Archives

Health Care Reform Hits Home

By Laura Knoy on Thursday, November 12, 2009.

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

Containing the Cost of Corporate Care

By Elaine Grant on Monday, November 9, 2009.

As health care premiums continue to skyrocket, Granite State businesses large and small are considering outside-the-box strategies to keep a lid on expenses, from lowering obesity and smoking rates to treating depression and teaching employees how to shop for the most affordable medical care. We’ll talk to a roundtable of benefit managers and analysts on what ideas are being tossed around and which are sticking.

Guests

  • David Whelan, health care staff writer for Forbes Magazine
  • David Larrivee, principal consultant at Workplace Benefit Solutions in Manchester
  • Peter Hayes, longtime health care consultant with Hannaford Supermarket and now owner of the consulting company Health Care Solutions

The Stuff Hospitals Throw Away

By Josie Huang on Thursday, November 5, 2009.

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of dollars worth of unused medical supplies every year, for a number of reasons - for instance, because they're outdated.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

listen: Windows Media | MP3

Public Health Office Tries to Set Timeline

By Dan Gorenstein on Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

The state Department of Public Health wants to clear up any confusion around schools holding H1N1 flu clinics.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.

listen: Windows Media | MP3

The Robot Will See You Now

By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

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)

listen: Windows Media | MP3

Inside The Minds of Smart Mice

By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, November 3, 2009.

Imagine a surgery that could triple your IQ with the nick of a scalpel. That’s what happens to Charlie Gordon, the developmentally-disabled protagonist of the 1958 novel Flowers for Algernon.

A lab mouse named Algernon is the first to get the experimental surgery. Suddenly he can wind his way through intricate mazes in seconds. Algernon easily beats charlie, leaving him to wonder why this mouse is smarter than he is. Then Charlie’s teacher secretly tells him that the mouse he’s been pitted against is no ordinary rodent.

In labs across the country, researchers are experimenting with smart mice that learn more quickly using neuroenhancing drugs. But these same mice get scared more easily, have higher rates of cancer, and can’t seem to solve some simple problems.

As pharmaceutical companies race to develop the next generation of neuroenhancing drugs for humans, scientists are discovering what can get lost when using pills to learn faster and think more clearly.

Science writer Jonah Lehrer delved into the world of cognitively enhanced mice for Nature News. He’s contributing editor at Wired and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist and How We Decide, and he joins us with more.

The Frontal Cortex: Smart Mice

(Photo by Michail Pishchagin via Flickr/Creative Commons)

listen: Windows Media | MP3

Grading Media Coverage of Health Care

By Virginia Prescott on Monday, November 2, 2009.

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)

listen: Windows Media | MP3

Here's What's Awesome: Double Guitar Solos, Dating Rescues

By Brady Carlson on Sunday, November 1, 2009.

I think Here's What's Awesome needs a catchphrase - something as catchy as Gomer Pyle's "Sha-zam!" but as down to earth as Daniel Schorr's "This is Daniel Schorr." Let's think on this as we explore another week of awesome links:

And next, three people and a piccolo
Two Brazilian musicians prove that a) you don't need two guitars to play a guitar duet, and b) you don't need to "beatbox" or sing about robots to become an internet musical sensation!

Dartmouth Doctors say Drug Labels Leave Out Essential Information

By Elaine Grant on Friday, October 30, 2009.

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.

listen: Windows Media | MP3

Bethlehem Residents Have Higher Rate of Cancer

By Amy Quinton on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Residents of Bethlehem have a higher than expected rate of both pancreatic and breast cancer.
That’s the finding of a New Hampshire Health and Human Services Department report released Tuesday.
The study was a follow-up on cancer rates in Bethlehem, and included eight surrounding towns.
But as New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports, the report could not find a common factor that would explain the increase.

listen: Windows Media | MP3