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There’s been plenty of debate over whether to overhaul America’s health care system. But if a bill passes, New Hampshire will have to figure out how to make all the federal changes work with all of the state health care policies and programs already in place. We’ll get to the bottom of how this transition would work, and where there might be bumps in the road.

Guests

• Ned Helms, director of the New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice at the University of New Hampshire
• Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy

Hospitals throw out millions of dollars worth of unused medical supplies every year, for a number of reasons - for instance, because they're outdated.

Nonprofit groups are collecting the supplies and shipping them to developing countries. But tons of items still wind up in landfills. As part of a collaboration with Northeast stations, Josie Huang of Maine Public Radio reports.

In 1985, the world witnessed the first robot-assisted surgery. The PUMA 560 angled its white plastic arm towards the brain of a patient and carefully inserted a biopsy needle. The procedure was a success and the field of medical robotics was born.

Now researchers are creating robots capable of much more than mechanical tasks. A new crop of social robots cheer on stroke victims struggling through physical therapy, help Alzheimer’s patients remember events from the past, and give Autistic children encouragement as they connect with the outside world.

Some patients actually prefer the mechanical voice of these robots over the prompting of therapists and family members. Programming robots to display more and more human-like characteristics raises the question of whether we are coming dangerously close to singularity -- the point at which machines achieve human-level intelligence.

Dr. Jerome Groopman wrote about the rise of medical robots for The New Yorker, where he’s staff writer. He’s also the author of several books including How Doctors Think.

The New Yorker: Robots That Care

(Photo by Roberto Rizzato via Flickr/Creative Commons)

In September, former senate majority leader Tom Daschle spoke at The New School in New York City. He described a health care town hall meeting that was nothing like the shrill, hostile meetings then leading the news. “The next morning,” Daschle says, “I read the newspaper and I’d say 95% of the coverage in the paper was about the demonstrators and quotes that they had, either about me, or about health care that were completely off base. Nothing about the thoughtful, substantive discussion that occurred for an hour and a half in that hall.”

The headlines generated by gun-toting protesters, people decrying “socialized medicine” and “death panels” have faded, but the health care debate continues. This week, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives are expected to vote on their versions of the health care reform bill, bills that are quite different from the Senate’s version.

If you find yourself getting lost in the process, you are not alone. Trudy Lieberman has been following health care and the media’s coverage of the issue for the Columbia Journalism Review. She also teaches health and medicine reporting at the City University of New York and joins us to grade the media coverage of the health care debate.

Columbia Journalism Review: Truth Emerges about the Public Option

L.A. Times: Media needs to deepen coverage of healthcare reform

Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism: Health News Coverage in the U.S. Media

(Photo by Truthout.org via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Two Dartmouth doctors argue that drug labels don’t tell you how well your medications work or how safe they really are.

Worse yet, they don’t tell your doctors everything they need to know.

A little-known piece of legislation based on their work is included in a Senate health care overhaul bill.

And as health reporter Elaine Grant has learned, that could eventually change the way the pharmaceutical industry labels drugs.