June 17th, 2022
Podcast 292: Informed consent and apnea testing for death — or — What is death, anyway?
Apnea testing is part of the protocol used to determine whether a patient is dead according to neurologic criteria. The question is, do clinicians need to obtain consent to proceed? In a fascinating 15-minute chat, two intensivists, Drs. Patricia Kritek and Robert Truog, discuss that question and another, larger one: what is death, anyway? Their back-and-forth […]
January 16th, 2020
Podcast 248: “Hotspotting” didn’t work in its home town — why?
The process of identifying super-users of healthcare and reducing the frequency of their hospitalizations — so-called “hotspotting” — was subjected to a randomized, controlled trial in Camden, NJ, the birthplace of the idea. It failed there. Those in the intervention group had a readmission rate within 6 months that was statistically identical to those getting usual care. […]
December 12th, 2019
Podcast 246: Where we die now
For the first time in almost a century, Americans are dying at home more often than dying in hospitals. This seems to mark a cultural change that will affect both how and where clinical medicine is practiced. Dr. Haider Warraich’s letter to the editor of the NEJM presents the numbers, and he’s agreed to talk about their implications. […]
June 11th, 2019
Podcast 226: What we need to talk about when we talk about health
Length: 18 minutes Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health, has written a new book. It’s called “Well: What we need to talk about when we talk about health,” and it’s the centerpiece of our discussion. Dr. Galea, who trained as an emergency physician, believes that health is a public good and thus worthy […]
March 14th, 2018
Podcast 218: Better integration of midwifery associated with better birth outcomes
An analysis of the states’ integration of midwifery into their healthcare systems concludes that better integration led to better outcomes for mothers and babies. We discuss this with Dr. Saraswathi Vedam, the study’s first author. Links: University of British Columbia’s Birth Place Lab PLoS One article First Watch coverage of the Lancet series on midwifery
June 3rd, 2015
Podcast 175: “Understanding Value-Based Healthcare” — A Discussion with the Authors of an Important New Book
Running time: 26 minutes “Understanding Value-Based Healthcare,” published in April by McGraw-Hill is today’s focus. Drs. Christopher Moriates, of the University of California, San Francisco; Vineet Arora, of the University of Chicago; and Neel Shah of Harvard Medical — the book’s authors — discuss its straightforward approach to valuing patient outcomes foremost. The discussion ranges over their reasons […]
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