These programs translated evidence into clinical practice at scale. We outline what was eliminated and how the children most at risk, in rural areas, low-income communities, and underresourced health systems, are the ones who will lose the most if these cuts go through in the future.
In December 2025, HHS terminated $18.4M in @ameracadpeds.bsky.social grants, ending programs in infant death prevention, autism identification, mental health, and rural child health. While a judge mandated the funds be reinstated, it is still vital to understand the implications of these cuts.
New Viewpoint out today led by Emaad Khan with yours truly as mentoring author in @jama.com Pediatrics: "Federal Funding Cuts Threaten US Pediatric Health.": jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Thank you! So appreciate @pgh-health-science.bsky.social for connecting us!
Thank you for coming!
The ‘Board of Peace’ started World War 3 so fast.
This curriculum is scalable and adaptable for other health professions and learning environments.
📎 Read the paper: doi.org/10.1080/1081...
#HealthCommunication #Misinformation #MedicalEducation #MotivationalInterviewing #Edutainment
Qualitative findings stood out: nearly half of participants said they would engage patients with more empathy, which is a core tenant of MI. Edutainment works because stories create emotional engagement, realism, and space to practice difficult conversations.
The sessions were part of a clinical encounters course for physician assistant (PA) students. We saw significant improvements in:
✔️ Ability to identify misinformation
✔️ Comfort using MI with patients expressing misinformation
Patients increasingly bring infectious disease misinformation into clinical encounters, but many health trainees feel unprepared to respond. So, we piloted an approach using medical drama clips (ER, Chicago Med), didactic on misinformation + MI, and small-group script rewriting using MI principles.
🚨New paper out in @jhealthcomm.bsky.social! 🚨
We developed and pilot-tested an edutainment-based curriculum to help future healthcare providers address health misinformation using motivational interviewing (MI). A 🧵
Thanks for highlighting our study!
Our takeaway:
📺 Media is a powerful public health tool.
Closer collaboration between public health experts + content creators could help ensure CPR on screen is both common and correct.
And, so grateful to my coauthors and collaborators @pittdeptofmed.bsky.social and Public Health!
Why it matters:
Inaccurate portrayals may increase hesitation to act, even while CPR itself is normalized. This directly conflicts with @americanheart.bsky.social efforts to reduce barriers to layperson response.
TV also misrepresents who experiences OHCA.
👶 Over half of on-screen cardiac arrests happened to people under 40
🏠 Only ~20% occurred at home
(Reality: most OHCAs involve older adults and happen at home)
Also, just like in real-life most characters who got CPR were white and male
The not-so-good news:
Only ~30% of depictions followed correct Hands-Only CPR steps.
Common inaccuracies included:
❌ pulse checks
❌ rescue breaths
The good news:
📈 Hands-Only CPR was shown more often on TV than it happens in real life (58% vs ~40%) - this could help normalize bystander action!!
We reviewed 169 scripted TV episodes (2008–present) with cardiac arrest–related content.
👉 93 showed OHCA
👉 85 showed CPR
👉 54 depicted CPR by a layperson, so should have been Hands-Only CPR
First, some context: Over 350,000 OHCAs happen each year in the U.S., and bystander CPR can double or triple survival. In teaching Hands-Only CPR in local communities, a lot of people incorrectly thought they should check for a pulse or give breaths. Could that be because of what they see on TV?
📺🫀 New study out in Circulation: Population Health & Outcomes! We analyzed how out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and Hands-Only CPR are depicted on scripted U.S. television: www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/... 🧵👇
Here is the CBS Sunday Morning piece for which I was interviewed about findings from my book Coverage Denied. Health insurance barriers ration health care by inconvenience, imposing hurdles to get prescribed care with administratively burdensome appeals many can’t navigate. youtu.be/SRPOoPDN-7w?...
This is one of our favorites!
Zoe Weissman survived the Parkland shooting. Now she’s at Brown, and it happened again.
“Honestly, I'm really angry that this is happening to me all over again, and I'm just in shock.”
We’re failing our kids. A gun-sick nation. 🇺🇸 www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
There is nothing an American president could do worse for his own people than starving the poor right before Thanksgiving.
Except for, I don’t know, lying about a plague and getting a million of his own citizens killed. Oh wait, let’s also not forget the time that he:
What a full circle moment thinking about watching TV together inspired me and Emily to have these important conversations many years ago #healthcommunication #siblinggrief
Challenging the notion that TV can be either informative or entertaining, the study found that viewers who saw these storylines were more likely than non-viewers to say they sought or shared information about organ donation and end-of-life planning.
Grateful that I had the opportunity to consult on the @learcenter.bsky.social's latest study, which looked at the impact of The Pitt's organ donation and end-of-life care storylines on viewers: www.mediaimpactproject.org/thepitt.html
@pgh-health-science.bsky.social
@sarahross1.bsky.social @jaketomson.bsky.social @90for90.bsky.social
PA Judicial Elections are one of the Last Lines of Defense in the US
www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
@pgh-health-science.bsky.social is working to get billboards up in the Pittsburgh area to educate about this issue. Please donate to maddogpac.com/cart if you want to help.
apnews.com/article/penn... supreme court battles move to Pennsylvania, where 3 Democratic justices hope to keep seats
The Pitt won Outstanding Drama Series at the #Emmys, and R. Scott Gemmill dedicated the award to healthcare workers:
"Respect them. Protect them. Trust them.”
🏆 www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...
