Better Off

Every company has an impact on health—both positive and negative—whether they realize it or not. And in this episode we're taking an in-depth look at the links between businesses and health. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently partnered with Harvard Business School to launch a new initiative called Culture of Health (COH): A Business Leadership Imperative. The goals: encourage business leaders to prioritize the protection and promotion of health and wellbeing and understand how some companies are already contributing to health—and how to encourage others to do so.

You'll hear from three researchers spearheading this work: Howard Koh is the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership and principal investigator of the Culture of Health program; John McDonough is professor of public health practice and a co-principal investigator; and Eileen McNeely is an instructor in the Department of Environmental Health and director of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise—or SHINE.

In this episode we're marking a major public health milestone. As of Monday, June 18, U.S. food manufacturers are banned from creating products with artificial trans fats—found in partially hydrogenated oils. This ban is the culmination of decades of research and work, and we'll explore how these fats became such a mainstay in American foods, the work to expose their risks, and the public health impact of eliminating them. You'll hear from two experts who were on the front lines of the battle against trans fats: Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Michael Jacobson, senior scientist and former executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

In the early 21st century there was hope that the success of the mumps vaccine in the United States would pave the way for the eventual elimination of the highly contagious disease. But since 2006 there's actually been a resurgence of mumps. In this week's podcast Yonatan Grad, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, explains how the waning effectiveness of the vaccine may be contributing to outbreaks of the virus.

This week the Harvard Chan School launched the new School-wide Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE). Under the leadership of Director Gina McCarthy, C-CHANGE will use science to drive action on climate change and improve public health. It's something McCarthy is familiar with; as former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, she led the Obama administration's efforts to combat climate change. In this week's episode we sit down with McCarthy for a passionate conversation about climate change, public health, and science. McCarthy explained why scientists need to change how they communicate about climate change to convey the human health effects, shared how we all can get involved to drive environmental changes at the local level, and weighed in on the Trump Administration’s attacks on science and the mission of the EPA.

This week more than 650 students from dozens of countries graduated from the Harvard Chan School. Each graduate has their own amazing story—with powerful reasons for pursuing public health. We can’t share them all, but this week we’re sharing three stories. Alice Han, MPH '18, is calling attention to the "pandemic" of violence against women; Garang Dut, MPH '18, was inspired by his experience as a refugee to address health care inequities; and Jon Jay, DrPH '18, is using data science to improve health in cities. You’ll learn why each of these students pursued public health—and how they’re hoping to make an impact after graduation.

Between 2014-2016, Researchers from Ariadne Labs ran an ambitious trial to see if a simple checklist could improve childbirth care and prevent deaths in one of India’s poorest states. The randomized study of 300,000 women in Uttar Pradesh was one of the largest maternal health trials ever. Both the stakes and hopes were high; globally, 300,000 women a year die around the time of childbirth and five million newborns die as stillborn or in their first month of life.

But the results of the study were mixed—what researchers call a "null" result. While the checklist improved the quality of care during labor and delivery, it did not reduce death rates. In this week's episode, we speak to Katherine Semrau, director of the BetterBirth program at Ariadne Labs and the lead author of the study, about why that “null” result can actually teach us a great deal about strategies to improve maternal health—and the way public health research is conducted.

In recent years countries across the Americas have made major improvements in health, but while life expectancy has increased and infant and maternal mortality rates have fallen, significant inequalities remain. A new commission launched by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is now examining ways to close those gaps.

Members of the commission were recently convened by David Satcher at Morehouse School of Medicine to discuss strategies for achieving health equity. As part of the gathering, Michael Marmot, chair of the commission and one of the world's foremost researchers on health inequality, delivered a keynote address: “How Do You Achieve Change?” In this week's episode, we're sharing that talk, which outlines vast disparities across the Americas—and explains how addressing the social determinants of health can help narrow disparities.

The recent scandal over Facebook's use of personal information has shone fresh light on one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century:  How can we protect our privacy when we are willingly—or unwillingly—giving vast amounts of data to companies like Facebook, Google, or Amazon. But those technology companies aren’t the only ones using personal information. This kind of data is also at the core of the work of international agencies delivering humanitarian aid. In this week's episode we speak with Dan Scarnecchia, a researcher with the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology based at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Scarnecchia and his colleagues recently wrote the Signal Code, which represents a human rights approach to privacy and data during crises. We'll examine how the humanitarian field is now grappling with ever-changing technology and increasing reliance on data and personal information.

Billions of dollars in global health aid are distributed around the world each year. But the process by which that funding is distributed—often by large multilateral agencies— is frequently opaque and difficult to understand. In this week's episode we explore the state of the global health aid landscape—and examine ways to improve transparency and make aid distribution more equitable. You'll hear from Jesse Bump, executive director of the Takemi Program in International Health and lecturer on global health policy. Bump and several co-authors recently wrote about global health aid in a special supplement in the journal Health Policy and Planning. We spoke with him about the aid distribution process, how it can be improved—and importantly—how the countries that receive this aid can have a louder voice in the process.

We often think of aging as an inevitable physical decline; as we get older our bodies break down and diseases begin to multiply. But what if that wasn't the case? What if we could change how we age and make our later years more healthy and fulfilling? That's the question we explore during our in-depth conversation with Will Mair, associate professor of genetics and complex diseases. Mair's Lab explores the basic biology of the aging process—trying to understand why we are more likely to get chronic diseases when we are old than when we are young. They seek to understand what is actually going wrong in our cells and tissues to increase the risk of age-related disease, and then work to find ways to reverse that. It's fascinating research that has the potential to change how we think about aging and age-related diseases.