Health & Veritas
Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz, two Yale physician-professors, discuss the latest news and ideas in healthcare and seek out the truth amid the noise.
Health & Veritas is produced with the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Public Health.

Episodes
- PodcastEpisode 57Duration 34:07
Dr. Nancy Brown: The Power of Mentorship
Harlan reports on a unprecedented recall of ventilators and CPAP machines; Howie discusses a new approach to tackling the issue of antimicrobial resistance. And they’re joined by Dr. Nancy Brown, dean of the Yale School of Medicine, to discuss her career path and her investments in developing talent.
Links:
“Getting to know Yale leaders—Nancy Brown”
WHO fact sheet: antimicrobial resistance
“The PASTEUR Act can help win the war against superbugs”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 56Duration 36:45
Dr. Vineet Arora: Reinventing Medical Education
Harlan provides updates on R.S.V., flu, and COVID-19; Howie considers the growing use of hallucinogens for treatment of severe depression. And they are joined by Dr. Vineet Arora, dean of medical education at the University of Chicago, to discuss the future of medical Twitter and how medical education is changing in the wake of the pandemic.
Links:
“A ‘Tripledemic’? Flu, R.S.V. and Covid May Collide This Winter, Experts Say”
”A fake tweet sparked panic at Eli Lilly and may have cost Twitter millions”
“The ‘bot holiday’ and why clinicians can’t tackle disinformation alone”
“What is #MedMastodon & why might we need it?”
“Some Twitter users flying the coop hope Mastodon will be a safe landing”
University of Chicago: Pritzker EVOLVES
“Colorado Legalizes Magic Mushrooms”
“Single-Dose Psilocybin for a Treatment-Resistant Episode of Major Depression”
- PodcastEpisode 55Duration 33:11
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith: The Systemic Roots of Inequities in Health
Harlan reports on three negative—but striking—trials presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting; Howie reflects on the victories for health in Tuesday’s election. And they’re joined by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale internist and nationally known expert on healthcare equity, to discuss her service in the Biden administration and the need for a broad approach to tackling racism in healthcare and systemic inequities in health.
Links:
“Another Fibrate Fails to Show Cardiovascular Benefit”
“DCP: HCTZ vs. Chlorthalidone in Improving CV Outcomes in Elderly Veterans With HTN”
“Nunez-Smith to lead Biden health equity task force”
Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University
“Voters will have a say on abortion in 5 states with high-stakes ballot measures”
“South Dakota votes to expand Medicaid”
Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses—2021
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 54Duration 33:29
Dr. Lisa Leffert: Leading in Anesthesiology
Harlan describes a revealing new study on the long-term impacts of COVID; Howie reflects on the escalating costs of health insurance. And they are joined by Dr. Lisa Leffert, Yale’s chief of anesthesiology, to discuss her unusual career path, disparities in maternal mortality, and her approach to tackling the gender pay gap in the field.
Links:
“Cardiovascular disease and mortality sequelae of COVID-19 in the UK Biobank”
Health & Veritas: Saving Mothers’ Lives (Ep. 7)
Lisa Leffert: “The ‘Unexplained’ Portion of the Gender Pay Gap in Anesthesiology”
KFF: 2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 53Duration 34:54
Nicholas Christakis: The Better Angels of Our Nature
Howie and Harlan are joined by physician, sociologist, and thinker Nicholas Christakis to talk about how humans have evolved to form powerful connections. Howie provides updates on concussions among high school athletes and the use of Ivermectin for COVID, and Harlan remembers Dr. Barry Zaret, an important figure in cardiology at Yale and beyond.
Links:
In Memoriam: Barry L. Zaret, MD
Yale News: “Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society”
Steven Pinker: “The Better Angels of our Nature”
Nicholas Christakis: “The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years”
“Concussions are a bigger problem for kids’ football than the NFL”
”These Doctors Admit They Don’t Want Patients With Disabilities”
- PodcastEpisode 52Duration 37:44
Dr. Utibe Essien: Who Gets Access to Innovative Treatments?
Harlan reports on a new study testing the effectiveness of the OCD drug fluvoxamine in treating COVID; Howie reflects on the potential of continuous glucose monitoring for people with diabetes. And they’re joined by Dr. Utibe Essien of the University of Pittsburgh to discuss the barriers preventing people of color from getting innovative new treatments and medications.
Links:
“Prevalence and Correlates of Patient Rationing of Insulin in the United States: A National Survey”
Harlan Krumholz: “Life Expectancy after Myocardial Infarction by Hospital Performance”
Antiracism in Medicine podcast
“Intermittently Scanned Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Type 1 Diabetes”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 51Duration 33:06
Taking the Pulse
Howie and Harlan check in on new research and health issues in the news, including studies on colonoscopies and the timing of hypertension medication, the state of the monkey pox and polio outbreaks, and the wave of legislation restricting treatment of trans youth.
Links:
“Effect of Colonoscopy Screening on Risks of Colorectal Cancer and Related Death”
“Monkeypox Cases Are Declining in New York City and Globally”
“WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency as infections soar”
“Evening dosing of blood pressure medication not better than morning dosing”
“Arkansas cannot enforce ban on gender-affirming care for trans kids, court rules”
“Watch Jon Stewart Calmly Excoriate the Arkansas Attorney General on Anti-Trans Legislation”
“Yale’s Emily Wang and two alumni win MacArthur ‘genius’ awards”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 50Duration 35:13
Dr. Ania Jastreboff: The Revolution in Obesity Medication
Howie and Harlan look at the plunging cost of sequencing an individual genome, and the problem of concussions among athletes at all levels. And they’re joined by Dr. Ania Jastreboff, a Yale obesity specialist, to discuss the dramatic results from a new class of drugs that target the brain’s system for regulating body fat.
Links:
“The race to a $100 genome” (2013)
Ania Jastreboff: “Tirzepatide Once Weekly for the Treatment of Obesity”
“FDA Approves New Drug Treatment for Chronic Weight Management, First Since 2014”
“NFL under fire over its concussion protocol following Tua Tagovailoa's back-to-back game hits”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 49Duration 31:13
Ingrid Nembhard: Improving Healthcare Organizations to Improve Health
Harlan discusses the problem of “financial toxicity”—how medical bills can wreak havoc in vulnerable patients’ lives. Howie reflects on the protests in Iran and the precariousness of the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. And they are joined by Ingrid Nembhard of the University of Pennsylvania to discuss her work on the organizational factors that shape patient care.
Links:
Cancer.gov: Financial Toxicity
“They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay.”
Ingrid Nembhard: “Responding to Covid-19: Lessons from Management Research”
Ingrid Nembhard: “COVID-19 Inspired Creativity In Health Care: Lessons For Management And Policy”
“Can the CDC Repair Its Reputation?”
Ingrid Nembhard: “A systematic review of research on empathy in health care”
Ingrid Nembhard: “Perceived Usefulness of Patient Narrative Feedback in Primary Care Settings”
“Why Iranian women are burning their hijabs after the death of Mahsa Amini”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.
- PodcastEpisode 48Duration 30:53
Jonathan Rothberg: The Scientist-Entrepreneur
Howie and Harlan react to President Joe Biden’s declaration that the pandemic is over. Then they’re joined by Jonathan Rothberg, a Yale-trained scientist who has created new methods for sequencing DNA and founded a series of successful biotech companies.
Disclosure: Harlan Krumholz is a consultant to Tesseract, a portfolio company of 4 Catalyzer, which was founded by Jonathan Rothberg.
Links:
“Biden: ‘The pandemic is over’”
Eric Topol: “To boost or not to boost”
“An integrated semiconductor device enabling non-optical genome sequencing”
”AI Estimation of Gestational Age from Blind Ultrasound Sweeps in Low-Resource Settings”
”Uncovered Medical Bills after Sexual Assault”
Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.