Episodes

Originally broadcast August 8, 2024

The director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) knows the eyes of the nation are on her. Renee Wegrzyn, Ph.D., leads the billion-dollar effort charged with leveraging research advances for real-world impact.

Wegrzyn talked with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter at Aspen Ideas: Health about the agency’s initiatives, including a $100 million sprint for women’s health and creating tissue-specific delivery of therapies.

“How can we pursue some of these breakthroughs — in our case, for health — by empowering the scientists…the program managers…that have these really big ideas that are so risky that the technical sector, the private sector can’t address because there’s no proof of concept?”

She explained the process: Hire program managers with big ideas in health and give them a time frame to find solutions.

Wegrzyn said the time limit ensures they bring a sense of urgency to solving problems. In return, participants get resources to focus on technical risks.

Many of ARPA-H’s missions are cancer-centered, aimed at issues through what-if questions such as: “What if cancer surgeries were one-and-done?” “What if clinical trials evolved in the same way tumors do?”

She said, “The investments that we’ve made in cancer [include] our precision surgical interventions program. Think about reimagining the operating room suites, when a surgeon is looking into a surgical cavity and trying to remove a tumor.”

Originally broadcast August 1, 2024

The defining health care issues in this year’s election are crystalizing with reproductive rights remaining at the top of the list. Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, has covered health policy fights for nearly four decades. She said, “I think this may be the first time that abortion rights drive people out to vote. The anti-abortion movement has always been the one that has been able to gin up their base, and the people who are sort of on the most extreme of the anti-abortion movement are the ones who are most devoted and…one of the reasons Republicans have courted them so assiduously is they show up and they vote.”

Rovner also weighed in on the 15 states or more states with abortion-related ballot initiatives and efforts to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone and end in vitro fertilization.

Rovner spoke to hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter on location at Aspen Ideas: Health. While the presidential race is in flux (including a change in the Democratic candidate), the core issues have remained consistent.

The hosts asked Rovner which health care question she’d most like to pose to former President Trump in a debate. “I don’t mean this in a negative way, I’d like to ask him if he knows the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, and whether he feels as strongly about preserving Medicaid as he said he does about Medicare.” She also analyzed the hurdles the Biden-Harris administration has had to date in communicating about what it sees as its health policy victories.

Originally broadcast July 25, 2024

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which was first published 141 years ago, is grappling with modern challenges as the most widely circulated general medical journal in the world. At the forefront is Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, its relatively new editor-in-chief.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo took the helm at a tumultuous time and has a clear vision for how JAMA should deal with equity in medicine and the public’s lack of trust in health care.

She told hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter at Aspen Ideas: Health that “I am not the keeper of trust for the journal. I am not the keeper of our focus on equity.” But she said she has installed new processes “so that we could collectively have those conversations, be more transparent around them, think about the processes that help us make sure that we are always trying to be the best that we can be.” That includes giving JAMA employees and authors a voice in discussions about equity and increasing transparency with readers.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo also focused on how to keep JAMA connected to its current audience while attracting new audiences using an omnichannel approach, especially social media.

“I think about what JAMA and the JAMA Network have to do right now is do the core functions the same way we’ve always done it…vetting the science, making sure this is science you can trust, putting the stamp of approval in that way on it, and then publishing it. And then we have to do something that I think all journals need to do better… and that is being a modern communication vehicle,” she said.

Originally broadcast July 18, 2024

With most of the country suffering through a sweltering heat wave, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services has found the right time to unveil its nationwide Heat and Health Index (HHI).

“Conversations on Health Care” learned all about it from Admiral Rachel Levine, M.D., the department’s assistant secretary for health. “We are seeing heat-related injury and health impacts globally,” says Levine, particularly in vulnerable populations, such as children, seniors and people who work outside.

HHI combines historic temperature data and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data on heat-related emergency responses from the past three years, as well as data on community characteristics, including pre-existing health conditions, socio-demographic information, and characteristics of the natural and built environment, to provide a final heat and health index ranking by ZIP code.

Levine is used to being in the hot seat on a variety of issues, from worries about bird flu to the latest on Long COVID. During June, she helped lead efforts to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride, as the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official.

Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter, well aware that Levine serves at the president’s pleasure, asked her about future plans. She said she would absolutely be willing to go through another intense Senate confirmation process depending on what happens on Election Day. “I firmly believe in the Biden-Harris Administration and the principles they advocate for and represent.”

Originally broadcast July 10, 2024

“Conversations on Health Care” went on the road to Aspen Ideas: Health. We start this series with Gregory Jackson, A White House official with one of the toughest assignments: tackling gun violence, Gregory is deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

Originally broadcast July 1, 2024

Experts praise community health workers as the keys to building a more equitable and fair health care system in America. Is there a way to unlock more success for hiring and retaining them?
 
Dr. Shreya Kangovi thinks so; she developed the IMPaCT Care program, which is saving money and quickly growing. We’re proud to share this encore “Conversations on Health Care” interview. Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talked to Dr. Kangovi about how it’s a standardized, scalable program that transforms the effectiveness of the community health workforce by reimagining each step.