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In his weekly clinical update, Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello are disheartened by the suggested change in federal vaccine recommendations, how Florida rolled back 4 childhood vaccine school requirements, results from a clinical trial suggesting that IPV can be used for outbreak control in IPV only countries, the continued national cyclosporiasis and screwworm outbreaks, size of the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, the death of 2 children in Pennsylvania from measles and the economic cost of the measles outbreak before Dr. Griffin deep dives into the use of monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir to treat Bundibugyo virus infection, measles outbreak, recent statistics RSV, influenza, SARS-CoV-2 infections, access and how pay for Paxlovid, , where to go for answers about long COVID-19, clinical guidelines for treating long COVID, and contacting your federal government representative to stop the assault on science and biomedical research. 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Links for this episode Request for Information: Categories Used in Federal Vaccine Recommendations and the Role of Shared Clinical Decision-Making (Federal Register) HHS Seeks Public Input on Federal Vaccine Recommendation Categories and Shared Clinical Decision-Making (US Department of Health and Human Services) HPV Vaccination and Risk of Head and Neck Cancers: A Large Real-World Cohort Study (International Society for Infectious Diseases) Monkeypox Virus Surveillance — United States, 2024–2025 (CDC: MMWR) Clinical Trials (ClinicalTrials.gov) Effect of inactivated poliovirus vaccine on nasal mucosal immunity and pharyngeal shedding following novel oral poliovirus vaccine type 2 challenge: A randomized, open-label trial (JID) IPOL package insert (FDA) Florida Prepares to Roll Back School Vaccine Requirements (NOTUS) Florida's Department of Health removes 4 vaccines from required list for public schools (CIDRAP) Surveillance of Cyclosporiasis (CDC: Cyclosporiasis) Infectious Disease Outbreaks (Michigan: Health & Human Services) Cyclosporiasis Cases in North Carolina (North Carolina: Division of Public Health) Cyclospora Infection (Cyclosporiasis) (NYC Health) Missouri Communicable Disease Report (2026) (Missouri Health) TWiP 285: Why is cyclospora hard to contain: Parasitologists explain the 2026 US outbreak (microbeTV:TWiP) Dashboard SCREWWORM.Gov (USDA: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) CDC Activates Emergency Operations Center for New World Screwworm Response (CDC Newroom) Ebola virus (AP News) What to know about the outbreak of a rare kind of Ebola (AP News) Congo's Ebola outbreak is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history, WHO chief says (AP News) A look at major Ebola outbreaks and when the disease was first identified (AP News) Mobile gold miners in eastern Congo complicate health workers' efforts to contain Ebola (AP News) How Congo is battling an Ebola outbreak complicated by aid cuts, armed rebels and anger (AP News) Here's data showing Congo's Ebola outbreak is on track to surpass history's largest (AP News) Ebola dashboard (ebola.fyi) EBOLA: The Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2026 (WHO) Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak Democratic Republic of the Congo (WHO: Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola Outbreak: Current Situation (CDC:Ebola) A case of Bundibugyo virus disease treated with monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir (Nature Medicine) Post-Exposure Prophylaxis with a monoclonal antibody cocktail Following Bundibugyo Ebolavirus Exposure in Adults and Children (Nature Medicine) Wastewater for measles (WasterWater Scan) Measles cases and outbreaks (CDC Rubeola) Big outbreak, bright lights…Measles Dashboard (South Carolina Department of Public Health) Utah measles outbreak response (Utah Department of Health and Human Services) Utah Measles Dashboard (Utah Department of Health and Human Services) Measles (VDH: Virginia Department of Health) Tracking Measles Cases in the U.S. (Johns Hopkins) Measles vaccine recommendations from NYP (jpg) HAP's Latest News Pa. Launches New Measles Dashboard (Hospital + HealthSystem Association of Pennsylvania) Measles (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) Pennsylvania Department of Health Confirms Two Measles-Associated Deaths (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) Weekly measles and rubella monitoring (Government of Canada) Measles (WHO) Get the FACTS about measles (NY State Department of Health) Measles (CDC Measles (Rubeola)) Measles vaccine (CDC Measles (Rubeola)) Presumptive evidence of measles immunity (CDC) Contraindications and precautions to measles vaccination (CDC) Adverse events associated with childhood vaccines: evidence bearing on causality (NLM) Measles Vaccination: Know the Facts (ISDA: Infectious Diseases Society of America) Deaths following vaccination: what does the evidence show (Vaccine) Do vaccinated cases transmit measles? A systematic review and meta-analysis (Expert Review of Vaccines) County, district and community-level measles transmission in the United States in 2013−2025 (Nat Medicine) Quantifying the cost of measles outbreak in the U.S. and how costs scale with outbreak size (Vaccine) Each measles case in 2025 US outbreak cost almost $60,000, study estimates, or $134 million total (CIDRAP) Influenza: Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan) US respiratory virus activity (CDC Respiratory Illnesses) Respiratory virus activity levels (CDC Respiratory Illnesses) Flu vaccine recommendations: Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee March 12, 2026 Meeting Announcement (FDA) WHO updates all 3 viral strains to be included in fall flu shots (CIDRAP) FDA vaccine advisers recommend adding subclade K to fall shots (CIDRAP) Weekly surveillance report: cliff notes (CDC FluView) OPTION 2: XOFLUZA $50 Cash Pay Option(xofluza) RSV: Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan) Respiratory Diseases (Yale School of Public Health) US respiratory virus activity (CDC Respiratory Illnesses) RSV-Network (CDC Respiratory Syncytial virus Infection) Vaccines for Adults (CDC: Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV)) Economic Analysis of Protein Subunit and mRNA RSV Vaccination in Adults aged 50-59 Years (CDC: ACIP) Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan) COVID-19 deaths (CDC) Respiratory Illnesses Data Channel (CDC: Respiratory Illnesses) COVID-19 national and regional trends (CDC) COVID-19 variant tracker (CDC) SARS-CoV-2 genomes galore (Nextstrain) Cardiac outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection versus BNT162b2 vaccination in adolescents and young adults: a cohort study of 4 million individuals (Vaccine) mRNA COVID vaccine linked to lower risk of myocarditis in teens, youngadults (CIDRAP) Where to get pemgarda (Pemgarda) EUA for the pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 (INVIYD) Infusion center (Prime Fusions) CDC Quarantine guidelines (CDC) NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines (NIH) Drug interaction checker (University of Liverpool) Help your eligible patients access PAXLOVID with the PAXCESS Patient Support Program (Pfizer Pro) Understanding Coverage Options (PAXCESS) Trump Officials Falsely Connect Covid Vaccines to Miscarriage (NY Times) Infectious Disease Society guidelines for treatment and management (ID Society) Molnupiravir safety and efficacy (JMV) Convalescent plasma recommendation for immunocompromised (ID Society) What to do when sick with a respiratory virus (CDC) Managing healthcare staffing shortages (CDC) Anticoagulation guidelines (hematology.org) Daniel Griffin's evidence based medical practices for long COVID (OFID) Long COVID hotline (Columbia : Columbia University Irving Medical Center) The answers: Long COVID Reaching out to US house representative Letters read on TWiV 1352 Dr. Griffin's COVID treatment summary (pdf) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to daniel@microbe.tv Content in this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.
In 2000, Katie Couric underwent a live colonoscopy on national television following the death of her husband, Jay Monahan, from colorectal cancer at age 42. The broadcast demystified a procedure many Americans feared, led to an estimated 20% increase in colonoscopy screenings, and became one of the clearest examples of how public storytelling can change healthcare behavior.This episode examines how celebrities, journalists, filmmakers, and entertainers helped reshape the public conversation about cancer during a period when survivorship was becoming increasingly visible. As breakthroughs in targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and early detection allowed more people to live beyond cancer, public figures used their platforms to encourage screening, reduce stigma, and accelerate research. Their influence extended far beyond awareness campaigns, helping transform cancer from a private diagnosis into a national public health conversation.Central to this story is Laura Ziskin, the Hollywood producer behind Pretty Woman and the Spider-Man films, whose metastatic breast cancer diagnosis inspired the creation of Stand Up To Cancer. Working alongside Couric and leaders from entertainment, journalism, and biomedical research, Ziskin championed a new funding model that required multidisciplinary scientific collaboration, helping accelerate discoveries that contributed to multiple FDA-approved cancer therapies. The episode also highlights the advocacy of actor Patrick Dempsey, whose family's experience with ovarian cancer led to the creation of the Dempsey Center, expanding support for patients and caregivers beyond medical treatment.The story also asks what celebrity advocacy often leaves unsaid. Financial toxicity, caregiver burden, chronic pain, mental health, and the long-term effects of treatment rarely receive the same attention as dramatic diagnoses or breakthrough cures. As cancer survivorship continues to evolve, the greatest challenge may not be convincing people to care about cancer, but helping them understand what it truly means to live with and beyond it.RELATED LINKSStand Up To CancerKatie Couric MediaDempsey CenterAmerican Association for Cancer ResearchNational Cancer InstituteDana-Farber Cancer Institute | Adult Survivorship ProgramFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In 2006, a landmark report titled Closing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer confirmed what young survivors had been saying for years. While survival rates for children and older adults had steadily improved, adolescents and young adults had experienced decades of stalled progress. They had become cancer's lost generation.This episode explores how young adult survivors transformed their shared isolation into one of the most influential grassroots movements in cancer advocacy. Diagnosed during the years typically devoted to education, careers, relationships, and starting families, patients between the ages of 15 and 39 confronted challenges that extended far beyond treatment. Fertility preservation, sexual health, employment, financial toxicity, insurance, and long-term quality of life were rarely discussed in oncology clinics, leaving many to navigate survivorship alone.The episode follows advocates including Tamika Felder, Lindsay Avner, Heidi Adams, Doug Ulman, and Dr. Archie Bleyer, whose research and advocacy fundamentally changed how medicine understands adolescent and young adult cancer. Through organizations including Planet Cancer, Fertile Hope, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and later Stupid Cancer, survivors built online communities, educational resources, conferences, and national partnerships that challenged long-standing assumptions about cancer care. Their work helped establish fertility preservation as a standard discussion before treatment, expanded research dedicated to adolescent and young adult oncology, and elevated quality of life as a critical clinical outcome alongside survival.The movement also demonstrated the power of lived experience to reshape medicine. Survivors became researchers, educators, nonprofit founders, and policy advocates, insisting that cancer care account not only for years of life saved, but for the lives patients hoped to build afterward.What began as a search for peers evolved into a national movement that permanently transformed adolescent and young adult oncology. Today, dedicated research programs, clinical fellowships, survivorship resources, and patient advocacy organizations continue to build on the foundation these young cancer mavericks created.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute | Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer ProgramClosing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults with CancerAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology | Fertility Preservation GuidelinesStupid CancerLivestrong FoundationJournal of Adolescent and Young Adult OncologyFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
P.M. Edition for Aug. 24. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. will go after countries and companies that do business with Iran. White House economic policy reporter Brian Schwartz says it's unclear what will happen with Iran's top trading partner: China. Plus, President Trump escalates the trade conflict with Canada, threatening 50% tariffs on autos. And Heard on the Street columnist David Wainer discusses the challenges Moderna faces in fulfilling investor hopes for a sweeping new era for cancer treatment. Pierre Bienaimé hosts. The AI Therapist: A WSJ Podcast Series Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Cognitive changes in MS—fluctuations in processing speed, memory, and executive function—can significantly impact daily life, yet they're often misunderstood or overlooked in routine clinical exams. This week, we are joined by Dr. Anna Kratz, clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan, to discuss actionable, evidence-based ways to navigate cognitive challenges. Dr. Kratz breaks down the latest findings from the CogDetect-MS study, exploring how daily symptom fluctuations, complex medication regimens, and common substances like caffeine and cannabis influence brain fog. She also shares practical compensatory workarounds and introduces a no-cost digital self-management resource, My MSToolKit. We'll also explain the new framework for describing MS that's been proposed by the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in Multiple Sclerosis. We're sharing study results that reveal why detecting even a single silent lesion on an MRI should trigger an immediate conversation about stepping up to high-efficacy therapy. And we'll tell you about 2 advanced MRI markers that can predict future cognitive decline — even in the absence of any relapses or new lesions on MRI. We have a lot to talk about! Are you ready for RealTalk MS??! This Week: Maintaining and improving cognitive function :22 The International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in Multiple Sclerosis calls for updating the way MS is described 1:12 A study provides evidence for switching your DMT when there's even a single silent lesion on your MRI 6:53 Scientists identify two MRI markers that can predict future cognitive decline in early relapsing-remitting MS 10:53 Dr. Anna Kratz discusses maintaining and improving cognitive function 15:33 Share this episode 42:13 Next week 42:33 SHARE THIS EPISODE OF REALTALK MS Just copy this link & paste it into your text or email: https://realtalkms.com/469 ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE CONVERSATION I've always thought about the RealTalk MS podcast as a conversation. And this is your opportunity to join the conversation by sharing your feedback, questions, and suggestions for topics that we can discuss in future podcast episodes. Please shoot me an email or call the RealTalk MS Listener Hotline and share your thoughts! Email: jon@realtalkms.com Phone: (310) 526-2283 And don't forget to join us in the RealTalk MS Facebook group! LINKS If your podcast app doesn't allow you to click on these links, you'll find them in the show notes at www.RealTalkMS.com PAPER: Towards a Biologically Informed Description of Multiple Sclerosis Disease Course -- A Roadmap for Transition https://rdcu.be/fxBw1 STUDY: Treatment Escalation After Clinically Silent MRI Lesions in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awag252/8741305 STUDY: Paramagnetic Rim Lesions and Choroid Plexus Volume at Diagnosis Are Associated With Cognitive Progression Independent of Relapse and MRI Activity in Early Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acn3.70448 REGISTER: ECTRIMS Patient Community Day https://ectrimspatientcommunity.eu JOIN: The RealTalk MS Facebook Group https://facebook.com/groups/realtalkms REVIEW: Give RealTalk MS a rating and review http://www.realtalkms.com/review Follow RealTalk MS on X, @RealTalkMS_jon, and subscribe to our newsletter at our website, RealTalkMS.com. RealTalk MS Episode 469 Guest: Dr. Anna Kratz Privacy Policy
In 2006, the Institute of Medicine published From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, concluding that millions of Americans were surviving cancer only to find themselves navigating a healthcare system unprepared for life after treatment. The report challenged oncology to recognize that curing cancer was not the end of care, but the beginning of survivorship.This episode explores how the growing cancer survivorship movement exposed the long-term consequences of cancer treatment that medicine had largely overlooked. As survival rates improved following the National Cancer Act of 1971, millions of survivors faced chronic fatigue, neuropathy, infertility, cognitive impairment, financial hardship, employment discrimination, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. These were not rare complications. They became defining features of survivorship for many patients.Drawing on the work of oncologist Dr. Patricia Ganz, survivor advocate Ellen Stovall, and researchers, clinicians, and survivors across the country, the episode examines how survivorship research expanded beyond recurrence and mortality to include quality of life, psychosocial care, rehabilitation, and long-term follow-up. Their efforts helped establish survivorship care plans, multidisciplinary survivorship clinics, and a broader understanding that cancer affects every aspect of a person's life long after treatment ends.The episode also confronts persistent inequities in survivorship care. Insurance coverage often ends when treatment stops, supportive services remain inconsistent, financial toxicity continues to drive medical hardship, and racial, geographic, and socioeconomic disparities still influence who receives comprehensive follow-up care. For many survivors, finishing treatment simply marks the beginning of another struggle.Modern oncology increasingly recognizes that surviving cancer is measured by more than years of life. It is also measured by quality of life, dignity, access to care, and the ability to rebuild a future after treatment. That evolution remains one of the most significant legacies of the cancer survivorship movement.RELATED LINKSNational Academy of Medicine | From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in TransitionNational Cancer Institute Office of Cancer SurvivorshipAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology | Survivorship CompendiumCancerCareHopeWell Cancer SupportNational Coalition for Cancer SurvivorshipFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In 1967, breast surgeon Dr. Harold P. Freeman arrived at Harlem Hospital expecting to treat cancer. Instead, he confronted a healthcare system where poverty, racism, lack of insurance, and institutional barriers often determined who lived long enough to receive treatment. Patients frequently arrived with advanced disease, not because medicine lacked answers, but because access to care had failed them.This episode explores how cancer survivorship expanded beyond medical breakthroughs to include healthcare access, health equity, and organized advocacy. Building on the early work of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), it examines the recognition that surviving cancer depended not only on research, but also on whether patients could navigate a fragmented healthcare system.Freeman responded by creating one of the nation's first patient navigation programs at Harlem Hospital in 1990. Community-based navigators helped patients overcome practical barriers including insurance, transportation, appointments, communication, and fear. The model dramatically improved timely diagnosis and treatment, increased breast cancer survival in Harlem, and ultimately inspired the Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2005, establishing navigation as a cornerstone of modern oncology care.The episode also follows cancer survivor Ellen Stovall, whose leadership transformed survivorship into a national policy movement. Through the NCCS, she united advocates across cancer types, fought for insurance protections, expanded access to clinical trials, helped shape the creation of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, and organized the landmark 1998 National March for Cancer Survivorship in Washington, D.C. Her work reframed survivorship as a public policy issue rather than a personal experience.Together, Freeman and Stovall demonstrated that scientific progress alone could not eliminate disparities in cancer outcomes. Their work established two enduring principles that continue to shape oncology today: patients need someone to help them navigate care, and survivors must have a voice in the policies that govern it. Modern cancer survivorship depends on both.RELATED LINKSNational Coalition for Cancer SurvivorshipHarold P. Freeman Patient Navigation InstituteNational Cancer Institute Office of Cancer SurvivorshipPatient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2005American Cancer SocietyTuskegee Study Timeline | Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Munir Ghesani, Chief Medical Director at United Theranostics, to explore the cutting edge of personalized cancer treatment and the business of scaling innovative healthcare delivery. Dr. Ghesani discusses his three decades long path in New York's academic medicine scene to leading a fast-growing outpatient theranostics group, detailing why he left academia, what makes theranostics uniquely effective for patients, and how United Theranostics is building a national footprint through a decentralized, community-based model. We'll unpack how their patient-first strategy is shaking up referral dynamics, why community settings are the future of cancer care, and what it takes to recruit medical talent and manage rapid clinical expansion. Plus, Dr. Ghesani reveals the business challenges of clinical trials, payer dynamics, and how a rigorous approach to risk keeps innovation on track. Whether you're in healthcare, investing, or looking to build a next-gen medical services brand, this episode connects patient outcomes, operational strategy, and smart growth in healthcare. Key themes discussed Transition from academia to private theranostics practice Personalized, patient-centered cancer treatment models Patient access and geographic convenience Clinical trials and innovation in care delivery Recruitment and training for high-growth clinic expansion Collaborative physician partnerships vs. pure referral Regulation, quality control, and risk management in trials A Few Key Takeaways 1.Theranostics-Personalized, Precision Medicine: Theranostics is revolutionizing patient care by merging diagnostics and therapeutics to deliver highly personalized treatment plans, particularly in oncology. Unlike traditional, one-size-fits-all treatments, theranostics involves tailored scanning to target therapies specifically to affected areas, ensuring treatments are both targeted and trackable for efficacy 05:07 06:02. 2. Outpatient Model Drives Access and Community Impact: The majority of cancer care occurs outside of major academic centers, with about 80% delivered in community settings. United Theranostics focuses on suburban locations, making advanced treatments more accessible and convenient for patients who would otherwise travel significant distances to academic hubs 08:42 14:13. 3. Dual Audience Strategy: Physicians & Patients: United Theranostics balances building awareness and trust among both referring physicians and patients. While most referrals come from medical professionals, growing patient awareness is generating direct demand, reinforcing the need for strong brand positioning, serving as both a partner to doctors and a recognized consumer brand in its space 10:05. 4. Scaling Without Compromising Quality: With ambitions for 50 clinics in every state within seven years, United Theranostics is scaling through greenfield development and a strong recruitment pipeline from academic institutions. The company prioritizes training, regulatory compliance, and quality control, resisting the urge to rapidly acquire or retrofit existing practices 14:29 15:25. 5. Clinical Trials as a Competitive Advantage: Clinical trial partnerships are fueling United Theranostics' growth and reputation, drawing patients locally and nationally for cutting-edge, not-yet-FDA-approved treatments (covered by drug companies). The organization's comfort with complexity and strong academic roots allow it to handle demanding cases, setting it apart from less equipped competitors 18:28 19:58. Resources: Dr. Munir Ghesani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/munir-ghesani-md-facnm-facr-fsnmmi-19b29728 United Theranostics: https://www.unitedtheranostics.com/ Integrity Square: https://www.integritysq.com Prospect Wizard: https://www.theprospectwizard.com Promotion Vault: https://www.promotionvault.com HigherDose: https://www.higherdose.com
The Future of Medicine Podcast, where we believe in promoting overall health and prevention over just treating sickness. Join us for the latest in medical advancements and expert advice. Subscribe and explore: https://youtube.com/@BrentwoodMD Last time Dr. Natalie Spradlin joined me on the podcast, we talked about the moments right after a patient finds out they might have cancer. We covered important topics like protecting your mental energy, getting a second opinion, and how to walk into that first oncology appointment as prepared as possible. If you missed it, When You Hear the Word “Cancer” is worth a read. As an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, a co-director of Vanderbilt's Internal Medicine Miller Society, and a board-certified hematologist and oncologist with more than 14 years of clinical experience, Dr. Spradlin brings a unique perspective to topics that weigh on many people's minds. In our latest discussion, we take a look at evidence-backed ways to reduce cancer risk and detect cancer early, as well as the major types of cancer treatments and the role of clinical trials if you do receive a cancer diagnosis. Chapters (00:00:01) - Interview(00:01:41) - Lifestyle risk factors to prevent cancer(00:04:41) - Cancer Screening and Genetic Testing(00:10:11) - Wonders of the World: Whole Body MRIs(00:16:02) - AI in breast cancer diagnostics(00:19:13) - Talking About Cancer Therapeutics(00:19:51) - Treatment of cancer with three modalities(00:26:41) - Immunity Therapy: What is it?(00:30:08) - Clinical Trials(00:35:30) - Phase 1 cancer trials(00:38:35) - Screening for colorectal cancer options(00:41:07) - How to connect with your doctor about cancer at Vanderbilt(00:41:57) - Brentwood MD: A Celebration of the Podcast
Welcome to a very, very, very special bonus episode of Out of Patients, and one unlike anything published on this feed before. For nearly 20 years, Matthew Zachary has handed these microphones to patients, caregivers, doctors, advocates, troublemakers, and people with something worth saying. This time, he handed them to his daughter. Hannah Greenzweig grew up around this show, and now she has commandeered the studio with 3 of her wonderfully creative high school friends to talk about something they built entirely themselves. There is an enormous amount of Dad Pride baked into this episode, along with the strange and wonderful realization that sometimes your kid grows up, takes your chair, takes your microphone, and produces a better show without you.Hannah Greenzweig, Michael Aidinov, Gwendolyn Baldini, and Astronomy are student artists from the Roundabout Youth Ensemble at James Madison High School in Brooklyn. Working alongside teaching artists from Roundabout Theatre Company, they spent a school year creating an original play from the ground up, writing every scene, developing every character, and producing the performance themselves.Instead of discussing a Broadway production, they dissect one they invented.Their play, Subject Matter, began with a room full of improbable ideas. Murderous bounce houses, pirate family sagas, underwater adventures, courtroom dance battles, and birthday parties at math museums all competed before the group settled on an absurd rivalry between New York's fictional History Museum and Math Museum. From there, they built a fully staged comedy about institutional competition, sabotage, oversized personalities, and the unexpected discovery that history and mathematics need each other more than either side wants to admit.The conversation pulls back the curtain on a creative process most audiences never see. The students explain how scenes evolved through constant rewrites, how characters emerged from improvisation, how costumes came together with last minute ingenuity, and how rehearsals often collapsed into uncontrollable laughter. They recount cutting favorite ideas, solving production problems with limited resources, and trusting each other enough to keep rewriting until the story worked.The episode also captures something harder to script: teenagers speaking honestly about collaboration without adults translating their experience. They celebrate classmates who stepped into unexpected roles, teachers who quietly held the production together, and the strange joy of creating something that exists only because everyone showed up.It is a conversation about theater, friendship, education, creativity, and what happens when 4 young artists get the microphones and the adults get out of the way.RELATED LINKSRoundabout Theatre CompanyRoundabout Youth EnsembleJames Madison High SchoolFEEDBACKLike this bonus episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Send us Fan MailThe full week of Journal Club in one place. Monday, the PLaNT trial of prophylactic CPAP for late preterm infants born by cesarean, with senior author Dr. Edgardo Szyld. Tuesday, whether parental holding during therapeutic hypothermia changes feeding and length of stay. Wednesday, the Connection Study, the first live biotherapeutic product tested under an IND, and what it means for probiotics returning to the NICU. Thursday, a handheld light probe that reads bowel through the skin to catch NEC before the X-ray does. Friday, Dr. Dinushan Kaluarachchi on the respiratory severity score and what its trajectory tells us.----First-in-human pilot study of broadband optical spectroscopy (BOS) as noninvasive surveillance for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Dodd AC, Lehane AJ, Lee A, Hurlock A, Su Y, Ilahi I, Lautz TB, Backman V, Goldstein SD.J Pediatr Surg. 2026 May;61(5):162978. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2026.162978. Epub 2026 Feb 3.PMID: 41643767Association of parental holding during therapeutic hypothermia and NICU outcomes for infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Nguyen TT, Glass HC, Chan N, Taketa E, Pineda R, Cornet MC, Miller MJ.J Perinatol. 2026 Jun 22. doi: 10.1038/s41372-026-02753-3. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42332041Live biotherapeutic product IBP-9414 (L. reuteri) in very low birth weight infants: the Connection Study. Neu J, Del Moral T, Guthrie SO, Hudak ML, Indrio F, Kim JH, Kronström A, Martin CR, Modi N, Rastad J, Schnitzer TJ, Singh R, Strömberg S, Szajewska H, Thuresson M, Caplan M.Pediatr Res. 2026 Feb 20. doi: 10.1038/s41390-026-04826-7. Online ahead of print.PMID: 41721054Prophylactic CPAP at Cesarean Birth in Late-Preterm Newborns: A Multicenter RCT. Shah BA, DeShea L, Schmölzer GM, Josephsen JB, Fabres J, Wetzel EA, Rykovich H, Thomas A, Law B, Garrido C, Szyld E.Pediatrics. 2026 Aug 1;158(2):e2025070998. doi: 10.1542/peds.2025-070998.PMID: 42457181 Clinical Trial.Association Between Delivery Room Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and Neonatal Outcomes in Late Preterm and Term Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Chin Y, Hill M, Sett A, Thomas N, Razak A.J Paediatr Child Health. 2026 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/jpc.70516. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42517258 Review.Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Definition Based on Respiratory Severity Score. Kaluarachchi DC, Peebles PJ, Lasarev MR, Guthrie SO, Laughon MM.Pediatr Pulmonol. 2026 Jul;61(7):e71750. doi: 10.1002/ppul.71750.PMID: 42478108 Free PMC article. No abstract available.Respiratory severity score patterns by birth gestational age among a cohort of extremely preterm infants. Peebles PJ, Lasarev MR, Guthrie SO, Laughon MM, Keller RL, Kaluarachchi DC.J Perinatol. 2026 Jun 29. doi: 10.1038/s41372-026-02778-8. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42374145 No abstract available.Respiratory severity score as a predictor for need for tracheostomy in infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Kaluarachchi NM, Afah Annah S, Lasarev MR, Peebles PJ, Kaluarachchi DC.J Perinatol. 2026 Jun 25. doi: 10.1038/s41372-026-02720-y. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42350618 No abstract available.Support the showAs always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below.Enjoy!
A man is struck by a car on the streets of Los Angeles. In the emergency department, a CT scan ordered to look for traumatic injuries reveals something nobody expected: a mass in his colon. Days later, sitting across from Dr. Belinda Waltman, he calls the accident “a blessing in disguise.” Then he changes the subject. He is less worried about cancer than about whether he can afford to miss another day of work. In this season finale of Standard Deviation, host Dr. Oliver Bogler explores what happens when biomedical science collides with the realities of the healthcare safety net. Dr. Waltman, a primary care physician in Los Angeles County, specializes in expedited cancer workups for uninsured and underinsured patients. Every diagnosis arrives carrying another set of questions about housing, transportation, food insecurity, wages, and survival that rarely appear in medical records or scientific literature. For years, Waltman carried those stories without knowing how to bring them into the academic record. As a full-time clinician without a research lab, grant funding, or publication pipeline, she faced barriers familiar to many working scientists and physicians whose most important observations happen outside traditional research settings. With support from the Life Science Editors Foundation's JEDI program, those experiences became The Margins Matter, a narrative medicine essay published in JAMA that argues the social realities surrounding cancer care are not background details. They are part of the disease itself. Bogler traces how editorial mentorship transformed lived clinical experience into published scholarship while asking a larger question about who gets to shape the scientific record. The conversation examines cancer care, Medicaid, health-related social needs, medical publishing, and the structural incentives that determine which stories become evidence and which disappear from view.The result is a conversation about documentation, visibility, and why the margins of medicine often determine who survives long enough to benefit from its advances.RELATED LINKSDr. Belinda WaltmanThe Margins Matter | JAMAThe Margins Matter | PubMedLife Science Editors FoundationFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The HHS Office of Inspector General is seeking public input on how fraud-and-abuse laws affect payments to clinical-trial participants. The effort could help determine whether existing rules strike the right balance between protecting patients and supporting medical research. Joining me now is Spencer Turnbull, Chief of the Industry Guidance Branch at HHS-OIG.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In 1986, 23 survivors, physicians, nurses, attorneys, and community organizers gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a weekend that would permanently change the language and politics of cancer. Working late into the night, they debated not only strategy, but identity, ultimately declaring that from the moment of diagnosis, every person with cancer is a survivor.This episode traces the social and political forces that gave birth to the modern cancer survivorship movement. As advances in early detection and treatment allowed more people to live beyond cancer, survivors discovered that finishing treatment did not mean returning to normal life. Many faced employment discrimination, loss of insurance, social stigma, infertility, chronic health complications, and a healthcare system that viewed survival as the end of care rather than the beginning of a new chapter.Against the backdrop of the civil rights, disability rights, and community health movements of the 1960s and 1970s, physicians, activists, and survivors challenged medicine's paternalistic culture and demanded a greater voice in decisions affecting their lives. Central to this story are physician and survivor Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, whose landmark 1985 essay, Seasons of Survival, redefined survivorship as a lifelong continuum, and community organizer Katherine Logan, whose determination united dozens of grassroots organizations into what became the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.The coalition's founding established principles that continue to shape oncology today. Survivors were no longer defined solely by disease or treatment outcomes. Their experiences became evidence. Their voices became essential to clinical research, healthcare policy, and patient advocacy. By redefining survivorship as an ongoing experience rather than a destination, the movement challenged medicine to recognize the lasting physical, emotional, financial, and social consequences of cancer.The ideas forged during that weekend in Albuquerque became the foundation of modern cancer survivorship. Nearly 40 years later, the coalition's defining principle, that survivorship begins at diagnosis, continues to influence cancer care, research, policy, and the way millions of people understand life after cancer.RELATED LINKSNational Coalition for Cancer SurvivorshipNational Cancer Institute Office of Cancer SurvivorshipThe New England Journal of MedicineAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA.gov)Library of Congress | Civil Rights History ProjectWhite Coat, Clenched Fist by Fitzhugh MullanFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dr. Ted Lain welcomes Dr. Mona Shariari — Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, Associate Director of Clinical Trials at Central Connecticut Dermatology, and host of the Medical Sisterhood Podcast — for a deep dive into one of dermatology's most persistent challenges: polypharmacy and topical confusion.Ted and Mona look back at the old-school regimens dermatologists used to write out — one topical for the face, another for the body, different products for weekdays versus weekends — and how that complexity set patients up for poor adherence and side effects like skin thinning and hypopigmentation from steroid overuse. They discuss why once-daily, non-steroidal options like roflumilast cream and foam have changed the equation, allowing head-to-toe use without the body surface area and duration limits that come with topical steroids.Got a question or an idea for a future episode? Email questions@scienceofskinsummit.comJoin us at the Science of Skin Summit in Austin, TX this September, and the Science of Skin Longevity Summit in Scottsdale, AZ in February 2027. Details at scienceofskinsummit.comIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating — word of mouth is how this podcast grows!Follow and Listen to the Podcast Here:
Dr. Ted Lain welcomes Dr. Mona Shariari — Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, Associate Director of Clinical Trials at Central Connecticut Dermatology, and host of the Medical Sisterhood Podcast — for a deep dive into one of dermatology's most persistent challenges: polypharmacy and topical confusion.Ted and Mona look back at the old-school regimens dermatologists used to write out — one topical for the face, another for the body, different products for weekdays versus weekends — and how that complexity set patients up for poor adherence and side effects like skin thinning and hypopigmentation from steroid overuse. They discuss why once-daily, non-steroidal options like roflumilast (Zoryve) cream and foam have changed the equation, allowing head-to-toe use without the body surface area and duration limits that come with topical steroids.Topics covered include:Why systemic absorption is a bigger concern with topical steroids in pediatric patientsClinical trial insights on roflumilast for seborrheic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasisThe foam formulation's use in sensitive areas like the scalp, face, and skin foldsHow roflumilast compares to older PDE4 inhibitors and topical calcineurin inhibitorsWhy the drug's mechanism works across both TH1- and TH2-driven inflammationThe impact of once-daily dosing on patient compliance and long-term outcomesPractical tips for talking to patients transitioning off topical steroidsThis episode is sponsored by Arcutis Biotherapeutics, makers of Zoryve (roflumilast).Got a question or an idea for a future episode? Email questions@scienceofskinsummit.comJoin us at the Science of Skin Summit in Austin, TX this September, and the Science of Skin Longevity Summit in Scottsdale, AZ in February 2027. Details at scienceofskinsummit.comIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating — word of mouth is how this podcast grows!
What if AI could help bring the right drug to the right patient faster? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Dr. Louise Liu, CEO of Hill Research, to discuss her journey from biostatistics and AI to building technology that can help accelerate the clinical trial process. Louise shares how her PhD work, postdoctoral research at Yale, and experience building her first AI startup shaped the foundation for Hill Research. The conversation explores the long, expensive, and highly regulated path of drug development, where clinical trials can take years and cost billions of dollars. Louise explains how Hill Research is using AI to automate data processing and biostatistical workflows that have traditionally required large teams and months of manual work. With its TriClick™ platform, Hill Research helps pharmaceutical and biotech companies move faster while supporting human validation, quality control, and regulatory readiness. John and Louise also discuss Hill Research's traction with major pharmaceutical companies, the company's goal to expand from big pharma into mid-sized and smaller biotech companies, and the broader opportunity to reduce clinical trial timelines. As a Jetstream Venture Fund portfolio company, Hill Research represents the kind of AI-driven healthcare innovation Xcellerant looks to support. Beyond the technology, the episode covers entrepreneurship, resilience, immigration, being a woman founder in a heavily regulated industry, and the importance of focusing on the work rather than the noise. Louise shares advice for founders: do not build imagined barriers in front of yourself, stay focused on creating something valuable, and keep improving based on real customer feedback. About Dr. Louise Liu: Dr. Louise Liu is CEO of Hill Research, creator of TriClick™, an AI platform transforming clinical trials, and author of 30+ AI publications. She serves as Treasurer of UCACF and has been recognized as a Serica Rising Star Entrepreneur, Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, and New Jersey Innovate100 honoree. About Hill Research: Hill Research is a healthcare AI company developing agentic AI solutions to accelerate clinical development. Its flagship platform, TriClick™, automates clinical trial workflows from protocol design and data management to statistical programming, quality control, and regulatory submissions. Trusted by leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Hill Research helps teams deliver faster, more efficient, and audit-ready clinical research. About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, Xcellerant partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets. About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream Venture Fund is an interval fund managed by Xcellerant Ventures, that seeks to provide investors access to early-stage, high-growth companies with flexible terms, lower minimums ($5,000 minimum), and no carried interest. Jetstream is one of the first funds of its kind, bringing venture-style investing opportunities to a wider professional audience. Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing jetstream@sweaterfunds.com or by visiting www.jvf.vc. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.
In this episode, I talk with Ning Leng, Ph.D., Director II, Data and AI Acceleration Group, Data & Statistical Sciences at AbbVie, about the growing role of the R Consortium in the pharmaceutical industry. Ning brings extensive experience in statistics, computational genomics, open-source technology, and the adoption of R across the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining AbbVie, she spent 10 years at Roche Genentech, where she helped drive the adoption of R, cloud technologies, Git, and Shiny. We discuss how the R Consortium creates a platform for statisticians, programmers, pharmaceutical companies, and regulators to collaborate on practical challenges—and how that collaboration is changing the way we approach regulatory submissions.
In a small, eight-week trial, participants who drank 1 liter of hydrogen-rich water daily showed higher GLP-1 levels than those drinking plain water Participants who consumed hydrogen-rich water experienced substantially larger reductions in food cravings than those who drank regular water, which may make it easier to resist unnecessary snacking The strongest improvements occurred in physical hunger-related cravings, which may reflect an effect on the body's appetite signals rather than simple appetite suppression, though the study did not test this mechanism directly Along with supporting appetite regulation, hydrogen-rich water improved subjective sleep quality and lowered both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol without causing serious adverse effects Combining hydrogen-rich water with better gut health, adequate protein, easy-to-digest carbohydrates and the removal of seed oils may help create an environment where your body's natural appetite-control system can work more effectively
After working exclusively with male mice while looking for a treatment for type 1 diabetes, Dr Ella Hubber begins to uncover a much bigger issue: modern medicine is not built equally for everyone. Along with journalist Chhavi Sachdev, she explores how decades of clinical research have overlooked women with serious consequences.Through expert interviews, they examine how women were historically excluded from clinical trials, why biological differences matter in how drugs work, and how this has led to higher rates of side effects. The story reveals how gaps in research continue to shape women's healthcare today. As awareness grows, they also ask what change can look like. More representative trials, pharmaceutical companies held accountable, and medicine finally built for everyone.Presenter/Producer: Ella Hubber Researcher: Elliott Prince Editor: Ilan Goodman
Send us Fan MailLate preterm babies born by cesarean fill our NICUs, and most of them are there for respiratory distress that resolves in a day or two. Could 20 minutes of CPAP in the operating room keep them out? This week on Journal Club, Ben and Daphna break down the PLaNT trial, a five center randomized pilot of prophylactic CPAP at 5 to 6 cm of water in spontaneously breathing infants born at 34 to 36 weeks by cesarean. They then sit down with senior author Dr. Edgardo Szyld to talk pneumothorax risk, the 35 to 36 week subgroup, consenting families, and what PLaNT 2 must prove.----Prophylactic CPAP at Cesarean Birth in Late-Preterm Newborns: A Multicenter RCT. Shah BA, DeShea L, Schmölzer GM, Josephsen JB, Fabres J, Wetzel EA, Rykovich H, Thomas A, Law B, Garrido C, Szyld E.Pediatrics. 2026 Aug 1;158(2):e2025070998. doi: 10.1542/peds.2025-070998.PMID: 42457181 Clinical Trial.Association Between Delivery Room Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and Neonatal Outcomes in Late Preterm and Term Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Chin Y, Hill M, Sett A, Thomas N, Razak A.J Paediatr Child Health. 2026 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/jpc.70516. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42517258 Review.Support the showAs always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below.Enjoy!
Kalshi plans to let people place bets on the outcomes of some late-stage clinical trials. A father whose young son is undergoing cancer treatment calls that ‘unconscionable' — and potentially dangerous. As UN experts condemn new US sanctions on Cuba, we reach a woman in the countryside who tells us the ongoing blockade has made an already unreliable power system unbearable for many. People in Spokane, Washington had already been grappling with devastating wildfires. And, now police say a man has admitted to lighting one of those fires intentionally. We reach a woman in Yellowknife who's attempting to solve an unusual mystery: where the time capsule her high school class stashed away decades ago has gone. 150 years ago, Charles Darwin had a hunch that one particularly sticky plant he'd studied was actually carnivorous. For years, that theory went unconfirmed...until now. Look before you sleep. A television anchor in Memphis, Tennessee was so exhausted from mom duties that she had a nap, live on air. But viewers don't appear to mind her sleeping on the job. As It Happens, the Friday Edition. Radio that brings you all the latest snooze.
Today's Special Topic is The Role of Clinical Trials with experts Gray Kirby, PharmD, Dr. Katherine Ansley, Medical Oncologist with Atrium Health, and Dr. Kathleen Elliot, Medical Oncologist, Novant Health. Our experts addresses several questions including: What is a clinical trial? How do I find a clinical trial? Will my oncologist have access to a clinical trial? Who responsible for a clinical trial and who pays for it? Who protects my rights in a clinical trial? How do I know what tests and procedures will be done on me during a clinical trial? What are my commitments to the trial? How do I know if the trial is safe? What are the potential benefits? How long does it take for a new drug to get on the market and what is the cost? To watch the recording, or see other expert interviews, visit https://cancerservicesonline.org/experts
In this podcast episode, Gilles Salles, MD, PhD, and Pier Luigi Zinzani, MD, PhD, discuss the role of new and emerging targeted therapies in the management of patients with DLBCL, including: Overview of Unmet Needs With Current Standard of Care in DLBCL Expanding Role of Novel Agents in DLBCL Access to Targeted Therapies and Clinical Trials in Non-Academic DLBCL Practice Key Ongoing Trials of new and novel agents in DLBCL Key Presentations/Results at EHA 2026 in DLBCL Presenters: Gilles Salles, MD, PhD Service Chief, Lymphoma Service Steven Greenberg Chair Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Weill Cornell University New York, New York Pier Luigi Zinzani, MD, PhD Professor of Hematology Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna Head, “Seràgnoli” Institute of Hematology IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences Bologna University School of Medicine Bologna, Italy Link to full program:https://bit.ly/4gmyoS7 Get access to all of our new podcasts by subscribing to the Decera Clinical Education Oncology Podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, or Spotify. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, transforming cancer research with an unprecedented federal investment and launching what became known as the War on Cancer. The legislation did not emerge from scientific discovery alone. It was the culmination of decades of relentless advocacy by researchers, philanthropists, journalists, and patients who believed cancer demanded the same national commitment that had put astronauts on the Moon.This episode traces the origins of the cancer survivorship movement by returning to a time when cancer was rarely discussed in public, many physicians withheld diagnoses from their patients, and surgery offered few lasting cures. It follows the pioneering work of pathologist Dr. Sidney Farber, whose early chemotherapy research challenged conventional thinking, and Mary Lasker, whose political strategy, fundraising, and public campaigns helped transform cancer from a private tragedy into a national public health priority. Together, they built the coalition that reshaped federal support for oncology research and forever changed the relationship between science, government, and the American public.The story then turns to journalist and breast cancer survivor Rose Kushner, whose refusal to accept the standard one-step radical mastectomy challenged nearly a century of surgical dogma. Working alongside surgeon Dr. Bernard Fisher, Kushner helped bring evidence-based medicine to breast cancer treatment through randomized clinical trials that demonstrated less invasive surgery could achieve equivalent outcomes. Their efforts changed clinical practice, strengthened informed consent, and helped establish the principle that patients should participate in decisions about their own care.The breakthroughs explored in this episode extended far beyond new treatments. They redefined the role of patients in medicine, accelerated clinical research, and laid the foundation for modern cancer survivorship. The movement that followed would not simply help more people live longer. It would change what surviving cancer meant.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer InstituteNational Cancer Act of 1971American Cancer SocietyDana-Farber Cancer InstituteNational Library of MedicineThe New England Journal of MedicineFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Recorded at EHRA 2026, this episode of The Lead features host Melissa Middeldorp, MPH, PhD, FHRS, in conversation with Sana Al-Khatib, MD, MHS, FHRS, and Wei Hua, MD, FHRS, about the journal article, Conduction System vs Biventricular Pacing in Heart Failure: The PhysioSync-HF Randomized Clinical Trial. Together, they discuss the findings of the PhysioSync-HF randomized clinical trial, comparing conduction system pacing with biventricular pacing in patients with heart failure and exploring the potential implications for clinical practice. Learning Objectives: Review the design and key findings of the PhysioSync-HF randomized clinical trial comparing conduction system pacing and biventricular pacing in patients with heart failure. Discuss the differences between conduction system pacing and biventricular pacing as evaluated in the PhysioSync-HF trial. Examine the potential clinical implications of the trial findings for pacing strategies in patients with heart failure. Host: Melissa Middeldorp, MPH, PhD, FHRS Guests: Sana Al-Khatib, MD, MHS, FHRS and Wei Hua, MD, FHRS Disclosures: M. Middeldorp · No relevant disclosures S. Al-Khatib · Other Financial Relationship: American Heart Association W. Hua · No relevant disclosures
Long before cancer survivors organized into a movement, Hollywood had already shaped how Americans understood the disease. Films rarely used the word “cancer,” physicians often withheld diagnoses from patients, and the people who survived were almost nowhere to be found on screen.Recorded before The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship became a documentary series, this bonus conversation explores where the project first began. Matthew Zachary sits down with his mother, Roz Greenzweig, a retired educator and lifelong film enthusiast whose memories of classic cinema became an unexpected lens for understanding how cancer was portrayed throughout the twentieth century.Together, they revisit landmark films including Dark Victory, Love Story, and other iconic portrayals that reflected an era when cancer was treated as unspeakable, inevitable, and almost always fatal. Their conversation contrasts those carefully constructed Hollywood narratives with the lived reality of a family confronting a brain cancer diagnosis in 1995, revealing how popular culture both reflected and reinforced the fears surrounding the disease.The discussion also foreshadows many of the themes explored throughout the documentary series: the evolution of patient advocacy, the emergence of cancer survivorship, the role of caregivers, and the power of storytelling to influence public understanding. Before policy changed, before advocacy organizations grew into national movements, conversations like these were already challenging long-held assumptions about what cancer looked like and who had the right to tell its story.Consider this the prologue to The Cancer Mavericks. Before the movement found its history, it began with a family trying to make sense of the stories they had inherited.RELATED LINKSAmerican Cancer SocietyNational Cancer InstituteAmerican Film InstituteER (NBC)50/50 (Official)Chasing Life (ABC Family Archive)FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Questions? Email podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Is it possible to regulate AI before the next generation pays the price for our inaction?In this episode of Your AI Injection, host Deep Dhillon talks with Jai Jaisimha, founder of Transparency Coalition.AI, about what it would actually take to hold the AI industry accountable. Jai explains why protecting kids is his top priority, especially as companion chatbots quietly become confidants for millions. He shares one tragic case that's become a rallying point for new legislation: a chatbot conversation that started as homework help and spiraled into self-harm. Deep and Jai dig into why this keeps happening. Safety filtering costs money, and too often companies choose to save it instead of protecting users, leaving AI development stuck in a black box where safety reports have quietly disappeared. Could independent testing force the transparency this industry has avoided for years, or is it already too late?Learn more about Jai here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaijaisimha/ and Transparency Coalition.AI here: https://www.transparencycoalition.ai/Check out some of our related content here: Does Your Chatbot Know You're Suicidal? AI Empathy, Psychosis Detection, and Clinical Trials with Grin Lord of mpathic Can Hackers Hijack Your Chatbot? How RAG Systems and Other API Endpoints Can Create Data Portals for Cyber Intruders with Keith Hoodlet of Trail of Bits Will AI Take Over Student Advising? The Impact of Bots on College Success with Andrew Magliozzi of Mainstay
For most of the last forty years, irritable bowel syndrome was treated as a problem of the gut alone. The idea that the brain plays a central role took decades to gain acceptance, and it remains contested today.In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Dr. Erin Mauney, a pediatric gastroenterologist and researcher at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, who has completed one of the first clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted therapy for patients with treatment-resistant IBS.They discuss why a compound acting primarily on the brain might change how the gut is experienced, what happens when the brain's prediction machinery becomes locked into a cycle of pain and anticipation, and why the therapy surrounding the dosing sessions may matter as much as the molecule itself.The conversation also takes on the harder questions. How do you run a placebo-controlled trial when every participant knows they received the drug? Can the psychedelic experience be engineered out of psychedelic medicine, and what is lost if it is? And what can practices used ritually for millennia still teach a reductionist Western model of care?This is early-stage science, and Dr. Mauney is refreshingly clear about the limits of what is currently known. It is also a glimpse at what the next chapter of brain-gut medicine might look like.Topics discussed include:• Why IBS is best understood as a disorder of gut-brain interaction• How the brain's predictive coding can become locked into chronic pain• What psilocybin-assisted therapy actually involves, session by session• Whether the psychedelic experience itself is essential to the benefit• The placebo problem in psychedelic trials, and why it may be unsolvable• How long the benefits appear to last after treatment ends• Where psychedelic research in gastroenterology may be headedThis is a careful, evidence-based conversation for anyone interested in IBS, chronic pain, and the future of brain-gut medicine.Chapters:0:00 - Introduction3:23 - IBS as a Brain-Gut Disorder7:40 - Entering Psychedelic Research13:22 - How Psilocybin Could Affect the Gut15:43 - Inside the Trial17:50 - The Brain and Pain Prediction21:18 - Side Effects and Patient Experience25:40 - Does the Psychedelic Experience Matter?29:57 - Ritual and Western Medicine32:15 - The Placebo Question36:33 - Combining Therapies39:10 - Brain Imaging40:56 - Practical Challenges44:07 - Durability of Benefits47:23 - Overlap With Other Conditions49:28 - Where the Research Goes Next54:11 - Looking Ahead
For most of the last forty years, irritable bowel syndrome was treated as a problem of the gut alone. The idea that the brain plays a central role took decades to gain acceptance, and it remains contested today.In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Dr. Erin Mauney, a pediatric gastroenterologist and researcher at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, who has completed one of the first clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted therapy for patients with treatment-resistant IBS.They discuss why a compound acting primarily on the brain might change how the gut is experienced, what happens when the brain's prediction machinery becomes locked into a cycle of pain and anticipation, and why the therapy surrounding the dosing sessions may matter as much as the molecule itself.The conversation also takes on the harder questions. How do you run a placebo-controlled trial when every participant knows they received the drug? Can the psychedelic experience be engineered out of psychedelic medicine, and what is lost if it is? And what can practices used ritually for millennia still teach a reductionist Western model of care?This is early-stage science, and Dr. Mauney is refreshingly clear about the limits of what is currently known. It is also a glimpse at what the next chapter of brain-gut medicine might look like.Topics discussed include:• Why IBS is best understood as a disorder of gut-brain interaction• How the brain's predictive coding can become locked into chronic pain• What psilocybin-assisted therapy actually involves, session by session• Whether the psychedelic experience itself is essential to the benefit• The placebo problem in psychedelic trials, and why it may be unsolvable• How long the benefits appear to last after treatment ends• Where psychedelic research in gastroenterology may be headedThis is a careful, evidence-based conversation for anyone interested in IBS, chronic pain, and the future of brain-gut medicine.Chapters:0:00 - Introduction3:23 - IBS as a Brain-Gut Disorder7:40 - Entering Psychedelic Research13:22 - How Psilocybin Could Affect the Gut15:43 - Inside the Trial17:50 - The Brain and Pain Prediction21:18 - Side Effects and Patient Experience25:40 - Does the Psychedelic Experience Matter?29:57 - Ritual and Western Medicine32:15 - The Placebo Question36:33 - Combining Therapies39:10 - Brain Imaging40:56 - Practical Challenges44:07 - Durability of Benefits47:23 - Overlap With Other Conditions49:28 - Where the Research Goes Next54:11 - Looking Ahead
Alec's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alec-spinelli/My Free tools for sites and researchers: https://coordinare.co/Free EDC Tool: https://crc-edc-sandbox.netlify.app/My substack FREE: https://substack.com/@dansfera1?r=27gh4e&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profileInato: https://go.inato.com/3VnSro6CRIO: http://www.clinicalresearch.ioMy PatientACE recruitment company: https://patientace.com/Join me at my conference! http://www.saveoursites.comText Me: (949) 415-6256Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JF6FNvoLnBpfIrLNCcg7aGET THE BOOK! https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Guide-Clinical-Research-Practical/dp/1090349521/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Dan+Sfera&qid=1691974540&s=audible&sr=1-1-catcorrText "guru" to 855-942-5288 to join VIP list!My blog: http://www.TheClinicalTrialsGuru.comMy CRC Academy: http://www.TheCRCacademy.comMy TikTok: DanSfera
Naturopathic gastroenterologist Mark Davis, ND (FABNG), discusses his work in fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), research, and integrative approaches to GI disease. Davis explains FMT history, screening criteria, delivery methods, how it differs from probiotics, and why it is highly effective for recurrent C. difficile (about a 90% durable cure), while noting FDA-approved products (Rebyota, Vowst) and off-label applications. He describes IRB-approved studies on naturopathic care for IBS and ulcerative colitis and a blinded project comparing consistency across 15–20 stool microbiome labs. The conversation covers evidence for diet in IBS/IBD (including SCD and a semi-vegetarian diet), low-FODMAP as a temporary tool, breath testing and relapse in SIBO, helminthic therapy options and legality, targeted probiotics (Saccharomyces boulardii, Akkermansia, soil-based species), enema therapies, indigo naturalis benefits and risks, saffron evidence for mood, telemedicine practice, and a crowdfunding platform for clinical trials.
In this episode of Oncology Unscripted, hosts Mark Liu and Deirdre Saulet speak with Arif Kamal, MD, Chief Patient Officer at the American Cancer Society (ACS). Dr. Kamal discusses his recent appointment to this inaugural role at ACS, leading into a conversation about how he expects the cancer care field to evolve. Namely, a shift for providers toward building a skillset for compassionate patient conversations, a shift toward self-administered treatment modalities whenever possible, and new payment models for multi-cancer early detection tests. Dr. Kamal also shares how ACS's recently launched Access to Clinical Trials and Support program—an education-forward initiative designed is helping to reduce the challenges and barriers patients face when enrolling in clinical trials. "When you think about...the goal of cancer care...it's about more and better days. It is a false choice to choose between one or the other...As we're getting people to the other side [of treatment], are we leaving them financially devastated, significantly lonely, without support around them?" – Arif Kamal, MD Arif Kamal, MD Chief Patient Officer American Cancer Society To submit a topic of discussion to the podcast, please email mark.liu@mountsinai.org and deirdre.saulet@hellojasper.com. The 2026 Oncology Unscripted series is exclusively sponsored by Advarra. Resources Spirituality and Cultural Humility: Core Components of Comprehensive Palliative Care Together As One: Advancing Joy, Resilience, and Peer Support in Oncology Care Oncology Unscripted: Transforming Palliative Care in Oncology
Rebecca Bloom is a former employee benefits and executive compensation attorney who spent more than 25 years helping women navigate cancer, work, insurance, disability coverage, and financial survival. She is the founder and author of When Women Get Sick, a book built from decades inside the legal, workplace, and patient advocacy systems most people only discover after diagnosis.Bloom started in Big Law at Simpson Thacher handling employee benefits and compensation work she originally chose to pay off student loans. Then her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly the language she used in corporate law offices became the language of survival at home. Explanation of benefits forms. Coverage disputes. Second opinions. Disability protections. Medical leave. Bills no one could explain.That collision changed the direction of her life.In this episode, Bloom explains how serious illness quietly turns patients into unpaid administrators managing paperwork, logistics, financial risk, and emotional labor while trying to survive treatment. She breaks down how employer based health insurance shapes nearly every aspect of cancer care in America and why women often carry the invisible burden of protecting everyone else from discomfort while they themselves fall apart.The conversation digs into workplace power, the illusion of the healthcare “safety net,” caregiver exhaustion, and the class divide hiding underneath patient empowerment culture. Bloom explains why educated, insured women with resources still struggle to navigate healthcare bureaucracy and what happens to patients without those advantages.This episode explores cancer care, health insurance, employee benefits, patient advocacy, workplace protections, caregiving, and the structural incentives that force sick people to become project managers of their own survival.RELATED LINKSRebecca BloomWhen Women Get SickBay Area Cancer ConnectionsSimpson Thacher & BartlettFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Omari Richins, MPH of Public Health Careers podcast talks with Dr. Anthony Cornelius Gittens, DrPH, CHES.He shares his journey in public health, emphasizing the importance of community engagement, representation in clinical trials, and the role of language and culture in shaping public health initiatives. He discusses his current role as a community clinical manager, the challenges of building trust with historically underrepresented communities, and the significance of community health workers. Dr. Gittens also reflects on his educational journey and the lessons learned along the way, advocating for a public health approach that prioritizes equity and access for all. In this conversation, Dr. Anthony Gittens shares his journey into public health, highlighting transformative experiences in Colombia that shaped his perspective. He discusses the importance of education in public health, particularly his master's and doctoral studies, and emphasizes the need for leadership and community engagement in the field. Dr. Gittens reflects on his various roles in public health, the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the significance of networking and personal development for aspiring public health professionals.
The post The PASI Paradigm Shift: How Higher Clinical Trial Endpoints Are Reshaping Dermatology appeared first on JDDonline - Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.
Darline Medina's daughter Brooklyn was full of health for the 1st 2 years of her life until the winter of 2023 when Brooklyn began to experience abnormal movements in her left eye. Her eye looked okay when examined by an eye doctor but her walking did not look okay and this led to her diagnosis of DIPG. Brooklyn's diagnosis took place in April of 2023 but her life span from that day until her passing on February 17th of 2024, was just 10 months, and took place one month before her 4th birthday.
Mark Larkin, Founder and CEO of Vitaccess, leverages real-world patient data captured through mobile devices and wearables, combined with EMRs, claims data, and registries, to generate insights beyond the scope of traditional clinical trials. The company maintains proprietary disease registries, notably in myasthenia gravis, enabling researchers to compare treatment efficacy, side effects, and patient adherence to therapies in their daily lives. By linking diverse data sources and identifying comorbidities, the platform informs drug development, regulatory decisions, and the personalization of treatment matching. Mark explains, "Our mission is about patient-centric, science-driven research. That's how we do real-world research. We think that's a powerful way to combine scientific rigor with putting the patient at the heart of what we do. People are probably familiar with the idea that real-world data and real-world evidence are complementary to clinical trials. They don't have the same levels of scrutiny or the same designs, but nonetheless, if we do it properly, we should make it as rigorous as possible so the data can be used by many different audiences. Putting the patient at the heart of our designs means we can be in the best position to quantify the patient experience. That's really what we do, perhaps in the simplest terms." "Well, I'd say that real-world data is a very broad church. There's lots of different types of data. Where I think you are referring to is data generated directly from patients, the patient-reported data. And I'll come back to that in a second, but it also includes a wide range of other data types and sources. So it could be electronic medical records. In the United States, very commonly it's claims data. There are registries." #Vitaccess #RealWorldEvidence #PatientCentricity #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #PatientReportedOutcomes #Wearables #RareDisease #HealthData #PatientInsights #RWE #HEOR #MyastheniaGravis #CIDP vitaccess.com Download the transcript here
Mark Larkin, Founder and CEO of Vitaccess, leverages real-world patient data captured through mobile devices and wearables, combined with EMRs, claims data, and registries, to generate insights beyond the scope of traditional clinical trials. The company maintains proprietary disease registries, notably in myasthenia gravis, enabling researchers to compare treatment efficacy, side effects, and patient adherence to therapies in their daily lives. By linking diverse data sources and identifying comorbidities, the platform informs drug development, regulatory decisions, and the personalization of treatment matching. Mark explains, "Our mission is about patient-centric, science-driven research. That's how we do real-world research. We think that's a powerful way to combine scientific rigor with putting the patient at the heart of what we do. People are probably familiar with the idea that real-world data and real-world evidence are complementary to clinical trials. They don't have the same levels of scrutiny or the same designs, but nonetheless, if we do it properly, we should make it as rigorous as possible so the data can be used by many different audiences. Putting the patient at the heart of our designs means we can be in the best position to quantify the patient experience. That's really what we do, perhaps in the simplest terms." "Well, I'd say that real-world data is a very broad church. There's lots of different types of data. Where I think you are referring to is data generated directly from patients, the patient-reported data. And I'll come back to that in a second, but it also includes a wide range of other data types and sources. So it could be electronic medical records. In the United States, very commonly it's claims data. There are registries." #Vitaccess #RealWorldEvidence #PatientCentricity #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #PatientReportedOutcomes #Wearables #RareDisease #HealthData #PatientInsights #RWE #HEOR #MyastheniaGravis #CIDP vitaccess.com Listen to the podcast here
Sepul Bio recently announced that it completed enrollment of its Phase 2b safety and efficacy clinical trial for ultevursen – an investigational RNA therapy to treat patients who have retinitis pigmentosa (RP) associated with mutations in the USH2A gene.
Dr. Karen Adams, obstetrician/gynecologist and Farwell Family Director of the Stanford Program in Menopause and Healthy Aging, studies menopause and, perhaps more importantly, perimenopause – the critical years preceding it. During this time, hormone-related symptoms like mood instability, sleep disruption, hot flashes, and joint pain can be severe even though periods continue. Adams explains that perimenopausal symptoms are often misdiagnosed and improperly treated. She says hormonal therapies are safe and effective in perimenopause and menopause, and can even have heart and bone benefits. “Menopause is inevitable, but suffering is not,” Adams tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything podcast. Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu. Episode Reference Links: Stanford Profile: Karen Adams Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>> Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Chapters: (00:00:00) Introduction Russ Altman introduces guest Karen Adams, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University. (00:02:11) Path into Menopause Medicine How Adams built one of the first clinical programs focused on women over 40. (00:04:19) Menopause and Perimenopause What menopause is and how the hormonal transition often begins years earlier. (00:06:19) Beyond Hot Flashes The wide range of symptoms that can appear during perimenopause. (00:11:09) Pregnancy Risk During Perimenopause Why contraception can still matter until a full year without a period. (00:11:11) Unpredictable Symptoms Why perimenopausal symptoms can be harder to recognize than PMS. (00:13:37) Hormone Therapy How treatment differs during perimenopause and after menopause. (00:22:57) The Women's Health Initiative What the landmark hormone therapy study showed. (00:27:53) Sexual Health and Vaginal Estrogen Why local estrogen can safely treat genitourinary symptoms for many women. (00:30:36) Future In a Minute Rapid-fire Q&A: menopause care, women's health, and better clinical support (00:32:58) Conclusion Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What does it take to set a complex global clinical trial up for success? In this episode of Moving Medicine Forward, we are joined by Megan Kamm, Senior Vice President of Client Delivery, and Josh Schroeder, Vice President of Site & Field Operations, to discuss how strong planning, site partnerships, and cross-functional collaboration drive successful trial execution. From feasibility and study startup to patient centered decision-making, biometrics strategy, and global expansion, they share insights into the operational challenge —and opportunities—behind bringing innovative therapies to patients faster. 01:22 Megan Kamm and Josh Schroeder discuss their expanded leadership roles and growing collaboration across teams. 03:44 Why feasibility, country strategy, and study startup are critical to trial success. 05:07 The importance of site partnerships, patient experience, and reducing operational burden.06:16 How project managers, CRAs, data managers, and site teams work together to execute complex trials. 07:01 Common startup challenges and strategies for keeping studies on track. 08:13 Managing patient-centered logistics in rare disease and cell & gene therapy programs. 11:15 Real-world examples of strong coordination improving enrollment and accelerating timelines. 13:19 The growing role of biometrics, statistics, and risk-based monitoring in study execution. 15:15 Scaling global teams through consistent training, leadership alignment, and operational excellence. 16:48 What differentiates CTI: collaboration, service, and a deep commitment to patients. 18:59 Looking ahead: AI, technology, startup optimization, and continued global growth. 21:05 Opportunities and challenges of expanding operations in China and the APAC region.
A sugar pill shouldn't work as well as a real drug ... except sometimes it does. In this episode, we explore the fascinating science of the placebo effect and how expectations can shape biological outcomes. From open-label placebos and AI healthcare chatbots to the nocebo effect, we unpack what scientists know, what they still don't understand, and why the placebo response is still largely mysterious. Check out Spirits here or wherever you listen to podcasts!A transcript and references for this episode can be found at acs.org/tinymatters.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Plus: Carl Icahn's company agrees to sell auto-service chain Pep Boys. And Ukraine strikes a deal with defense company BAE Systems to manufacture howitzers locally. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Vasanta Pundarika built her career inside healthcare investment banking before launching Lotuspring, an advisory firm focused on women's health and behavioral health. She spent nearly 20 years advising healthcare systems, treatment providers, and growth stage companies on mergers, financing, and operational strategy while watching the industry repeatedly misunderstand the people it claimed to serve.The conversation starts unexpectedly with anthropology, bread, and language. Vasanta explains how she spent years changing the pronunciation of her own name to make other people comfortable before eventually reclaiming it. That thread opens into a much larger discussion about adaptation, identity, and what institutions quietly train people to tolerate.From there, the discussion moves into behavioral health, women delaying care, and the invisible labor that healthcare business models routinely ignore. During COVID, Vasanta noticed men's behavioral health units refilled faster than women's units. The reason had nothing to do with demand. Women were still home managing caregiving responsibilities, children, aging parents, and households while their own mental health collapsed in the background.The episode examines what happens when healthcare companies become “snazzy big brands” before building real clinical substance underneath. Vasanta describes the tension between mission and margin inside healthcare startups, private equity backed care models, and behavioral health expansion. The conversation pushes on who benefits when healthcare scales aggressively, who absorbs the operational pressure, and how patient trust erodes long before executives notice it on a dashboard.They also discuss patient advocacy culture, anthropology as systems analysis, healthcare capitalism, prior authorization, investor language, and why some clinically excellent companies never survive long enough to scale.RELATED LINKSVasanta PundarikaLotuspringWomen's Health HorizonsSakhi for South Asian SurvivorsNACDPrinceton University Anthropology DepartmentFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dr. Justin Abbatemarco and Sukhun Kang discuss seeding trials and other hidden marketing tactics in clinical trials, and their implications for clinical practice and patient care. Show citation: Kang S, Lin I, Ekblom M, and Chang S. Clinical trials that are actually marketing ploys targeting doctors – how seeding trials put profit over patients. The Conversation. 2026;6(5). doi:10.64628/AAI.cxdfhnh9s
Brad Power spent years advising major corporations on systems design, process engineering, and decision making before lymphoma shoved him into the patient side of American healthcare. Instead of accepting the experience at face value, he started reverse engineering the machinery around cancer itself. Brad is the founder of Cancer Patient Lab and Open Cancer AI, two projects built around a blunt reality most patients discover too late: the healthcare system rewards people who know how to navigate it. Everyone else risks getting steamrolled by information asymmetry, insurance barriers, administrative friction, and institutional incentives designed around efficiency instead of human survival.The conversation starts with Harvard Business Review and Tumblr blogs before moving directly into the darker architecture underneath modern cancer care. Power explains how hospitals optimize for throughput, how insurance companies reward operational consistency over personalized medicine, and why many patients quietly end up needing a crash course in oncology, reimbursement policy, and behavioral psychology while fighting for their lives.The discussion digs into CAR-T therapy, functional testing, AI assisted decision support, and the growing collision between personalized medicine and standardized care pathways. Power argues that engaged patients often get better outcomes because they learn how to push for off guideline treatments, contest denials, and ask smarter questions. The counterpoint lands hard: patients should never have needed to become experts in the first place.The episode also explores the cultural consequences of AI entering cancer care. OpenAI advertising, data privacy, trust erosion, pharmaceutical influence, and “agentic AI” all collide inside a healthcare economy already drowning in distrust. Power sees artificial intelligence as a force multiplier for patient literacy and access. The larger system still decides who gets approved, who gets delayed, and who gets left behind.By the end, the conversation lands exactly where modern healthcare keeps forcing people to land: survival increasingly depends on learning how the machine works before the machine works on you.RELATED LINKSBrad PowerCancer Patient LabOpen Cancer AIHarvard Business ReviewResearch to the PeopleCAR T Cell TherapyFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In March, China became the first country to approve an invasive brain-computer interface beyond clinical trials. The implant, called NEO, is now available to some patients with limb paralysis due to a spinal cord injury. Ira talks with Wired staff writer Emily Mullin about the significance of this milestone. Plus, brain implants aren't the only development: China's entire biotech industry has skyrocketed in recent years. A decade ago, about 8% of new drug molecules were discovered in China. Now it's over 40%. And more clinical trials are now being conducted there than in the U.S. or Europe. Ira talks with health policy researcher So-Yeon Kang, who's been following the Chinese pharma industry's meteoric rise. Guests: Emily Mullin is a staff writer at Wired. Dr. So-Yeon Kang is an Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University. Other episodes you may enjoy: Advances In Brain-Computer Interfaces For People With Paralysis How China Is Driving Down Electricity Costs With Renewables Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Dr. Justin Abbatemarco talks with Sukhun Kang about seeding trials and other hidden marketing tactics in clinical trials, and their implications for clinical practice and patient care. Read the related article on The Conversation. Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org.