THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024
How Groundbreaking NIH Research is Expanding to Birth-to-Four-Year-Olds
For nearly the first decade of the National Institutes of Health’s “All of Us” Research Program — aimed at increasing diversity in genetic research — a major component was missing: kids.
“Children are approximately 24% of our population in the U.S. and 100% of our future,” Dr. Sara Van Driest, director of pediatrics for NIH’s All of Us Program, told hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. “In order to provide them with the very best care for the future and have them benefit from this resource, we need to include them.”
The journey is personal for Katrina Yamazaki, Ph.D., principal investigator for Community Health Center, Inc., in Connecticut, a partner organization in All of Us. Yamazaki and her husband adopted three boys through the foster care system.
“We don’t know a whole lot about their … biological families’ medical history,” Yamazaki said. “The idea that this program will one day be able to provide some of [that] missing information to me and my husband, in order to become health advocates for our children is really important to me.”
The NIH in August began limited enrollment in the program for children age 4 and under.
“We started with that youngest age group so we can follow them the longest,” Van Driest said.
Community Health Center, Inc., for its part, is partnering with community-based organizations such as the Hartford Public Library to build trust, raise awareness of the project and make a fun atmosphere through activities.
All of Us intends to change what might be seen as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to health care. It aims to encompass 1 million individuals of diverse backgrounds but doesn’t focus on particular diseases or conditions, Van Driest said. The diversity, too, goes beyond culture, touching geography, age and socioeconomic status.
“One of the goals of research is to connect the dots,” she said. Given the scope of the project, “there will be so many dots that we’ll be able to connect,” Van Driest said.
“If we fail to include a group of individuals or an aspect of diversity, we miss out on that uniqueness. That limits us in what we’re able to understand about humanity in general,” she said. “It also limits research and learning about that group of individuals. And it limits downstream how clinicians can care about individuals and give them the very best possible outcomes.”
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020
Pandemic XPrize Competition: Dr. Daniel Kraft on Quest to Leverage Tech and AI For Solutions to Address COVID-19
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Daniel Kraft, physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and Chair of the XPrize Pandemic Alliance Task Force, which is holding competitions to develop better tools for addressing COVID-19. Dr. Kraft, who is also founder and Executive Director of Exponential Medicine, looks at emerging developments that will lead to better rapid tests, masks as well as tech and AI-enabled interventions that will offer earlier diagnosis of infection, and better treatment and management of diseases like coronavirus in the future.
MONDAY, JULY 20, 2020
Pandemic: Dr. Zeke Emanuel on the Timeline for America Returning to ‘Normal’
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. A former advisor to the Obama Administration, he predicts the pandemic won’t be fully brought under control until late next year, when an approved vaccine can be successfully deployed across hundreds of millions of Americans. He discusses his new book, “Which Country Has the Best Healthcare” addressing the failure of America’s leadership to adequately address the pandemic.
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, 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, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
Quest to Improve Maternal And Childhood Health: Dr. Diana Bianchi Talks About Research Mission at the NICHD
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Diana Bianchi, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the NIH, the largest funder of health research in the world. She oversees a $1.5 billion budget conducting research in all phases of child health from maternal and reproductive health, to infant diagnostics, adolescence into adulthood, and all people with intellectual disabilities.
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2019
Ending HIV/AIDS in America and Confronting the Resurgence of Measles: CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield on Public Health Solutions
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which is dedicated to eradicating the AIDS Virus as we know it in this country, dramatically reducing new infections within a decade. He also addresses the domestic and global spike of previously eradicated diseases like measles, resulting from a growing anti-vaccination movement.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2018
Starting 2019 Right, Lifestyle as Medicine: Dr. David Katz on Power of Nutrition in Prevention and Health
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. David Katz, globally renowned lifestyle medicine expert and Director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center where his research focuses on advancing diet and nutrition as a powerful tool to reduce the burden of chronic disease. The founder of the True Health Initiative, he discusses his most recent book, "The Truth About Food", a comprehensive reference book for clinicians and patients on the science of nutrition.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018
Dr. Leana Wen, Day One: Charting Planned Parenthood's Course for Protecting Women's Health
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Leana Wen, newly appointed President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American. Dr. Wen talks about successful interventions she launched as Baltimore's Health Commissioner on opioids, maternal mortality and gun violence, planning to take her tough public health approach to addressing challenges to women's health and reproductive rights in America.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2018
America's Addiction Crisis: Treatment Research Institute Founder Dr. Tom McLellan on Science-Based Approach to Drug Treatment and Policy
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned addiction expert Dr. Tom McLellan, Founder and CEO of the Treatment Research Institute, committed to promoting evidence-based approaches to drug treatment and drug policy. He discusses addiction as a chronic disorder, the effectiveness of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid and alcohol addiction, and the need to improve addiction medicine training for clinicians and health care providers.
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018
Millions Served: NACHC's Dan Hawkins on Community Health Centers Delivering Care to Vulnerable Americans
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dan Hawkins, Sr. VP for Public Policy and Research at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), which supports the thousands of chc's providing care for 27 million underserved Americans. They discuss the care model that embeds behavioral and dental care within primary care, the growing reliance on Nurse Practitioners as front line clinicians, and the training, innovation and quality care the nation's health centers provide.
MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2018
Purdue Pharma and the Opioid Epidemic: Writer Barry Meier Unveils OxyContin's Pivotal Role
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Pulitzer Prize winning writer Barry Meier, author of "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic," on Purdue Pharma, makers of the narcotic OxyContin, and the pivotal role they played in "the greatest public health crisis of the 21st Century."
MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018
Dr. David Blumenthal of the Commonwealth Fund on the HITECH Act, ACA and High Cost of American Health Care
This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. David Blumenthal, President of the Commonwealth Fund, a philanthropy dedicated to research supporting a high-functioning health care system. He discusses expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the vital role of the HITECH Act in adoption of electronic health records in the US, and the Fund's ongoing research comparing US health costs to other countries.
MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2016
Dr. Emmanuel d'Harcourt, Senior Health Director, International Rescue Committee
This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Emmanuel d'Harcourt, Senior Health Director at the International Rescue Committee, an international aid organization dedicated to mitigating the plight of the world's 60 million refugees. Dr. d'Harcourt discusses the challenges of coordinating care among the world's NGOs and the World Health Organization and the need to build a more integrated aid infrastructure.