Health & Veritas

Howie and Harlan are joined by Kate Heilpern, president of Yale New Haven Hospital, to discuss the hospital’s 200-year history, the financial pressures facing health systems, and how Yale New Haven is balancing innovation with its mission to serve the local community. Harlan examines the growing burden of U.S. healthcare costs; Howie highlights encouraging trends in infant mortality, life expectancy, overdose deaths, and cancer survival.

In this special episode, Howie and Harlan revisit their conversation with trauma surgeon Selwyn Rogers, whose book Healing the Gun Violence Epidemic: Ending Violence, Rebuilding Communities, and a Trauma Surgeon’s Vision for Restoring Hope was published on July 7.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Jessica Federer, managing director of the Women’s Health Fund and a member of the Yale Institutional Review Board, to discuss how investors can help address the dearth of research on medical problems facing women and why she’s optimistic about the future of women’s health. Harlan explains how caps on indirect costs affect institutional staffing and research agendas; Howie reports on a lawsuit filed by 26 states against the Trump administration over bureaucratic hurdles to accessing Medicaid coverage.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale School of Public Health biostatistician Bhramar Mukherjee to discuss how statisticians help researchers turn observations into evidence. Harlan examines a new study linking updated COVID vaccination to lower cardiovascular risk and explains why a headline-grabbing result may not settle the question; Howie discusses new Medicaid work requirements and the danger that administrative hurdles could cost vulnerable patients their coverage.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Ingrid Katz, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, to discuss why HIV continues to spread despite the existence of cheap and effective treatment, what AIDS activism can teach us about tackling chronic diseases like hypertension, and what outbreaks like Ebola reveal about the consequences of fragile health systems. Harlan reports on a breach of UK Biobank data and what it means for the future of open science; Howie highlights two recent papers illustrating the importance of vitamin C and the danger of treating it as a cure-all.

Howie and Harlan discuss healthcare headlines including proposed changes to federal research funding, an outbreak of New World screwworm in Texas cattle, and the debate over free expression after researchers were removed from the American Diabetes Association meeting for distributing an editorial critical of federal science policies. They also examine the future of generic GLP-1 drugs, a new Medicare model for heart failure care, and a court ruling with implications for international physicians practicing in the United States.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Mark Siegel, director of Yale’s internal medicine residency program, to discuss his approach to mentoring young physicians and building a medical community grounded in purpose and compassion. Harlan examines a breakthrough targeted therapy that could reshape the treatment of pancreatic cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers; Howie tracks the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and argues that policy decisions are hampering the global response.

Howie is joined by guest host Megan Ranney, dean of the the Yale School of Public Health, for a live episode recorded at the Yale Innovation Summit, featuring conversations with five innovators at the intersection of healthcare, public health, and entrepreneurship.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Nicholas Christakis, director of Yale’s Human Nature Lab, to discuss his research on social networks, human connection, and the forces that help societies cooperate and endure. Harlan discusses promising phase 3 results for retatrutide, Eli Lilly’s experimental “triple G” obesity drug; Howie provides an update on the fast-growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Howie and Harlan discuss how AI is transforming medical research and publishing, the growing role of consumer health platforms and wearables, new advances in stroke treatment, and the debate over rising hospital costs. They also examine the FDA’s approval of flavored vaping products and the nomination of a new surgeon general.