Innovation and Prevention

Brain-computer interfaces show potential to restore function to people impacted by incurable neurological conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative disease. Experts from neurosurgery, neuroscience and technology explore the current state of BCIs, their applications and the possibilities of this transformative technology.

The belief that the paralyzed will walk and the deaf will hear is a staple of religion, literature, and myth. Now, technology is actually making that happen. Zeen has designed a battery-free mobility device to combine the best functions of a walker and wheelchair. Wristbands created by Neosensory feed sound vibrations directly from the skin to the brain, improving the ability to process words and taming tinnitus. Finsen headphones, developed by an inventor barely into her teens, use machine learning and blue-light technology to detect and treat middle-ear infections. Eko’s 3MTM Littman® CORE Stethoscope pairs digital technology and distraction-free acoustics to identify heart murmurs in seconds. Come test these breakthrough products!

Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us all, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Yet acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of death doulas to assist in the dying process, even green burials and body composting, make it possible to end life on our own terms. Reimagining death before we close our eyes one final time liberates us to celebrate the moments we have so much more fully.

A wise health consumer learns to be cautious when consulting Dr. Google, given the extent of the misleading or patently false information available online. But the internet is also an empowering source of rigorous, well-vetted knowledge, if you know where to look. Users need search engines, websites, and social media that offer ready access to trustworthy ideas and findings, and care providers need tools to lessen the noise emanating from misinformation. Platforms, health professionals, and policymakers are advancing adaptable ideas for safeguarding the quality of what lives online, flagging distortions, and elevating valid content so that consumers can make informed health decisions.

There is no sugar-coating the grim data on women’s reproductive health. Globally, hundreds of millions of women lack access to modern contraception and almost 300,000 women die annually from complications linked to pregnancy. Meanwhile, the incidence of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers is rising amid unconscionable disparities in outcome by race and income. Determined to drive change, activists in every corner are working to protect and expand women’s access to health services that allow them to make their own choices. NBC correspondent Kristen Welker talks with Chelsea Clinton and birth justice advocate Chanel L. Porchia-Albert about women’s health, commitments to equity, and what reproductive justice demands.

This symposium, by the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program dissects the current state of basic science around the world, creates a public forum for discussion among scientific leaders, and provides guidance on how basic science can be supported and advanced internationally. This symposium accompanies publication of the global report, In Favor of Pure Science, written in collaboration among the 14 countries where the Aspen Institute has partnering organizations and is supported by the Kavli Foundation. The featured expert speakers are among the participants who contributed to their country’s chapter in this report.

About 100 people die from gun violence in the United States every day and another 200 are injured, including children. Guns recently became the leading cause of death for children nationwide. As emergency physicians, AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute’s Megan Ranney and Chris Barsotti reflect on the importance of addressing gun violence through a public health approach in this PBS Weekly spotlight.

Walgreens knew it was getting a rock star to guide its aggressive expansion into healthcare when it signed Roz Brewer as CEO. Brewer had already served as CEO of Sam’s Club, where she doubled the number of organic products on store shelves, and as chief operating officer of Starbucks. A breaker of glass ceilings and an outspoken advocate of racial and gender equity, Brewer brings decades of leadership experience to a company whose purpose, she says, is “to create more joyful lives through better health.” Under her sure hand, Walgreens is moving further into retail medicine, adding a rich set of store-based clinical services to its offerings and carefully tracking health outcomes. Brewer is interviewed by CNBC reporter Bertha Coombs.

When Rochelle Walensky was appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2020, the pandemic had commandeered much of the agency’s attention. But its many other responsibilities never went on holiday. Even as the world’s premier public health agency developed guidance for COVID-19 testing, masking, quarantines, and vaccination, it remained engaged in tobacco control, injury and disease surveillance, environmental health, and much more. Recognizing the need to modernize, the agency is now taking a hard look at how best to overhaul its systems and structures. To talk about what future holds for the CDC, Walensky is interviewed by Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News.

Innovation at the intersection of health and technology holds the promise of improving health outcomes, enhancing patient satisfaction, and strengthening the healthcare system. As technology reshapes healthcare, it can either drive greater health equity or widen the digital divide, depending on who gains access. Dive into the challenges with leaders who are building companies, designing innovations, deploying innovative financing, and launching initiatives to improve the experience of digital health: Monique Smith, founding director of Health DesignED at Emory University, Kathryne Cooper, partner at Jumpstart Nova, and Megan Ranney, academic dean at Brown University’s School of Public Health. Katie Drasser, CEO of RockHealth.org, moderates the conversation.

The numbing statistics on gun violence have not lost their power to shock, yet any reasoned debate about how best to curb the killing must also consider that 40 percent of all American households own guns—most of them legally. Megan Ranney, academic dean at Brown University’s School of Public Health, Christopher Barsotti, director of AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute, and Jerome Adams, executive director of Health Equity Initiatives at Purdue University, talk about the public health tools needed to understand how and why firearms are misused and to identify and implement interventions and policies that will diminish the epidemic of violence. Elizabeth Cohen, senior CNN medical correspondent, moderates the conversation.

Structured as three moderated panel discussions, this symposium explores emerging research questions at the intersection of infectious disease and climate change. Building on The Pandemic Issue, a magazine published by the Science & Society Program and the science outlet Leaps.org, and sponsored by the Science Philanthropy Alliance, expert scientists dive into basic science opportunities for addressing the overlapping dilemmas of pandemics and a warming planet and ushering in a more equitable, more progress-oriented, and safer world.

Debra Houry, director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the US population, describe critical steps for mitigating suicide risk, and present newly released data from the CDC on suicide. Rebecca Ruiz, senior features writer with Mashable, moderates the conversation.