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MONDAY, FEBRAURY 24, 2020

What You Need to Know About COVID-19 With Dr. Saad Omer of the Yale Institute for Global Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Saad Omer, Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, on the expanding COVID-19 outbreak. A renowned epidemiologist, Dr. Omer discusses the best protocols against spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, the need for evidence-based science to guide government responses, and how the global research community is working together to tackle this outbreak and create a vaccine in record time.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020

COVID-19’s Global Spread: NIH's Lead on Coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Talks about the Growing Epidemic and Whether America is Safe

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, globally renowned epidemiologist and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fauci shares the latest findings on COVID-19, a new Coronavirus strain that has spread to nearly 30 countries and left thousands dead. He discusses how travel restrictions and local quarantines in China may have averted a bigger global health catastrophe and looks at the rapid development of vaccines already in the pipeline.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Pulitzer Prize Winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Chronicle America’s ‘Deaths of Despair’ in Their Latest Book “Tightrope”

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and journalist and consultant Sheryl WuDunn. The prolific husband-and-wife writing team discuss their latest book about a humanitarian crisis happening right here in America. In “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope”, they explore the decline in life expectancy and the rise of ‘deaths of despair’ in the US. They also examine solutions to address this growing public health crisis.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Guns are Killing American Children: University of Michigan Researcher Rebecca Cunningham is Seeking To Find Out Why

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, Director of the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center. Dr. Cunningham is leading a national team of scientists in ground-breaking collaborative research to examine the myriad causes of the gun violence epidemic in this country, now the leading cause of death for America’s teens, and second leading cause of death for American children overall. Congress has recently allocated money for gun violence research after a two-decade drought. Her team is examining social causes, policy requirements and prevention interventions to address the crisis.

MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2020

Giving Kids Something to Smile About: ADA President Dr. Chad Gehani on National Children’s Dental Health Month

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Chad Gehani, President of the American Dental Association which is observing National Children’s Dental Health Month. Tooth decay is the largest unmet health need for children in America, and they discuss the ADA’s Give Kids A Smile program in which thousands of dentists and other dental health professionals provide free dental care to tens of thousands of kids around the country every year. They also discuss the impact of water fluoridation for prevention of tooth decay and the need for expanded access to care for all Americans.
MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020

2020 Voters Call for Health Care Fix – Not Repeal or Replace

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Marilyn Serafini, Director of the Health Policy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center which recently conducted a poll of voters in early polling states in the 2020 Presidential Election. Results show voters are most concerned about the costs of health care, preferring to fix the existing system, rather than repeal the Affordable Care Act or replace it with a Medicare For All approach.

MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2020

Addressing Toxic Childhood Stress with California’s First Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Nadine Burke Harris to the show. Governor Gavin Newsome chose Dr. Burke Harris to be California’s first official Surgeon General for her expertise on the impact of Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) and their role in future health problems. They discuss how ACEs affect brain development and DNA makeup. Dr Burke Harris also talks about how the newly-launched ACEs Aware program seeks to provide a framework for early primary care screening and intervention to mitigate the long term effects.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019

Vaping Crisis, Public Health Heroes and Open Notes: A Look Back at the Best of 2019

This week, Mark and Margaret take a look at some of the highlights from the shows of 2019, the year we celebrated ten years on the air. They revisit their conversations with Flint Michigan pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on the water crisis, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids CEO Matthew Myers on the vaping crisis, and health care innovators like Dr.Tom Delbanco of Open Notes and primary care transformer Dr. Bodenheimer, and the show's 500th guest, House Majority Whip James Clyburn.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019

Rolling Health Care to Where It's Needed Most: Harvard's Dr. Nancy Oriol on her Family Van Mobile Health Clinic

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Nancy Oriol, founder of the Family Van, a mobile health clinic on wheels that brings prevention and primary care interventions right into the neighborhoods who need it most. She talks about building a health care network based on trust, saving costs and improving outcomes, and how it’s gaining in popularity in a more user-friendly, prevention-focused health care system.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2019

25-64 Year Olds Are Dying Earlier and Here’s Why: Our Conversations with VCU’s Dr. Steven Woolf

This week on Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Steven Woolf, Distinguished Chair in Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University - and Health Equity Director Emeritus and Senior Advisor at the V-C-U Center on Society and Health. He talks about their just-released report – showing a decline in life expectancy among working aged adults in the US – a result of the lingering effects of the recession, the opioid crisis and other so-called deaths of despair. The data show this trend has been underway since the 1980’s and has now hit critical mass.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019

Protecting Your Personal Health Data: US Senator Bill Cassidy on Bipartisan Smartwatch Data Act

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with US Senator Bill Cassidy (R) LA, on the bipartisan bill he co-sponsored aimed at protecting personal health information from industry profiteering. He discusses the “Smartwatch Data Act” which seeks to protect data generated on smart watches, personal electronic devices and genomics testing, to give patients more control over how their data is used for commercial gain.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2019

Ending HIV Epidemic in a Decade: CDC Director Robert Redfield on Treatments, Prevention and Hope For Vaccine

This week, on the eve of World Aids Day, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter revisit their conversation with Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the quest to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in ten years. They discuss the CDC’s efforts to advance infection prevention in high risk groups through the use of PrEP, better treatment protocols for those already infected, and the ongoing quest to develop an AIDS vaccine.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019

America's Growing Diabetes Threat: American Diabetes Association's Dr. Louis Philipson on Challenges and Breakthroughs for Nation's 30 Million Diabetics

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Louis Philipson, President of Medicine and Science at the American Diabetes Association and Director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at the University of Chicago who addresses the enormous public health threat of 30 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes as well as 70 million more with pre-diabetes. He examines the challenge of helping patients manage their conditions and talks about promising new research on genomics-based precision medicine approaches to treating certain types of diabetes.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2019

United States of Care Founder Andy Slavitt on the ACA, Expanding Coverage and Fixing US Health Care

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Andy Slavitt, former Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama, and founder of United States of Care, a non-partisan think tank dedicated to expanding health coverage to all Americans. He examines how efforts to derail health coverage for Americans has become political 'kryptonite' and how there must be bipartisan solutions to expanding coverage, reducing drug costs and addressing health disparities in this country.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019

America's Mental Health Crisis: NAMI Medical Director Dr. Ken Duckworth on Expanding Screening and Telehealth Services to Meet Demand

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Ken Duckworth, Medical Director for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation's largest grassroots organization addressing mental health issues. They discuss causes behind the growing problem of anxiety, depression, suicide and the opioid use disorder, and viable solutions to address the gap in access to mental health care through better screening, telehealth and better training of primary care clinicians.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019

Admiral Joe Sestak, Democratic Presidential Contender, Talks Health Access, Cybersecurity and Caution on Swift March to Medicare For All

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former Pennsylvania Congressman and three-star Navy Admiral Joe Sestak on his late entry into a run for the Democratic Presidential nomination. He shares his expertise on cybersecurity and threats to American health data, the need to move slowly towards any version of Medicare for All, and the promise of the Veterans Health Administration to meet growing gaps in rural health needs.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2019

Primary Care Transformation Pioneer Dr. Tom Bodenheimer on Need for More Team-Based Health Care

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome a giant in the world of primary care transformation, Dr. Tom Bodenheimer, Co-Director of the Center for Excellence in Primary Care at the University of California San Francisco. They discuss Dr. Bodenheimer's "Ten Building Blocks for High-Performing Primary Care" which offers essential guidelines for improving primary care practices and patient health outcomes through better use of teams, data, health coaching and reducing administrative burdens in the clinical setting.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019

Addressing Upstream Causes of Poor Health: UCSF's Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo on Embedding Social Determinants Into Healthcare

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco, who recently chaired a committee at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on the social determinants of health. She discusses their report on ways to incorporate social care into health care, shifting the American health system towards better management of upstream causes of poor health.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Democratic Presidential Hopeful John Delaney on His Market-Based Approaches to Universal Health Care and Addressing Climate Change

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome another 2020 Presidential candidate to Conversations on Health Care, former Maryland Congressman and entrepreneur John Delaney. They discuss his record as a centrist Democrat who favors more market-based approaches to universal health care, which gives all Americans access to coverage, but keeps private payers in the mix, providing more consumer choice than Medicare for All. He favors a carbon tax approach to addressing climate change to foster US innovation to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Vaping and the Rise of Teen Nicotine Addiction: Warnings and Solutions from Matthew Myers, CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Matthew Myers, co-founder and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leading organization dedicated to reducing tobacco use and harm around the country and the world. He discusses the dramatic decline of teen tobacco use, until the recent rise in vaping and e-cigarettes among the nation's youth - leading to a dramatic increase in nicotine addiction. He discusses the best approach to addressing this public health crisis.