The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Jake Eberts went viral from live-tweeting his experience participating in an 11-day clinical trial for a dysentery vaccine. He told the story incredibly humorous on Twitter, and I just needed to know more. In this episode, Jake shares all the details from drinking the "shigella smoothie" to his thoughts on clinical trial ethics. Learn more about the shigella vaccine clinical trial . Follow Jake Eb...

It’s National Nurses Week! As the most trusted profession for the last 20 years, nurses make up the highest percentage of the US healthcare workforce and serve as the primary providers of patient care. But we’re facing a nursing crisis and looming shortage. In this episode, McKinsey Partner and former nurse Gretchen Berlin shares the challenges the profession is facing, and what’s needed to turn t...

Decades of public health efforts to curb teen smoking have unraveled since Juul and other e-cigarette brands came on the market in 2015. With sketchy ads targeting youth and flavor names like “gummy bear” and “cool cucumber”, vaping has skyrocketed amongst youth. In fact, 10%-24% of high school students are now addicted to nicotine. In this episode, Dr. Susan Walley, Chief of the Division of Hospi...

Just because a computer isn’t running a Windows operating system doesn’t mean it’s broken, it’s just different. Same goes for people who are “neurodivergent”, a term used to describe any kind of divergence from dominant cultural norms of neurocognitive functioning. This can include people living with autism, ADHD, OCD, epilepsy, synesthesia, dyslexia, and more. In this episode, special guest host...

For decades, the U.S. has been forcibly sterilizing women of color, taking away their basic human right to become a parent. It’s happening in prisons and immigration detention centers, where doctors are performing unwarranted hysterectomies and bilateral tubal ligation without proper consent. Last year, California announced it would pay out millions of dollars to living survivors of the state’s fo...

LGBTQ+ people face worse health outcomes in our country due to a long history of oppression and discrimination. Dr. Mitchell Lunn is a physician and researcher of sexual and gender minority populations (SGM) at Stanford University. In this episode, he explains what health equity means for SGM people, and what we can do to be better allies.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in 18-45-year-olds in the US, claiming more lives than car crashes and gun violence combined. After Dr. Beth Weinstock lost her son last year to what she calls “the most devastating health crisis this generation has ever seen,” she decided to do something about it. In this episode, Dr. Weinstock explains how a harm-reduction approach can protect young peo...

In wartime, the dismantling of healthcare services due to destroyed infrastructure, understaffed hospitals, supply chain issues, and drug shortages often kill far more people than bombs and bullets. These effects linger long after the war has ended. And they impact the health and wellbeing of entire generations of people. In this episode, we share an overview of the situation in Ukraine from a hea...

In celebration of National Nutrition Month, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Michael Moss explains how the big food industry uses science and marketing schemes to get us hooked on unhealthy food products. They then sell us diet fads that don't work. Michael Moss is the author of "Salt Sugar Fat" and "Hooked." He was formerly an investigative journalist for the Wall Street Journal an...

Charlamagne Tha God is a multimedia mogul, Radio Hall of Fame inductee, bestselling author, and one of the most influential thought leaders in modern culture. He explains how his mental health struggles led him to start the Mental Wealth Alliance to destigmatize, accelerate, and center state-of-the-art mental health outreach and care, building an unprecedented long-term system of generational supp...

February is Cancer Prevention Month. Nearly 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes. The good news is that continued advancements in medical research have led to more people surviving cancer. But what if we could prevent cancer altogether? Is it possible? In this episode, Jody Hoyos, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Prevent Cancer Foundation,...

The R-word is a form of hate speech that has been used to describe people with intellectual disabilities. Today’s guest, Jamie Brewer, is a successful actress and model who is also an advocate for differently-abled people. Not only was she the first person with Down syndrome to walk the runway at New York Fashion Week, but she also successfully persuaded Texas state senators to remove the R-word i...

Mark Cuban was horrified at how many Americans struggle to pay for their medications, which are are 250% more expensive in the U.S. than in other OECD nations. In this episode, he shares the details of his new online pharmacy for generic drugs that offers steep discounts. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company cuts out the middle-man, charging customers a transparent price that is equal to the manu...

Generic medications, which represent 90% of the prescriptions filled in the US, are largely manufactured overseas. Some leaders are questioning our over-reliance on pharmaceuticals produced abroad, saying it creates vulnerable supply chains that pose serious risks to national security. In this episode, scientist and entrepreneur Hitha Palepu explains the problem with generic drugs and what we can...

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives in many frustrating ways, for a lot longer than we'd hoped. Which begs the question: Is this just our life now? In this episode, Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the University of California San Francisco Department of Medicine, answers all the questions that have been weighing on our conscience. He also explains his predictions for spring and summer. See Priva...

In this episode, Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton talks about her advocacy for a more equitable healthcare system. Dr. Hilton is an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia and the first Black woman anesthesiologist at Medical University of South Carolina since it opened. Dr. Hilton’s work extends far beyond the walls of the hospital. She is a vocal supporter of health equity, advocating for underserve...

Each year motor vehicle crashes take the lives of more than 40,000 people in the United States, and result in 2.7 million emergency department visits. Car crashes are the third leading cause of death for people under 55 and cost us $463 billion in wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, admin expenses, and property damage. The thing about car accidents is that they are not accidents. They...

In this special episode of The Heart of Healthcare, we talk with Julia Cheek about how women's healthcare needs are often ignored and how we can upend the paternalistic system to achieve health equity. Julia Cheek is the CEO and Founder of Everly Health , a fully integrated digital care platform. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/pri...

In this episode, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi delves into her journey of becoming a doctor and her personal experience with losing her husband. Dr. Kalanithi is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford and the widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of the bestselling memoir "When Breath Becomes Air," to which she wrote the epilogue. Dr. Kalanithi has implemented novel health care delivery models...

Live from the Rock Health Virtual Summit, Dr. Nzinga Harrison puts addiction and substance use disorder into context. She also explains how an evidence-based and compassionate harm-reduction approach can lead to better health outcomes. Nzinga Harrison, MD, FASAM is the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Eleanor Health, a company built on equity and justice developing mental health medical hom...

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in this episode, we’ll dissect how a pandemic, economic shock, and civil unrest compounded domestic violence risk factors and reduced access to resources. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In this episode, youth sex educator Nora Gelperin dives into the good and bad of sex education today. Nora is the director of Sexuality Education and Training at Advocates for Youth. She is also a proponent of evidence-based sex education, supported by leading professional organizations including the AMA, ACOG, APHA, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19...

In this episode, LaShyra "Lash" Nolen talks about the future of medical education and care. Lash is a medical student, Fulbright scholar, science communicator, and the Founder of the non-profit We Got Us. She currently serves as the first Black woman to become class president of the Harvard Medical School. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...

In this episode, HaeSung Han, founder of POETIC, explains how vulnerable youth are at risk of exploitation like sexual abuse and sex trafficking. POETIC builds a pipeline out of the juvenile justice system and into intensive aftercare for girls who have been exploited and trafficked. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-s...

In this episode, Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal shares a treatment plan for our healthcare system. Elisabeth is an ER doctor turned reporter. She's the author of the New York Times bestselling book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take it Back. Her book reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, and tells us exactly what we can...