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Channel • 2 Shows

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News

Updated 4 days ago
Business

Business

Updated weekly

07/06/2023

76: Why forced treatment can't fix substance use disorder

When a loved one is living with serious substance use disorder and refuses to get help, sometimes it seems like the only solution is to force them into it. In many states, people can be “arrescued” — that is, forced under penalty of law into a treatment program that is nearly identical to being incarcerated, down to orange jumpsuits. But Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine physician, says that while she understands the love that makes people see involuntary treatment as a solution, it doesn’t actually work.

07/06/2023

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33 min
02/11/2023

281: Decoding biotech hype, the Sarepta saga, & au revoir to a CEO

Biotech consultant Frank David joins us to explain the wild world of subgroup analyses and how to discern science from spin. We also discuss the latest news in the life sciences, including the future of Sarepta and the retirement of a biotech stalwart. For more on what we cover, here's where you can read Frank's work; here's more on Sarepta; here’s where you can find episodes of Color Code; here’s where you can subscribe to the First Opinion Podcast; and here's where you can subscribe to our biotech newsletter, The Readout.

02/11/2023

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32 min
14/06/2023

77: Physicians have an obligation to get into "good trouble"

Just days after the end of Roe v. Wade, Caitlin Bernard, an OB/GYN in Indiana, told the Indianapolis Star a heartbreaking story: She had recently been asked to perform an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had been raped. In late May, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board held a hearing on Bernard. While they did not revoke her license, they fined Bernard $3,000 and issued a letter of reprimand, saying that by speaking out, she had violated the 10-year-old girl’s privacy. This week, Gabriel Bosslet and Tracey Wilkinson, who are both friends and colleagues of Bernard, talk about her story, its lessons for physicians, and why advocacy is a professional responsibility.

14/06/2023

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28 min
31/10/2024

329: Lilly's earnings surprise, investors mull the election, & a spooky ghost story

Adam, Allison, and Elaine get into the Halloween spirit this week, discussing their favorite candies — and Eli Lilly and Pfizer's surprise earnings reports. Then, they discuss what a Trump or Harris presidency could mean for health care and the biopharma industry, and what investors and biopharma executives think about either outcome.

31/10/2024

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28 min
01/02/2024

292: Vertex's polarizing data, Aduhelm's adieu, & an FDA icon

We explain the debate over Vertex Pharmaceuticals' novel pain drug, whose success in clinical trials comes with a sizable caveat. We also talk about the latest news in the life sciences, including an epitaph for Aduhelm and the retirement of an FDA icon. Here's where you can subscribe to our biotech newsletter, The Readout. And here's where you can subscribe to our newsletter on the business (and secretive inner workings) of the U.S. health care industry, Health Care Inc.

01/02/2024

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36 min
12/07/2018

Episode 19: Trump's telephonic prowess, Biogen's mysterious future, & the rise of 'hypelines'

Can phone calls bring down drug prices? Do mom-and-pop investors have a prayer against hedge funds? And how do you know whether an Alzheimer's drug actually works?

12/07/2018

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25 min
15/05/2024

98: Free medical tuition alone isn't enough to close gaps in primary care

University of Pennsylvania oncologist and researcher Ezekiel Emanuel and Matthew Guido, a project manager in the Healthcare Transformation Institute, discuss their original research on tuition-free programs with former host Pat Skerrett, who is filling in while Torie Bosch is on maternity leave. They make the case that medical school debt is only one of many factors that influence new doctors to choose less-popular specialties and geographic locations for their residencies.

15/05/2024

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35 min
20/11/2024

115: Paying a visit to ‘Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory’

When Randi Johnson was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, her husband, Brian, often felt at a loss to help. But then, when he and Randi met with a surgeon to discuss reconstructing her breast, he was struck by something he could do. The Midwestern father of five, a lifelong tinkerer, decided to make his wife the best possible prosthetic nipple. “The nipple solution is actually very elusive,” Randi said. “Surgical nipples tend to flatten. Tattoos fade. Or they still don't have dimension. The … prosthetic nipples that were around when we started, they looked really fake, and they'd fall off. And that's really kind of a deal breaker.” After Brian made one for Randi, the two of them decided to offer the service to others. Today, they make affordable, realistic nipples for dozens of people a year, largely reaching potential customers through word of mouth. One of their sons, Justin, recently chronicled their work in his new documentary “Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory,” now available for rent or purchase on streaming platforms. (Watch the trailer here.)

20/11/2024

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38 min
17/07/2024

107: Empathy should be the first response to people with vaccine injury, fears

For scientists and medical professionals well versed in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, it is often too easy to write off the concerns of people who fear them, or feel they have been injured by them. But vaccine expert Kizzmekia S. Corbett-Helaire argues that professionals should be more empathetic when it comes to listening to these concerns, and that understanding them may help developers make better vaccines. Corbett-Helaire, an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, joins "The First Opinion Podcast" this week to discuss her experience helping roll out the first Covid-19 vaccines in the midst of the pandemic. She also addresses her desire to close the gap between public health experts trying to end disease and people who genuinely fear harm from vaccines.

17/07/2024

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33 min
19/06/2024

103: Long Covid can be scarier than a gun to the head

Millions of people around the world are living with long Covid, a potentially debilitating and medically perplexing condition. Rachel Hall-Clifford is one of them. As a medical anthropologist, she’s well suited to understand the condition. But as a mother, wife, friend, researcher, and teacher, it drags her down, just as it does so many others.

19/06/2024

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37 min

Voices from the frontiers of health and medicine