Intention to Treat
Episodes
Meet the Equation
06 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Many clinical algorithms, including the eGFR test for kidney function, have actually had race baked into them and produce different results for Black ...
Intention to Treat | Season 2: The Race Equation (Trailer)
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when medicine gets race wrong? In a new 8-week series, The Race Equation confronts harmful assumptions about race in clinical medici...
Brain Injury and Consciousness
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New research using functional brain imaging reveals that many patients considered to be in a coma or vegetative state and who are unresponsive may act...
What Exactly Is Long Covid?
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The millions of people worldwide who are suffering from a vast array of disabling symptoms long after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 may eventually be...
Restoring Lost Speech
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, substantial progress has been made in developing brain-computer interfaces that could restore the ability of patients with neurodegen...
Race-Based Diagnosis, Part 3
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As race-based diagnostic tools, such as pulse oximeters that function poorly on darker skin, continue to lead to inequitable care, a growing movement ...
Race-Based Diagnosis, Part 2
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A key measure of kidney function and a risk calculator for vaginal birth after cesarean delivery are among the many tools that have long contributed t...
Race-Based Diagnosis, Part 1
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Claims that Black people had lower lung capacity than White people led to race-adjusted spirometry and poorer care for Black patients with lung diseas...
Are We Prepared for Bird Flu?
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A new strain of H5N1 influenza is spreading in dairy cows in the United States. Will it cause an epidemic in humans? And what does our public health s...
Treating Obesity in Kids
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the face of a growing childhood obesity epidemic, some parents and clinicians are turning to new tools such as GLP-1 receptor agonists. This episod...
New Hope for a Common and Deadly Heart Condition
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode considers a new treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the world’s most common inherited heart condition, which most affected peopl...
CAR T-Cells and Safety Signals
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines CAR T-cell therapy’s early successes, broader promise, and emerging risks, as the FDA considers reports of occasional secondar...
Progress for Parkinson's?
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explores the fastest-growing neurologic condition in the world, Parkinson’s disease. What have we learned in recent years, and where ar...
Doctors and Guns
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, parents who have lost children to gun accidents and physicians working for gun safety discuss the number-one killer of U.S. children ...
Race Relations and the First Paramedics
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of “Intention to Treat” tells the story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service — a group of Black laypeople in Pittsburgh who under...
Why Doctors Need to Talk about Death
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Highlighting gaps in communication near the end of life, this podcast episode explores a new approach to preparing patients with serious illness and t...
Investigating Injustices in the Journal's History, Part 2
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the second half of our podcast series on historical injustices, guests Evelynn Hammonds and David Jones examine the racism of post-World War II Ame...
Investigating Injustices in the Journal's History
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over its 200-plus years, the Journal has sometimes published articles that have perpetuated injustices against various groups of people. A new Perspec...
Covid Update
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines Covid-19 variants that are currently circulating, recommendations for booster shots, and new treatments in the pipeline. A full ...
Is Xenotransplantation Ready for Prime Time?
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines the need for and promise of xenotransplantation, considering first the plight of patients and then the progress being made by re...
Alzheimer’s Update, Part 2
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explores the current state of research on the multiple likely mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease as well as promising treatments and dia...
Alzheimer’s Update, Part 1
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Host Rachel Gotbaum talks with a patient with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and two dementia experts about frustrations with the current state of ...
The Long Haul of Long Covid
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explores long Covid, an often-disabling but unexplained syndrome of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. How is it affecting millions of pe...
What We Don’t Know about School Shooter Drills
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode peers into U.S. schools to examine a widespread but non–evidence-based approach to preparing children and staff for gun-violence incide...
Awakened Hope for Narcolepsy
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, a patient with narcolepsy describes her rough, long road to diagnosis and treatment, and a researcher elucidates both the condition a...
Obesity and Heart Failure
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cardiologists now recognize that heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) may be caused by obesity. This episode of “Intention to Trea...
Preventing HIV’s Collateral Cardiovascular Damage
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
People living with HIV have increased risk for cardiovascular disease (and other diseases of aging) earlier in life than those without HIV. In this ep...
Prospects for Pain
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some types of pain have proven resistant to all available medications. In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” Rachel Gotbaum talks with a patien...
The Plight of Primary Care, Part 2
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is driving U.S. physicians out of primary care — and keeping trainees from going into it in the first place? In this episode of “Intention to...
The Plight of Primary Care, Part 1
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of “Intention to Treat,” explores the crisis in primary care in the United States, as increasing numbers or primary care physicians l...
Unleashing CRISPR on Cancer
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” host Rachel Gotbaum explores the story of a teenager who’s now in remission from previously relapsed ly...
New Patient-Centered Options for Cancer Treatment
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Intention to Treat” host Rachel Gotbaum talks with patient Awilde Peña and oncologist Deb Schrag about a new approach to treating rectal cancer ...
Lessons for a Pandemic
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” Drs. Harvey Fineberg and Eric Rubin take stock of the failures and successes of the Covid-19 response and...
Race Relations and the First Paramedics
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of “Intention to Treat” tells the story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service — a group of Black laypeople in Pittsburgh who under...
Waiting on Prostate Cancer
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” host Rachel Gotbaum talks with patient Robert Schlamberg and Doctors Oladapo Yeku and Oliver Sartor about...
Is Medicine Ready for AI?
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” Maia Hightower and Isaac Kohane join host Rachel Gotbaum to explore the promise and hazards of artificial...
The Fauci Phenomenon, Part 2
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” Anthony Fauci sits down with host Rachel Gotbaum to discuss his long career in infectious disease and pub...
The Fauci Phenomenon
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” some of the people who have worked closely with “America’s Doctor,” Anthony Fauci, offer insights i...
The Promise and Perils of Psychedelics
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” a study participant and a long-time investigator of hallucinogenic drugs for psychiatric conditions illum...
Post-Roe Realities
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” host Rachel Gotbaum takes us to Tennessee and Ohio, where new abortion bans are already harming patients ...
Covid Vaccines — Playing the Long Game
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of “Intention to Treat,” NEJM editor-in-chief Eric Rubin and his colleague at the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee, Paul Offit...
Trailer: NEJM Group Presents “Intention to Treat”
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the New England Journal of Medicine, welcome to “Intention to Treat,” a podcast exploring the most complicated, perplexing, and fascinating i...