Explore
Search results
Since its founding, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed billions of dollars to the search for and distribution of vaccines across the globe. Its knowledge, network, and resources are now being tapped amid the accelerated search for treatments for COVID-19. Gates joins Stephanie Mehta, editor in chief of Fast Company, and shares his expectations for a vaccine...
By every measure — including life expectancy, infant mortality, and rates of heart disease and cancer — people of color fare worse than white people, even after controlling for education and income. Social policies that foster segregation, discriminatory employment and housing practices, and inequities in the criminal justice system can all have dire health consequences. E...
No doctor awakens in the morning determined to discriminate against patients of color, yet their daily clinical decisions too often have that result. Implicit bias—unconscious assumptions and stereotypes—often cause the harm. The failure to ask the right questions, listen closely and reserve judgment can sabotage communication in any patient/physician encounter, but it wor...
As secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. But she was not always so hopeful, and recalls a turning point as she consciously shifted her attitude from despair to stubborn optimism. Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come sits down with Figueres to reve...
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is the third leading killer in the US, yet it rarely commands the attention paid to #1 heart disease and #2 cancer. As both advocate and patient, Grace Anne Dorney-Koppel is fighting to change that. After being given less than five years to live in 2001, Grace Anne embarked on an ambitious rehab program, and now helps fund pulm...
The ability to endure is the essential trait in every extreme athletic endeavor. Hundred-mile races, Himalayan Mountain expeditions, and cross-continental treks all require humans to push harder and achieve more than we ever thought possible. How important is the delicate interplay between mind and body in the struggle to keep pushing despite an agonizing will to stop? Wha...
A bone marrow transplant was Maggie Lake’s only hope of surviving lymphoma, and her sister, Elizabeth Lesser, was the perfect match. But Elizabeth’s decision to become a donor meant not only agreeing to a painful procedure, but also to exploring with Maggie their mind/body connection as they raced against the clock to clean up their relationship and strengthen their bond....
The pandemic revealed significant weak points in the health care safety net and compelled practitioners, executives, and policymakers to acknowledge deep inequities they failed to in the past. Since then, countless initiatives have been introduced, or expanded, to rebuild a system with inclusion at its core. So, what’s working? From telehealth counseling to mobile clinics,...
College presents opportunities for students to test their wings, explore new relationships, pursue their personal best, and develop an enduring passion for learning. Often the first opportunity for real independence, the college years can also pose serious health risks — among them, mental health issues, binge drinking, sexually transmitted diseases, date rape, infections,...
If Black women bear the heaviest burdens of the maternal mortality crisis—they are 2.6 times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth—they are also the most determined to address it. Moving beyond grief and rage, their leadership is prioritizing culturally sensitive care, respect for best practices, and greater use of community-based models and licen...
You likely remember Selma Blair as the ingenue in Cruel Intentions or the preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde, but her most important role to date might be as a disability advocate. Outspoken about her own diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she shares her raw and intimate story by way of her New York Times best-selling memoir, Mean Baby. Join her for a rare on-stage conversat...
Skim milk is out, full-fat dairy products are in. Recent research has turned conventional wisdom on its head with the finding that people who consume the highest levels of fat from dairy products have a lower risk of diabetes. Other studies have found that eating high-fat dairy reduces the odds of becoming obese, and may offer protection against cardiovascular disease. All...
With crop production increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather and a world population expected to grow 30 percent by midcentury, how are we going to feed everyone? The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and solutions you’ve probably never heard of are already in play. One company is tackling problems around industrial agriculture by growing cell-based me...
The sequencing of the human genome – a complete map of the body’s three million base pairs – opened a window into disease processes, led to new diagnostic tools and personalized therapies, and heralded an age of medical discovery. A brief documentary produced by Retro Report describes the historic race to unlock the genomic code, the birth of precision medicine, the use of...
The US is aging – between 2012 and 2050, the number of adults over age 60 will jump from 43 to 84 million, representing about 20 percent of the population. Meanwhile, smaller and more scattered families will mean greater numbers of people growing old alone. Fostering the social connections and cross-generational interactions that are so essential to healthy aging has becom...
Although essential to ensure the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and devices, clinical trials tend to be costly and slow to reach conclusions, and there is often an imbalance in the race, gender, and age of participants. Efforts to reinvigorate the research ecosystem aim to broaden access to trials, increase their diversity, and make it more efficient to capture pro...
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joins CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to discuss the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent surge in cases as the US reopens. Fauci talks about the US response to the pandemic, including missed opportunit...
The lane for healthcare is widening. Well-capitalized retail and technology companies are pushing services out of the clinic and into big-box stores, corner shops, and private homes. While they are out purchasing computers and clothing, shoppers can also schedule their check-ups, dental care, mental health counseling, and X-rays. Meanwhile, tech companies are reaching clie...
On any given day, dedicated scientists at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are promoting childhood vaccines, advancing disease prevention, tamping down on food-borne illnesses, tracking microbial outbreaks around the globe, collecting data on drug overdoses and tobacco use, and conducting research in 200 laboratories. In March 2018, after 20 yea...
With the Supreme Court’s ruling that the federal government can continue to provide health insurance subsidies, the Affordable Care Act, as President Obama said in reaction to the ruling, “is here to stay.” Five Washington insiders, including Democrats who drafted the bill and guided it into law, and a Republican who urged state governors to set up insurance exchanges, wil...