Public Health Out Loud – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Alcohol is the most used substance among adults in the United States despite being known to cause cancer, liver disease, cardiomyopathy, and more.  Approximately 600 people die in Rhode Island every year from excessive alcohol use. In this episode, Linda Mahoney, associate director for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals and Emily Ledingham, senior alcohol epidemiologist at the Rhode Island Department of Health talk about what people need to know and where to find help when it's needed.  

The holidays are upon us but respiratory viruses like COVID-19, Flu, and RSV don’t make great gifts. In this episode, Dr. Suzanne Bornschein, State Epidemiologist at the Rhode Island Department of Health, shares the best ways to keep viruses from spreading to our friends, to our loved ones, and in our communities. 

For more information and data, visit health.ri.gov/respiratoryviruses.

It's National Health Center Week - a time to recognize and celebrate the role of health centers in our communities. These nonprofit clinics provide affordable, high-quality care to more than 200,000 Rhode Islanders. At a time when primary care is at a critical shortage in Rhode Island, the community health center model may be just what the doctor ordered. In this episode, Dr. Elena Kwetkowski, chief medical officer at Comprehensive Community Action Program in Coventry and Karen LaChapelle, medical director and nurse practitioner at Tri County Community Action Agency in Johnston fill us in on their critical work and how funding challenges and low reimbursement rates may hinder their ability to serve.  

On this week’s episode of the Public Health Out Loud podcast, co-hosts Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan are talking about natural immunity. What level of immunity does someone have after getting infected with COVID-19? Are they at risk for getting infected again? 

Our co-hosts are joined by Dr. Joseph Hogan and PhD candidate Nick Lewis from the Brown University Biostatistics Department. Our guest experts discuss their research findings on how many people in Rhode Island have gotten infected with COVID-19 and then got infected again. They also talk about how COVID-19 vaccines have protected patients from reinfection and the importance of staying up to date with your COVID-19 vaccinations.  

Download this week’s episode to learn more.  

There are about 1.6 million people in the United States right now living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cases range from mild to severe, and can impact people of all ages. In this week’s podcast, co-hosts Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan are talking about all things related to IBD and gut health.  

This week’s guest expert is Rhode Island native Dr. Jason Shapiro. He’s a pediatric gastroenterologist and director of the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Hasbro Children's Hospital, and an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine; and clinician educator at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. 

What treatment options are available for people living with IBD? Are there steps people can take to support a healthy gut? Download this week’s episode to find out.  

Dr. Ewa King, director of Rhode Island’s State Health Laboratories, returns in this week’s episode to talk about COVID-19 variants. 

In Rhode Island, the State Health Labs coordinate the SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and clinical and academic laboratories. This means the State Health Labs are sequencing and analyzing a representative selection of samples of the virus circulating in the state to identify differences between these samples and the genetic material of the original virus. 

Co-hosts Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan ask Dr. King about the evolution of COVID-19 testing and the State’s variant sequencing program. How reliable are COVID-19 tests? How pervasive has the Delta variant been in Rhode Island? Should people be more worried about the Omicron variant? Download this week’s episode to find out.  

In this week’s episode of Public Health Out Loud, Dr. Philip Chan and Dr. Jim McDonald recap public health highpoints from 2021 and share their hopes for the new year. They also talk about what you can do to protect your household from COVID-19 this holiday season, and throughout the upcoming winter months.  

To learn more, download this week’s episode of Public Health Out Loud, and visit covid.ri.gov/prevention. 

Our guest expert this week is Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Kurtis studies various neglected tropical diseases, including malaria, and is working to identify and define possible vaccines for them. 

Co-hosts Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan ask Dr. Kurtis about his research findings, the history of neglected tropical diseases, and why malaria case rates continue to increase. 

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest malaria report, there were an estimated 627,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2020, which is a 12 percent increase over 2019. Although case rates in the United States are low—about 2,000 a year—malaria is the top killer of children younger than 5 across the world.  

How do neglected tropical diseases spread? Why isn’t there already an effective vaccine against malaria? Download this week’s episode to learn more.  

This week’s guest is Rhode Island State Senator Joshua Miller, who represents State Senate District 28. He is Chair of the State Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and is actively involved in the Governor's Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force.  

In this episode, Senator Miller talks about what local representatives are doing to address two major public health concerns: the COVID-19 pandemic and the drug overdose epidemic.  

Co-hosts, Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan, talk with Senator Miller about issues that made the impact of COVID-19 in some communities much worse—like lack of access to affordable healthcare, transportation, and housing. They also talk about how Rhode Island is among the first in the nation to pass legislation allowing a two-year pilot program for harm reduction centers, also called “overdose prevention sites” or “supervised consumption centers.” 

What does Senator Miller share about strategies to address health inequities in Rhode Island? How did Rhode Island pass a bill allowing a two-year pilot program for harm reduction centers? Download this week’s episode to find out.  

This week on Public Health Out Loud, we’re joined by guest expert Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Rhode Island Hospital and Miriam Hospital. She is also the Associate Dean of Strategy and Innovation for the School of Public Health, founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health, and co-founder and Senior Strategic Advisor to the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine at the Aspen Institute. Her full biography is available on this web page.  

In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Philip Chan ask Dr. Ranney about her experience working on the front lines of a local emergency department since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It has been a series of ups and downs. I was actually in the emergency department the night that the very first identified COVID-19 patient in our state came in,” Dr. Ranney says. “I remember the feeling that night knowing that it finally hit us here in Rhode Island.” 

Dr. Ranney also talks about her work with Dr. Ashish Jha on the Long COVID Initiative, which is a coalition of clinicians, researchers, and public health communicators working together to shed light on the long-lasting impacts that a COVID-19 diagnosis has had on some patients' health.  

Download this week’s episode to learn more.