Medicine
The pediatric surgeon founded the Black Doctors Consortium and worked as a regional health director under the Biden administration.
6 months ago
Listen 1:51How Philly area hospitals are dealing with a national shortage of blood culture bottles
Hospitals routinely use these bottles to check for infections in patients’ blood — now they are cutting back on tests.
6 months ago
Listen 1:51Should organ donors be compensated? Plus, the psychology of smell
Would you give your kidney to a stranger? What if you could get a $50,000 tax credit for it? That's just one proposal for upping organ donation in the US.
Air Date: July 30, 2024 12:00 pm
Listen 52:40Advocates cheer new standards that could save horseshoe crabs from bloodletting
Up to 1 million horseshoe crabs in the U.S. are harvested for biomedical purposes. A synthetic alternative could mean less harvesting of the “living fossils.”
6 months ago
Listen 1:15The current contract between Temple Health and Keystone First health insurance was set to expire after July 31.
6 months ago
Listen 0:54What NPR readers want you to know about living with a disability
"One person’s experience is their own," Philly's Laura Williams said. “Their personal, individual reality exists alongside the realities of millions of different people."
6 months ago
COVID cases are rising in Philadelphia. Here’s what to know
The rise comes as the CDC is preparing to end its program providing free COVID-19 vaccines to people without insurance.
6 months ago
Desperate for care, patients face the threat of ‘medical deportation'
Hospitals are legally required to care for undocumented patients in emergencies. But when a patient is too sick to be discharged, some turn to a controversial practice.
6 months ago
Listen 11:30Are financial incentives holding back cures?
A promising new cure sparked a wave of renewed interest in gene therapies about a decade ago — but it also set off alarm bells in the financial world.
6 months ago
Listen 11:55There is no general cure for HIV, a chronic disease that affects more than 39 million people globally, including more than 18,000 in Philadelphia.
6 months ago
New Pennsylvania law aims to help local pharmacies
Since January, more than 140 pharmacies across the state have shut down.
6 months ago
A Philly lab reveals how obesity drugs like Ozempic cause nausea
The study focused on semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. It is known to reduce feelings of hunger while increasing feelings of nausea.
6 months ago
Listen 1:11Extreme heat and some medicines can be a risky combo. Here’s what to know
Hot weather, too, can damage medicines such as insulin that require refrigeration. Inhalers can explode. Epinephrine injectors such as EpiPens can malfunction. \
6 months ago
Ozempic’s popularity leads to shortages for people with Type 2 diabetes
These medications have been so wildly successful that the drugmakers can’t keep up with demand.
7 months ago
Some Philadelphia-area doctors say admissions to intensive care and asthma deaths among children have gone up this year, partly because of supply issues.
7 months ago
Listen 2:25