Podcast #21 - "Dangerous by Design"

We've all heard how walking is an excellent form of physical activity for all ages. Health and fitness experts even recommend walking 10,000 steps a day. Even so, a new report maintains that there are places across the country where walking is downright dangerous.

That report, entitled "Dangerous by Design." was prepared by a coalition called Transportation for America. Today we're talking with David Goldberg, Director of Communications for that coalition.

Podcast #20 - Kelly Brownell, Soda Taxes and Prevention

Today we’re talking with Dr. Kelly Brownell, a professor and director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. Dr. Brownell led a group of prominent researchers who published an article in the Sept. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that made a strong public health case for a tax on sweetened sodas and other beverages. The study has generated considerable debate and, while Congress has not yet incorporated such a proposal into health reform legislation that is currently being drafted, Dr. Brownell has continued to press for such steps to be taken at the federal and state levels. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player, click here.

Podcast #19 - Oral Health and Older Americans

Older adults - particularly poor older adults - are among the Americans with the worst oral health. With this in mind, Oral Health America has teamed up with Columbia University and theNew York Academy of Sciences to host an Oct. 16 symposium aimed at building bridges between medicine and dentistry, with a special focus on the needs of older people. Our guests today are Beth Truett, President and CEO of Oral Health America, and Dr. David Albert, Course Director at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine. To listen to the podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player below, click here.

Podcast #18, Rep. Lois Capps

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) is a member of one of the three committees in the U.S. House of Representatives that have worked to draft health reform legislation. In this podcast, she discusses an amendment for which she won approval that prohibits Medicaid from charging co-payments and deductibles for clinical preventive services. She also talks about how prevention fits into the overall bill, and her experience as a public health nurse before coming to Congress. To listen to the podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player below, click here.

Podcast #17 - The Commission to Build a Healthier America

What makes Americans sick, and how can we keep them healthy? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established a panel of distinguished experts - the Commission to Build a Healthier America - to explore these fundamental but complex questions. Dr. David R. Williams, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, is the commission's staff director. He discusses the commission's findings and how they impact every segment of society.

Show #16 - FDA Gets Power to Regulate Tobacco

After a decade of wrangling on Capitol Hill, Congress has approved and President Obama has signed into law a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. This has huge implications for the tobacco industry and for public health policy. Discussing those implications with us in this podcast is Dr. Corinne G. Husten, Partnership for Prevention's Executive Vice President and former Director of the Office of Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player, click here.

Podcast #15 - Calculating Prevention's ROI

How do you prove the value of disease prevention and health promotion? A research team at Harvard Medical School thinks they may have an answer. They have developed a calculator that allows them to estimate the return on investment of prevention services. Dr. Nancy Oriol, dean of students at Harvard Medical School and a leader of the research team, explains how this new tool operates. She also discusses "The Family Van," a mobile clinic program she has helped to operate in the Boston area that inspired their efforts to develop the calculator. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player below, click here.

Podcast #14 - TFAH Poll Re: American Attitudes on Prevention

The American people overwhelmingly believe that investing more in disease prevention will save money. Even more importantly, they believe overwhelmingly that we should invest more in prevention, even if it doesn't save money. In this podcast we talk with Richard Hamburg, Director of Government Relations for the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). His organization has conducted an extensive survey of Americans to find out how they feel about disease prevention and health promotion, as well as how big of a priority they think it should be as Congress tries to reform the health care system.To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If you do not see a media player below, click here.

Podcast #13 - Modernizing Medicare

In this podcast, we talk with Dr. Douglas Kamerow, Chief Scientist for Health, Social and Economics Research at RTI International. Doug, who’s also a professor of clinical family medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, was part of a group of national prevention experts who prepared policy papers for Partnership for Prevention on how to incorporate disease prevention and health promotion into the health reform legislation being developed by Congress. In one of those papers, he offered an analysis of how we can modernize Medicare’s prevention policies. With the health reform debate nearing full throttle, he discusses those recommendations. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below; if you dont' see a media player below, click here.

Prevention Matters, Show #12 - YMCA Pursues Community Prevention

The more than 2,600 YMCAs of the USA are not only the largest not-for-profit community service organizations in the United States; they also are collectively the nation’s largest providers of health and well-being programs, serving 21 million children and adults of all ages, races, faiths, backgrounds, abilities and income levels. The YMCAs have committed themselves to providing community preventive services that encourage healthy lifestyles. In some cases, they've proven an ability to deliver those services effectively at a fraction of the normal cost. On this show, we’re discussing their programs with Katie Clarke Adamson, Director of Health Partnerships and Policy for YMCA of the USA. To listen the podcast, click on the media player below; if you do not see a media player, click here.

Podcast #11 - Adult Immunizations

People tend to associate immunizations with children, but there are a number of cost-effective immunizations that not only can help keep older Americans healthy, but can also save their lives. For example, an additional 12,000 lives could be saved each year if the adult influenza immunization rate could be increased to 90%. Dr. Litjen 'L.J.' Tan, the American Medical Association's Director of Medicine and Public Health, says the value of adult immunizations is underappreciated, and he talks with us about how policymakers can help change that. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If there is not media player below, click here.

Podcast #10 - A New Way to Talk about Cancer Prevention

The Ad Council has been at the forefront of public service advertising for more than 65 years, and they want to change the way the nation talks about cancer prevention. Their research shows people are somewhat skeptical about the notion that cancer can be prevented, but they are very receptive to the notion that they can reduce their risk of getting the deadly disease. Ad Council Vice President Anthony Signorelli talks about their work with the C-Change Coalition to help advocates put these new messages into the public conversation. To listen to the podcast, click on the media player below; if you don't see a media player below, click here.

Prevention Matters Podcast, Show #9 - Chlamydia Screening

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that screening rates for Chlamydia are disturbingly low, even as it has become the nation’s most common reportable sexually transmittable disease. Partnership for Prevention has organized the National Chlamydia Coalition to help increase routine screening for Chlamydia infections. We discuss these concerns with Dr. Yolanda Wimberly, a nationally recognized pediatrician and the medical director for the Center for Excellence in Sexual Health at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. To listen, click on the media player below; if your browser does not show a media player, click here.

Prevention Matters, Show #8, Paul Billings of the American Lung Association

Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. today, but we may have some real opportunities to make substantial progress in changing that. Increases in federal and state tobacco taxes combined with mass education campaigns are sending a record number of people to telephone quitlines seeking advice on how to stop smoking. We’ll be discussing these factors with Paul Billings, Vice President for National Policy and Advocacy at the American Lung Association. To listen to the podcast, simply click on the media player below; if your browser doesn't show a media player below, click here.

Prevention Matters, Show #7 with U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany

The week of April 5 - April 12 marks the observance of the first-ever "National Workplace Wellness Week." This podcast features Congressman Charles Boustany Jr of Louisiana, one of the original sponsors of legislation passed by Congress last fall to create this week as a way to help "recognize the importance of workplace wellness as a strategy to maximize employee health and well-being." Boustany, who is also a physician, talks about the significance of this observance, the importance of workplace wellness in general, and his appreciation for the value of prevention. To listen to the podcast, click on the media player below.

Prevention Matters, Show #6 - Tobacco Cessation as a Bottom-Line Booster

This podcast features an interview with Danny McGoldrick, Vice President for Research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. His organization recently teamed up with Partnership for Prevention and the United Health Foundation to launch an initiative aimed at American businesses. At a time of deep economic decline, this team is working to show businesses some proven ways to improve their bottom lines – by adopting tobacco-free policies in the workplace and by supporting tobacco-free policies in their communities. Listen by clicking on the media player below.

Prevention Matters Show #5 - The Appropriate Use of Aspirin

Aspirin not only relieves aches and pains, but it can also help prevent heart attacks and strokes. There is some confusion over exactly who should use aspirin to help their hearts and how they should use it. The U.S. Task Force for Clinical Preventive Services has issued new recommendations to help doctors and consumers. Discussing these recommendations is Dr. Nieca Goldberg, associate professor of medicine at New York University and a member of Partnership for Prevention's Task Force for Appropriate Aspirin Use. Click on the media player directly below to listen to the podcast.

Prevention Matters, Show #4 - The Stimulus Bill and Prevention

The recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes substantial funding for health and public health. Among other things, it provides $650 million to be spent on wellness and prevention activities, $500 million for health and public health manpower, and $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. The challenge for policy makers is now to determine how to make the best use of these dollars. That is the topic of our discussion today, in which Partnership for Prevention Interim President Corinne G. Husten, MD, MPH talks with Dr. Jonathan Fielding and Dr. Michael McGinnis. Dr. Fielding is the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and chairs the United States Task Force on Community Preventive Services, and he is also Chairman of the Board of Partnership for Prevention. Dr. McGinnis is a senior scholar at the Institute of Medicine and the founder of the Healthy People national health objectives movement. Listen by clicking on the player below.

Podcast #3 Featuring Dr. Catherine Baase

In 2007, the Dow Chemical Company's workplace health promotion program delivered $11.7 million in total economic benefit to Dow and saved 9,232 total absenteeism days. Dr. Catherine M. Baase, M.D., Dow's Global Director of Health Services, recently told a U.S. Senate committee that workplace health promotion programs should be an important part of health reform efforts. In this installment of our "Prevention Matters" podcast, we talk to Dr. Baase about her company's experience and her testimony to Congress. Listen to this broadcast by clicking on the media player below.

Podcast #2 with Dr. Steven Woolf - Making the Economic Case for Prevention

Is prevention a "good deal" in terms of its return on investment? In a recent commentary published in JAMA, Dr. Steven Woolf emphatically declared that it is. In our second podcast, Woolf - a professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University - discusses his commentary and makes the case for making disease prevention and health promotion a cornerstone of health reform. He also rebuts prevention critics who say it doesn't save money. Listen to the podcast by clicking on the media player below.

Our First Podcast, Featuring Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding

Is individual, patient-based medical care the best way to improve health? Dr.Jonathan E. Fielding, chairman of the US Task Force on Community Prevention Services, says it's not. Dr. Fielding - who is also Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Chairman of Partnership for Prevention's Board of Directors - discusses health reform on our first "Prevention Matters" podcast. Listen online at by clicking on the media player below.