Fixing Healthcare Podcast
Episodes
CTT #57: How do Covid-19 vaccines alter fertility, childbirth, menstrual cycles?
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Research on 4,000 women over six months found that Covid-19 vaccines are linked to a small increase in menstrual cycle length. Such a delay is common ...
FHC #43: Malcolm Gladwell on breaking the rules of healthcare
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some of medicine’s greatest breakthroughs began as seemingly crazy ideas. In the 1950s, for example, Dr. Emil Freireich hypothesized that the only w...
FHC #42: Google’s chief doctor previews the health tools of tomorrow
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to healthcare, the digital hands of Google reach far and wide. Medical school students and residents use Google Search to find obscure c...
CTT #56: Is an Omicron vaccine coming soon? Will it help?
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drug makers Pfizer and Moderna are testing a new vaccine specific to the Omicron variant—with an ETA around summer 2022 or even later. The timing is...
CTT #55: Can I trust the results of at-home Covid-19 tests?
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
These days, it seems just about every decision comes with risk: Should I invite friends or family over? Should I dine out? Can I safely return to work...
CTT #54: What can we expect from Covid-19 in 2022?
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Greetings and happy-ish New Year. If you’re here for the latest information on Omicron, check out episode #53 or tune in for episode #55 on January ...
FHC #41: New Cerner CEO says Epic isn’t his biggest competitor
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s guest is Fixing Healthcare alum David Feinberg. In August 2021, Dr. Feinberg was named CEO of Cerner, a leading provider of “electroni...
CTT #53: How dangerous is Omicron, based on the latest data?
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
CTT #53: How dangerous is Omicron, based on the latest data? Omicron, the mysterious new variant accounting for nearly 3 of every 4 new cases in the U...
FHC #40: How venture-backed tech is transforming U.S. healthcare
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Medical professionals and budding entrepreneurs love to talk about the technologies that will someday revolutionize patient care. Our guest on Fixing ...
CTT #52: What do scientists know about Omicron?
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, America has Omicron on the mind. Listeners flooded the CTT inbox with questions about the new variant. Among them: Is Omicron more transmis...
CTT #51: Will the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ change with boosters?
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Americans who’ve received two shots of Pfizer or Moderna, or the single-dose J&J vaccine, are considered “fully vaccinated” … for now. That co...
FHC #39: Paying for healthcare is out. Buying healthcare is in.
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
George Halverson was CEO of Health Partners in Minnesota for 18 years and CEO of Kaiser Permanente for 12. As a health-plan leader, he spent 30 years ...
CTT #50: Is Covid-19 here to stay?
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There was time when Coronavirus: The Truth cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl assumed the show would be irrelevant and retired by episode 20. Th...
CTT #49: Can I get my flu shot and Covid-19 booster at the same time?
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl tackle more than a dozen timely and tricky Covid-19 questions. This week: ...
CTT #48: Is Merck’s anti-Covid pill really the ‘holy grail’?
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Merck’s new oral antiviral medication (molnupiravir) has been labeled a “huge, huge advance” in the fight against Covid-19 by a Harvard Medical ...
FHC #38: More male nurses, nurses of color needed says ANA president
10 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest today is Dr. Ernest Grant, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA). He is the first male president in the organization’s 125-ye...
CTT #47: How are the Covid-19 numbers still this bad?
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Data points, alone, never tell the whole story. Numbers are often used and misused to confirm our personal biases rather than to inform or reform our ...
CTT #46: Why are people taking Ivermectin to treat Covid-19?
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A listener wrote in about Ivermectin—a drug used to kill worms and parasitic infections—because her friends had recommended it for treating Covid-...
FHC #37: The future of the American hospital
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, envisions a future where the iconic “H” comes to symbolize much more than a ...
CTT #45: Do vaccine mandates actually work?
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A while back, Houston Methodist hospital gave its 26,000 employees an ultimatum: Get vaccinated or get a new job. All but 100 or so workers complied a...
CTT #44: How does the Delta variant affect kids?
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“As you know my son starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks,” Jeremy Corr said to his cohost Dr. Robert Pearl in this episode of Coronavirus: The...
FHC #36: How physician teamwork makes the dream work
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Goodbye, Marcus Welby, M.D., that lovable TV doctor from the early ‘70s whose humble private practice dealt with everything from impotence to Alzhei...
CTT #43: To booster or not to booster?
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl dive deep into the ever-thickening plotline around booster shots. Drug com...
CTT #42: How dangerous is the Delta variant?
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“How worried should people be about the Delta variant?” asked one listener of Coronavirus: The Truth. The answer: Very. “Data published online t...
FHC #35: The AMA vs. chronic disease, racism & physician burnout
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode kicks off season 6 of the Fixing Healthcare podcast and, this time around, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are flipping the show...
CTT #41: Are kids birthday parties the biggest super-spreader events?
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A close look at data from 2.9 million households revealed something bizarre about birthdays. Results of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in...
CTT #40: Was social distancing a waste of time?
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the pandemic winds down, scientists and pollsters are looking closer at public health decisions in hindsight. A new Axios-Ipsos poll looked into wh...
Season 5 recap: Fixing the culture of medicine
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The first four seasons of the Fixing Healthcare podcast focused on how to fix the U.S. healthcare system—its perverse payment model, clunky computer...
CTT #39: What’s the truth about Covid-19’s origins?
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Several recent news stories have revived the debate over whether the novel coronavirus was first transmitted from a bat to a human via a wet market in...
CTT #38: Masks in classrooms for students this fall?
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Anthony Fauci recently called for schools to reopen “full blast,” with in-person classes five days a week. Meanwhile, CDC officials said that ...
FHC #33: Marty Makary on eliminating waste in medical education
09 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marty Makary, a nationally renowned surgeon and educator at Johns Hopkins, goes about life as if having ingested a truth serum for which there is no a...
CTT #37: Will pandemic stress cause clinicians to quit medicine?
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Co-host Dr. Pearl spoke with several critical care physicians in a recent Forbes article. One of those doctors described waking up regularly before su...
CTT #36: Is the J&J vaccine scare an overreaction or scientifically valid?
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The FDA has recommended a temporary pause of the J&J vaccine until scientists can sort out what’s causing a rare (and, in one case, fatal) blood clo...
FHC #32: A patient with terminal cancer opens up about her doctors
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alison Hadden is a lifelong athlete, an adventurer and was, by age 38, a marketing executive at three different billion-dollar tech companies. But in ...
CTT #35: How young is too young to be vaccinated?
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As vaccines get rolled out to younger and younger Americans, parents have questions and are raising serious concerns. Polls show just half of U.S. par...
CTT #34: What happened after Dr. Pearl’s ‘Covid-19 flight from hell’?
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Forbes, Dr. Robert Pearl wrote about his recent trip from San Diego to New York, which he referred to as the “Covid-19 Flight From Hell.” The a...
Episode 31: Dr. Jen Gunter vs. sexism, pseudoscience & the wellness-industrial complex
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Jen Gunter is known by many titles. She’s been called Twitter’s resident gynecologist, the Internet’s OB-GYN, and medicine’s fiercest advo...
CTT #33: Why aren’t we producing generic vaccines?
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Moderna, Pfizer and now Johnson & Johnson have emerged as surprising heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic—pulling our nation out of this pandemic one vac...
CTT #32: Is herd immunity almost here?
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A respected doctor recently published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal predicting, “We’ll have herd immunity by April.” Many other respected ...
Episode 30: ‘Diagnosis’ doctor Lisa Sanders examines medical culture
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When the producers of Fox first reached out to Dr. Lisa Sanders with the idea of turning her New York Times column into a TV show called House, she wa...
CTT #31: How long do Covid-19 symptoms persist? What’s a normal recovery?
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A listener of this show wrote in with a question about her ongoing coronavirus symptoms. A month after testing positive, she’s still not back to fee...
CTT #30: Are the mutant strains of Covid deadlier?
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Variants (or mutant strains) of the coronavirus have popped up in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. These strains are highly transmissible, sparking ...
Episode 29: Leana Wen discusses COVID-19 and the culture of medicine
17 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
American doctors have it rough these days. Not only are they fighting to keep Covid-19 patients alive as hospitalizations surge, but they are also str...
CTT #29: What went wrong with the vaccine rollout? Is it fixable?
11 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a Northern California hospital, a freezer containing over 800 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine suddenly broke down. Local leaders realized they had le...
CTT #28: Are coronavirus mutations in the UK cause for concern in the US?
28 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It has been a busy two weeks for news outlets covering the coronavirus pandemic. The holidays brought a surge in new cases and deaths. A coronavirus m...
CTT #27: Now that a Covid-19 vaccine is approved, what’s next?
14 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, the FDA authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. The announcement marked a major milestone in the fight against the coronavirus. Still, ther...
Episode 28: Eric Topol sees the future of medicine as ‘man plus machine’
13 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
American doctors have gained a reputation for resisting the types of technologies that could make healthcare more convenient and cost-effective. But h...
#26: Listeners had lots of questions about the ‘conspiracy theory’ episode
01 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dedicated Episode #25 to addressing the most prevalent conspiracy theo...
#25: Is there any truth to these Covid-19 conspiracy theories?
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to episode 25 of “Coronavirus: The Truth,” a podcast that focuses on the facts surrounding COVID-19. Today’s show breaks from our tradit...
Episode 27: Dr. Amanda Calhoun on white coats and Black Lives
15 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Back in June, a young Black physician stood outside the Sterling Hall of Medicine at Yale University with a sign in her hands that read: “Stop Killi...
#24: Are the kids alright? What about their parents?
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Podcast cohost Jeremy Corr is the father of a four-year-old son. Like many parents, Jeremy is inundated with information (much of it conflicting) abou...
#23: Should I cancel my Thanksgiving plans?
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans. Reactions have been mixed. Some people agree with public health...
Episode 26: ZDoggMD diagnoses the culture of medicine
11 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Fixing Healthcare hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome their first returning guest, Zubin Damania, a physician and entertai...
#22: What do (and don’t) we know about Trump’s illness and treatments?
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump tweeted today that he will soon leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he has been receiving treatment for C...
#21: Do these coronavirus statistics surprise you?
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There has been no shortage of surprising statistics to emerge from this pandemic. Dr. Robert Pearl’s upcoming Forbes article, “Three Misleading, D...
Episode 25: Why U.S. doctors provide low-value care
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
No expert has gained more insight into the organizational factors associated with physician and health-system performance than Stephen M. Shortell. He...
#20: What’s the truth about super spreaders, saliva tests and vaccine safety?
07 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this, the 20th episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr address the most pressing questions concerning the COVID-1...
#19: What’s the most promising scientific development so far?
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Americans have time and again seen highly touted solutions fall short of their hype. Remdisivir, once thought to ...
#18: Where to go for nonpartisan COVID-19 info?
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Fans of Coronavirus: The Truth have lauded the show’s unbiased, fact-based approach to delivering COVID-19 news and information. But finding unbiase...
Episode 24: Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe talks COVID-19 testing, your genes and the future of medicine
09 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Wojcicki is a biologist, entrepreneur and the CEO of 23andMe, the leading consumer genetics and research company with more than 12 million custom...
#17: Will Covid-19 sway the November elections?
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Voters look to elected officials to lead in times of war,” says co-host Dr. Robert Pearl in this episode of Coronvirus: The Truth. “In the mind...
#16: What are Americans still getting wrong about COVID-19?
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Four months after President Trump announced a “state of emergency,” Americans are still as confused as ever about the true state of the pandemic. ...
Episode 23: How the U.S. coronavirus response went wrong and how to make it right
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Exactly what went wrong? Exactly when? Exactly how did we fail and exactly what could have been done to prevent it? Exactly which errors did U.S. heal...
#15: Is it too soon for sports?
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“One step forward, two steps back,” is how Dr. Robert Pearl describes the recent rise in coronavirus cases throughout the country. He notes that f...
#14: How will historians look back on our nation’s handling of the coronavirus?
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Looking back on the coronavirus pandemic and the national response, Dr. Robert Pearl says, “I believe that historians will judge the American people...
Episode 22: Former FDA commissioner on ending the COVID-19 pandemic
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As head of the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, Dr. David A. Kessler went to war with cigarette companies, approved life-saving HIV/AID...
#13: Can we trust scientific research in the era of COVID-19?
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journals, the retraction of an article is an incredibly rare event. Last week, it happened twice: in The Lancet...
#12: How does racial inequality fuel the coronavirus crisis?
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Recent demonstrations and violence sparked by the death of George Floyd are “like a river,” as Dr. Robert Pearl puts it, with many streams coming ...
#11: Is a COVID-19 vaccine almost ready?
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The past week brought promising news from Moderna, a biotech company that announced the results of its early vaccine trials—an announcement that sen...
#10: What will the ‘new normal’ look like next year based on current facts?
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Looking over the horizon of the current coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to get a clear picture of the “new normal” everyone seems to be talking ...
#9: A practical survival guide to COVID-19
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Each week, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr receive dozens of questions from friends, colleagues and listeners. Most questions are about practical, ev...
Episode 21: Ex-Apple CEO talks tech and the rise of the healthcare consumer
10 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Sculley, the former CEO of PepsiCo and Apple, now has his “head in the cloud” as chairman of the Boston-based health-tech company RxAdvance. ...
#8: Testing, testing: Which COVID-19 test is best?
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“I find this study to be one of the most encouraging since this pandemic began,” says Dr. Robert Pearl, referring to research out of Yale that con...
#7: Is it time to get back to work?
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Robert Pearl, co-host of this show, struck a chord this week with his most recent Forbes column, “3 Coronavirus Facts Americans Must Know Before...
#6: What did scientists learn this week?
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It was a big week for science in our nation’s ongoing quest to better understand and combat the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers from Stanford Univ...
#5: Can we ‘crush the curve’ of this pandemic?
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two weeks, high-profile leaders in the worlds of business, politics and health have put forth plans to reopen the country, mitigate furt...
Episode 20: Siddhartha Mukherjee on COVID-19, genes and physician sacrifice
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first episode of season 4. This season of the Fixing Healthcare podcast focuses on finding big ideas and the people behind them. The jo...
#4: Is this the week the pandemic peaks?
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Physician and bestselling author Dr. Robert Pearl fears the nation is in denial about the trajectory of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic: “Many peo...
#3: Why can’t we accept the painful truth about COVID-19?
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr delve into a “surprising” topic. That is, why do the news media ...
#2: When will the coronavirus pandemic end?
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the second episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine several difficult but important questions surrounding ...
#1: Why are we afraid of the coronavirus?
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the hosts of the Fixing Healthcare podcast comes a new and necessary show that focuses on the facts surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19). This ...
Episode 19: Former VA Sec. explains why it’s so hard to serve your country
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of season three, we welcome Dr. David Shulkin, the ninth U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. For most of his career, David was a ...
Episode 18: Eric Swalwell on whether Congress can pass a bipartisan healthcare bill
09 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we welcome Representative Eric Swalwell, from California’s 15th Congressional District. A former presidential candidate and a risin...
Episode 17: Talking healthcare politics with James Carville
12 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we welcome James Carville, one of the most recognizable figures in American politics. Carville came to fame as the lead strategist on...
Episode 16: ‘The House of God’ author Samuel Shem
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Bergman, who goes by the pseudonym Samuel Shem, took the medical and literary worlds by storm in 1978 when he published his provocative satire...
Episode 15: Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After eight months of working at his first job out of college, Tyler Shultz was at a crossroads. He realized the device that he was hired to engineer ...
Episode 14: John Delaney wants to be first president with ‘any experience’ in healthcare
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Presidential hopeful John Delaney joined the Fixing Healthcare podcast to spell out his plan for the future of American healthcare policy. In this, th...
Episode 13: David Blumenthal gives Medicare-for-all ‘zero chance’
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to a new season of the Fixing Healthcare podcast. As co-hosts Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr turn their attention to the politics of American he...
Bonus episode: The best of ‘Fixing Healthcare’ so far
09 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this “bonus episode,” co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr offer their take on the best ideas and most promising solutions from seasons on...
Episode 12: Kevin Pho, social media’s No. 1 physician voice
06 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the final episode of season two. This season has welcomed guests from outside of the medical mainstream. Season two’s final guest is Dr. ...
Episode 11: Modern lessons from medicine’s grisly past with Dr. Fitzharris
06 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Consistent with the theme of Season 2, in which we look outside of traditional walls for medicine for ideas to fix healthcare, our guest this month co...
Episode 10: Dr. Zeev Neuwirth’s roadmap for disrupting healthcare
11 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a career that spans three decades, Dr. Zeev Neuwirth has held many roles: primary care physician, medical educator, medical director and physician ...
Episode 9: Elisabeth Rosenthal on how patients can fight the system
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Season 2 of Fixing Healthcare welcomes leaders from outside of the medical mainstream to deliver practical solutions for our nation’s deepening heal...
Episode 8: Chip Heath on what US healthcare can learn from one-click ordering
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a Stanford business professor and author of four bestselling books, Chip Heath knows a thing or two about what motivates human behavior and organiz...
Episode 7: India’s top doctor has a message for American healthcare
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Season Two of Fixing Healthcare. In this eye-opening episode, Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Dr. Devi Shetty, India’s leading heart...
Episode 6: Ian Morrison says every healthcare system ‘sucks in its own unique way’
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Season One of the Fixing Healthcare podcast concludes this month, along its search for a candidate worthy of becoming the first-ever “Leader of Amer...
Episode 5: Don Berwick brings a global perspective to fixing US healthcare
09 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month, co-hosts Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr agree our nation could learn so much from our next guest, Dr. Don Berwick. Few healthcare leaders ha...
Episode 4: Dr. Eric Topol says ‘step one is providing healthcare to all citizens’
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Fixing Healthcare co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr thought they new a lot about their latest guest, Dr. Eric Topol. They’d both read his be...
Episode 3: Dr. David T. Feinberg says fixing healthcare is ‘the simplest thing we can do’
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Fixing Healthcare podcast continued its quest this month for a candidate worthy to fill the highly coveted (and totally fictitious) role of “Lea...
Episode 2: Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright wants to unify all the healthcare players
08 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Fixing Healthcare podcast is back with a new candidate for the highly coveted (and totally fictitious) job of “Leader of American Healthcare.”...