Understanding the Forces Shaping US Health Care

Dr. Jason Crowell talks with Dr. John McDonough about the historical and economic factors shaping the US healthcare system and why understanding these systemic forces matters for neurologists and patient care.

Read the related article in The Harvard Gazette.

Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org.

Podcast Transcript:

Dr. Jose Merino:

This is Jose Merino, Editor-in-Chief of the Neurology Family of Journals. The Neurology Podcast provides practical information to neurologists and other clinicians to help them provide better care for their patients. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

Dr. Jason Crowell:

Hey, this is Jason Crowell from Norton Neuroscience Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. Thanks for listening to today's Neurology Podcast. Most of our audience members are practicing neurologists, you're in training or you're in an academic setting or in private practice. And for those of us who are in practice, we are well aware of the challenges of helping our patients access drugs, getting prior authorizations approved, the other areas of friction that exist in our healthcare system. And I would say that whether we realize it or not, these areas of friction are symptoms of larger choices about how our hospitals and clinics operate.

And so to help us think about these things, today we've invited John McDonough to join us. John is a professor of public health practice at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We recently read an article about John's work published August 18th, 2026 in the Harvard Gazette and wanted to invite him to join us today.

So John, thank you so much for your time.

Dr. John McDonough:

Pleasure to be here with you, Jason. Thanks for inviting me.