Healthy Communities Online

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sue Sisley, internist, psychiatrist and President of the Scottsdale Research Institute which is conducting the nation’s only FDA-approved study on the efficacy of whole plant marijuana for treatment of PTSD. She discusses her ten-year quest to complete a randomized control trial on the use of cannabis as a potentially effective approach, and restrictions that pose a challenge to expansive scientific research.                      

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Charles Alessi, Senior Advisor for Dementia Prevention at Public Health England, the UK’s equivalent of the CDC. Dr. Alessi talks about the prevention strategies being deployed across the UK to delay the onset of dementia, the lack of barriers to primary care services, and their recently announced Minister of Loneliness to confront this chronic health issue.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Leana Wen, newly appointed President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American. Dr. Wen talks about successful interventions she launched as Baltimore’s Health Commissioner on opioids, maternal mortality and gun violence, planning to take her tough public health approach to addressing challenges to women’s health and reproductive rights in America.                     

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Edward Abrahams, President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition which supports the emerging science of precision medicine and the huge potential it holds for cost savings with pharmacogenomics, targeted therapies, and improved outcomes for patients and health systems. They discuss the Coalition’s upcoming summit at Harvard which will bring together policy makers, leading scientists, advocates and provider organizations to devise strategies for advancing precision medicine.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with award-winning New York Times science writer and columnist Carl Zimmer on his critically acclaimed book, “She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potentials of Heredity” on the dramatic scientific discovery underway fueled by genomics. He discusses the genome’s role in understanding heredity and how personalized medicine will be advanced once the science and medical communities master their knowledge of how genomics impact health and disease.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Linda Rosenberg, CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health on their recent report done with the Cohen Veterans Network confirming that America’s mental health crisis is a result of lack of access to care. She discusses the need to remove barriers to behavioral care, the need to embed behavioral health in primary care and for much better mental health and addiction training for providers and social workers.