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In 1987, Mary P. Lovato, a member of Kewa Pueblo in New Mexico, was diagnosed with acute leukemia. To receive a bone marrow transplant, she had to travel more than 800 miles from home because specialized cancer care was unavailable through the Indian Health Service. When she returned, she discovered another obstacle: many in her community feared cancer so deeply that they avoided speaking about it altogether.This episode examines how cancer survivorship exposed profound inequities in the American healthcare system. Long before health equity became a national priority, advocates from underserved communities were confronting disparities rooted in geography, poverty, racism, language, underfunded healthcare systems, and historical mistrust of medical institutions. Their work demonstrated that scientific advances alone cannot improve survival if patients cannot reach, afford, or trust the care available to them.The story follows pioneers including Mary P. Lovato, who built the first national Native-led cancer support and education program for Indigenous communities, and Maimah Karmo, founder of the Tigerlily Foundation, whose breast cancer diagnosis inspired a movement to improve early detection, clinical trial participation, and representation for Black women. Their advocacy challenged longstanding barriers to culturally competent care while highlighting persistent inequities in access to screening, fertility preservation, navigation, and innovative treatments.The episode also explores why diversity in clinical research matters. For decades, many cancer clinical trials disproportionately enrolled White patients, limiting both access to promising therapies and the scientific understanding of how treatments perform across different populations. Researchers, patient advocates, and community leaders responded by redesigning outreach, improving patient navigation, reducing logistical barriers, and insisting that affected communities help shape the research itself.Cancer survivorship cannot be measured solely by scientific breakthroughs. It also depends on whether every patient has a meaningful opportunity to benefit from them. The pursuit of health equity remains one of the defining challenges and enduring responsibilities of modern oncology.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute | Cancer Health DisparitiesIndian Health ServiceTigerlily FoundationNational Cancer Institute | Cancer Clinical TrialsAmerican Indian Cancer FoundationAbramson Cancer Center | University of PennsylvaniaFEEDBACKLike 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 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 this episode, Akinwole “Aki” Garrett, Chief Executive Officer, BlackDoctor, discusses the evolution of BlackDoctor into a technology-enabled health services platform, with a focus on AI, personalization, trust and measurable health outcomes. He also shares his vision for leveraging technology, content and community to help close the health equity gap.
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.
Health Affairs Publishing's Rob Lott speaks to Grace Mackleby of the University of Southern California about her recent paper that explores how vertically integrated Medicare Advantage plans and hospital systems set prices, finding that most affiliated and unaffiliated plans pay similar rates, with notable variation in certain markets. Order the August 2026 issue of Health Affairs.Sign up for our free Health Affairs newsletters to stay up to date on health policy news and analysis.
There's a number attached to every patient's chart that quietly shapes the resources they receive, the care they're offered, and whether their health conditions are fully seen — and most providers don't fully understand it. In this episode, Jamie sits down with Ericka Bauman, Director of Quality Assurance at Your Health, to break down the Risk Adjustment Factor — better known as the RAF score. Ericka has spent years traveling across Georgia and South Carolina, walking into provider offices, sitting with care teams, and doing the work of turning confusing data into meaningful patient outcomes. What you'll hear in this episode: What the RAF score actually is — explained the way Erica explains it to every team she visits, from providers to front desk staff Why most RAF scores are too low — and how underdocumenting a patient's conditions leaves them exposed to missed care, hospitalizations, and unmet needs The biggest misconception providers have about RAF (hint: it's not another box to check) How RAF and quality measurement are really asking the same question from two different angles — and why treating them separately is a mistake What changes for patients when care teams show up prepared, proactive, and looking at the whole person — not just the reason for today's visit The numbers will follow when you take care of the patient. This episode will show you how. www.YourHealth.Org
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.
What happens when a patient can't communicate with the team caring for them? On this episode of the Elevate Care podcast, host Christin Stanford talks with Erin Dougherty Cieszynski, Manager of Guest Relations and Patient Experience at Main Line Health, about what language access looks like once a policy meets a patient in an exam room. This conversation is part two of a series with Main Line Health, following a leadership-level discussion on operational strategy with Suzanne Smith. Check out part one! Erin brings over 12 years of patient advocacy experience to a conversation grounded in real moments from the floor: emergency department visits, registration desks, and the quiet handoffs between nurse, patient, and family. She walks through how Main Line Health moved from reactive interpreter use to automatic activation, why a universal sign-on changed adoption rates among clinicians, and how something as simple as a badge buddy can close a communication gap before it becomes a safety risk. Erin also shares how an ASL interpreter helped identify a hearing-impaired patient as a victim of human trafficking, connecting the dots between language access, patient safety, and trust. Throughout, she reframes language services as a driver of stronger patient outcomes, better satisfaction scores, and increased community referrals, not just a regulatory requirement. Key Takeaways Language access should be automatic at the start of care, not a last resort. Reducing friction through universal app sign-on, badge buddies, and dual handsets drives faster clinician adoption. Patients who feel heard are more likely to return, refer others, and engage in preventive care. Language access touches the entire patient journey, from registration through discharge and follow-up. Strong interpreter access supports both patient safety and staff satisfaction. Health systems should expect deeper digital integration and a shift toward population-mapped language access strategy. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction to Language Access and Patient Experience 01:39 – Erin's Role in Guest Relations at Main Line Health 02:06 – Where Language Access Shows Up Most for Patients 03:05 – Why Communication Is the Foundation of Quality Care 04:42 – Closing the Gap Between Policy and Frontline Reality 05:38 – What Good Language Access Looks Like on the Floor 07:09 – How Providers Use Interpreter Services Under Pressure 08:30 – Building Adoption Across Clinical Teams 09:35 – Feedback That Shaped a Better Program 11:04 – Adapting Language Access to Rising Patient Volumes 12:00 – Connecting Language Access to Referrals and Revenue 13:07 – A Story of Language Access Saving a Life 16:40 – The Link Between Language Barriers and Preventive Care 18:09 – Small Changes with Outsized Impact 19:17 – Where Communication Breakdowns Still Happen 20:51 – Advice for Healthcare Leaders 21:49 – The Next Five Years of Language Access Meet Erin Dougherty Cieszynski Erin Dougherty Cieszynski works across the full continuum of care to help patients navigate the healthcare system, understand their treatment, and feel confident their voices are being heard. Known for her empathy and ability to bridge the gap between clinical teams and the patients they serve, Erin has led efforts at Main Line Health to expand interpreter access, streamline technology adoption among clinicians, and connect language access directly to patient safety and satisfaction outcomes. To hear more from the Main Line Health language access series, listen to part one of this conversation featuring Suzanne Smith's perspective on operational strategy and system-wide impact. Explore Solutions for Smarter Workforce ManagementWe're proudly sponsored by AMN Healthcare, the leader in healthcare staffing and workforce solutions. Explore their services at AMN Healthcare.Learn how AMN Healthcare's workforce flexibility technology helps health systems cut costs and improve efficiency. Click here to explore the case study and discover smarter ways to manage your resources!Discover how WorkWise is redefining workforce management for healthcare. Visit workwise.amnhealthcare.com to learn more.About The Show: Elevate Care delves into the latest trends, thinking, and best practices shaping the landscape of healthcare. From total talent management to solutions and strategies to expand the reach of care, we discuss methods to enable high quality, flexible workforce and care delivery. We will discuss the latest advancements in technology, the impact of emerging models and settings, physical and virtual, and address strategies to identify and obtain an optimal workforce mix. Tune in to gain valuable insights from thought leaders focused on improving healthcare quality, workforce well-being, and patient outcomes. Learn more about the show here. Find Us On:WebsiteYouTubeSpotifyAppleInstagramLinkedInXFacebook Powered by AMN Healthcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Health Affairs Publishing's Rob Lott speaks to Jiebing Wen of The University of Texas at Austin about her recent paper exploring how hospice acquisitions by investor-owned firms were associated with lower care staffing intensity and fewer patient visit minutes, especially in patients' final days. Order the August 2026 issue of Health Affairs.Sign up for our free Health Affairs newsletters to stay up to date on health policy news and analysis.
Building a women's health company that is also pushing for systems change — that's the magic ✨ On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Alex Taylor, Co-Founder of Perelel — the first and only OB/GYN-founded vitamin company offering clinically backed nutrition for every stage of a woman's hormonal life. We talk about how Perelel was built around a long-overdue idea: women deserve better support, better information, and clinically backed products through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. Alex shares what she saw missing in women's health, why trust matters so much in the supplement category, and how Perelel is creating doctor-engineered formulations designed to simplify women's health routines. We also get into why women's health has been underfunded and overlooked for so long, what is finally starting to change, and what still needs to happen to make women's health a national priority. Alex also shares more about the Perelel Pledge for Women's Health Equity — a $10 million commitment to fund women's health research and expand access to maternal care in the United States, with more than $5.5 million already deployed in five years. If you're interested in learning what it takes to build a brand rooted in clinical expertise, earn trust in a confusing category, or create a company that can also push for real change — check out the interview on my podcast. You can find it here or anywhere you listen to podcasts
Highlights from the PER® CME activity "Key Considerations for Health Equity and Patient-Centered Care in TNBC" — this podcast is not certified for credit. To participate in the full accredited activity and earn CME credit, use the link below.In this podcast, experts Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, FASCO, and Kathryn E. Post, PhD, ANP-BC, discuss key drivers of disparities in outcomes for triple-negative breast cancer and strategies for patient-centered communication, from shared decision-making to managing treatment-related toxicity.Earn CME credit by completing the full accredited activity (available through July 31, 2027): https://www.gotoper.com/courses/key-considerations-for-health-equity-and-patient-centered-care-in-tnbcThis podcast, including the narration, was developed by PER® (Physicians' Education Resource®, LLC) editorial staff from the full online CME activity developed with these faculty. The narration was voiced by a PER staff member or by an AI tool. The podcast contains no product advertising. The full activity is supported by an educational grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc.This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for the independent clinical judgment of a health care professional. Faculty may discuss investigational or off-label uses; consult prescribing information for any products discussed.
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.
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.
How do you lead 16 agencies and serve 8.2 million people without losing sight of the individual? NYC's Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Helen Arteaga shows what happens when a leader moves beyond the binary of efficiency vs. compassion, using data and local insights to get both right. In this episode, you'll learn: Why a structured system for serving people from birth through end-of-life means better, consistent care. How to use neighborhood-level data and geographic targeting to serve people before they hit crisis. How to get the right processes in place before feeding data to an AI. The importance of early intervention with babies and children. Why ensuring equal access to good care is so personal for DM Arteaga, and how she honors her father's legacy by doing so. Guest: New York City's Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Helen Arteaga Listener Survey: bit.ly/datasmartpod Music credit: Summer-Man by Ketsa About Data-Smart City Solutions Data-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on LinkedIn.
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.
Health Affairs Publishing's Rob Lott speaks to Keith Ericson of Boston University about his recent paper exploring how inflation-adjusted spending benchmarks would provide a more accurate picture of state health care cost growth. Order the August 2026 issue of Health Affairs.Sign up for our free Health Affairs newsletters to stay up to date on health policy news and analysis.
Omari Richins, MPH of Public Health Careers podcast talks with Kierra Sarfo-Katanka, MPH.Kierra is Founder and Executive Director of Data & Narrative Collective, to explore how creativity, storytelling, and lived experience can make public health more human.We talk about her journey from theater and pre-med to public health, why data alone rarely tells the full story, and how film and media can build empathy and communicate complex health issues. Kierra also takes us behind the scenes of her debut documentary, Women with the Issue of Blood, which centers women's experiences and shines a light on gaps in gynecological and reproductive healthcare.We also get into community engagement, misinformation, graduate school, career development, and what it means to build a public health career at the intersection of your different passions.
Socially vulnerable Medicare patients see dramatically better outcomes—such as fewer emergency department visits, fewer preventable hospital admissions, and 23.4% to 30% less use of high-risk medications—when their physicians take on full financial risk for their care compared with those in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. That's the core finding of a new study published in the June issue of Population Health, Equity & Outcomes, and the subject of this conversation between Ken Cohen, MD, chief medical officer for Optum Health, and host Sophia Humphreys, PharmD, vice president of health system strategy and innovation at The American Journal of Managed Care.
In this special 50th-anniversary finale of Danforth Dialogues, Host Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice brings together the three past presidents of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) for a conversation on vision, service, and legacy. Together, they reflect on 50 years of advancing health equity—from building a medical school in temporary trailers to shaping the future of medicine. Segment Breakdown Segment 1: Introduction – The Audacity to LeadDr. Louis Sullivan reflects on leaving a tenured position at Boston University to build Morehouse School of Medicine from the ground up to serve medically underserved communities. Segment 2: The Complexities of the MantleDr. James Gavin discusses the unique challenges of following a founder and expanding research infrastructure, while Dr. John Maupin shares how MSM rallied to preserve Grady Hospital during a pivotal moment. Segment 3: The Shoulders of Giants – Mentorship and ServiceThe leaders emphasize the necessity of mentorship, holding the standard that "excellence has no modifier," and maintaining a life dedicated to community service. Segment 4: The Next 50 Years – An Enduring LegacyA forward-looking reflection on tackling health disparities, strategic leadership transitions, and shaping the institution for its 100th anniversary. 3 Core Lessons on Leadership Serve a Mission Greater Than Yourself: Leadership begins when you answer a call to serve community needs above personal standing. Navigate Inheritance and Innovation: Honor founding traditions while boldly forging new paths for growth. Build for the Future: Success is measured by how well you empower future leaders to thrive long after your tenure. Connect & Subscribe Subscribe to Danforth Dialogues on your favorite podcast platform. Learn more about Morehouse School of Medicine and its 50th-anniversary milestones by visiting our website https://msm.edu/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In today's episode of Psych Talk I chat with Drew Davis, MPH, MPA, Director of Health Equity & Strategic Initiatives at SafeBAE. Drew discusses what SafeBAE is, the organization's founding and mission. He shares information about sexual violence among teenagers and the importance of putting prevention efforts towards sexual violence in this age group. We discuss the association between sexual violence and suicide among teenagers and some of the basic skills teens need to be equipped with to prevent sexual violence. Drew discusses various SafeBAE programs and resources including VibeCheck and their 360º Schools program. We end the discussion with Drew providing resources and supports for youth who are survivors of sexual violence.Information shared by guests on Psych Talk are reflective of their own values, perspectives, and life experiences. Psych Talk values platforming various perspectives and experiences even if those views are not necessarily reflective of Psych Talk's values and perspectives. Connect with Drew & SafeBAE:IG: @safe_baeWebsite: www.safebae.orgContribute to Daisy's Tribute WallResources mentioned in this episode:Vibe CheckAudrie & DaisyRAINNSexual Assault CoalitionConnect with Me:Follow me on IG @jessicaleighphdFollow the podcast on IG @psych.talk.podcastFollow me on TikTok @jessicaleighphdFollow me on Youtube Follow me on Threads @jessicaleighphdWelcome to Group Therapy PodcastWays to Work With Me:Mind Over MatterLGBTQ+ Affirming MasterclassBe a guest on my podcastResources:Anti-Racism ResourcesLGBTQ+ Affirming ResourcesThe Helping Professional's Guide to Boundary SettingIntro/Outro MusicLife of Riley by Kevin MacLeodMusic License
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.
How structural racism shapes health outcomes for Black Americans, experts discuss In a healthcare hub like Cleveland, home to several major hospital systems including one of the top ranked in the country, it's hard to imagine that there are residents who struggle with access to healthcare. For a large portion of the population, this issue has historical ties to systemic racism and disenfranchisement that continue to effect people of color today, in Cleveland and beyond. Research shows that Black Americans are more likely to see higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, but less likely to seek and receive mental health support or treatment. They're also subject to greater discrimination in medical education. These kinds of disparities date back to and directly stem from the eras of slavery and Jim Crow laws, and a history of medical violence that has led to a distrust in the system. Thursday on the "Sound of Ideas" hosted by Stephanie Haney, we discuss what health equity means, what Cleveland is doing to support its residents of color, and a new book by a Cleveland-born sociologist. Guests:- Dr. Timothy Goler, Associate Professor and Sociology Department Chair, Norfolk State University- Stacey Easterling, Executive Director, National Institute for African American Health- Lita Wills, Commissioner, City of Cleveland's Division of Health Equity and Social Justice The Menu Areas of Cleveland like Tremont, Ohio City, and the Downtown are often the first thought when considering where to go out for a bite to eat, spend an evening or recommend to an out-of-town visitor. But what about lesser known areas, just a short drive away? Bringing the outskirts of Greater Cleveland to the forefront is the mission of a new series from Cleveland Magazine, where writers there are diving into the gems in places like Canton, Oberlin, and Geauga County. In this week's installment of "The Menu," where we dig into the region's food scene with the writers at Cleveland Magazine we look at their new "A Clevelander's Guide To..." write ups. Guests:- Annie Nickoloff, Senior Editor, Cleveland Magazine- Julia Lombardo, Editor, Cleveland Magazine
What does it take to eradicate a disease like polio, and why does vaccine equity matter as much as scientific innovation? In this episode of the Infectious IDeas podcast, NFID CEO Rebecca Alvania, PhD, MA, MPH, and NFID Medical Director Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., MD, welcome Kathleen M. Neuzil, MD, MPH, of the Gates Foundation and recipient of the 2026 NFID John P. Utz Leadership Award, for a lively discussion on global immunization policy, disease surveillance, and the effort to eradicate polio. Neuzil reflects on the people who shaped her career, advances in vaccine science, the funding and communication challenges facing public health today, and why health equity must be central to any eradication effort. She also shares why she remains optimistic that the next generation can build a healthier, more equitable future. Follow NFID on social media
In this podcast, SBS Serbian contributor Nina Markovic speaks with Carlo Krikowa, Director of Policy and Programs at the Multicultural Health Collaborative, about the challenges and opportunities in multicultural health advocacy in Australia. The conversation explores why culturally and linguistically diverse communities remain underrepresented in health research and policy, despite making up nearly one-third of Australia's population. Carlo discusses the importance of culturally appropriate health communication, community engagement, and stronger collaboration across the multicultural sector. He also reflects on barriers such as language, trust, and cultural stigma, the role of lived experience in shaping health policy, and the opportunities—and limitations—of artificial intelligence in supporting community health. The interview concludes with an invitation for individuals and organisations to engage with the Collaborative and help strengthen multicultural health advocacy across Australia. - У овом интервјуу на енглском језику са Карлом Криковим (Carlo Krikowa), директором за политику и програме у организацији Multicultural Health Collaborative", Нина Марковић разговара о изазовима са којима се суочавају културно и језички разнолике заједнице — од недостатка финансирања и заступљености, до језичких баријера, културних разлика и питања поверења. Карло објашњава зашто су разговор са заједницом, подаци и лично искуство људи кључни за креирање бољих здравствених политика, као и зашто непрофитне организације представљају важан „глас заједнице“ у разговору са владом.For more stories, interviews, and news from SBS SERBIAN, explore our podcast collection here. - For more stories, interviews, and news from SBS SERBIAN, explore our podcast collection here.
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.
What happens when language access moves from a compliance checkbox to a strategic priority? In part one of this two-part Elevate Care series, host Christin Stanford talks with Suzanne (Sue) Smith, System Director of Patient Experience at Main Line Health, about the evolving role of language services across a five-hospital system outside Philadelphia. Sue walks through how her team reframed language access from a cost center function into an essential clinical tool, one that belongs alongside staff, medicine, and equipment as a core part of care delivery. She shares how Main Line Health doubled its device deployment, the operational and financial ripple effects that followed, and why quality, safety, and patient experience function as a three-legged stool that only stands when every leg holds. The conversation also covers the human side of the equation: reduced staff burnout, stronger trust with patients who use American Sign Language, and fewer patients leaving without being seen. Sue makes the case that language access is not a cost center. It is a bridge for building relationships, supporting staff, and driving the kind of connected care that keeps patients coming back. Key Takeaways Language access works best when it is treated as an essential care tool, not a call-center service or a line-item expense. Doubling device availability at Main Line Health improved communication volume and clarity, while easing pressure on nursing and support staff. Quality, safety, and patient experience depend on each other. When one falls, the whole structure falls. Reliable interpretation reduces reliance on untrained family members or staff, protecting both accuracy and patient trust. Language access touches every part of the patient journey, from registration and wayfinding to discharge paperwork, not only clinical encounters. Strong language services can reduce patients leaving without being seen and support broader operational metrics tied to patient experience. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction to Language Access as a Strategic Priority 01:50 – Sue's Role Leading Patient Experience at Main Line Health 03:00 – From Compliance Checkbox to Shared Commitment 05:24 – Language Services as an Essential Care Tool 08:33 – Balancing Cost Conversations with Care Excellence 12:08 – How the Right Tools Reduce Staff Burnout 15:11 – Trust, Validation, and the Risk of Informal Interpreters 17:20 – Doubling Devices: A Main Line Health Deployment Story 21:07 – Connecting Language Access to Operational Metrics 24:58 – Language Access Beyond the Clinical Encounter 27:02 – A Final Word for Leaders Still on the Fence Meet Suzanne Smith Suzanne "Sue" Smith serves as System Director of Patient Experience at Main Line Health, where she oversees connected care across five hospitals and more than 150 physician practices outside Philadelphia. With over 25 years in healthcare, Sue leads a team spanning patient navigators, EDI ambassadors, spiritual care, and volunteers, all focused on making sure every patient feels seen and understood. Her work centers on building bridges between data and humanity, using language access as one of the clearest expressions of patient-centered care. Sponsors: We're proudly sponsored by AMN Healthcare, the leader in healthcare staffing and workforce solutions. Explore their services at AMN Healthcare. Learn how AMN Healthcare's workforce flexibility technology helps health systems cut costs and improve efficiency. Click here to explore the case study and discover smarter ways to manage your resources!Discover how WorkWise is redefining workforce management for healthcare. Visit workwise.amnhealthcare.com to learn more.About The Show: Elevate Care delves into the latest trends, thinking, and best practices shaping the landscape of healthcare. From total talent management to solutions and strategies to expand the reach of care, we discuss methods to enable high quality, flexible workforce and care delivery. We will discuss the latest advancements in technology, the impact of emerging models and settings, physical and virtual, and address strategies to identify and obtain an optimal workforce mix. Tune in to gain valuable insights from thought leaders focused on improving healthcare quality, workforce well-being, and patient outcomes. Learn more about the show here. Find Us On:WebsiteYouTubeSpotifyAppleInstagramLinkedInXFacebook Powered by AMN Healthcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Health Affairs Publishing's Rob Lott speaks to Betsy Cliff from the University of Chicago about her paper in the July 2026 issue of Health Affairs exploring trends in US healthcare spending by income. Order the July 2026 issue of Health Affairs.Sign up for our free Health Affairs newsletters to stay up to date on health policy news and analysis.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS, is a genetic connective tissue disorder that can affect nearly every system in the body. Yet many people spend years living with unexplained pain, frequent injuries, gastrointestinal concerns, cardiovascular symptoms, and other challenges before receiving a diagnosis.In this episode, Corey speaks with physical therapist Dr. Emma McCauley about the difference between hypermobility and EDS, why diagnosis can take more than a decade, and how racial disparities can make that journey even longer for people of color.Dr. McCauley also explains how physical therapy can help people improve joint stability, body awareness, movement, and quality of life. The conversation highlights the importance of listening to patients, building diverse healthcare professions, and helping people find ways to live full lives while managing chronic conditions.Show NotesEhlers-Danlos syndrome is often associated with flexibility, but the condition can affect far more than a person's joints.Dr. Emma McCauley joins The Healthy Project Podcast to explain how EDS affects connective tissue throughout the body and why symptoms can look different from one person to another.Corey and Dr. McCauley discuss the long road many patients face before receiving a diagnosis. They also explore why pain reported by Black patients and other patients of color may be dismissed, contributing to even longer delays in receiving answers and care.Dr. McCauley explains the role physical therapists can play in recognizing patterns, helping patients understand their bodies, and connecting them with other healthcare professionals.In This EpisodeWhat Ehlers-Danlos syndrome isThe difference between EDS and general hypermobilityWhy an EDS diagnosis can take 10 to 12 years or longerHow racial bias and pain dismissal affect diagnosisWhy EDS is not only a white person's conditionHow EDS can affect the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nervous, and musculoskeletal systemsThe connection between hypermobility and neurodivergenceHow physical therapy improves proprioception, stability, and body awarenessWhy movement may feel awkward when patients learn new patternsHow physical therapists help patients make long-term lifestyle changesWhy representation matters within the physical therapy professionHow Iowa's direct-access laws may allow patients to see a physical therapist without a referralEpisode Timestamps00:48 – Dr. Emma McCauley's path to physical therapy02:22 – How she began working with patients with EDS03:53 – Understanding EDS and hypermobility04:58 – The long road to receiving a diagnosis06:43 – Why EDS is not a white person's disease08:06 – Racial disparities in pain treatment and diagnosis09:13 – Diversity and representation in physical therapy11:52 – Why physical therapists may have more time to listen13:18 – Proprioception, joint stability, and body awareness16:55 – EDS and the aging process17:13 – Comorbidities, mental health, and neurodivergence19:28 – Helping patients experience more of life21:02 – Physical therapy as long-term lifestyle management22:20 – How to begin seeking physical therapy services24:10 – How to connect with Dr. Emma McCauleyAbout Dr. Emma McCauleyDr. Emma McCauley is a physical therapist at Kinetic Edge Physical Therapy in the Des Moines area. Her work includes helping people with hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome better understand their bodies, build stability, manage pain, and improve their quality of life.Connect with Dr. Emma McCauleyKinetic Edge Physical Therapy6000 Grand AvenueDes Moines, IowaEmail: emma@kineticedgept.com ★ Support this podcast ★
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.
Key TakeawaysAI can either help reduce healthcare inequities or magnify existing bias, depending on how it is designed, trained, governed, and used.Responsible AI requires transparency, representative data, community participation, and clear accountability when tools fail or cause harm.Health equity work cannot be treated as philanthropy; it requires shared ownership across health systems, government, industry, nonprofits, and communities.Health systems must address existing bias in clinical language, protocols, and care delivery before expecting AI to fix systemic problems.Trust is built through transparency, shared power, community partnership, and honest conversations about the harms patients still experience today.ResourcesConnect with Tanisha Sullivan on LinkedIn.Follow Sanofi on LinkedIn and explore their website. Connect with Dr. Chris Pernell on LinkedIn.Follow the NAACP on LinkedIn and explore the website.Connect with Kimberly Wells on LinkedIn.Follow Ascension on LinkedIn and explore their website.
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Dr. Abramson advocates for public manufacturing of drugs, independent data review, and better sources like FDA labels and “Worst Pills, Best Pills.” #SystemicReform #PublicHealth #EvidenceFirst
This summer, we've launched a new series: Practicing Our Faith. This series highlights voices from within our community, sharing how each of us embodies spiritual practices in everyday life. Our Embodiment Sundays will offer guided ways to step into and practice each rhythm together.Rest is a gift from God. The practice of Sabbath began with God, who rested after creating the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them. In the same way, God invites us to pause from our work and responsibilities to rest, renew our souls, and remember that our lives are sustained by God's grace, not our constant striving. Anne Harris Carter is the newly appointed executive director of the African American Museum of Iowa. A graduate of Yale University, Anne had an extensive career in corporate leadership before joining Linn County Public Health in 2022 to launch the Office of Health Equity. She was born and raised in Cedar Rapids and lived mostly east of the Mississippi river before returning to her hometown. Anne is a life-long community advocate, enjoys playing violin, and is exceedingly grateful for her three adult children and three granddaughters.
On today's episode of Deep Cuts Exploring Equity in Surgery, we sit down with Dr. Ashley Suah and Dr. Andrea Liu to explore the field of transplant surgery from the personal past that led them to the specialty to the ethical dilemmas behind organ allocation and the ongoing work to make transplant care more equitable. We discuss what it actually takes to get a patient onto the waiting list and through transplant, the persistent racial and socioeconomic disparities that shape who gets access to care and how those biases show up at every stage of the process, and why growing diversity in the surgical and transplant workforce is essential to building trust and better serving minority patients. We also dig into what meaningful representation looks like in practice. Not just at the bedside, but in research, leadership, and the decisions that shape policy, and why public trust in the system remains essential to its survival. This conversation highlights both the deep challenges and the profound life-changing impact of transplant care. Dr. Ashley Suah is a board-certified transplant surgeon who specializes in kidney and liver transplant. She is an advocate for eliminating racial and gender disparities with regards to transplant surgery, and post-transplant care. Dr. Andrea Liu is a general surgery resident at the University of Chicago, with interests in transplant surgery. Deep Cuts comes to you from the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago, which is located on Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi land. Our senior editors are Alia Abiad, Caroline Montag, and Chuka Onuh. Our editorial team includes Megan Teramoto, Elizabeth Yearsley, Faiza Shaik, Azeem Saifee, and Aman Saiju. Our senior producer is Nihar Rama. Our production team includes Krupa Hegde. The intro song you hear at the beginning of our show is “Love, Money Part 2” from Chicago's own Sen Morimoto off of Sooper Records. Our cover art is from Ethan Epstein. Special thanks to Dr. Tony Liu, our founding producer/editor. If you've liked this podcast, please leave a rating, comment, and review wherever you get your podcasts. Please reach out to us as well — let us know what have you most enjoyed about our podcast, and where you see room for improvement. You can reach out to us on Instagram @deepcutssurgery. Find out more about our work at deepcuts.surgery.uchicago.edu.
“I think our biggest hope, I know in writing this paper, was that people will understand that accessibility is more than a compliance issue. It's more than checklist at the end of your training development; that this is a human rights issue, this is the civil rights issue, and we need a mindset shift from compliance and from making individual accommodations and feeling like almost like, oh, we're doing that person a favor by accommodating them to totally shift that thinking to creatingaccessible, equitable environments where people can thrive and learn.” – Leah A. Roman The HPP Podcasts celebrates Disability Pride Month! Leah A. Roman and Nailah Henry join us to celebrate this observance through the lens of civic health equity. The authors provide the context for voting and civic health equity, the barriers to civic engagement for people living with disabilities, and practical tips for public health professionals to take actionable steps to make voting and other acts of civic engagement more inclusive. They also share how current policies impact people living with disabilities' ability to navigate civic engagement, and what recommendations make it easier. To read this article in its entirety, visit: AdvancingAccessibility to Improve Civic Health Equity.Review the Americans withDisabilities Act (ADA), Title II updated digital accessibility rule and compliance dates. Like the rest of Title II, the rule applies to all state and local governments (which includes any agencies or departments of state or local governments). Examples include State and local government offices thatprovide benefits and/or social services, like food assistance, health insurance, or employment services, public schools, community colleges, and public universities, State and local elections offices, and public hospitals and public healthcare clinics.Visit the Center forAmerican Progress Accessible Democracy Tracker.
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.
In this episode of the Elevate Care On the Road podcast, host Christin Stanford closes out the two-part series with a conversation with Dr. Rick Arnold, one of the longest-serving medical directors at the Seattle/King County Clinic. Recorded on-site, this episode examines how one of the country's largest free clinics delivers care to thousands of patients over four days[SA1], and why interpretation services stand at the center of that effort. Dr. Arnold walks through the scale of the clinic's operation, from orienting thousands of volunteers to coordinating everything from dental care to ultrasound exams. He speaks candidly about the barriers that make a clinic like this necessary in the first place, and how professional medical interpretation, supporting over 50 languages, transforms both the patient experience and the provider experience. Along the way, he shares a memorable story about a patient in active labor awaiting dental care and reflects on why this work reconnects him to the reasons he became a physician. About Rick Arnold Rick Arnold, MD, serves as one of the medical directors at the Seattle/King County Clinic, a role he has held for over a decade, longer than any other medical director at the clinic. He oversees the medical section, which spans physical exams, immunizations, imaging, laboratory services, acupuncture, physical and occupational therapy, and wound care. Beyond direct patient care, Dr. Arnold focuses heavily on connecting patients to federally qualified health centers and community resources so that care continues well after the clinic closes for the year. His work centers on removing barriers, whether financial, linguistic, or cultural, that keep underserved populations from accessing quality health care. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction to the Elevate Care On the Road Series 00:49 – Rick's Role and the Scale of the Clinic 02:11 – Why This Clinic Needs to Exist 03:06 – A Day at the Clinic: Volunteers, Services, and Numbers 04:20 – Connecting Patients to Long-Term Care 06:19 – Interpretation Services and Continuity of Care 06:56 – Challenges and Rewards for Clinicians 10:14 – A Patient Story: Labor, Language, and Dental Care 12:04 – Why Volunteers Keep Coming Back 14:08 – Supporting Over 50 Languages at the Clinic 15:56 – The Risks of Family Members as Interpreters 19:24 – The Value of Professional Medical Interpreters 21:00 – What Happens Without Language Access 22:35 – Language Access and Operational Efficiency 23:32 – Rick's Personal Connection to This Work 24:47 – A Moment That Reinforced the Mission 26:24 – The Future of Language Access in Health Care 27:59 – Advice for Health Systems Building Language Access Programs [SA1]The conversation was four days, or the clinic was a 4-day pop up? I'm confused. Sponsors: We're proudly sponsored by AMN Healthcare, the leader in healthcare staffing and workforce solutions. Explore their services at AMN Healthcare. Learn how AMN Healthcare's workforce flexibility technology helps health systems cut costs and improve efficiency. Click here to explore the case study and discover smarter ways to manage your resources!Discover how WorkWise is redefining workforce management for healthcare. Visit workwise.amnhealthcare.com to learn more.About The Show: Elevate Care delves into the latest trends, thinking, and best practices shaping the landscape of healthcare. From total talent management to solutions and strategies to expand the reach of care, we discuss methods to enable high quality, flexible workforce and care delivery. We will discuss the latest advancements in technology, the impact of emerging models and settings, physical and virtual, and address strategies to identify and obtain an optimal workforce mix. Tune in to gain valuable insights from thought leaders focused on improving healthcare quality, workforce well-being, and patient outcomes. Learn more about the show here. Find Us On:WebsiteYouTubeSpotifyAppleInstagramLinkedInXFacebook Powered by AMN Healthcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Real Truth About Health Free 17 Day Live Online Conference Podcast
Plant-based diets lower COVID severity, cut inflammation, and help reverse environmental and health damage—especially in high-risk communities. #PandemicPrevention #ClimateHealth #FoodJustice
On this episode of C-Speak, Alastair Bell, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center Health System, discusses BMC's history and mission as an academic medical center serving underserved communities. He also explores the operational, financial and policy complexity of leading a mission-driven nonprofit focused on health equity.“Trying to think about how to create an environment for all of the people that are part of BMC Health System to show up, do their best work against our mission and maintain a trust as we navigate some difficult choices,” Bell says.Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
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 this episode of the Elevate Care podcast—and the first installment of the new series on the road—host Christin Stanford travels to Seattle, Washington to visit Seattle King County Clinic, a large-scale, free pop-up clinic that has delivered more than $33 million in health services over 11 years. Christin sits down with Julia Colson, the clinic's founder and project executive, to unpack the vision, partnerships, and community impact behind this remarkable initiative. Julia shares how a single episode of 60 Minutes sparked the idea, how a "stone soup" model of collaboration keeps the clinic running, and why her ultimate goal is to see the clinic put out of business. She also speaks to the power of language access in delivering truly equitable care—including a moving story about a patient who found an interpreter for Quechua, an indigenous language of the Incan empire. This is part one of a two-part series. Part two will feature medical director Rick Arnold and focus on the clinical delivery side of the clinic. Learn more about Language Services at Language Services | AMN Healthcare About Julia Colson Julia Colson is the Founder and Project Executive of Seattle King County Clinic, operating under Seattle Center, a department of the City of Seattle. Without a background in healthcare, Julia built this community-driven initiative from the ground up—knocking on doors, forging partnerships, and uniting healthcare organizations, civic agencies, nonprofits, businesses, and volunteers around a shared mission. Over 11 years, the clinic has provided free dental, vision, and medical care to more than 36,000 patients, delivering over $33 million in services to underserved populations across the Seattle-King County region. Chapters 00:00 – Welcome and Series Introduction 00:28 – Introducing Julia Colson and Seattle King County Clinic 01:43 – What the Clinic Is and Who It Serves 02:32 – The Origin Story: From a 60 Minutes Episode to a Community Clinic 03:14 – What the Clinic Means to Patients and Volunteers 04:12 – Patient Demographics and the Biggest Care Needs 04:54 – Barriers to Care: Affordability, Language, and More 06:03 – Why Language Access Changes Everything for Clinicians and Patients 07:10 – A Powerful Story: Finding an Interpreter for Quechua 09:50 – The "Stone Soup" Model of Community Partnership 11:28 – Downstream Impact: What Happens After the Clinic Closes 12:45 – Advice for Communities Looking to Build Similar Models 13:44 – The Unexpected Goal: Putting the Clinic Out of Business 15:10 – What Julia Is Most Proud Of 16:06 – AMN Healthcare's Role as a Language Access Partner 17:38 – Preview of Part Two with Medical Director Rick Arnold Sponsors: We're proudly sponsored by AMN Healthcare, the leader in healthcare staffing and workforce solutions. Explore their services at AMN Healthcare. Learn how AMN Healthcare's workforce flexibility technology helps health systems cut costs and improve efficiency. Click here to explore the case study and discover smarter ways to manage your resources!Discover how WorkWise is redefining workforce management for healthcare. Visit workwise.amnhealthcare.com to learn more.About The Show: Elevate Care delves into the latest trends, thinking, and best practices shaping the landscape of healthcare. From total talent management to solutions and strategies to expand the reach of care, we discuss methods to enable high quality, flexible workforce and care delivery. We will discuss the latest advancements in technology, the impact of emerging models and settings, physical and virtual, and address strategies to identify and obtain an optimal workforce mix. Tune in to gain valuable insights from thought leaders focused on improving healthcare quality, workforce well-being, and patient outcomes. Learn more about the show here. Find Us On:WebsiteYouTubeSpotifyAppleInstagramLinkedInXFacebook Powered by AMN Healthcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In this week's episode we are joined by researcher and author Dr. Terrell J.A. Winder for a powerful conversation on the intersections of identity, stigma, and self-worth among Black queer men in Los Angeles. Grounded in Terrell’s work, we explore the earliest moments many Black queer folks come to understand their bodies as “problems” and how those messages are shaped by institutions like churches, schools, healthcare systems, and everyday public life. We also talk about their new book "Shameless" and how we all can imagine new pathways toward healing and liberation. We want to hear from you! Send us an email with your thoughts/comments about the show: BlackFatFemmePod@gmail.com. Also, don’t forget to watch and subscribe on YouTube! Buy DoctorJonPaul's book here! Follow the show on social: Instagram | BlueSky | Threads | Tik-Tok | Facebook Follow Dr. Jon Paul: Instagram | Website | Tik-Tok | Threads Follow Jordan: Instagram | Website | Tik-Tok Follow Dr. Terrell: Website | X See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In episode 82 of Going anti-Viral, Dr Tyler Evans joins host Dr Michael Saag to discuss the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda and the global response. Dr Evans is an infectious diseases and addiction medicine physician and CEO of Wellness Equity Alliance, a national organization advancing health equity in the US and globally. He is also an associate professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and the author of Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics, which examines how socially and politically determined inequalities, have consistently precipitated pandemics and public health emergencies. Dr Evans' work spans street medicine, HIV/AIDS care, and humanitarian response in complex emergencies, including 2 Ebola response missions. Dr Evans and Dr Saag discuss the current Ebola outbreak, its transmission, challenges in containment, and the likelihood for a vaccine. They also explore the impact of public trust on care and provide an update on the response from US and international agencies including a discussion of the risk for the outbreak to spread globally. 0:00 – Introduction 1:33 – Understanding Ebola: transmission and symptoms3:05 – Containment strategies for Ebola outbreaks7:39 – Challenges in surveillance and response11:09 – Urban spread of Ebola: risks and concerns12:43 – Vaccination strategies and developments15:58 – Conditions in treatment centers and the impact of public trust in the outbreak21:04 – Update on the response from US and international agencies and risk of spread to the US and globallyResources:Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics: https://www.tylerevansmd.com/ Wellness Equity Alliance: https://www.wellnessequityalliance.com/ __________________________________________________Produced by IAS-USA, Going anti–Viral is a podcast for clinicians involved in research and care in HIV, its complications, and other viral infections. This podcast is intended as a technical source of information for specialists in this field, but anyone listening will enjoy learning more about the state of modern medicine around viral infections.Going anti-Viral's host is Dr Michael Saag, a physician, prominent HIV researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and volunteer IAS–USA board member. In most episodes, Dr Saag interviews an expert in infectious diseases or emerging pandemics about their area of specialty and current developments in the field. Other episodes are drawn from the IAS–USA vast catalogue of panel discussions, Dialogues, and other audio from various meetings and conferences. Email podcast@iasusa.org to send feedback, show suggestions, or questions to be answered on a later episode.Follow Going anti-Viral on: Apple Podcasts YouTubeXFacebookInstagram...
Every clinician knows food shapes health. The evidence has been there for decades. So why does nearly every food as medicine program in America still run on grant money with an expiration date? Dr. Yousuf Ahmad has spent 30 years inside the system, running hospitals, leading a health plan, building health tech, and he watched nutrition sit on the sidelines of care the entire time. Now, as President and CEO of AssureCare, he's behind NutraVance, a platform built to move nutrition out of the pilot graveyard and into real clinical workflows: screening, EHR integration, culturally personalized meal plans, outcome tracking, and the piece nobody wants to talk about, reimbursement.Corey and Yousuf get into the five things that were missing all along, how AI personalizes nutrition without leaving under-resourced communities behind, what this looks like inside an FQHC, why every hospital needs a chief affordability officer, and what has to change so a heart failure patient never again leaves a hospital without a nutrition plan.If you've ever watched a program your patients loved disappear when the funding ran out, this conversation is for you.☕ Tell us what you thought of this episode and get a Healthy Project coffee mug: https://forms.gle/W6fqYUcJPsuHYjad8What we cover:The moment Yousuf realized nutrition was never part of central caregiving across hospitals, health plans, and physician practices (00:59)Why a sick-care system that reimburses treatment can't see the value of prevention (04:01)The proof of value problem: the 3-to-1 ROI argument Yousuf makes to health plan CEOs (06:22)The five missing pieces that killed every food as medicine program: screening, workflow integration, personalization, measurement, and reimbursement (09:07)How AI personalizes nutrition to culture, budget, and multiple chronic conditions without deepening bias against already disadvantaged communities (12:32)What NutraVance looks like inside an FQHC, where 32 million Americans get their care (16:45)Why every hospital and health plan needs a chief affordability officer (18:13)Who pays for food as medicine today, and who should: Medicare, Medicaid, and the payers writing the checks (19:32)The 10-year vision: a healthcare system that asks for your nutrition plan the way it asks for your insurance card (22:12)Yousuf's leadership advice: the difference between motion and progress (34:11)About the guest:Dr. Yousuf J. Ahmad, DrPH, is President and CEO of AssureCare, a Cincinnati-based population health technology company. He previously served as President and CEO of Mercy Health in Cincinnati, leading a $3 billion integrated health system. AssureCare's newly launched NutraVance platform brings nutrition assessment, care planning, personalized meal planning, patient engagement, and reimbursement workflows into a single system embedded in clinical care.Links:Learn more about NutraVance and AssureCare: assurecare.comDiscover mission-driven podcasts on Goodfeed: goodfeed.coFollow The Healthy Project on all platforms and subscribe so you never miss an episode.Before you go, I want to put you on to something I'm excited about. GoodFeed is a curated discovery platform for mission-driven podcasts, built to connect shows like this one with the listeners, funders, and organizations who care about the same work. It's in private preview right now, and you can join the waitlist at goodfeed.co! Hosts, funders, nonprofits, and listeners are all welcome in the first cohort. ★ Support this podcast ★
The American healthcare system is built around a simple idea: get sick, get treated. But what if the problem isn't how we treat illness — it's that we've never seriously tried to prevent it? In this first installment of a two-part conversation, Jamie sits down with Brody Wall, Division President of Operations at Your Health, to trace the arc from a broken, reactive healthcare system to one where data tells you what's coming before the patient even knows something is wrong. Brody's path to healthcare wasn't through a textbook — it was through a father who was a Methodist minister and a mother who spent her career caring for underprivileged children. The mission was always there. The data just became the most honest way to fulfill it. In Part 1, Jamie and Brody cover: Why fee-for-service healthcare financially rewards volume of sick visits — not health — and how that one incentive structure explains why 17-20% of America's GDP goes to healthcare costs with outcomes that still lag behind other developed nations What Your Health was flying blind on before it committed to building a real data infrastructure — and what gut-feeling decisions look like when data finally proves them wrong How social determinants of health (Z codes) and behavioral health conditions (F codes) reveal which patients are actually at the highest risk of hospitalization The finding that changed everything: patients with four or more behavioral health conditions were ten times more likely to have multiple ER visits — and the clinical response that followed This isn't just a conversation about numbers. It's about what happens when an organization decides that preventing the crisis matters more than reacting to it. Part 2 drops next week. www.YourHealth.Org
By the time the paper hit version 71, Dr. Nirosha Murugan had already done the hard part. The data were real. The experiment had worked. A team of researchers had used a wearable bioreactor to trigger limb regeneration in frogs, a result with obvious implications for regenerative medicine. But the science still wasn't getting over the line. The problem wasn't the work. It was the translation.On this episode of Standard Deviation, host Oliver Bogler talks with Dr. Nirosha Murugan, a biophysicist and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Tissue Biophysics at Wilfrid Laurier University, about what happens when a scientist working at the edges of quantum biology, bioelectricity, and tissue regeneration runs headfirst into the unwritten rules of academic publishing. Murugan's research asks biologists to think beyond molecules and chemistry alone, and to consider the physical signals, electromagnetic fields, and invisible forces that shape development and healing. It is ambitious science. It is also exactly the kind of work that can make gatekeepers nervous.Bogler follows Murugan through the less glamorous part of discovery: the hidden curriculum of getting a paper published, securing scientific credibility, and learning that data do not simply “speak for themselves.” Murugan describes how jargon buried the pitch of her own work, how a lack of editorial support left her at a disadvantage, and how the JEDI program at the Life Science Editors Foundation paired her with a former journal editor who taught her how to structure a manuscript, write a cover letter, and survive peer review.The result was publication in Science Advances, but the larger story is about power. Who gets taught the rules of biomedical research. Who has access to grant writers, editors, and institutional polish. Who is left to brute-force their way through the maze. And how one scientist, having finally found the map, now makes sure her own trainees do not have to learn it the hard way.RELATED LINKSDr. Nirosha MuruganWilfrid Laurier UniversityLife Science Editors FoundationJEDI ProgramScience Advances paper on limb regenerationFEEDBACKLike 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. Jess Peatross trained in conventional medicine and worked as a hospitalist before she started questioning why so many chronically ill patients kept getting worse inside the healthcare system she trusted. Her perspective carries weight because she spent years following every protocol exactly as taught before walking away from hospital medicine entirely.Raised in Huntington, West Virginia during the opioid crisis, she entered medicine believing the system existed to heal people. Instead, she found hospitals driven by billing codes, liability management, and pharmaceutical dependence while patients with chronic illness, autoimmune disease, mold exposure, and chronic pain cycled endlessly through appointments and prescriptions.Dr. Peatross explains what pushed her toward functional medicine, cannabis therapy, and prevention focused care after watching patients improve only after leaving conventional treatment pipelines behind. The conversation tackles physician burnout, chronic illness stigma, healthcare incentives, and the growing collapse of trust between patients and institutions.The discussion also moves into supplements, environmental toxins, ultra processed food, and the uncomfortable economics behind keeping people permanently sick but continuously billable. Dr. Peatross describes the professional backlash that comes with challenging medical orthodoxy while Matthew connects her experience to the broader erosion of public trust across American healthcare.Together they unpack what happens when patients stop believing the system can help them and start searching elsewhere for answers.RELATED LINKSDr. Jess PeatrossInstagramMarshall UniversityBrave New WeedFEEDBACKLike 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.
There's a federal law that's supposed to protect you from toxic chemicals in your baby bottles, your carpet, your drinking water, and your kid's toys. Most people have never heard of it — and right now, some lawmakers are trying to quietly weaken it. In this episode, Corey sits down with Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at the Environmental Defense Fund, to break down the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): how it went from a "dog that never barked" to a bipartisan reform ten years ago, why Black and brown communities carry the heaviest burden of chemical exposure, and what's actually at stake if these protections get rolled back. Sarah also shares real, practical steps you can take at home — no chemistry degree required.This episode is brought to you by Goodfeed. ═══════════════════════════════In this episode:What TSCA is, why it was passed in 1976, and why it barely worked for 40 yearsThe 2016 bipartisan reform that finally gave the EPA real authority to review chemicalsWhy cost can't be part of the "is this safe" conversation — but can factor into "how do we manage the risk"Why Black and brown communities are disproportionately exposed to industrial pollution and toxic waste, and how redlining is directly tied to thatWhat's being proposed right now that could quietly gut these protections againWhy "regulation kills innovation" doesn't hold up — and what strong rules actually do for public health and industrySimple, low-cost things you can do today: testing for lead, skipping fragranced products, avoiding plastic in the microwave, washing your hands after cleaningResources mentioned:Learn more about TSCA: edf.org/tscaCheck your exposure risk by zip code: chemicalactionmap.edf.orgConnect with Sarah Vogel and the Environmental Defense Fund at edf.org.This episode is brought to you by Goodfeed — goodfeed.co. ★ Support this podcast ★
9 Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals and Patients by Mauvareen Beverley https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D73NNN2V Drbeverley.com Nine Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals and Patients by Dr. Beverley presents actionable strategies to transform health disparity into health equity. Drawing from her extensive interactions with over 1,000 diverse patients, Dr. Beverley introduces innovative approaches, like “The Bridge Team,” to enhance outcomes for vulnerable populations. Dr. Beverley offers a clear roadmap supported by real-life stories, addressing the critical gap between patient perception and reality. She emphasizes simple, empathetic solutions to prevent complex health issues, stressing the importance of recognizing patients as multifaceted individuals with roles beyond their medical conditions. This essential guide advocates for cultural competence across all patient demographics, highlighting the often-overlooked needs of the English-speaking Black population who are not included in the need for cultural competence. Dr. Beverley also provides historical insights into the health crises faced by Black communities, underscoring the need for equitable, compassionate care inclusive of individuals with Sickle Cell Disease. Echoing Hippocrates, Dr. Beverley reminds us: “It is more important to know the person who has the disease than the disease who has the person.” This book is a vital resource for healthcare professionals and patients committed to achieving health equity and improving health outcomes. About the author Mauvareen Beverley, M.D. is the President of Mauvareen Beverley, M.D., PLLC, Patient Engagement and Cultural Competence Specialist. She is an executive-level physician and a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) with over twenty years of experience advocating for improving patient engagement and cultural competence for all populations, especially African American communities. As Assistant Vice President, Physician Advisor for NYC Health + Hospitals, she sponsored the first Conference on Improving the Health of the Elderly Black Population. Under her leadership as Deputy Executive Director of Kings County Hospital, she led her team to implement innovative strategies for improved equitable health outcomes and decreased Congestive Heart Failure readmission from 30 percent to 18.7 percent in less than two years. Dr. Beverley is a national thought leader and expert in patient engagement and health equity. She has lectured extensively on health disparities, patient engagement and valuing the human experience.
Farla Efros is a senior retail executive and former CEO who built and sold companies before facing her own breast cancer diagnosis. She brings that same operational mindset into a healthcare system that expects patients to manage complexity while they are at their most vulnerable.She was on a client call in Spain when the diagnosis came through. A clear mammogram had missed it. An MRI caught it. Within hours, she was ordering binders, building a plan, and structuring her treatment like a turnaround strategy. Every appointment became a meeting. Every doctor faced an agenda with dozens of questions. She paid out of pocket for PET scans that were denied and hired a third party firm to validate her treatment path when her own doctors resisted outside input. The conversation tracks what happens when a high-functioning executive enters a system built on delay, denial, and fragmentation. Efros describes negotiating for tests, managing physician relationships, and assembling an “executive board” of advisors across conventional and alternative care. She calls the experience “the worst client I ever had,” exposing how administrative burden shifts onto patients and families.The tension sits between what worked for her and what is inaccessible to most. Her approach requires confidence, time, and fluency in navigating power. The system rewards that behavior while quietly failing patients who cannot replicate it. Insurance coverage still left her paying out of pocket. Doctors pushed standard protocols over precision medicine. Survivorship offered little support once treatment ended.This episode examines how cancer care operates as a series of incentives rather than a coordinated system, and why patients are forced to become operators just to get through it.RELATED LINKSFarla EfrosFarla Efros on LinkedInF*ck CancerF*ck Cancer on AmazonAccentureCTOAMPULL QUOTES“I treated cancer like the worst client I ever had.”“They wouldn't approve the test, so I paid for it myself.”“Every appointment was a negotiation.”FEEDBACKLike 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.