Biden Gun Prevention Leader at Aspen Ideas: Health to Make Their Case

“Conversations on Health Care” went on the road to Aspen Ideas: Health. We start this series with Gregory Jackson, A White House official with one of the toughest assignments: tackling gun violence, Gregory is deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

Why the Path to Mental Health Goes Beyond Science: America’s Former Top Mental Health Leader Explains

Former National Institute of Mental Health director Dr. Thomas Insel discusses how he’s combining his long-standing neuroscience and genetics studies with advocacy for better patient services, which is a topic in his new book, “Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health."

Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter ask him about efforts to build public awareness and support for those with mental health issues. He says, “The real tragedy here isn’t that we’re stigmatizing [those with issues], it’s that we have great stuff to offer that we’re not giving them even though it’s hiding in plain sight.”

NAACP Health Director Dr. Marjorie Innocent Talks About Racism in America

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Marjorie Innocent, Senior Director of Health Programs at the NAACP. Dr. Innocent speaks on the current climate of protest against entrenched racism in America, the NAACP’s call to action to address police brutality, economic and health disparities, and the need to foster a culture of collaboration to address racism’s toll on people of color in this country.

What a Year! A Look Back At COVID’s Grip on 2021

This week, Mark and Margaret take a look back at COVID’s hold on 2021, the early promise of vaccines, the relentless march of mutations and the vicious rise of new variants leading to pandemic surges around the world. They revisit conversations with memorable guests from famed virologists and epidemiologists like Paul Offit and Michael Osterholm, to President Biden’s COVID team leaders Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci and Rachel Levine. They revisited guests focused on other health news: Bill McKibben on climate change, and Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson on the existential threat to women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. It was also a year to celebrate the dramatic discovery underway in the field of science, with Eric Topol, William Haseltine and NIH Director Francis Collins.

Michael J. Fox’s Foundation Makes Parkinson’s Breakthrough

Emmy award-winning actor Michael J. Fox shocked the world when he announced over 25 years ago that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Since then, he’s devoted his talents to eliminating Parkinson’s in our lifetime.

Researchers with The Michael J. Fox Foundation now have impressive progress to report. They’ve developed a biomarker test to measure the protein alpha synuclein that’s helping to diagnose Parkinson’s with more than 90% accuracy, even proving effective at identifying people who may later develop the disease.

“I think this is going to be a game changer for clinical trials and for patient care in the future,” says Samantha Hutten, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and vice president of translational research at the foundation. “But right now it is really a research tool that can be used to inform research and also how we design clinical trials.”

A positive test, for example, may not be able to tell patients which type of alpha synuclein disease they have, whether it’s Parkinson’s, Lewy body dementia or multiple systems atrophy.

“I think there’s huge excitement around it, particularly about the impact on clinical trials,” says Rebecca Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor at Yale University’s School of Medicine who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013 at age 38. “We’re all looking for a drug that will really be disease-modifying.”

Hutten tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that the biomarker test is an “all-comers” study, meaning patients can participate if they’ve been diagnosed or have family with Parkinson’s, or have risk factors like loss of sense of smell or REM sleep behavior disorder.

The test comes at a crucial time: the global rate of Parkinson’s has doubled since Fox first revealed his condition.

Menacing Melanoma: Marc Hulbert, PhD on How You Can Fight Back

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and melanoma is its deadliest form. Cases have tripled in the past 30 years, particularly among younger people — even as rates for other common cancers have gone down.

Raymond Hurd, Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Raymond Hurd, Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the Medicare Open Enrollment period. He discusses the expanded number of plans available to seniors and also warns of the threat of fraud and scams that impact the Medicare population.

Dr. William Hsiao, the K.T. Li Professor of Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses this week on health system design both here and abroad. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. William Hsiao, internationally recognized for his work on designing national health systems and effective ways to organize both health insurance and health care. From China to the United States, Dr. Hsiao’s work provides an interesting backdrop for health reform efforts underway around the world.

Dr. Ardis Hoven, President of the American Medical Association

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, President of the American Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization in the nation representing medical professionals. Dr. Hoven discusses the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on the future of the practice of medicine in this country.

Dr. Ardis Hoven, President of the American Medical Association

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, President of the American Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization in the nation representing medical professionals. Dr. Hoven discusses the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on the future of the practice of medicine in this country.

Cybersecurity, HIPAA, and Blockchain: Microsoft's David Houlding Talks Health Data in the Digital Age

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with David Houlding, Microsoft's Principal Healthcare Lead and international expert on blockchain, AI and cybersecurity issues impacting health information technology. He discusses the challenges of keeping health data safe, while improving access to patients and clinicians, with a growing emphasis on blockchain, AI and the cloud to advance health data security capabilities.

Dr. Peter Hotez on COVID-19 Vaccine

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with notable vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez, founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor University College of Medicine. Author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science”, Dr. Hotez warns deaths from COVID-19 will continue to rise dramatically until a national program of masks, testing, and social distancing is in place. He warns that we are months away from widespread vaccine distribution, and that multiple vaccine candidates should be deployed by next year. He’s also calling for a national messaging strategy to counter the anti-vaccination sector, which he says is being fueled largely on the internet by Russian bots.

Pediatrician Dr. Peter Hotez Creates New Vaccine; Gives Advice for Families With Young Children Staying Safe During Surge

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and co-creator of a new, low-cost vaccine for COVID-19. Dr. Hotez discusses plans for Corbevax, a recombinant protein vaccine shown to be highly protective against COVID-19, which has just been given Emergency Use Authorization by the Indian government. Dr. Hotez’s plan is to make the formula available to poor and developing countries around the world, without any expectation of payment, to accelerate the pace of global vaccinations and bring the pandemic to an end. He also offers important advice to families with children navigating the omicron surge while heading back to school.

COVID Expert Dr. Hotez On His Own Positive Case: What He’s Learned

Dr. Peter Hotez, who helped develop a patent-free COVID-19 vaccine, has tested positive himself for a breakthrough strain of the virus. He explained to “Conversations on Health Care” that he’s doing “pretty well” and is confident that’s because he’s fully vaccinated and double-boosted.

Dr. Hotez shared with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that he’d been taking the oral antiviral medication Paxlovid when the interview was recorded. He said it’s a good drug with solid evidence but also suggested that the amount of virus and its replication may ultimately require a longer course of treatment with Paxlovid; right now it’s only approved for five days.

Dr. Hotez also addresses questions about rising cases, booster shots, the anti-science movement and other important issues.

Latest on Long COVID: NIH Study Leader Leora Horwitz, MD

One of the nation’s top experts on Long COVID explains that it’s still a mystery why virus symptoms remain months and sometimes years after an infection. Dr. Leora Horwitz helps lead the National Institute of Health’s study of Long COVID. She’s the director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science at NYU Langone Health, where they’re integrating the research activities of almost 200 clinical sites.

She says they have found evidence of the virus persisting as well as inflammation or irritation in the bodies of some patients, which may be contributing to the condition.

Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also ask Dr. Horwitz to explain the new working definition of Long COVID, which is helping the medical community move beyond any one individual symptom to describe it.

From the Front Line in Romania to Washington DC: Project HOPE Supporting the Refugee Crisis

Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Project HOPE’s CEO Rabih Torbay and Director of Emergency Response and Preparedness Tom Cotter, who joined the show from the field in Bucharest, Romania. They share the daunting task of providing extensive support and local training to the existing medical infrastructure in handling both the destruction of medical facilities within Ukraine and the millions of refugees in need of medical and behavioral health services as they arrive in neighboring countries. “These people have all experienced trauma,” Cotter said. They are training local laypersons in Psychological First Aid techniques to help the refugees transition to safety. Project HOPE is also keeping supply lines going into Ukraine with desperately needed medical supplies. “Even if this conflict ended tomorrow, the destruction will take years to rebuild,” Torbay said. They expect to be assisting in the region for a long time. And they continue to provide medical support in 30 countries around the world dealing with COVID-19, famine, and military conflict, with a particular focus on women and children’s health.

Waco Hoover, CEO of the Institute for Health Technology Transformation

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Waco Hoover, co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Health Technology Transformation. They discuss the Institute's recent report, "Analytics: The Nervous System of IT Enabled Health Care" which explores the impact big data analytics is having on health care delivery, outcomes and costs.

John Hoffman, Vice President of HBO Documentary Films, Executive Producer of "Weight of the Nation"

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Emmy Award-winning filmmaker John Hoffman, Vice President of HBO Documentary Films and Executive Producer of the "Weight of the Nation", a four-part documentary series produced in conjunction with the Institute of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, that explores the growing epidemic of obesity in this country. Mr. Hoffman speaks about HBO's commitment to using the documentary platform to publicize the causes of obesity, and engage communities in a dialogue about actions and solutions.

Bill Hoagland, Sr. VP of the Bipartisan Policy Center

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center where he manages health policy initiatives. Mr. Hoagland, a long time Budget and Appropriations Director in the US Senate, analyzes the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding tax subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and what it means for health reform moving forward.

A Right to Health? The U.S. Legal Case for Making it Happen

Law professor and public policy advocate Christina S. Ho’s new book, “Normalizing an American Right to Health,” boldly makes the legal case for health as a right that should already exist in the United States. She explains why and unpacks how reinsurance and a Health Impact Assessment fit into her analysis.

Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as she wonders why we can provide government subsidies for things like fracking, which has negative health effects, but avoid doing more to guarantee health for all. In addition, Ho answers critics who say access to care can’t be universal.