Episodes

Why Are Only 5% Of Doctors African American? Dr. Louis Sullivan Tells Us

Dr. Louis Sullivan’s leadership and advocacy for equity in the health professions have taken him from the classroom to the seats of power in Washington. He reflects on his own journey and the challenges that still exist in training people of color to become doctors and for other medical roles.

Dr. Sullivan believes, “It’s a combination of a lack of adequate preparation, lack of financial resources, and also a lack of role models.” He shares his inspiring story from the then-segregated South and the influences that helped him.

Dr. Sullivan served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is the co-author of the new book “We’ll Fight it Out Here: A History of the Ongoing Struggle for Health Equity.”

We’re honored to have him join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss these topics, the gaps COVID has exposed, and the current political battles over equity.

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WHO: What China Must Do Now to Help Fight COVID

A top World Health Organization public health official is adding nuance to the agency’s call for more transparency from China, which is coping with a crippling COVID-19 outbreak since it ended its zero-COVID policy last month.

Maria Van Kerkhove, Ph.D., WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19 Response, tells “Conversations on Health Care” that “We really need better understanding on the burden and the hospitalizations and we need more information on the sequences…they have detected known sub-variances…but we need those sequences to be shared publicly. We want China to work with us to really determine within those sublineages…is there anything else within those sequences that’s different. And we need a global community to look at that. And work directly with us to do a full risk assessment.

“Right now they’re going through a massive wave of Omicron. This virus, as transmissible as it is, is passing through the population. They are sharing information. It’s just not enough. It’s just not as detailed as we’d like.”

Van Kerkhove joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to share her insights.

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Former CDC Chief Questions U.S Reaction to Chinese COVID Outbreak

Dr. Richard Besser, who once led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doesn’t believe the recently enacted U.S. COVID testing requirement for anyone arriving from China will have much of an impact.

Besser, who is currently president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says he feels such actions are often “more for show than truly for controlling a public health threat” and recalls that 14 years ago possible border closings during the H1N1 outbreak were seen as ineffective.

Besser joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to share his insights about the XBB.1.5 Omicron Subvariant, ways to strengthen public health and the tripledemic threat (RSV, COVID and the flu).

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Health Policy Moves in ’22 Set the Stage for New Year

The health care public policy debates that swirled in 2022 will continue to make news in 2023. These issues ranged from the Dobbs abortion decision to the outcome of the midterm elections.

Many of the nation’s leading experts joined “Conversations on Health Care” during the past 12 months to share their perspectives.

Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter as we look back at the year that was in health care policy.

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COVID’s 3rd Year: Experts Speak

We’re proud to have again served as a platform for trusted, informed experts during the third year of the pandemic.

This week “Conversations on Health Care” looks back on some of the most insightful comments from doctors and scientists who are on the frontlines of fighting COVID. In addition to NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci we had as our guests Dr. Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Zeke Emanuel at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mary Bassett with the New York City Health Department and others.

Listen in as hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter capture their insights about these extraordinary medical challenges.

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Hear From a Progressive and Conservative – Can We Find Common Ground in Health Care?

Roughly 112 million Americans voted in the recent mid-term elections and the candidates and issues they voted on will have profound implications for health care policy in the states, at the national level and ultimately in all of our lives. We’re following up on our series called “Health Care on the Ballot” with this discussion focused on the results and what they mean.

Join hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter in conversation with Dr. Donald Berwick, former CMS Administrator in the Obama administration, and James Capretta, a former Bush administration budget official. Perhaps surprisingly, we found areas they agree on, including the value of telehealth.

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