The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, while perhaps anticipated, came as devastating news for women across America, especially those who had worked tirelessly and at the risk of arrest and imprisonment to assure the right to safe abortions for all women who sought them.

As the political movement in reaction to the Dobbs decision accelerates today, O’Neill and Associates and Seven Letter believes it is important to use its podcast platform to begin a series on the impacts of Dobbs. The first episode features Susan Webber, Betsy Stengel, and Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak.

These three guests discuss their stories of the battles for reproductive rights before and after Roe v. Wade in the early seventies and how the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts addresses the challenges of providing reproductive health services to women now denied those rights in a growing number of other states. These experiences of the past must be considered when working to meet the challenges we face today.

Be sure to subscribe to our podcast page on Apple Podcasts to be the first to hear our upcoming conversations.

In this OA on Healthcare podcast, host Joe Alviani of O’Neill and Associates and Seven Letter interviews David Seltz, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. Rising Covid infections and the emergence of the new Omicron variant only prolong the lingering health and financial impacts of the virus on those most directly affected and increase the burden of health care costs on the Massachusetts consumer. The Health Policy Commission in its 2021 Annual Cost Trends Report recommends a number of ways to rein in health care cost growth, one of these being to cap prices and limit price growth for the highest-priced hospitals. David Seltz discusses this proposal, a new House bill to restrict large hospital expansions, and other strategies the HPC employs to control rising health care costs in our podcast.

In this episode of OA on Healthcare, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders provides a retrospective on the challenges and obstacles faced by the Commonwealth’s leadership in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing threat posed by the Delta variant and the importance of getting all citizens fully vaccinated.

In this episode of OA on Healthcare, Dr. David Katz, “the poet laureate of health promotion,” describes Everist Health’s COVIDAge Risk Calculator, an innovative tool that measures an individual’s risk for hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19. David L. Katz, MD, MPH is a Medical Doctor and world renowned epidemiologist that has worked in the fields of preventative medicine and public health for over 30 years. As well as holding several positions at institutions such as Yale University, Dr. Katz has over 200 peer-reviewed publications, is prolific in the media with hundreds of newspaper columns and has authored multiple books. On the COVID-19 pandemic, he has advocated consistently for a policy of total harm minimization by means of risk-stratified interdiction efforts.

Episode 12: Home Base: A Program of Care for Returning Military Warriors and Families by OA On Health Care

An Interview with Bob Coughlin, President & CEO of MassBIO, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council - COVID-19, Vaccines, Drug Costs and the Life Sciences Industry

This week on OA on Healthcare, Joe speaks with Massachusetts State Representative and emergency medicine physician Jon Santiago. Representative Santiago was on the front lines during the height of the pandemic treating COVID-19 patients at the Boston Medical Center, the city’s safety net hospital. In this episode of OA on Healthcare, Representative Santiago candidly describes a range of issues, like how he and his colleagues first approached patients with the relatively unknown coronavirus, how the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color elevated the issue of healthcare disparities, how work at BMC with underserved populations influences his priorities as a legislator, and how the troubling surge in coronavirus cases in states across the country may threaten Massachusetts.

This week on OA on Healthcare, Joe Alviani speaks with Dr. Andrew Levin, the Chief Executive and Chief Scientific Officer of Framingham-based Kephera Diagnostics, about the company's efforts to develop an antibody test and testing kit for COVID-19.

Episode 8: President and CEO of the Greater Boston Food Bank, Catherine D'Amato by OA On Health Care

This week on OA on Health Care, Joe Alviani speaks with two leaders of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, Dr. Kevin Sevarino and Dr. Karen Drexler.