A Health Podyssey

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Ensuring equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine once it's here Nov 24, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Delivered weekly from David Lim, Semafor Healthcare connects the dots between decisions in government, business, and technology to reveal how they impact the future of healthcare. Each edition will provide the analysis you need to understand and stay ahead of a rapidly changing landscape. Subscribe for free.

In November, the pharma companies Pfizer and Moderna both announced substantial progress on a potential COVID-19 vaccine. While both vaccines showed promising results during clinical trials, questions remain for what's next and how to distribute a vaccine once it's available for public use.

One major question mark concerns logistics. For example, the Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept at extremely cold temperatures while traveling through the supply chain — though that doesn't seem to be the case for Moderna's vaccine.

Another worry is ensuring equitable access to an effective vaccine. Dr. Angela Shen, visiting scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and vaccine policy expert, recently published a paper on the topic in a special cluster on COVID-19 vaccines in Health Affairs. She joins A Health Podyssey to discuss her paper, as well as the challenges and opportunities the US will face to secure equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine.

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What Milwaukee tells us about COVID-19 and its impact on race Nov 17, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

New York City was an initial focal point for COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. with the virus then quickly spreading across the country. With time, data, and analysis, researchers are learning more about how the novel coronavirus is affecting different swaths of the U.S. population.

Leonard Egede, division chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine and director of the Center for Advancing Population Science at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and colleagues recently published a paper in Health Affairs which aimed to understand the racial and ethnic differences in COVID-19 screening, hospitalization, and mortality rates in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin.

Using data from more than 31,500 adults, Egede and his colleagues found that blacks and Hispanics were both more than three times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than non-Hispanic whites. In addition, both blacks and Hispanics were two times more likely to be hospitalized relative to whites.

What do these findings mean for national hospitals, communities, and policymakers?

Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Leonard Egede to discuss his paper and what the findings tell us about the challenges that lie ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

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A first take on health policy after the 2020 election Nov 05, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

No matter which side of the aisle you sit, the 2020 U.S. presidential election has been as memorable as it's been remarkable.

On November 4th — less than 24 hours after the final polls closed — Health Affairs' Alan Weil sat down with Kimberly Leonard, Senior Healthcare Reporter at Business Insider, and Shannon Muchmore, Editor at Healthcare Dive, to share his perspective on what the future of health policy may look like when the election is finally in the rearview mirror.

The group touches on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, what's on deck for future coronavirus relief packages, and how the next administration may continue federal policies on pricing transparency. We also hear how Alan, Kimberly, and Shannon maintain bipartisanship in their publications in the face of increasing polarization.

Listen to hear what Alan, Kimberly, and Shannon are hearing across Washington, D.C. and how it could influence future health policies.

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Where a child grows up shapes their health Oct 27, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

We’ve long known that community resources — good schools, walkability, food security, etc. — affect opportunities for children’s health and behaviors to develop. But how do we measure these characteristics and use our knowledge to create better policy?

In this episode of A Health Podyssey, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Brandeis University’s Dr. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia to discuss her research on racial and ethnic inequities in children’s neighborhoods.

The results are stunning as they are surprising. While differences across the country were expected and noted, more than 90% of the variation in neighborhood opportunity occurs in metro areas.

What are the implications at the policy level for these results? Alan Weil and Dr. Acevedo-Garcia discuss.

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Education isn’t the only thing disrupted when schools close Oct 20, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Schools and childcare centers quickly closed in reaction to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 — and many remain closed or only provided remote services well into the fall.

While school closures appear to slow the spread of the virus, for many children the health ramifications are far broader. Children who depend on schools for meals or special needs are suddenly at a loss when schools close.

In this episode, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Health Affairs Senior Editor Jessica Bylander to discuss her EntryPoint article published in the October 2020 issue of Health Affairs. She finds that when schools close, it’s not just education that’s disrupted.

Jessica also shares details about the newly published Narrative Matters essay collection (Johns Hopkins University Press), which features essays from the leading voices in health care today, including George Washington University’s Leana Wen and The Emperor of All Maladies author Siddhartha Mukherjee.

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How new pediatric programs take root and grow Oct 13, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

How do you take a good idea — like screening children to see if they're on a healthy developmental trajectory — and get that idea adopted by thousands of small separate pediatric practices spread across a state or the entire country?

The answer is collaboration and leadership.

Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) is a pediatric program run by the University of Vermont to help pediatric providers, payers, and policy makers navigate the complex health care ecosystem. It’s also the latest subject for Health Affairs’ Leading to Health Series.

Leading to Health focuses on transforming health systems and is published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In this episode, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews journalist and Leading to Health author Rebecca Gale on what gives VCHIP a programmatic edge in implementing new health care programs — and how other states can consider and benefit from this approach.

Rebecca Gale is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Health Affairs, The Washington Post, Slate, and The New York Times.

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Improving teen driver safety with virtual driving assessments Oct 06, 2020

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This episode is brought to you by Semafor Healthcare.

Tragically, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of adolescent mortality and injury in the United States with new, inexperienced drivers at particular risk.

The risk is under-recognized in health care. One way forward could be virtual driving simulations.

Recently, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, through its spun out business Diagnostic Driving, partnered with the state of Ohio to assess a virtual driving simulation in driver education courses. Initial findings were recently published in the October 2020 edition of Health Affairs.

At this time, the partnership’s work is informing policy changes around integrating the virtual driving assessment system into licensing and driver training with the aim of reducing crashes in the first months of independent driving. The system can be developed to identify deficits in safety-critical skills that lead to crashes in new drivers and to address challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced to driver testing and training.
Co-authors Dr. Flaura Winston and Dr. Elizabeth Walshe from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia sit down with Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil to discuss their research.

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