Healthy Communities Online

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Jerome Groopman, a Harvard physician and New Yorker staff writer, and Dr. Pamela Hartzband, an endocrinologist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School, about their new book Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You. They explore what influences our medical decisions– from personal biases to statistical influences on decisions to test and treat. To download a full transcript of this episode click here.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Starr about his new book, Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform. Dr. Starr takes us through the complexities of the debate over health care in America, the history of health reform in America, and how the Affordable Care Act both fulfills and falls short of earlier reform efforts.

    Conversations on Health Care focusesthis week on a new initiative in health care that makes medical information accessible for patients. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stephen Downs from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the Blue Button initiative, a technology that has the capability to revolutionize the way patients engage with their health care.

Conversations on Health Care focuses this week on the revolution in how patients and providers are harnessing the power of social media to improve communication and health care. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Lee Aase, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, about how social media tools are engaging patients and providers, advancing medical knowledge, and improving the patient experience.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with one of the country’s most influential nurse leaders. Dr. Linda Aiken is known for her ground breaking research linking nurse-to-patient ratios with patient outcomes. Dr. Aiken discusses the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing recommendations, innovations in nursing practice both in the U.S. and globally, and strategies to advance the IOM recommendations on nursing practice, education and leadership in the U.S. healthcare system.

Conversations on Health Care focuses this week on health system design both here and abroad. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. William Hsiao, internationally recognized for his work on designing national health systems and effective ways to organize both health insurance and health care. From China to the United States, Dr. Hsiao’s work provides an interesting backdrop for health reform efforts underway around the world.