All Podcasts – Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts

The Modernizing Opioid Treatment and Access Act, or MOTAA, was presented to Congress in March 2023, as a means to expand access to medicines used in opioid use disorder treatment. Clearly such legislation is needed in light of the 100,000 …

Why can’t more physicians prescribe medicines to treat addiction? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Decriminalizing drugs doesn’t seem to have stemmed the tide of substance use in Oregon, and now the state is backpedaling. Yet over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022, recently reported by the CDC, must be addressed somehow. Substance use disorder …

How should policy address substance use? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Over 100,000 people died in 2022 because of drug overdoses, with the majority of them using illegal opioids in ways other than injection, the latest CDC data shows. Substance use disorder expert Michael Fingerhood at Johns Hopkins says while interdiction …

What might help combat opioid overdose deaths? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

A myth often heard on the street is that using opioid drugs like heroin or fentanyl by inhaling them, snorting them or ingesting them is less likely to result in overdose than injection. This myth may be behind new CDC …

Is there a safe way to use street opioids? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

109,000 people is the current number for people who died of drug overdoses in 2022, with over 70% of them due to illegally manufactured fentanyl and its lookalikes, the CDC reports. Michael Fingerhood, a substance use disorder expert at Johns …

Most overdose deaths involving illegal opioids aren’t from injection, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Most diagnostic x-rays, including those at your dentist, don’t require a lead apron anymore, several professional organizations, including the American Dental Association, have decided. Yet you may still see your technician wearing one. Mahadevappa Mahesh, a medical physics expert at …

Should you feel concerned if you see a radiation technician using a lead apron? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Why don’t you need a lead apron when you have dental x-rays? Johns Hopkins medical physics expert Mahadevappa Mahesh explains. Mahesh: When you go to dentist we all put on apron, there's no need to because the dental when you …

Improvements in technology helped eliminate the need for lead aprons for most x-rays, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

If you’ve had X-rays to examine your teeth or lungs, you’ve probably been given a lead apron to drape over other parts of your body. Now the American Dental Association has joined other professional organizations to abandon this practice as …

Lead aprons can actually interfere with diagnostic X-rays, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Lead aprons are no longer required for the vast majority of diagnostic imaging with X-rays, such as those your dentist might use. Mahadevappa Mahesh, a medical physics expert at Johns Hopkins, says using an apron might compromise the study. Mahesh: …

Could use of a lead apron when X-rays are used diagnostically have negative consequences? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Used to be that whenever X-rays were being used to image parts of the body a lead apron was used to shield body parts thought to be especially sensitive to radiation damage, such as the testes or ovaries. Fast forward …

Do we need to shield certain areas of the body from X-rays used diagnostically? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »