Screen for prostate cancer (PSA)
While the death rate for prostate cancer has fallen over the past two decades, little of this is related to routine testing of older men.
Episodes
Second Opinion
An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them. Sign up to receive the Second Opinion topics in newsletter form at kcrw.com/newsletters .
Episodes
Reducing added sugar in our diet
Simply providing information such as clear warning labels on restaurant menus can reduce added sugar consumption.
Artificial Intelligence in End of Life Decisions
Can artificial intelligence, based on machine learning, predict more accurately the care a loved one would want at the end of life compared to next of kin?
Unnecessary Pre-operative testing
The thinking goes that testing before elective surgery can reduce risks and complications. But, it turns out it may do the opposite.
Implied Consent
Touch during a visit to the doctor has many benefits, but it can also negatively impact the provider-patient relationship.
Video recordings of surgical procedures
While video offers some advantages to patients and providers, it also has some significant downsides.
A rising demand for medical imaging tests
There are several reasons for the increasing use of medical imaging tests buy they may not always benefit the patient
Unacceptable COVID vaccine profits
When is it simply avarice to profit at the expense of public health?
The continued overuse of antibiotics
Sick people play a large role in driving antibiotic overuse.
Medical issues following a disaster
First comes the disaster. What follows is predictable, but equally worrisome.
Organ donations by prisoners
Should prisoners be allowed to donate organs in exchange for a reduced sentence?
The Need for New Antibiotics
Changes are needed to ready ourselves to treat new emerging infections
The problems with direct-to-consumer drug advertising
For good reason, other than the US, only one other country in the world allows drugs to be advertised directly to the public.
Making three wishes at the end of life
Small acts of kindness make a huge difference to patients and families
Pay for performance in healthcare
Good quality turns out to be complicated and unrelated to reimbursement rates
Too many blood tests
While properly ordered blood tests can help enormously with diagnosis, too often, blood tests are ordered without good reason.
The complexity of a second opinion
Is there value in getting a second opinion? What happens when the two opinions differ from each other?
2022 End of Year Recap
A look at some of the topics we covered throughout the past year.
“We got it all”
These four words may not mean the same thing to all people
Putting technology ahead of the evidence
Too often the use of expensive and risky technologies catch on before we have good data suggesting benefit.
Injustice Disorder
When a person is a victim of systemic injustice does that constitute a medical diagnosis?
Insulin production in California
The state of California is about to take on pharmaceutical companies by producing safe, effective, FDA approved insulin.
Time for a new approach to Alzheimer’s Disease
For over 100 years we’ve had a similar approach to understanding Alzheimer’s disease which hasn’t produced many benefits. Perhaps it’s time to cast the net more broadly?
The Limits of Specialty Care
In medical care job specifications are often blurred and a focus on the person can get lost
Microplastics and human health
Until we know more, it makes sense to avoid microplastics as much as possible
Monitoring poor air quality
Using participatory science to examine local air quality.
The Care Cascade
Unnecessary medical testing often leads to a “care cascade” that results in real harm and sky-high costs.
The problems with body mass index (BMI)
Often medicine gets hooked on using simple tools of measurement only to discover, after they have become entrenched, that they don’t measure what they are supposed to measure.
Code Lavender
A unique way to focus on reducing stress in moments of great need.
Reproductive Coercion
Often reproductive autonomy is undermined by our partners.