Radio Health Journal
The latest in health, science, technology, and the intersection of medicine and public policy.
More people die of lung cancer than breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined. A decade ago, a lung cancer diagnosis was often a death sentence. But now treatments are being developed that mean it can often be treated, especially if screening detects it early. A patient/advocate and researcher discuss.
Dementia has a much wider range than most people think, and people with dementia are usually functional for years. An expert discusses the course of the disease and how life can still be positive for years before it reaches the late, debilitating stage most people think of when they hear the word “dementia.”
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.
Thousands of parents take their children to doctors each year seeking synthetic growth hormone to cure their relatively short stature, even though most of these children are merely late bloomers. Plus, studies show that short stature generally does not create psychological damage. Experts weigh in.
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.
In the mid-1960’s, many Ivy League and Seven Sister colleges as well as prestigious prep schools allowed researchers to photograph incoming students naked as part of work on a now-discredited theory linking physical characteristics to leadership potential. A former student who went through it, now a physician and writer, discusses how research ethics have …
Homelessness continues to be a stubborn problem despite many well-intentioned programs. A new experimental study finds that giving homeless people thousands of dollars in cash helps get many of them off the streets for good, calling into question many assumptions about the homeless and how they got that way. Experts discuss the new program and its …
Proof of having received Covid-19 vaccine may soon be required for boarding a plane, going to a ball game, going to school, having a job or eating in some restaurants. An expert involved in the design of a passport app discusses how it would all work.
Surveys show that as many as 80% of people omit information, stretch the truth or outright lie to their doctors. Experts discuss why it happens, consequences, and methods that might reduce the amount of less-than-truthful answers to doctors’ questions.
The incidence of cancer is increasing among teenagers and young adults. Then, This is the time to make new year’s resolutions… but mental health experts say this year may not be the time to make big changes. And finally… your Roomba may be spying on you through your wi-fi network.
Medical campaigns account for a third of monies raised on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, and many people who’ve fallen through the holes of the safety net have been helped this way. But studies show that fraud is rampant with fake patients and medical providers. Experts discuss.
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