfortable with an injectable drug and for those who suffer adverse side effects from current offerings. He also believes more...
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Dr. Vivian Lee, an author and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, is impressed by a study that found a large majority of patients responded in a favorable way when a pediatrician shared climate change details during well-child visits. She joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to explain why we need health care providers and health systems to step up to do more about the undeniable risks from climate change. Listen in as they discuss her perspective and her...
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just updated its ventilation guidance on helping prevent indoor transmission of the virus that causes COVID. It includes a recommendation to get at least five air changes per hour of clean air in occupied spaces. Dr. Joseph G. Allen and other experts have been advocating for this guidance even before the pandemic. He’s the associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr....
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Today, as the United States officially ends the COVID public health emergency, we know too many Americans continue to deal with the aftereffects of the pandemic, including mental health and substance abuse challenges. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., serves as Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to explain plans for dealing with the fact there are more Americans dying of drug overdoses now...
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Philip Zelikow, co-author of the new book “Lessons from the COVID War,” has an important finding as the U.S. still grapples with the tough questions from the pandemic: “We point out in the report that community health workers can play this extraordinary role…where we had them [during the pandemic], they were really effective and that’s like a huge innovation that should punch out to us as a lesson from this war and can have a dramatic effect in America,” says...
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Republicans in the U.S. House passed a deal that lifts the debt ceiling along with spending cuts aimed at the nation’s health care safety net. Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the Cato Institute, supports the move. She says, “I do think there’s quite a bit of improper spending, waste for certain and things the federal government shouldn’t be involved with anymore, where members of Congress could cut.” Jennifer Wagner, Director of Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment with...
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Anti-tobacco advocates just had another big win: New York, California, and several other states reached a settlement worth nearly $500 million against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs. How can states use these funds for public health good? And how is the truth initiative helping to spread messages about the dangers of vaping? Truth Initiative is America’s largest nonprofit public health organization committed to making tobacco use and nicotine addiction a thing of the past. Experts credit it for helping significantly reduce...
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A federal judge’s decision to revoke the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone has led some politicians to ask the Biden Administration not to enforce the ruling. Yet NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju, who’s in close contact with the White House, tells “Conversations on Health Care” that’s not the right move. “I think calls for the FDA not to comply, while you know emotionally satisfying, are not actually helpful in a litigation strategy. And our goal is for...
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At a time of high misinformation and confusion, Americans need to count on journalists for getting the facts about the state of health care. Reporters are busy covering the top stories including the legal challenges to Affordable Care Act and medical abortion. Join Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as they talk with three leading health care journalists: Amy Goldstein with The Washington Post; Joyce Frieden with MedPage Today; and Jessica Bartlett with The Boston Globe.
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Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, the first openly gay person to be elected as president of the American Medical Association, joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss potential cuts to federal health care and the need for more diversity in the doctors’ ranks. He also explains the organization’s “Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians” to address burnout among its nearly 300,000 physician members.
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The commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which oversees the safety of nearly three trillion dollars worth of food and drugs sold in the U.S. every year, strongly defends the agency’s rigorous scientific drug approval process. Dr. Robert Califf says, “All of our decisions are based on the best available science. The data come in. They’re evaluated by civil servants who have no vested interests… they’re not political appointees….[they’re] assessing the science”. He notes he is unable to...
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Each American now spends an average of nearly $13,000 a year on health care. We have one of the highest health care costs in the world but we don’t lead on the best outcomes. How can we get more value from the $4 trillion in total the U.S. spends on health care? Dr. Margaret Hamburg is co-chair of the Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value, which has been looking at that question. Their recommendations range from administrative...
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Acclaimed author Tracy Kidder has tackled another major public health story. This time he looks at Dr. Jim O’Connell’s “urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people” in Boston in the new book “Rough Sleepers.” Dr. O’Connell discusses the challenges running the nonprofit, hurdles to providing housing and the Biden Administration’s plans for reducing homelessness. This conversation with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter is available now as we all seek to find ways to understand this growing public health...
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The health care public policy debates that swirled in 2022 will continue to make news in 2023. These issues ranged from the Dobbs abortion decision to the outcome of the midterm elections.Many of the nation’s leading experts joined “Conversations on Health Care” during the past 12 months to share their perspectives.Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as we look back at the year that was in health care policy.
We’re proud to have again served as a platform for trusted, informed experts during the third year of the pandemic.This week “Conversations on Health Care” looks back on some of the most insightful comments from doctors and scientists who are on the frontlines of fighting COVID. In addition to NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci we had as our guests Dr. Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Zeke Emanuel at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mary Bassett with the New York City Health Department and others.Listen in as hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter capture their insights about these extraordinary medical challenges.
In early November Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden, joined us with important pandemic details. It marked his 7th interview with us during his amazing tenure.His COVID comments on our program were picked up by ABC, NBC and many other news outlets and they’re still relevant right now as we face what he called “the emergence of sublineage variants of Omicron.”Listen in as Dr. Fauci shares his wisdom with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as he prepares to leave NIH after over 50 years of public service.
Roughly 112 million Americans voted in the recent mid-term elections and the candidates and issues they voted on will have profound implications for health care policy in the states, at the national level and ultimately in all of our lives. We’re following up on our series called “Health Care on the Ballot” with this discussion focused on the results and what they mean.Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter in conversation with Dr. Donald Berwick, former CMS Administrator in the Obama administration, and James Capretta, a former Bush administration budget official. Perhaps surprisingly, we found areas they agree on, including the value of telehealth.
If we agree that Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege, how do we make that a reality?Author Charles Barber has captured the engaging details in the new book “Peace & Health: How a group of small-town activists and college students set out to change healthcare.”Veteran news anchorwoman Thalia Assuras interviews Charles about how Community Health Center, Inc., transformed the delivery of health care for populations who had been ignored.“Peace & Health” is available from online retailers Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble and a growing set of local booksellers.
Yale University researcher Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., says immune profiling shows how Long COVID patients have distinct features not found in control groups. These patients, who also exhibit elevated levels of exhausted T-cells, cause her to express surprise at skeptics. Iwasaki joins Fiona Lowenstein, editor of “The Long COVID Survival Guide,” to discuss patients who say they’re suffering from Long COVID for as much as two years after their acute phase of the disease. Iwasaki also explains why her lab’s effort...
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It’s a joyous time, as families begin to gather for Thanksgiving. But experts also say the holidays see a rise in mental health and addiction issues. This week we present an encore interview with Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Congress and a nationally acclaimed mental health and addiction advocate. He’s the founder of The Kennedy Forum, which seeks to revolutionize health care. Kennedy discusses with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter his insights about how families are key for...
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Dr. Howard Fillit, the Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, focuses the nonprofit on supporting scientists around the globe who are investigating novel drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer’s disease. He explains to hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter how those investments are paying dividends in terms of diagnostic tools and treatments and why the upcoming holidays are a perfect time to assess if a loved one is showing signs of dementia.
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Billionaire Mark Cuban never holds back his opinions on TV’s “Shark Tank” and now he’s trying to take a bite out of the health care sector — it might be his biggest challenge yet. Cuban understands he’s up against entrenched lobbyists and bureaucrats as he tries to reform how Americans purchase their pharmaceuticals. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter ask Cuban to explain his venture Cost Plus Drugs, its financial model and how some insurers are already joining in.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden, tells “Conversations on Health Care” that he’s thinking about what occurs after he leaves his position at the end of the year. Fauci says he’s strictly adhering to ethical rules and not negotiating for any position until after he leaves the government but he broadly wants to utilize his 54 years of experience at the National Institutes of Health for...
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The data show that 80,816 people died in the U.S. from overdose deaths involving opioids in 2021 — a tremendous loss. But what hope can medical experts, policymakers and law enforcement officers take to stem the trend? Award-winning author Beth Macy, who wrote the acclaimed book “Dopesick” about the origins of the opioid crisis, now has a book exploring innovative thinking and breakthrough approaches. She joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss “Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the...
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As of October 6, 2022, all health care organizations in the United States are legally required to give patients unrestricted access to all their health records in a digital format. Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., National Coordinator for Health IT at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, is excited about this change and its ability to empower patients. Yet the free flow of data also poses security risks. He tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter what protections Americans can...
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Early voting has already started in some parts of the United States as Americans make important decisions about who they want to represent them. The polls show that health-related issues are some of the most important ones to voters this year. We discuss health care on the ballot with policy experts from two prominent Washington D.C. think tanks. Joseph Antos, Ph.D., with the American Enterprise Institute and Emily Gee, Ph.D., with the Center for American Progress join hosts Mark Masselli...
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In less than five weeks Americans should know the outcome of the midterm elections. Will overturning Roe v. Wade propel Democrats to surprise wins? Will Republicans seize the moment with their vision of how to fix health care? Sheryl Gay Stolberg with The New York Times and Victoria Knight with Axios examine how the November results will likely impact health care policy in the next two years and beyond. They’re guests this week on “Conversations on Health Care” with hosts...
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Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo leads the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health; she was initially hired for the role by Dr. Ashish Jha, who is now the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Dr. Nuzzo tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that COVID remains a fairly significant health threat, especially in terms of possible variants, but we’re not in the same situation we were two years ago. She reacts to President Biden’s recent statements about the state...
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Wednesday, Sept. 28, the Biden-Harris Administration will host the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the first one in over 50 years. What will the experts and community leaders discuss? How will we reach the goal of ending U.S. hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in a majority of Americans by 2030? “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter get answers from Dan Glickman, the former Secretary of Agriculture, and Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a renowned expert...
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Majority Whip James Clyburn, the third-most powerful Democrat in the U.S. House, makes a passionate case for community health centers. His goal is to get a center within commuting distance of each American. “Every time legislation comes forward on health care I’m always trying to figure out how we can get community health centers to benefit from this legislation…not satisfied with where we are because we are not where we need to be yet,” he says. Clyburn also confirms to...
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Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator, joins “Conversations on Health Care” to discuss the latest details about this rare, infectious viral disease. Dr. Daskalakis talks with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about the spread of the disease in the U.S., the vaccination efforts, and how the entire health care community is careful to avoid stigmatizing any community while focusing on the virus itself.
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CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and colleagues will soon review data for the new bivalent booster shot for COVID; she says it relates to very small changes in the mRNA sequence and that “shouldn’t impact safety at all…if we wait for those data to emerge in human data…not just mice data but human data…we would be using what I would consider to be a potentially outdated vaccine…it’s best to use a vaccine that’s tailored to the variant we have right...
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Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden shares his thoughts about the news Dr. Anthony Fauci will soon leave government service. Frieden explains how the next director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will need to be realistic that he or she will have big shoes to fill. Frieden, who now leads the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives, also tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that he endorses an independent commission to...
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Dr. Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), joins us to share how countries are responding to the U.S. abortion rights reversal. He says, “There have been some instances of concern about a possible chilling effect…I’ve been in touch to address questions and meet with our partners…the United States is the largest supporter of family planning around the world…we are the leading experts in how to ensure modernized forms of family planning...
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Renowned epidemiologist and innovator Dr. Larry Brilliant says we’ve entered an “age of pandemics” as the Biden administration declares the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency.
Dr. Brilliant is the chair of the advisory board of Ending Pandemics, a nonprofit working to find outbreaks faster around the world. His expertise is a result of his success in helping the World Health Organization eradicate smallpox in the 1970s.
He also discusses with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter the limits of the mRNA vaccines for COVID and why a nasal spray is needed.
Renowned epidemiologist and innovator Dr. Larry Brilliant says we’ve entered an “age of pandemics” as the Biden administration declares the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. Dr. Brilliant is the chair of the advisory board of Ending Pandemics, a nonprofit working to find outbreaks faster around the world. His expertise is a result of his success in helping the World Health Organization eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. He also discusses with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter the limits of...
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U.S. health officials now estimate 7–23 million Americans have developed Long COVID, which can last weeks or months.
Admiral Rachel L. Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joins “Conversations on Health Care” to push back against Long COVID doubters.
She says, “We don’t know exactly what is causing Long COVID, it might not be one thing, but Long COVID is real and those patients need support and they need treatment. We want to emphasize that patients are not malingering but we don’t know exactly what causes it. It might be a chronic infection with COVID-19 or a chronic inflammatory response.”
Admiral Levine is hopeful research will provide more answers for Long COVID and other conditions that are similar.
She also discusses the latest on monkeypox, access to reproductive health and LGBTQ+ issues with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter.
U.S. health officials now estimate 7–23 million Americans have developed Long COVID, which can last weeks or months. Admiral Rachel L. Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joins “Conversations on Health Care” to push back against Long COVID doubters. She says, “We don’t know exactly what is causing Long COVID, it might not be one thing, but Long COVID is real and those patients need support and they need treatment. We want to...
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The Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, overturning a constitutional right to abortion, has led to abortion services ending at West Alabama Women’s Center, Inc., in Tuscaloosa.
The clinic’s director, Robin Marty, explains that the states making abortion illegal are also the ones blocking Medicaid expansion. She says their idea appears to be that “It’s too expensive to give people health care but you can force them to give birth against their will.”
Amanda Allen is senior counsel and director of The Lawyering Project, which is a nonprofit that uses the law to “improve abortion access and uphold the rights and dignity of people seeking and providing abortion care.” She reports that her team is devastated by the Supreme Court decision but they’re “doubling down on our efforts to help providers, to help the patients they serve…there are people out there who need our help.”
Join Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter for this important discussion.
Dr. Eric Topol, one of the most prominent and prolific COVID experts, provides his thoughts on the COVID BA.5 subvariant. He says, “it’s the worst variant… [because of] the immune escape…the ability to have growth, fitness and advantages that we haven’t seen before…the properties are getting worse…and lasting longer. The virus has not finished its evolutionary arc. There’s more to come, unfortunately.”
Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also talk to Dr. Topol about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s legacy, Paxlovid resistance and monkeypox.
We’re marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of Community Health Center, Inc., by turning the tables on hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. Join former CBS and ABC News anchor Thalia Assuras as she asks Mark and Margaret to share their memories on this special occasion.
You’ll learn about the early challenges of starting CHC, the patients it’s helped and how it fits into the larger effort to improve U.S. health care.
The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs operates the nation’s largest integrated health care system. But how much do you know about how well VA Medical Centers and clinics identify innovative therapies, practices and policies and then diffuse them across a large footprint? Ryan Vega, MD, MSHA, leads the Innovation Ecosystem within the Veterans Health Administration. This initiative focuses on being the catalyst for enabling the discovery and spread of mission-driven health care innovation to advance care delivery and service. Dr....
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For over 50 years Community Health Center, Inc., has focused on one key thought: Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege. “Conversations on Health Care” is CHC’s nationally syndicated program that brings the mission to life. This week guest host Thalia Assuras, a CBS and ABC News veteran, continues her talk with Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about CHC’s anniversary, the interview program and its first guest Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. They also discuss how CHC’s experience...
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We’re marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of Community Health Center, Inc., by turning the tables on hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. Join former CBS and ABC News anchor Thalia Assuras as she asks Mark and Margaret to share their memories on this special occasion. You’ll learn about the early challenges of starting CHC, the patients it’s helped and how it fits into the larger effort to improve U.S. health care.
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Joseph Allen is the director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As the co-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity,” his views are closely followed as we try to move quicker than COVID can spread. “Conversations on Health Care” co-hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk with Allen about new efforts to elevate the quality of indoor spaces in an overall health strategy.
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Dr. Peter Hotez, who helped develop a patent-free COVID-19 vaccine, has tested positive himself for a breakthrough strain of the virus. He explained to “Conversations on Health Care” that he’s doing “pretty well” and is confident that’s because he’s fully vaccinated and double-boosted. Dr. Hotez shared with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that he’d been taking the oral antiviral medication Paxlovid when the interview was recorded. He said it’s a good drug with solid evidence but also suggested that...
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Parkland, Florida, teacher Sarah Lerner shares her poignant thoughts as the nation reacts to the latest deadly school shooting. Lerner was teaching the day a former student killed 17 at her high school; she has gone on to help lead Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence. Lerner discusses with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter how public health must continue its focus on stopping gun violence and what lawmakers can do.
The post A Teacher From Parkland H.S. Reflects on the Uvalde & Buffalo Mass Shootings appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week “Conversations on Health Care” discusses the Biden administration’s National Drug Control Strategy. Tom Coderre, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), explains what harm reduction is and how it’s helping. Join us as Coderre answers questions from hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about SAMHSA’s mission to reduce the impact of substance use disorder and mental illness on America’s communities.
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Former National Institute of Mental Health director Dr. Thomas Insel discusses how he’s combining his long-standing neuroscience and genetics studies with advocacy for better patient services, which is a topic in his new book, “Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health.” Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter ask him about efforts to build public awareness and support for those with mental health issues. He says, “The real tragedy here isn’t that we’re stigmatizing [those...
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The Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong says the threat of future pandemics requires society to aggressively face and fix racial, economic and health disparities. The acclaimed journalist also explains how his reporting is showing big differences in how COVID is still affecting the U.S. — some communities are “cautiously optimistic” while others are “nearing…the height of the Omicron surge in terms of new admissions.” Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also talk with Yong about the...
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Former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx shared her perspective about Vice President Kamala Harris testing positive for COVID with “Conversations on Health Care.” Birx says, “I think [the vice president’s diagnosis] illustrates our very dilemma right now. She was vaccinated, boostered and then reboosted just a month ago and I’m sure she will do incredibly well. She has access to all of the really critical therapeutics…people get infected despite full vaccinations and boosting.” Birx told hosts Mark...
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Jane Pauley has been a familiar face on America’s TV screens since she started on NBC’s “Today” and continues as anchor of CBS “Sunday Morning.” Her interest in mental health has grown through the years as she faced her own challenges and as she became connected to behavioral health leaders in her home state of Indiana. Now her name graces the front doors of the Jane Pauley Community Health Center and she’s a powerful advocate for the services they, and...
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“It feels a little premature…I might have waited a little longer to see what happens.” That’s the reaction from COVID expert Dr. Robert Wachter to Philadelphia’s decision to again require people to wear masks indoors, including in schools and daycares. It’s the first major American city to take this step. Wachter is chair of the Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco and a popular voice on Twitter. He also shares that policymakers, including those looking at renewing public...
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Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says the legislative agreement for $10 billion in new federal COVID funding is “really a drop in the bucket.” He says more dollars are needed to build up public health in all parts of the U.S. He responded to some political complaints by assuring taxpayers that public health officials are indeed financially accountable. Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also asked Dr. Benjamin about the...
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CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure discusses President Biden’s increased health budget proposal for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is focused on health equity, mental health parity, and nursing home safety as key goals in the coming year. The Administrator says more resources are being allocated to address the nation’s mental health crisis, especially for the nation’s children still being impacted by the pandemic. Administrator Brooks-LaSure, the first...
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Dr. Iryna Voloshyna, a primary care medical professor in Ukraine, shares a harrowing account of how she and others have tried to deliver urgently needed oncology medication to patients but “can’t give them to our people…because there is no road, there are only Russian military soldiers who try to kill everyone who tries to bring boxes.” Dr. Voloshyna tells Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that she and her daughter had to sleep on the subway...
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Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Project HOPE’s CEO Rabih Torbay and Director of Emergency Response and Preparedness Tom Cotter, who joined the show from the field in Bucharest, Romania. They share the daunting task of providing extensive support and local training to the existing medical infrastructure in handling both the destruction of medical facilities within Ukraine and the millions of refugees in need of medical and behavioral health services as they arrive in neighboring countries. “These people have all experienced trauma,” Cotter said. They are training local laypersons in Psychological First Aid techniques to help the refugees transition to safety. Project HOPE is also keeping supply lines going into Ukraine with desperately needed medical supplies. “Even if this conflict ended tomorrow, the destruction will take years to rebuild,” Torbay said. They expect to be assisting in the region for a long time. And they continue to provide medical support in 30 countries around the world dealing with COVID-19, famine, and military conflict, with a particular focus on women and children’s health.
Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Project HOPE’s CEO Rabih Torbay and Director of Emergency Response and Preparedness Tom Cotter, who joined the show from the field in Bucharest, Romania. They share the daunting task of providing extensive support and local training to the existing medical infrastructure in handling both the destruction of medical facilities within Ukraine and the millions of refugees in need of medical and behavioral health services as they arrive in neighboring...
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As the world faces enormous challenges, in Ukraine and from COVID, it’s doing so without one of its global health champions. Dr. Paul Farmer, the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, unexpectedly passed away in February.
This week Dr. Joia Mukherjee, the Chief Medical Officer of Partners in Health, shares memories with Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. She explains how the nonprofit’s focus will remain on community health in the countries it serves.
As the world faces enormous challenges, in Ukraine and from COVID, it’s doing so without one of its global health champions. Dr. Paul Farmer, the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, unexpectedly passed away in February. This week Dr. Joia Mukherjee, the Chief Medical Officer of Partners in Health, shares memories with Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. She explains how the nonprofit’s focus will remain on community health in the countries it serves.
The post Building on the Legacy of Global Health Leader Dr. Paul Farmer appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
The whole world is watching as Russian troops advance in Ukraine and brave medical professionals are on duty throughout the crisis. One of them is Dr. Kateryna Pochtar, who shares her chilling description of how she and her colleagues are trying to help patients in their clinic. Dr. Pochtar explains how patients are crying in her arms as her life consists of just work, hiding and sleep. She tells Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that...
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Dr. Mary Bassett, New York State Commissioner of Health, says the COVID Omicron variant is still exposing health inequities — African Americans in New York have been hospitalized twice as much as the majority population during this latest wave. Bassett says achieving health equity “will be the North Star of my working life as a physician committed to public health.” Bassett also tells Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that the state has four times as...
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This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Anthony Fauci back to the show, two years after his first appearance discussing the novel coronavirus spreading around the world. The Chief Medical Advisor to the Biden White House and long-time Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH expressed concern over the ongoing political divisiveness impacting our ability to contain COVID outbreaks leading to almost 1 million deaths in this country. He says FDA...
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The post Dr. Anthony Fauci on Childhood Vaccine Delay & Political Divisiveness: ‘We Are at War With a Common Enemy’, Not the Time to Fight With Each Other appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Dr. Cameron Webb, White House Senior Policy Adviser for COVID-19 Equity, is navigating a tricky situation — as he advocates for vaccines, the university where he works just dropped its student vaccine mandate. Webb tells Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that he realizes the University of Virginia has some new dynamics to navigate. “There’s this rush to roll back a lot of the strategies that have gotten us to a point where we’re seeing less...
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The post Biden COVID Equity Advisor Faces Dilemma as His Employer Drops Vaccine Mandate appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, on her expectations for building consensus on revised Build Back Better legislation, as well as the possibility for more relief money for hospitals and other entities in the wake of the ongoing pandemic. She says the expanded Child Tax Credit has lifted millions of American children out of poverty, significantly easing economic pressures on working families, and that it should...
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The post House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro: More Money for Hospitals, Vaccines Forthcoming? appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome US Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona, who discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to contain the pandemic’s impact while keeping students and teachers safe in school. He laments the influence of politics on the proven public health practices to prevent spread of the disease which includes mask wearing and widespread vaccinations. He says this pandemic has revealed the importance of providing medical and behavioral care in school-based health clinics. He also applauds...
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This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, who has served 5 presidential administrations in preparing for pandemics and bio-terror threats. Dr. Osterholm says the highly infectious omicron variant will continue to threaten hospital systems, schools and supply chains, warning the threat of future variants that may evade immunity is still a very real concern. He predicts that a combination of improved vaccines and new therapeutics will render COVID more manageable in the future, but that we will have to learn to 'live with it'.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, who has served 5 presidential administrations in preparing for pandemics and bio-terror threats. Dr. Osterholm says the highly infectious omicron variant will continue to threaten hospital systems, schools and supply chains, warning the threat of future variants that may evade immunity is still a very real concern. He predicts that...
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The post Dr. Michael Osterholm: COVID is Not Done with Us ,Omicron Surge, Future Variants and Building Better Vaccines appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, addressing confusion and frustration around lack of rapid COVID tests and need for more N95 masks for the public. She talks about the shifting plan of action from the Biden Administration in response to the dramatic surge in omicron-driven COVID cases, and the scaled up efforts to make rapid tests and high quality masks available to all Americans.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, addressing confusion and frustration around lack of rapid COVID tests and need for more N95 masks for the public. She talks about the shifting plan of action from the Biden Administration in response to the dramatic surge in omicron-driven COVID cases, and the scaled up efforts to make rapid tests and high quality masks available to all Americans.
The post A Candid Conversation with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Politics of the Office, Masking Guidelines, COVID Testing and Pandemic Frustration appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Vice Provost at the University of Pennsylvania and former member of the Biden administration’s COVID Transition Team. He and other former Biden advisors have called for a dramatic new approach to addressing COVID-19 saying we will not eradicate the virus, so we need new strategies to live with it. They’re calling for a radical re-tooling of our public health data system to capture real-time data, and for...
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The post New Pandemic Strategy Needed: Dr. Zeke Emanuel & Former Biden COVID Team Members Calling For New Approach appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and co-creator of a new, low-cost vaccine for COVID-19. Dr. Hotez discusses plans for Corbevax, a recombinant protein vaccine shown to be highly protective against COVID-19, which has just been given Emergency Use Authorization by the Indian government. Dr. Hotez’s plan is to make the formula available to poor and developing countries around the world, without any expectation of payment, to accelerate the pace of global vaccinations and bring the pandemic to an end. He also offers important advice to families with children navigating the omicron surge while heading back to school.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and co-creator of a new, low-cost vaccine for COVID-19. Dr. Hotez discusses plans for Corbevax, a recombinant protein vaccine shown to be highly protective against COVID-19, which has just been given Emergency Use Authorization by the Indian government. Dr. Hotez’s plan is to make the formula available to poor and developing countries around...
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The post Pediatrician Dr. Peter Hotez Creates New Vaccine: Gives Advice for Families With Young Children Staying Safe During Surge appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, Mark and Margaret take a look back at COVID’s hold on 2021, the early promise of vaccines, the relentless march of mutations and the vicious rise of new variants leading to pandemic surges around the world. They revisit conversations with memorable guests from famed virologists and epidemiologists like Paul Offit and Michael Osterholm, to President Biden’s COVID team leaders Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci and Rachel Levine. They revisited guests focused on other health news: Bill McKibben on climate...
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The post What a Year! A Look Back At COVID’s Grip on 2021 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned virus expert Dr. William Haseltine who has ‘grave concerns’ about Merck’s oral COVID drug Malnupiravir, which recently won narrow approval from the FDA advisory panel. He says the drug unleashes ‘dangerous’ mutations that could evolve the virus beyond control. He’s also urging extreme caution as the highly infectious omicron variant is sweeping across the US, saying it could be as deadly as the delta variant and that boosters may...
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The post Omicron Could Be as Deadly as Delta, Boosters’ Short Protection &‘Dangerous’ Oral COVID Pill from Merck: A Talk With William Haseltine appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome famed AIDS Researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the HIV virus, which led to the first tests and treatments for AIDS. He is Director of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Co-founder of the Global Virus Network, a consortium of research centers of excellence in 66 countries around the world, a nongovernmental agency collaborating on emerging virus research. Dr. Gallo says their network...
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The post Robert Gallo, Scientist Who Co-Discovered HIV Offers Guidance to Patients as Omicron Increases appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, for his perspective on the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. He says early data shows that it is highly transmissible, but apparently not more deadly. His greater concern is around the current Delta surge leading to more infections, low vaccination rates in developing countries leading to more variants, and the “abysmal” vaccination performance in the U.S. He says mRNA vaccines...
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The post “Not the Doomsday Variant”: Dr. Eric Topol’s Concerns Around Omicron and America’s Low Fully Vaccinated Rate appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter examine the latest details about the omicron COVID variant, including the important role community health centers continue to play in the pandemic. In addition, we revisit their recent conversation with Planned Parenthood Federation of America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson on the Supreme Court hearing on the Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, posing the greatest threat to Roe v. Wade in half a century. She also talks about systematic...
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The post Health News This Week: Omicron Makes Gains Around the World as U.S. Supreme Court Justices Hear Mississippi Abortion Case appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Gary Cohen, Founder of Health Care Without Harm, an award-winning global non-profit seeking to create an environmentally-responsible health system. Winner of the MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Genius Grant’ for his work reducing the health industry’s pollution footprint, he says the COP26 UN Climate summit in Glasgow didn’t go far enough to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which means a billion people will be exposed to dangerous heat stress. Mr. Cohen...
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The post UN Climate Summit Fell Short, But Gary Cohen Says President Biden’s Build Back Better Act Holds Great Promise appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
Update (11/12/2021): We are devastated to learn of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries. He was a thoughtful, brilliant guest whose innovative ideas we were lucky enough to hear firsthand on the show. Our deepest condolences to his family. He will be missed. This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Glen de Vries, Vice Chair for Health and Life Sciences at Dassault Systèmes and Founder and former CEO of Medidata, the first cloud based system supporting...
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The post Rocketing with Captain Kirk To A New Frontier: Astronaut Glen de Vries on New Era of Innovation In Space Travel and Health Care appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Nicholas Christakis, Director of Yale’s Human Nature Lab and expert on the influence of social networks on health and behavior. In his recent book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live” he examines the history of pandemics throughout human history, and says the ‘appalling” US response, driven by denial from the White House and amplified by social media channels led to hundreds...
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The post Lies and Misinformation Led to Hundreds of Thousands of US Deaths: Yale’s Dr. Nicholas Christakis on Enduring Impact of COVID-19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, on upcoming Supreme Court hearing on S.B.8., the Texas law banning abortion after 6 weeks. She discusses the record number of restrictive abortion laws across the country causing harm to patients and clinicians committed to providing family planning services, and the former administration’s Title X abortion ‘gag’ rule, which greatly hampered access to legally-guaranteed ‘right to choose’. She expects Roe-v-Wade will...
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The post “Roe Hanging On By A Thread”: Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson on Imminent Threat To Reproductive Rights appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome “the Nation’s Doctor,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Co-chair of President Biden’s White House COVID Task Force. Dr. Murthy explains the FDA’s latest approval for mixing vaccine brands for booster shots. He also addresses White House plans to roll out COVID vaccine support for the nation’s 5-11-year-olds pending FDA approval, and how vaccine requirements are ‘turbocharging’ vaccination rates. Dr. Murthy examines the growing crisis of unmet mental health needs, addiction,...
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The post Mandates ‘Turbocharging’ Vaccination Rates: US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Vaccine Requirements, Boosters and Vaccinating Kids appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week we speak with Dr. Ofer Levy, Director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and member of the FDA COVID Vaccine Advisory Panel. He talks about the recent decision to reject boosters for all recipients 16 and older, saying they didn’t have enough data for younger populations to make that recommendation. He says the review process for emergency authorization for young children aged 5-to-11 will be thorough, rigorous and...
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The post “Safety Comes First”: FDA Vaccine Advisory Panel’s Dr. Ofer Levy on Rigorous Process Around Vaccine Approval For Kids appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb whose new book outlines America’s epic failure in our response to the pandemic, leading to more than 700,000 deaths. “Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic” examines the inherent flaws at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public agencies that left us vulnerable to the raging pandemic. Dr. Gottlieb says the CDC and other agencies should be re-tooled to conduct more agile global disease surveillance, and that emerging therapeutics like Merck’s new oral COVID drug will be a game changer for treatment moving forward.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb whose new book outlines America’s epic failure in our response to the pandemic, leading to more than 700,000 deaths. “Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic” examines the inherent flaws at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public agencies that left us vulnerable to the raging pandemic. Dr. Gottlieb says the CDC and other...
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The post Why COVID Crushed Us: Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb Details America’s Botched Pandemic Response appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Michael Mina, Epidemiologist and member of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard, where they are taking a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the ongoing pandemic. Dr. Mina has long been a proponent of making cheap, rapid, at-home COVID tests available to all Americans as a much more effective way to curtail the pandemic’s spread, especially as tens of millions of children have returned to the classroom. He says...
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The post US COVID Response Has Failed By Not Scaling Up Home Testing: Harvard’s Michael Mina on Rapid Tests as Best Chance to Contain Outbreaks appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned writer, environmentalist and climate activist Bill McKibben, whose seminal 1989 book “The End of Nature” was among the first to warn of the coming climate crisis. McKibben points to the dangerous rise in the earth’s temperature spawning droughts, destructive storms and other environmental catastrophes spurred by fossil fuel burning and deforestation. He says if we don’t pass President Biden’s reconciliation bill, which has the most sweeping climate change legislation...
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The post “We Won’t Get Another Chance” Climate Activist Bill McKibben on Urgency of Climate Action in Biden Administration’s Reconciliation Bill appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, who also mapped the human genome. Dr. Collins laments the politicization of the pandemic, noting that ‘culture wars are killing people’. He urges patience on vaccine approval for families of younger children heading back to school, confident that scientific rigor will ensure vaccine safety. Dr. Collins, an avowed person of faith, urges faith-based resisters to trust the science that produced this life saving vaccine. He also discusses one of the largest protocols ever launched by the NIH to uncover the mysteries around long COVID syndrome, which is impacting an increasing number of COVID survivors.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, who also mapped the human genome. Dr. Collins laments the politicization of the pandemic, noting that ‘culture wars are killing people’. He urges patience on vaccine approval for families of younger children heading back to school, confident that scientific rigor will ensure vaccine safety. Dr. Collins, an avowed person of faith, urges faith-based resisters to trust the science that produced this...
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The post “Culture Wars Are Killing People”: NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins on Politics and Harm to Pandemic Science appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D), on the dire situation in the Commonwealth as the delta-driven pandemic pushes the state’s hospitals to ‘disaster’ mode. He laments the recent State Supreme Court decision limiting his executive order powers, for initiating universal masking for all Kentucky children returning to day care and school, calling it ‘the right thing to do’ for vulnerable kids. He discusses efforts to battle the crisis with assistance from...
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The post “We Are On Fire”: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear on Pandemic Surge Pushing Hospital Capacity to Brink by the Unvaccinated appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Lee Beers, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics on their science-based recommendation that all kids aged 2 and older should be masked in school and daycare in the face of the Delta Variant. They discuss their efforts to communicate the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines to patients and their families, and the AAP’s efforts to increase access to mental health services within the pediatric care setting.
The post Masks, Mental Health and Missed Appointments: AAP President Lee Beers on Pandemic’s Impact on Childhood Health appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician, former Baltimore Health Commissioner, and medical analyst for CNN. Dr. Wen’s new book, “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health” addresses the dramatic failings of the public health system to adequately address the pandemic, the need to create a more coordinated national and international public health system and the way forward through the pandemic.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician, former Baltimore Health Commissioner, and medical analyst for CNN. Dr. Wen’s new book, “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health” addresses the dramatic failings of the public health system to adequately address the pandemic, the need to create a more coordinated national and international public health system and the way forward through the pandemic.
The post Dr. Leana Wen on the Pandemic and the ‘Fight for Public Health’ appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Garth Graham, Director, and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships at Google/YouTube overseeing the creation of credible health content – in partnership with multiple health institutions. They discuss their efforts to disrupt and remove health misinformation from their platform which receives 2 billion visitors per month. They talk about the partnership with the Biden Administration, the CDC, Harvard and England’s National Health Service to remove false information...
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The post Health Misinformation on the Internet: Google/YouTube’s Garth Graham on Their Efforts to Stem the Tide appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A member of the FDA COVID Vaccine Advisory Panel and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, Dr. Offit points to the growing body of data around the safety and efficacy of the mRNA-based COVID vaccines, that it’s safe for all populations, including children and pregnant women, and...
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The post “A New Era of Vaccinology”: Dr. Paul Offit on mRNA Technology’s role in Vaccine Development appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, the first transgender presidential appointee approved by the Senate. A pediatrician with a focus on child and adolescent behavioral health, and former Pennsylvania Health Secretary, Dr. Levine focuses on the dramatic toll exacted on the nation’s children by the pandemic, the need to advance health equity for the LGBTQ and all vulnerable populations, and the...
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The post First Transgender Presidential Appointee: HHS Assistant Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine on Biden Administration’s Commitment to Health Equity appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome recent Senior Advisor to the Biden White House COVID Response Team, Andy Slavitt, discussing his new book: “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”. He outlines the ‘sins’ that led to the previous administration’s failed response to the pandemic, and talks about President Biden’s approach to correct course, by taking full responsibility for outcomes and being frank with the American people. He...
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The post White House COVID Advisor Andy Slavitt on “Preventable”: His Book Chronicling America’s Failed Coronavirus Response appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Team. They discuss the decades of science behind the ‘remarkable’ vaccines, the decision by the US and G7 members to scale up global vaccine donations, and the virulent variants that pose a greater risk to the unvaccinated. He also predicts the dramatic discovery around COVID-19 will pave the way for a vaccine for HIV/AIDS within the decade.
The post Dr. Anthony Fauci: A Conversation on Where We Are and What’s Coming Next appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former US Congressman Patrick Kennedy, founder and CEO of The Kennedy Forum, an organization dedicated to advancing policies and best practices to improve access to mental health and addiction services. Congressman Kennedy, who co-sponsored the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act, addresses the devastating toll the pandemic has had on mental health and addiction, and talks about Biden Administration efforts to address the mental health crisis through expanded health coverage and...
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The post Congressman Patrick Kennedy on Pandemic’s Impact on Increased Awareness of America’s Mental Health and Addiction Crisis appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Elena Rios, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, representing the interests of the nation’s 50,000 Latino Physicians. She discusses the devastating toll the pandemic has taken on the nation’s Hispanic population who have suffered a greater death toll and significant economic as well as mental health burdens. Dr. Rios NHMA’s efforts to improve pipelines for young Latinos to enter the medical field, and for measures to...
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The post Latino Community’s Pandemic Toll: National Hispanic Medical Association’s Dr. Elena Rios on Quest for Equity appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Walensky defends the science behind lifting mask restrictions for vaccinated Americans, examines the ongoing research on vaccine efficacy against emerging COVID variants and possibility of a need for booster shots. She also outlines efforts underway by the CDC and the Biden Administration to leverage provisions in the American Recovery Act to address health inequity by strengthening the nation’s public health infrastructure.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Walensky defends the science behind lifting mask restrictions for vaccinated Americans, examines the ongoing research on vaccine efficacy against emerging COVID variants and possibility of a need for booster shots. She also outlines efforts underway by the CDC and the Biden Administration to leverage provisions in the American Recovery Act to address health inequity by strengthening the...
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The post CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Talks Boosters, Masks and Health Equity appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical Lead at the WHO. They discuss the world’s lack of readiness and supply chain infrastructure to confront the pandemic. She says the lessons learned from this collective ‘trauma’ is sparking new efforts to build more robust surveillance and response systems for emerging pathogens, the concerning new variant out of India, and the need to accelerate global vaccinations to stop the continued spread of the pandemic.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical Lead at the WHO. They discuss the world’s lack of readiness and supply chain infrastructure to confront the pandemic. She says the lessons learned from this collective ‘trauma’ is sparking new efforts to build more robust surveillance and response systems for emerging pathogens, the concerning new variant out of India, and the need to accelerate global vaccinations to stop the continued spread of the...
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The post World Health Organization’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove Speaks About the Global Pandemic appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies seeking to save 100 million lives globally by addressing cardiovascular disease and preventing pandemics. Dr. Frieden discusses their report on building a stronger global health infrastructure that can deploy rapidly to contain the next threat. He talks about work with GOP pollster Frank Luntz to develop messaging to tackle vaccine resistance,...
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The post Understanding Vaccine Resistance Among Conservative Voters: Dr. Tom Freiden appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with leading infectious disease expert Dr. Carlos Del Rio, Executive Associate Dean at the Emory University School of Medicine, and lead researcher on HIV/AIDS and now, COVID-19. Dr. Del Rio applauds the Biden Administration’s achievement of 200 million vaccine doses delivered in the US, but warns vaccine resistance in this country, and lack of supply globally, must be addressed to bring the pandemic fully under control. He lauds the remarkable science...
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The post 200 Million Vaccines and Counting: Emory’s Dr. Carlos Del Rio on Effort To Target Vaccine Resistance appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Jha is a world renowned expert on pandemic preparedness and addresses concerns around the rare blood clot risk with the J&J vaccine, saying the brief pause in distribution is further evidence our scientific surveillance is working. He also talks about the impact of the pandemic to propel meaningful change in public health in the US, and the global...
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The post The J&J Vaccine Delay: Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha Says Minimal Clot Risk Shouldn’t Inhibit Vaccine Uptake appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Bechara Choucair, White House Vaccinations Coordinator. Dr. Choucair discusses the remarkable pace of vaccine distribution in recent weeks, and the Biden Administration’s plans to deliver 200 million vaccines in 100 days. He addresses the challenges at vaccine production facilities, the impact of the American Rescue Plan on efforts to scale up vaccine production and delivery, as well as the important role played by community health centers to address the...
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This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned infectious disease expert Dr. Celine Gounder, who served as a COVID advisor on the Biden transition team. Dr. Gounder says we are in a race between vaccinations and the variants driving coronavirus infections in the US and around the world. She warns that we must scale up our genomic surveillance of the variants as they pose a continued threat to containment of the pandemic.
The post Biden COVID Transition Team Advisor Dr. Celine Gounder on Race Against Variants appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Dr. Topol calls drug maker AstraZeneca’s recent controversial under-reporting of complete safety data to US regulators for its COVID-19 vaccine ‘disturbing’ and ‘unprecedented’ in his clinical trial career. He calls the rapid development of highly successful and effective COVID vaccines one of biomedicine’s greatest achievements and predicts the pandemic crisis will pave the way for more remarkable scientific breakthroughs, and a greater opportunity...
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The post Dr. Eric Topol on Variants, Vaccines and AstraZeneca’s Data Reporting appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Michael Osterholm, renowned pandemic expert and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Policy and Research (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. A recent advisor to President Biden’s transition team, Dr. Osterholm warns of another COVID-19 surge on the horizon as the more contagious UK variant, which is causing more lockdowns across Europe, is becoming the dominant strain in the US. He says vaccination rates must be accelerated, and...
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The post Dr. Michael Osterholm Says Variants Will Cause More Havoc appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rick Bright, Sr. Vice President for Pandemic Preparedness and Response at The Rockefeller Foundation, former chief of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at HHS, and member of the Biden Transition Team on COVID-19. Dr. Bright is launching a new pandemic preparedness initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, creating the first-of-its-kind national and global pandemic surveillance infrastructure to alert governments around the world about emerging pandemic threats. Dr....
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This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ernest Grant, President of the American Nurses Association, the largest organization representing the nation’s 4.3 nursing professionals and the patients they serve. He talks about the myriad challenges nurses have faced throughout the pandemic, the need to ensure more protection is put in place to shield them against the effects of COVID-19 and other workplace harm, and plans to advance the nursing the profession across the health care spectrum,...
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The post Nursing on the Front Lines: ANA President Dr. Ernest Grant on Protecting Nation’s 4.3 Million Nurses appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Craig Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center. A an emergency medicine and epidemiology expert on the board of Doctors Without Borders, Dr. Spencer talks about what he learned battling Ebola in West Africa, surviving the deadly illness himself, and how COVID-19 is revealing huge...
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The post From Ebola Survivor to COVID Warrior: Dr. Craig Spencer on the Pandemic’s Lingering Threat appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is Co-Chair of the Working Group on Equity in COVID-19 Vaccination, CommuniVax, which just released a detailed report, “Equity in Vaccination: A Plan To Work With Communities of Color Toward COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond”, with recommendations for state and local governments to support a vaccination campaign and coordinated pandemic...
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The post Vaccines and Communities of Color: Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana on Quest for Equitable Distribution and Lasting Solutions appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with scientist and entrepreneur Dr. William Haseltine, founder and CEO of ACCESS Health International, who warns the growing number of COVID-19 variants will help the virus evade the vaccines currently being deployed. He cautions that lack of strict public health measures, particularly in the US, will lead to more widespread infection and endemic outbreaks. Dr. Haseltine urges the pharmaceutical industry to provide more nuanced data on the long term efficacy of...
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The post COVID-19 Is Shape-Shifting: Dr. William Haseltine Warns Variants & Lack of Containment May Weaken Vaccine Efficacy appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, a global policy think tank dedicated to using science and scientific analysis to make the world more secure. The former Harvard professor and researcher has leveraged a significant Twitter following to share large volumes of aggregated information, research and data on the rapidly evolving pandemic, culled from multiple sources around the world.
The post Pandemics and Social Networks: Influencer Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding on COVID-19 Messaging in the Age of Twitter appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Angela Rasmussen, who leads the core virology team at the Viral Emergence Research Initiative at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health, Science and Security. A renowned expert on emerging pathogens that pose great harm to human health, she helps us unlock some of the mysteries around Sars-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus. She talks about the swift production of the vaccine as a “scientific achievement of our lifetimes”. And looks...
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The post Will Vaccines Work Against the New Variants? Virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen on Unraveling the COVID Mysteries appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with ER physician Dr. Megan Ranney, Assistant Dean of the Institute for Translational Science at Brown University and Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. A frequent spokesperson across the media landscape on the COVID-19 pandemic, and founder of #GetUsPPE and the MyCOVIDrisk app, Dr. Ranney warns the new COVID-19 variant which is highly transmissible could spark a new wave of super-spreader events, and that poor preparation on vaccine distribution...
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The post COVID Variant and Delayed Vaccines: Dr. Megan Ranney on Pandemic Perils appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, Chair of SAGE, the international panel of experts making COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Cravioto talks about their global team of scientists and the rigorous guidelines governing the approval process for emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine – as well as all others in the queue. He also discusses the need to scale up production for global distribution, as well as the...
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The post WHO’s Vaccine Advisory Leader Discusses Global Readiness to Manage Pandemic: SAGE Chair Dr. Alejandro Cravioto appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, co-creator of the rotavirus vaccine, and member of the FDA Advisory Committee that approved emergency authorization for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. Dr. Offit says development of this new vaccine is a remarkable achievement backed by decades of scientific research that the Advisory Committee found to be safe an efficacious for widespread...
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The post FDA Advisory Committee Member Dr. Paul Offit on Vaccine Safety, Efficacy and Distribution appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter reflect on 2020 at the end of a year like no other. When the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold, they welcomed many of the world’s most renowned infectious disease, virology, and epidemiology experts. From Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Ashish Jha, from New York Times writer and “Pandemic” docu-series producer Dr. Sheri Fink, to innovative scientists like Dr. Eric Topol, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Dr. Michael Osterholm to US Surgeon General Dr....
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The post 2020: Mark and Margaret reflect on the Year COVID-19 Took Over the World appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with notable vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez, founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor University College of Medicine. Author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science”, Dr. Hotez warns deaths from COVID-19 will continue to rise dramatically until a national program of masks, testing, and social distancing is in place. He warns that we are months away from widespread vaccine distribution,...
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The post Dr. Peter Hotez on COVID-19 Vaccine appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Michael Osterholm, newly appointed member of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force. Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, the renowned epidemiologist warns of dark days ahead as pandemic cases surge across America, but also sees great promise with the coming vaccines. Distribution, vaccine hesitancy and public skepticism will remain big hurdles.
The post Biden COVID Task Force Member Michael Osterholm on Vaccine Perils and Promise appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned Harvard Economist David Cutler, whose recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association projects the pandemic’s expected toll on the US Economy. Cutler warns that the dramatic death toll, more chronically ill Americans and a contracted economy will lead to a loss of 16 trillion dollars over the next ten years.
The post Pandemic Takes 16 Trillion Out of Economy: Harvard Professor David Cutler Discusses His Research appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Timothy Jost, Professor Emeritus at the Washington and Lee School of Law. Professor Jost is considered one of the preeminent analysts of health law in America, particularly the Affordable Care Act. He discusses the rocky road ahead for the health law with a Biden presidency blocked by a GOP controlled Senate and a heavily conservative-leaning Supreme Court which will soon hear another case aimed at repealing some, or all, of...
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The post Health Law Scholar Professor Tim Jost: Roadmap After the Election appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Howard Koh, the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. A former Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, and says the lack of a national public health response to the pandemic has led to poor outcomes in the US, but he says we can still turn that around with a solid national...
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The post Public Health Expert Harvard’s Dr. Howard Koh On Leveraging Best Weapon in the COVID-19 Fight appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Uché Blackstock, Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, an organization dedicated to addressing racial disparities in American health care and in medical education. An Emergency Medicine physician and Medical Contributor to Yahoo News, Dr. Blackstock is a rising activist seeking to address inequities that greatly impact people of color and ethnic minorities – leading to poor health outcomes in the pandemic, and across the healthcare spectrum. She is...
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The post Health Disparities: Dr. Uché Blackstock Talks About Advancing Health Equity appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, who is leading the COVID-19 response at the NIH. Dr. Fauci addresses the ongoing pandemic and concerning rise in daily infection rates in the US, vaccine development, monoclonal antibodies, and what we all need to be doing to stop the spread of the disease.
The post Dr. Anthony Fauci on COVID-19: What’s Working, What’s Not, and His Advice For America’s Youth appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who recently called out pharmaceutical giants for intimidating safety net providers and Community Health Centers offering low cost drugs to vulnerable patients protected through the 340B Pricing. Tong is also leading a team of Attorneys General from 51 states and territories in a huge Antitrust suit, alleging criminal price-fixing and price gouging among multiple pharmaceutical giants operating in collusion with each other to dramatically increase...
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The post 340B & Pharmaceutical Profiteers: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong on Going After Illegal Price Gouging By Big Pharma appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Volkow discusses her pioneering work in brain imaging which has given us a window into how addiction works in the brain. She discusses her recent report on susceptibility to COVID-19 for those with Substance Use Disorder, her concerns about increase in overdoses during the pandemic, and the need to curtail the vaping...
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The post The Opioid Crisis Hasn’t Gone Away: NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow on Addiction Epidemic Amid COVID-19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Farzad Mostashari, Founder and CEO of Aledade, former National Coordinator for Health IT, and Chair of the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge, a partnership with Facebook Data for Good, Carnegie Melon, Duke, University of Maryland, Resolve to Save Lives and organized by Catalyst @Health 2.0. The challenge is encouraging developers to create tools to mine data submitted by tens of millions of Facebook users, tracking real time COVID-19 symptoms to...
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The post Can Facebook’s Two Billion Users Slow the Pandemic? Dr. Farzad Mostashari on the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Seema Verma, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration, a trillion dollar-a-year agency providing health coverage for 130 million vulnerable Americans on Medicaid and Seniors on Medicare. She discusses the agency’s dramatic transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including hundreds of waivers lifting restrictions for providers across the country, a swift expansion of telehealth adoption, and Operation Warp Speed’s quest to provide a safe...
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The post CMS Administrator Seema Verma Talks Expansion of Telehealth, Development of COVID-19 Vaccine and Answers Recent Allegations appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, whose critically acclaimed new book examines America’s long, unique history of violence and its embedded gun culture. His book, “The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy”, examines the birth and growth of America’s gun culture, the conditions that perpetuated it, and his quest to pass sane gun laws in response to the Sandy Hook School shooting.
The post Guns, America and the “Violence Inside Us”: US Senator Chris Murphy Explores Origins of the Nation’s Gun Culture and His Own Odyssey for Reform appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sara Goza, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest organization dedicated to advancing the physical, mental and social health of the nation’s infants, children and young adults. Dr. Goza discusses how pediatricians can help inform the tough decisions families are making to keep kids safe while sending them back to school, the vital importance of continued well-visits and vaccinations for kids, and the policy agenda being promoted...
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The post National Pediatric Leader Talks About Returning To School In Pandemic appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Daniel Kraft, physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and Chair of the XPrize Pandemic Alliance Task Force, which is holding competitions to develop better tools for addressing COVID-19. Dr. Kraft, who is also founder and Executive Director of Exponential Medicine, looks at emerging developments that will lead to better rapid tests, masks as well as tech and AI-enabled interventions that will offer earlier diagnosis of infection, and better treatment and management of...
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The post Pandemic XPrize Competition: Dr. Daniel Kraft on Quest to Leverage Tech and AI For Solutions to Address COVID-19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. William Haseltine, President of ACCESS Health International, a global health think tank. He is also a renowned scientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Harvard Medical School’s HIV/AIDS and cancer research centers. He discusses his two new books: A Family Guide to COVID: Questions and Answers for Parents, Grandparents and Children, and A COVID Back To School Guide which are continually-updating ‘living e-books’ offering answers to the many questions families...
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The post Should I Send My Kids Back To School? Renowned Scientist Dr. William Haseltine Has Advice for Families appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with New York Times Science and Global Health Reporter Apoorva Mandavilli, who has been covering emerging discoveries around the COVID-19 pandemic. She discusses the rapidly-evolving science on how this novel pathogen spreads, the guidelines for sending kids and teachers back into schools, and the rapid development of therapeutics and vaccines to treat and prevent infection.
The post New York Times Science Reporter Apoorva Mandavilli On The Challenges of Covering COVID 19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev, Deputy Director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He examines the scientific guidelines governing COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 clinical trials, including a broad demographic representation to ensure vaccine safety across multiple populations, and the need to address vaccine hesitancy as well as the global supply chain needed to distribute billions of doses.
The post COVID-19 Vaccines: When Will They Be Ready? Will They Work? Listen to Leading Expert Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Eric Topol, Founder and Director of the Scripps Translational Institute, and author of “The Creative Destruction of Medicine”. Dr. Topol is a renowned cardiologist and health data champion, and shares a harsh assessment of federal handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US. He’s heartened by the many collaborations yielding significant scientific discovery around rapid testing technology and vaccines. He’s concerned the anti-science movement will undermine deployment of an...
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The post Dr. Eric Topol: What Lies Between Now and COVID-19 Vaccine appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. A former advisor to the Obama Administration, he predicts the pandemic won’t be fully brought under control until late next year, when an approved vaccine can be successfully deployed across hundreds of millions of Americans. He discusses his new book, “Which Country Has the Best Healthcare” addressing the failure of America’s leadership to adequately address...
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The post Pandemic: Dr. Zeke Emanuel on the Timeline for America Returning to ‘Normal’ appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Andy Slavitt, former Acting Administrator of CMS under President Obama. He is founder of United States of Care and Town Hall Ventures, two entities committed to advancing health coverage and health reform in the US through bipartisan coalitions. Mr. Slavitt analyzes the failed national response to COVID-19 here in the US, the need for a more unified and robust strategy to protect the public, and his recommendations for fixing America’s...
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The post COVID-19’s Deadly Grip: Former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt on America’s Next Right Steps appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Donald Warne, Director of Indians Into Medicine (INMED) at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. A renowned expert on American Indian health policies, Dr. Warne talks about the devastating toll COVID-19 is exacting on communities of color, particularly American Indians, who already suffer the effects of long term poverty, health disparities and Congress’ repeated failure to fully fund Indian Health Services which has led to a huge...
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The post COVID-19 and American Indians: Dr. Donald Warne on the Devastating Toll of the Pandemic on Native American Populations appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Susan Hassmiller, Senior Advisor for Nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Advisor to the President for Nursing at the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Hassmiller talks about the dramatic role America’s 3.8 million nurses are playing in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, how the nursing profession is playing a critical role in meeting challenges in primary care and health disparities, as well as her work crafting the Future of...
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The post Front Line Warriors in Pandemic and Care Delivery: Dr. Susan Hassmiller on Impact of Nursing in American Health Care appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with House Majority Whip, US Congressman James Clyburn who says we have reached an inflection point in American history in addressing the high cost to communities of color from health disparities, policing injustices and economic inequality. Congressman Clyburn examines important legislation aimed at stemming racially motivated police brutality, as well as improving health care access for vulnerable Americans through expansion of community health centers and telehealth.
The post Inflection Point: US House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Race, Police, and the Pandemic appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Michael Osterholm, world-renowned epidemiologist, pandemic expert and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease, Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The author of The Deadliest Enemy: Our War with Killer Germs, Dr Osterholm has warned for years of the likelihood of a pandemic such as COVID-19.He extols the need for ongoing measures to protect the public health and front line health care workers through mask use, social...
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The post COVID 19: We’re in the Second Inning – According to Noted Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Marjorie Innocent, Senior Director of Health Programs at the NAACP. Dr. Innocent speaks on the current climate of protest against entrenched racism in America, the NAACP’s call to action to address police brutality, economic and health disparities, and the need to foster a culture of collaboration to address racism’s toll on people of color in this country.
The post NAACP Health Director Dr. Marjorie Innocent Talks About Racism in America appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, who is advising state, federal and international governments on Covid-19. He laments the delayed and inadequate response by the federal government to the threat of Covid-19, how failure to deploy a cohesive testing strategy has cost lives, and how an aggressive national approach is needed to safely navigate the way through this pandemic. He predicts the coronavirus will change training...
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The post How the US Pandemic Preparedness Failed: Harvard’s Dr. Ashish Jha on the Best Way Forward Through Covid-19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, on the passage of the Families First and the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Act, two bills passed in Congress to address the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Congresswoman Delauro discusses the need for more resources for testing and for health systems support, the need for paid sick leave and family leave, the rise of telehealth to meet demand and the need for the public to heed...
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The post Coronavirus Pandemic and Congressional Action: Representative Rosa DeLauro on Protecting Families and Businesses Through Crisis appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome engineer, data analyst and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tomas Pueyo, whose recent collection of articles in the online publication Medium outline what must be done to contain COVID-19, and minimize the harm to health and economies. He analyzes global data on actions taken by countries and their impact on outcomes, recommending that widespread testing, contract tracing, physical distancing, hand hygiene and widespread use of masks will help contain the pandemic.
The post Testing, Contact Tracing, Quarantines and Physical Distancing: Tomas Pueyo on What U.S. and Others Must Do to Beat appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome US Surgeon General under President Obama, Dr. Vivek Murthy, whose new book “Together: The Healing Power of Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” examines the causes and harmful effects of the epidemic of loneliness in America and its impact on health. Dr. Murthy examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying this crisis, and how we, as a society, must address this issue.
The post America’s Loneliness Epidemic Amid COVID-19: Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on the Toll of Isolation on America’s Health appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.