A shorter version of this piece was published in Fortune. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has come a long way since the first IVF baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born in 1978. Thirty years ago, your chances of bringing home a baby with each IVF try was 5%. Today, that number…

In episode 16 of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, we talk to Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton who is advocating for a more equitable healthcare system. — Health disparities run so deep in this country, that your zip code is a better predictor of your health than your genetic code. …

In episode 15 of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, we talk to transportation and safety expert Debbie Hersman about why women are more likely to die in car crashes, why traffic deaths increased during COVID, and if autonomous cars will save us. — Car Crashes Are No Accident In this episode, we talk with transportation and safety expert Debbie Hersman about how car crash deaths increased…music.amazon.com

In episode 14 of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, we discuss how women’s needs are too often ignored in healthcare, and how we can upend the paternalistic system to achieve health equity. — Women control 80% of healthcare decisions in the US. At an individual level, studies have shown that women utilize more healthcare services — in fact, we are 76% more likely than men to have visited a doctor within the past year. At the family level, women are more likely…

In this episode, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi shares her personal experience with the unexpected illness and passing of her late husband, and working with families and patients faced with end-of-life decision making. — “Being a physician helped me be a little more comfortable with coming to terms with the fact that suffering is a feature not a bug. It’s not avoidable. Suffering in some form impacts all of us. Having been a doctor set us up to be less likely to wrestle with…

In this episode, Dr. Nzinga Harrison explains substance use disorder and how medical treatment along with harm-reduction practices can lead to better community outcomes. — “Substance abuse”… carries the stigma that we put on people who are suffering with substance use disorders, or people who use drugs. Abuse is a crime. Abuse comes with negative implications and judgement about choices and morality. …

Youth sex educator Nora Gelperin dives into the good and bad of sex education today. — The inclusion of sexual education in public schools has long been a controversial issue amongst parents, health professionals, and religious groups. The execution of such programs in classrooms across the United States is awkward at best, and harmful to adolescent health at worse. In the 1990’s, in a class…

Renée DiResta talks about the spread of malign narratives across social networks and how that impacts public health. — For as long as there have been vaccines, there have been people opposed to them. But the anti-vaccine movement has grown rapidly in recent years, with vaccine hesitancy being called a “top threat to global health” by The World Health Organization even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

LaShyra “Lash” Nolen talks about the future of medical education and care. — In this episode, LaShyra “Lash” Nolen talks about the future of medical education and care. Lash is a Fulbright scholar and student at Harvard Medical School where she serves as the first Black woman class president. As the Founder of We Got Us, Nash is helping empower Black community…