This week on the Healthcare Triage Podcast, we're sitting down with Dr. Jonathan Fridell, organ transplant surgeon. He and Aaron talk all about how exactly organs get moved from one person to another, and I can tell you, it is FASCINATING.

The video discusses the challenges of providing healthcare to a community of fishermen living in stilted homes in Lagos, Nigeria. Doctors Without Borders established a clinic in the heart of the community, providing medical care and...

Potential vaccines for the coronavirus are all over the news right now, and we all hope that a safe an effective vaccine is developed soon. But vaccines aren't the only tool in the pipeline. Right now there's a lot of research happening...

How do we know when to stop social distancing and reopen the world? It's complicated, but there are four major goalposts we should meet before we start getting back to normal.

We've been talking a lot about meat consumption and its effect on our health. New studies indicate that meat may not be as bad for us as we've been told. But this is controversial. So, how do we talk about new findings that contradict...

Is there such a thing as a healthful beverage? All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water. The evidence for telling humans that some beverages are necessary and that others should be...

Alcohol is a double-edged sword. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." However, some people say that drinking three beers means losing 10,000 brain cells. But is it true that alcohol...

What can we do about infant mortality and disparities in health care? This week we take a look at a recent study in JAMA that may have an answer.

Breakfast still isn't the most important meal of the day. You also may have heard claims that eating breakfast somehow promotes weight loss. Well, there's a new study out, and it looks like eating breakfast isn't going to contribute to...

There has been a lot of news lately about increasing crime in states where recreational marijuana has been legalized. Crime is rising in some of these states, but it doesn't seem to be tied to the legal weed.

Experts have long been calling for quicker, cheaper, and more accessible ways of testing for Covid-19. Though such tests would be less accurate than the predominant PCR test, speed matters more than accuracy when it comes to curbing a...

Every once in a while, we like to take a moment and focus on health systems around the world. Today, we're looking at Taiwan, which made the transition to a single payer system kind of suddenly, and pretty recently.

One argument we continue to hear about the reaction to Covid-19 is that “it’s just another flu”, and that we can move forward with life as usual, much like we move forward with life during flu season. While we wish that were true, it...

Malaria kills a lot of people every year, and many of those people are young children. Developing a vaccine against this deadly disease has been a long and difficult journey, but there’s been a breakthrough! While we are still working...

PCR tests for Covid-19 are pretty accurate. But they're often very slow and they can be hard to get. Results sometimes aren't available in time to be useful. Faster tests can be less accurate. As we try to reopen schools and businesses...

A brand new study indicates that where you live in a time zone can reduce how much you sleep, and have general negative impact on health. So, do we actually need time zones?

Aaron Carroll answers more of your Covid19 questions. Click on a time code to jump to a question. 0:00 - start 0:10 - Do exhalation valves on masks defeat the purpose of wearing a mask? 0:40 - Are antibody tests accurate enough to bother...

Actually, don't panic. Or maybe do panic. I don't know. The American Heart Association released new blood pressure guidelines late last in 2017. New coverage was breathless, and claimed millions of Americans suddenly had high blood...

Lots of parents in the United States rely on paid childcare so that they can do things like go to work, or get things done in a reasonably efficient manner. Daycare provider rules that keep sick kids at home for things like pink eye or a...

Last week we started our deep dive into the RAND Corporation’s comprehensive report on early childhood programs. We talked about how they’re defined, and how they’re targeted. Great. But do they work? What are the outcomes they improve?...

From the archives: Paul Roberts, author of The End Of Food, summarizes his talk about our food system, circa 2009. Roberts argues that the industrial agriculture system is sick and that applying surface solutions will not get to the root...

Electronic cigarettes, like Juul, have been in use in the United States for over a decade now, so what’s up with the sudden spike in e-cigarette related illnesses? SPOILER: We wish we knew more.

Mask-wearing is one of a set of measures that helps slow the spread of respiratory disease. This is particularly important in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, but mask uptake has been low in some areas. In today’s episode we discuss a...

Thanks to a ridiculous accounting trick enabled by the new tax law, the cost of funding the Children's Health Insurance Program went from $8 Billion to $800 million. How is this possible? And how is it still not funded? Dr. Aaron Carroll...