Conversations on Health Care

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... Read More Read More The post Will Patients Listen If Health Care Providers Talk Climate Change? appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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.... Read More Read More The post Reaction to New CDC Ventilation Targets in Light of COVID appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post COVID Emergency Ends but Mental Health Issues Remain appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post COVID Investigator Praises Community Health Workers: “Huge Innovation” appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post Health Care Budget Fight: Hear Each Side’s Argument appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post Turning Off e-Cigarettes: Health Advocates Score a Victory appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post Abortion Rights Leader Rejects Calls to “Ignore” Judge’s Ruling appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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. The post Top Reporters on Big Health Care Stories Right Now appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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. The post History-Making Incoming AMA President on His Vision appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, discusses the promising research behind a new class of diabetes and obesity drugs that could improve tens of millions of lives in America impacted by the obesity epidemic. He addresses the FDA’s pending new tobacco control rules, as well as improvements to the infant formula pipeline in the wake of recent shortages. Dr. Califf also voices deep concerns that health misinformation is the ‘leading cause of death in America... Read More Read More The post FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf Discusses the Top News Stories appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post $13K Per American for Health Care: What Are We Getting? appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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... Read More Read More The post Healing to Homeless People: A Doctor’s NYT Best-Selling Story appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

We’ve had 82 mass shootings in our country so far this year and the number keeps growing; we’ve never had so many occur in such a short time frame. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for young children and teenagers in the United States. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof shares with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter smarter ways to reduce gun deaths as advocates look for answers to this public safety and health... Read More Read More The post NYT’s Nicholas Kristof: Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Paxlovid is an oral antiviral pill to treat COVID; data show it reduces serious illness, hospitalization and cases of Long COVID. That’s why Michael Osterholm, Ph.D. wants more doctors to prescribe it. He serves as a White House advisor and is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He says, “People have died unnecessarily because they were unable to get Paxlovid when they could have and should have.” This compelling conversation with... Read More Read More The post Biden COVID Advisor Urges Greater Paxlovid Use: ‘People Have Died Unnecessarily’ appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Ben Jealous, the former NAACP president, is taking charge as the new executive director of the Sierra Club. It’s America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization with nearly 4 million members and supporters. With a strategy focused on equity and activism, Jealous and the Sierra Club are committed to retiring coal plants, preventing new fossil fuel plants from being built, and working to stop the expansion of fracked gas. Jealous joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to talk... Read More Read More The post Sierra Club Executive Director Sees New Energy for Climate Change Fight appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

FDA vaccine advisor Dr. Paul Offit’s recent article in JAMA Pediatrics looks at the millions of 5- to 11-year-old children who received the COVID vaccine. His in-depth research review found that the mRNA vaccine was effective at preventing COVID, symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. The vaccine was also safe; myocarditis occurred in very rare cases. Dr. Offit joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss his findings and why he supports the end of the... Read More Read More The post FDA Advisor Dr. Offit’s Latest Findings on COVID Vaccine & Young Children appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Dr. Louis Sullivan’s leadership and advocacy for equity in the health professions have taken him from the classroom to the seats of power in Washington. He reflects on his own journey and the challenges that still exist in training people of color to become doctors and for other medical roles. Dr. Sullivan believes, “It’s a combination of a lack of adequate preparation, lack of financial resources, and also a lack of role models.” He shares his inspiring story from the... Read More Read More The post Why Are Only 5% Of Doctors African American? Dr. Louis Sullivan Tells Us appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

A top World Health Organization public health official is adding nuance to the agency’s call for more transparency from China, which is coping with a crippling COVID-19 outbreak since it ended its zero-COVID policy last month. Maria Van Kerkhove, Ph.D., WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19 Response, tells “Conversations on Health Care” that “We really need better understanding on the burden and the hospitalizations and we need more information on the sequences…they have detected known sub-variances…but we need those sequences to... Read More Read More The post WHO: What China Must Do Now to Help Fight COVID appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Dr. Richard Besser, who once led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doesn’t believe the recently enacted U.S. COVID testing requirement for anyone arriving from China will have much of an impact. Besser, who is currently president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says he feels such actions are often “more for show than truly for controlling a public health threat” and recalls that 14 years ago possible border closings during the H1N1 outbreak were seen as... Read More Read More The post Former CDC Chief Questions U.S Reaction to Chinese COVID Outbreak appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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. The post Health Policy Moves in ’22 Set the Stage for New Year appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.