Stephen Waxman: Easing the Horrors of Chronic Pain
Howie and Harlan are joined by Stephen Waxman, a leading neurology researcher, to discuss the promise of new methods developed by his lab to treat the ravages of pain. Harlan talks about the importance of ratings for Medicare Advantage plans; Howie assesses two sobering new reports on the solvency of Medicare. Links: Harlan’s Section Slides from Humana's Investor Day "Humana’s cautious defense of Medicare Advantage" "What Are the Medicare Star Ratings?" "Early analysis: How health plans fared in the 2025 Medicare Advantage star ratings" Interview with Dr. Waxman "F.D.A. Approves Drug to Treat Pain Without Opioid Effects" "A brief historical perspective: Hodgkin and Huxley" "A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve" Nobel Prize: “Speed read: Signal to charge" "Sodium channels and pain" "Targeting a Peripheral Sodium Channel to Treat Pain" Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: "Ronald Niedermann" "Peripheral Sodium Channel Blocker Could Revolutionize Treatment for Nerve Pain" "Interplay of Nav1.8 and Nav1.7 channels drives neuronal hyperexcitability in neuropathic pain" "Pharmacotherapy for Pain in a Family With Inherited Erythromelalgia Guided by Genomic Analysis and Functional Profiling" "Neuropathic Pain" "A historical perspective on the discovery of statins" "Erythromelalgia" "The Two Sides of NaV1.7: Painful and Painless Channelopathies" "Dr. Stephen Waxman awarded Sharpey-Schafer Prize for pain research" Nobel Prize: "Robert Edwards" "Gain-of-function mutation in Nav1.7 in familial erythromelalgia induces bursting of sensory neurons" "Scientists Identify Method to Study Resilience to Pain" "Chasing the genes behind pain" "Stephen Waxman: pioneer in axons, their disorders, and pain" "I Feel Like I’m Burning Alive. It’s Hard for People to Believe Me" "‘How badly does it hurt?’ Challenges of measuring pain in clinical trials" Howie’s Section "2025 Medicare Trustees Report" "Analysis of the 2025 Medicare Trustees' Report" "Medicare gets a big (unofficial) surprise: a 17-year extension on when it’ll run dry" "Evan Sussman: Expanding Access to Fertility Drugs" "Trump gives major lift to 2026 Medicare Advantage payments" "June 2025 Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System" "Medicare Advantage’s supplemental benefits will cost taxpayers $86 billion this year, with little transparency" "How UnitedHealth turned a questionable artery-screening program into a gold mine" "From boom to bitcoin: A device maker’s surprising pivot amid a Medicare crackdown" Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.
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The ‘Big Beautiful BIll’ and Other News
Howie and Harlan discuss health and healthcare issues making headlines, including public attitudes toward the Medicaid cuts in the budget bill making its way through Congress, a one-time gene therapy that could cure high cholesterol, “ambient” AI in the exam room, and the replacement of the the CDC’s entire vaccine advisory board. Links: Remembering Atul Butte “Atul Butte, a biomedical and bioinformatics pioneer, dies at 55” Marina Sirota on LinkedIn “Remembering Atul Butte, MD, PhD” The Budget Bill H.R.1—One Big Beautiful Bill Act “KFF Health Tracking Poll: Views of the One Big Beautiful Bill” CBO: Dynamic Estimate of H.R. 1, One Big Beautiful Bill Act “Protesters disrupt town-hall healthcare talks” Vinay Prasad “Vinay Prasad named chief medical and science officer at FDA” “Critic of drug industry and COVID-19 measures to lead FDA vaccine program” Medicaid Cuts “Senate GOP tax bill would hit politically explosive Medicaid provision” “The Senate Wants Billions More in Medicaid Cuts, Pinching States and Infuriating Hospitals” “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements” “Georgia Touts Its Medicaid Experiment as a Success. The Numbers Tell a Different Story.” “Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage Program: The First Year in Review” “Trump’s Big Bill Would Be More Regressive Than Any Major Law in Decades” Gene Therapy to Prevent Heart Disease Verve Therapeutics Verve Therapeutics: Sekar Kathiresan, M.D. “Lilly to buy gene-editing partner Verve for up to $1.3 billion in cardiac care push” “Viral Vector-Based Gene Therapy” “mRNA-based therapeutics: powerful and versatile tools to combat diseases” “Second patient death reported with gene therapy for muscular dystrophy” Anti-Vaxxers at the CDC “Scoop: CDC has no Acting Director, sources confirm.” Video: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the polio vaccine “This tech millionaire went from covid trial funder to misinformation superspreader” “Kennedy Removes All C.D.C. Vaccine Panel Experts” “RFK Jr. replaced everyone on the CDC's vaccine panel. Here's why that matters” “ACIP, CDC, and Insurance Coverage of Vaccines in the United States” Ambient AI “Ambient AI Is Having Its ‘Moment’ In Healthcare” “This technology is becoming beloved by doctors and patients alike” “Physician Perspectives on Ambient AI Scribes” “Microsoft unveils new voice-activated AI assistant for doctors” “Kaiser Permanente rolls out Abridge's gen AI clinical tech across 40-hospital system” “Andreessen Horowitz in Deal Talks Valuing Abridge AI at $5.3 Billion” “Abridge easing clinician workload”
Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz, two Yale physician-professors, discuss the latest news and ideas in healthcare and seek out the truth amid the noise. Produced with the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Public Health. New episodes are available every Thursday.
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