2024 Schedule

What health issues will play a role at the ballot box this election season? And will they influence voter turnout? As 2024 campaigns heat up, pollsters want to know what most concerns voters and whether those concerns will translate into political engagement, especially in battleground states. They’ll be polling key voting groups, including women, about their priorities and asking how healthcare a...

In a live podcast recording, health policy journalists talk about hot-button health issues and what they mean for the upcoming election. From the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and prescription drug prices to reproductive rights, gender-affirming care, and veterans’ health, some issues are particularly resonant in local elections, others could have implications for presidential and congr...

Lessening the anguish of firearms injury demands that we reach across ideological divides. No one—not gun owners or health systems, not parents or politicians of any party—considers it acceptable that more than 48,000 Americans died by firearms in 2021 and twice that many were injured. The science of public health tells us how to implement evidence-based strategies that will keep all of us—childre...

Despite great differences in demographics, available resources, disease threats, and the structure of their health systems, all countries need responsive, equitable, and innovative policies to meet population needs. Leaders of national health agencies across the globe come together for a wide-ranging conversation that spotlights their unique and shared challenges and pioneering approaches to refor...

World-renowned cellist Joshua Roman blends performance and storytelling to share his experience with long COVID and the life-altering limitations that nearly ended his career. After a crisis of struggle and self-doubt, Roman emerged with a profound acceptance of who he is, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to deal with a mysterious medical challenge. An intimate musical journey, his Immu...

Structural racism, reflected in uneven access to care, inequitable community conditions, and the wealth gap, drives persisting racial disparities in health. Unconscionable differences in life expectancy and the incidence of numerous diseases are the result. The systems and structures at the root of these inequities were created intentionally and need to be dismantled just as intentionally. That me...

In an ailing world, so many people are eager to contribute to their communities and connect with their neighbors. Hear stories of grassroots efforts to improve community health that draw on local talent to meet local needs—grandmothers delivering mental health counseling, volunteers teaching children about healthy food, and artists using murals to strengthen neighborhoods. All build on the recogni...

The conversation about motherhood and the “power of moms” is becoming more robust and nuanced, and a spotlight is finally being shined on the needs of mothers and their families. Curbing preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth and creating the emotional landscape so vital to health and wellbeing requires passionate activism and advocacy, intentional shifts in cultural norms and national pol...

The science-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the linchpin of the nation’s public health system. With its state-of-the art laboratories, world-class data analytics, and diverse workforce, the agency monitors emerging infectious diseases, ensures emergency preparedness, galvanizes community-focused responses to vaccines, environmental threats, workplace safety, opioid use, a...

Laura Kelly sits down to discuss health policy and practice in the state of Kansas. Kelly, a Democrat, heads the traditionally red state of Kansas, where government is divided. She'll discuss challenges—from fiscal pressures, Medicaid cost-sharing, and the need to bolster public health, to the threat of future pandemics and delicate decisions about reproductive health and gender-affirming care. In...

The mission of healthcare is to meet the needs of individual patients while public health is driven by a commitment to the health of broad populations. For too long, the two fields have operated largely in parallel, with only weak ties to connect them. Although the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the urgency of building bridges, we are now at risk of pandemic amnesia. It is time to meet the country’...

The power of the judiciary to influence health made recent headlines when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and Alabama’s top court ruled that embryos created through in vitro fertilization should be considered children. Upcoming state and federal cases related to health could further alter the landscape for abortion, and reshape the nation’s approach to gun rights, transgender care, envi...

The 3M’s—Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces—cover more than 160 million people across the country, nearly one in two Americans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) negotiates drug prices in line with Congressional mandates, issues Medicaid eligibility guidelines, provides guardrails for prescription drug benefit...

The health benefits of a nutritious diet are well-established, but just telling people to eat more plant-based foods and less unhealthy fat isn’t enough to reduce the toll of chronic diseases. A growing body of research supports a much more systematic approach, woven into the fabric of healthcare, to leverage the medicinal power of food. Medically tailored meals designed to address specific diagno...

Description coming soon.

To secure equitable global health and security, the world needs its own immune system. That’s the message from surgeon and author Atul Gawande, who leads global health assistance for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The current strategy is emergency-driven, rarely going beyond reactive responses to infectious diseases, natural disasters, and the violence that undermines health....

Stigma and taboo are powerful, yet often invisible, forces in healthcare. By sowing seeds of fear and shame, these cultural barriers delay diagnosis, inhibit treatment, and deepen health disparities, with profound impacts on both individual and community-level outcomes. This interactive session, facilitated by IDEO.org and led by experts in mental, behavioral, and reproductive health, explores inn...

Science is confirming what artists have long known—the arts change the body, brain, and behavior. An interdisciplinary new field known as neuroarts is building that evidence and exploring ways to put knowledge into practice. “Imagine a world in which music and the visual arts, dance and movement, theatre and storytelling, architecture and design, and many other art modalities are as common in the...

This storytelling event will feature deeply personal stories highlighting the lived experiences of health workers. Hear how they are working every day to solve challenges and deploy solutions in their own communities, closing the gap between communities and care and helping to achieve global health equity. A reception will follow the session from 5:10-5:45pm. (Presented by Johnson & Johnson)

Few people are more deeply steeped in science than Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the groundbreaking Human Genome Project, and former acting science advisor to President Biden. The physician and geneticist is also an evangelical Christian and he sees no contradiction there. Indeed, Collins argues that harmonizing science and faith is the challenge of our...