JAMA Health Forum Conversations

The US's aging population is reshaping health policy, care models, and workforce demands. This episode examines the structural challenges and urgent innovations required for long-term care as JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, talks with Harvard's David Grabowski, PhD, a leading expert in aging policy. Related Content: The Implications of Population Aging for Health Policy a...

The 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision had consequences for access to abortion in the US, resulting in near-total abortion bans in effect in more than a dozen states. Diana Foster, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the impact of the Dobbs decision and role of science in documenting...

Heidi Allen, MSW, PhD, from Columbia University discusses policy shifts that may reshape healthcare for millions in the US with JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief and "The Year We Lost Medicaid" author Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH. Related Content: The Year We Lost Medicaid

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in health care and public health can bring efficiency and new approaches that might improve health. These tools may also have implications for health equity. Kevin Johnson, MD, MS, of the University of Pennsylvania joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI in health care and public health. Re...

How do we better deploy market-based solutions to improve health care in the US? Lanhee Chen, PhD, of Stanford University joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss how market-based approaches can complement public strategies to create a health care system that is more adaptive, responsive, and fiscally sustainable. Related Content: A Role for Market Forces in US He...

Pharmaceuticals are a central—and costly—element of the US health care system. Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the challenge and opportunity of delivering affordable drugs to as many people as possible. Related Content: In Search of Pharmaceutical Policy Innovation in the US

Historically, there has been less focus on primary care than on specialist care in US health care. What are the challenges and opportunities in primary care today? What might it look like in the coming decades? Robert Phillips, MD, MSPH, of The American Board of Family Medicine joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the future of primary care in the US. Related...

There is abundant evidence that sexual minority groups have worse health indicators than sexual majority groups. Gilbert Gonzales, PhD, MHA, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the current policy landscape and its potential impact on the health of LGBTQ+ populations. Related Content: Health Implications of Recent Policy...

Both sex- and gender-based factors influence the health of women. A fully realized population health agenda needs to center women's health as an area of conceptual and pragmatic focus. Rosa M Gonzalez-Guarda, PhD, MPH, RN, joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss women's health, inequities, and how women's many and different identities shape their health. Related...

About 1 in 5 adults in the US live with a mental health condition. In 2023, approximately 32% of US adults reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Ruth Shim, MD, MPH, of the University of California, Davis, joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss how national policy can better support mental health in the US. Related Content: Toward a Strategy to Improve Nat...

The second Trump administration launched several actions in 2025 that directly affect the health of populations. Sara Bleich, PhD, of Harvard Chan School of Public Health joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the nonhealth policies that may matter most to health and warrant ever-more attention, particularly in a moment of policy turbulence. Related Content: The...

The evolution of artificial intelligence technology has outstripped most health policy oversight in the US. Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD, Professor of Law and Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, discusses this and more with JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH. Related Content: Inaction on Artificial Intelligence Regulation in a Time of Upheaval

The US is an outlier in health system performance, spending more than other peer countries while performing worse. US economist David Cutler, who is the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University, discusses this and more with JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH. Related Content: On Making US Health Care Great and Affordable

Increased health insurance coverage in the US has had a broad range of positive impacts on US health, including increases in preventive care and better chronic disease management. Larry Levitt, MPP, of KFF joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss challenges facing US health insurance coverage today. Related Content: The Ongoing, and Heightened, Threat to Health In...

The first months of the Trump administration have been marked by a flurry of actions, many that have affected agencies directly related to health domestically and globally. Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss the contemporary threats to the health of the American public. Related...

US withdrawal from the World Health Organization will have significant implications for global health. Lawrence Gostin, JD, JAMA Legal and Global Health Correspondent and Faculty Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, joins JAMA Health Forum Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, to discuss global health in an era of new uncertainty. Related...

Incoming Editor in Chief Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, discusses the journal and the state of health policy with Deputy Editor Julie Donohue, PhD, and Senior Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. Related Content: JAMA Health Forum: Meet the Editor in Chief, Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH JAMA Health Forum—Paving the Way for the Future of Health Policy Science and Scholarship

Founding Editor in Chief John Ayanian, MD, MPP, reflects on the origins and the highlights of the journal's first 5 years, including seminal publications, the journal's current No. 1 slot in the rankings, and the amazingly collegial editorial team, with JAMA Health Forum founding Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. Related Content: Reflections on the First 5 Years of JAMA Health Forum

Research shows that Tobacco 21 (T21) policies with a minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products of 21 years reduce youth smoking, yet their potential long-term impact varies across US states. Jamie Tam, MPH, PhD, of the Yale University School of Public Health discusses these findings with JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. Related Content: US...

Extreme heat in the US led to deaths and hospital admissions among community-dwelling older adults with low incomes. Hyunjee Kim, PhD, of the Oregon Health & Science University, and Jose F. Figueroa, MD, MPH, of Harvard University, discuss these findings with JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. Related Content: Heat Waves and Adverse Health Events...

The use of care by patients of physicians considered more altruistic differs from the use of care of physicians considered less. Lawrence P. Casalino, MD, PhD, MPH, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses his work around this with JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. Related Content: Physician Altruism and Spending, Hospital Admissions, and Emergency...

JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD, spoke with Sherry Glied, PhD, and Dong Ding, MA, MPA, of New York University, about the effects of participation in health care savings accounts. Participation in flexible spending accounts is linked to higher health care and tax expenditures, while health care savings accounts do not reduce expenditures. Relate...

AcademyHealth CEO Aaron Carroll, MD, MS, shares highlights from the AcademyHealth 2024 Annual Research Meeting in an interview hosted by JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD. John and Melinda then discuss key findings from 4 highly rated abstracts presented at the meeting that were published concurrently as Original Investigations in JAMA Health For...

More than 50 million adults in the US are eligible to vote but not registered. Alister F. Martin, MD, MPP, of Harvard University, and Katherine McCabe, PhD, of Rutgers University speak with JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin, PhD, about a program to register new voters in health care settings that has enrolled younger and racially and ethnically divers...

JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian, MD, MPP, speaks with Kelsey M. Owsley, PhD, of the University of Arkansas, and Sayeh Nikay, PhD, MPH, of the University of Minnesota, about how the 340B drug discount program influences the services offered by public and nonprofit hospitals. They also discuss new state policies and proposed federal policies to promote greater transparency and accountability i...