Radio Health Journal
The latest in health, science, technology, and the intersection of medicine and public policy.
Government reports say more than 265 million healthcare records have been stolen, lost, or improperly disclosed in the last decade. It may create a financial risk, but it could also mean your health conditions and secrets are all over the internet. One of the nation’s top health data experts discusses.
Scientists are developing 3D printing technology using human cells to build human organs. The technique could be used to grow organs for transplant, relieving the long waitlist. Experts discuss.
The recent rash of extreme weather worldwide, which has killed hundreds, is making scientists wonder if we have reached a turning point more quickly than we thought. Experts explain how climate change results in droughts, floods, and other severe weather and the signals it provides of danger immediately ahead.
Hospitals are now required to post prices for many procedures on their websites, including cash prices and what insurers pay. The intent of the federal rule is to allow patients to shop around, putting pressure on hospitals to compete on price. However, many hospitals have yet to follow the rule. Experts discuss the rule, its likely outcome, and how patients …
Traffic engineers are learning that they can increase road efficiency and safety by eliminating left turns at many busy intersections, even those that have left turn arrows. This increases distance traveled for some people--some may have to make three right turns instead--but virtually everyone benefits in travel time, as package carrier UPS has learned. A …
Many patients arrive in the emergency room as a result of violence or car crashes—events in which police have an investigative interest. Sometimes, police needs clash with trauma care, and priorities are hashed out case by case. Experts discuss which priorities come first and when, and the procedures needed to smooth out sometimes contentious interaction.
A recent report shows that more than a dozen refineries around the US are emitting benzene pollution into the air at higher levels than allowed by the EPA. An activist discusses this newly labeled problem and what the agency can do to curb it.
Hundreds of patients nationally have diseases that have confounded doctors and yielded no diagnosis and no reliable treatment. Today the Undiagnosed Diseases Network helps these patients, but its funding is uncertain beyond 2022. Patients and a physician leader of the UDN discuss the lonely plight of these patients and hopes for the future.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, public health experts have looked to vaccines with the goal of creating “herd immunity.” Now it is clear we will not reach that goal. One of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts discusses how we are missing the target and what it means.
Since the 1980’s, almost all production of generic drugs has moved overseas, where FDA inspectors have a much tougher time making sure they’re following rules for safety. An investigative journalist describes the ways she’s found that many drugmakers cut corners, putting safety at risk, and details what consumers can do to protect themselves.
The US birth rate has been declining since the Crash of 2008, but it took an even larger decline during the pandemic to levels unseen since the Great Depression. Today fertility rates are below replacement levels, which could have big impacts on education, employment, and the tax base years down the road.
Many of those who’ve had Covid-19 have suffered from a temporary loss of their sense of smell, but some have had what seems to be an even worse symptom weeks or months later—a distorted sense of smell, where everything, from coffee to flowers, smells sickeningly awful. An expert and a former sufferer discuss how disruptive to life this can be and what people …
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