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Global health today is characterized by a mix of promising developments and troubling trends. Life expectancy is on the rise, and maternal and child mortality rates are falling. But millions lack basic nutrition, primary health care, and access to vaccinations; we are ill-prepared for the next global pandemic; tobacco use kills six million people annually; and noncommunica...
Data from a 2007 voluntary research scan helped Steven Keating identify his own brain tumor in 2014 when he began to notice a phantom vinegar scent. After an MRI confirmed the presence of a tennis ball-sized tumor, Keating immediately began collecting his own clinical, research, and self-generated data. Armed with 200 gigabytes of information, he was better able to underst...
What does neuroscience have to offer education? A panel of leading developmental neuroscientists and master educators explain how a deepening understanding of interdependent neural processes can revolutionize teaching and learning. Emotions do not interfere with learning, as we once believed, but rather are crucial to our ability to engage complex ideas, process and retain...
The genius of artificial intelligence (AI) is its capacity to swiftly mine repositories of data, such as the vast amounts of information stored in electronic health records and medical literature, recognize patterns, and respond with recommended actions. AI is already being used to diagnose unfamiliar symptoms, predict drug responses, and perform robotic surgery, and seers...
With an annual budget of $1.65 trillion, the vast US Department of Health and Human Services oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and much else. Three Secretaries, past and present from both sides of the aisle, share their experiences about leading the agency and ex...
The belief that the paralyzed will walk and the deaf will hear is a staple of religion, literature, and myth. Now, technology is actually making that happen. Zeen has designed a battery-free mobility device to combine the best functions of a walker and wheelchair. Wristbands created by Neosensory feed sound vibrations directly from the skin to the brain, improving the abil...
The health of women and girls is closely tied to their right to make informed decisions about sexuality, marriage, and child-bearing, but the US is stepping back from leadership in this area. For the first time, the State Department has eliminated detailed information about contraception and maternal health care in its annual country reports on human rights. And the curren...
For the last 18 months, adults in Colorado and Washington State have been able to walk into retail stores and do what was previously unthinkable: buy marijuana. How are the states dealing with the inherent conundrum that results when you have a state permitted, but federally banned substance on the market? This session examines the Constitutional and political issues surro...
Improved housing offers a tremendous opportunity to boost health. Some of the links between substandard housing and poor health are obvious, if alarming – pests and mold promote asthma, lead poisoning irreversibly damages the brains of developing children, inadequate heating and ventilation increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Less immediately visible is the impact...
More than $2.7 trillion worth of food, medical products, and tobacco, representing 20 percent of every dollar spent by US consumers, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Always in the public eye, and often summoned to explain its actions to Congress, the FDA is as likely to be lauded as lambasted for its swift authorization of COVID-19 vaccines, its deci...
Whether you get dementia, Alzheimer’s or another brain disease, the fact is we’re living longer and our brains change. What are the changes and how should we be dealing with them, both individually and on a societal level? Are we obsessed with longevity? How can we thrive into the twilight years?
Every year, one-third of all the food produced on the planet is lost or wasted, an amount valued at about one trillion dollars. If just 25 percent of that waste could be avoided, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people. Expiration dates that have no meaning to food safety, a reluctance to sell fruits and vegetables with cosmetic blemishes, and retail over-stoc...
Gazing up at the stars, watching the acrobatics of Cirque de Soleil, or experiencing a moment of religious rapture connects us to something that feels larger than ourselves. Seeking out a regular dose of awe can strengthen the immune system, increase feelings of gratitude and compassion, lift up people who have experienced trauma, and change our perception of the world aro...
In his new book, Deep Medicine, Eric Topol – cardiologist, geneticist, digital medicine researcher – claims that artificial intelligence can put the humanity back into medicine. By freeing physicians from rote tasks, such as taking notes and performing medical scans, AI creates space for the real healing that occurs between a doctor who listens and a patient who needs to b...
The US is aging – between 2012 and 2050, the number of adults over age 60 will jump from 43 to 84 million, representing about 20 percent of the population. Meanwhile, smaller and more scattered families will mean greater numbers of people growing old alone. Fostering the social connections and cross-generational interactions that are so essential to healthy aging has becom...
Vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are the five human senses most of us are fortunate enough to know intimately. We like to say that intuition is our sixth sense, but Emma Young, an award-winning journalist who writes extensively about science and health, delves into research that has uncovered many others. In Super Senses: The Science of Your 32 Senses and How to Us...
Kids can be a mystery to their parents even at the best of times. But when they are dealing with serious illness, figuring out what they most care about, both physically and emotionally, becomes that much harder. Now, a panel of kids offers some answers. Listen to the voices of young people who have survived cancer and heart disease, lost limbs, or are facing a lifetime...
Research supports the idea that creatives of all types are over-represented in the population dealing with mood disorders and other psychiatric challenges. Certainly some of the world’s greatest musical masterpieces were composed by musicians who struggled with mental illness. Was it a source of inspiration for their creativity, or did they turn to art to help them heal? R...
Can we end the HIV epidemic in the next five years? President Trump pledged in February to do just that, but it will take vigorous research, aggressive outreach, new global commitments, better access to evidence-based treatment, attitude changes — and resources. Although the viral infection has drawn less attention in recent years, some 37 million people still live with HI...
How can the arts enable healing? In healthcare facilities and veterans’ hospitals, the arts are doing crucial work today. Learn and experience how the arts rehabilitate both physically and mentally, and every day help to recover the lives of our ill and wounded through intensive and hands-on creative work. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins for a special demonstration.