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44 episodes

Money and Misdiagnosis
2026/05/20 | 24 mins.
Many Black veterans live below the poverty line, often struggling to manage their illnesses. As V.A. hospitals began to stop using race-corrected interpretation of Black patients’ spirometer readings, there was an epiphany: the race correction wasn’t just harming the health of Black patients, it was also hurting them financially.

A full transcript of this episode is available at https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2601976.
How Did Race Get Into Lung Testing?
2026/05/13 | 31 mins.
The history of race-based correction of lung-capacity measures can be traced to a pre–Civil War belief among slave owners that slaves had naturally inferior lung capacity. Despite work to show that race-corrected spirometers mask lung-disease severity in Black patients, the majority of U.S. hospitals still use them.

A full transcript of this episode is available at https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2601975.
Meet the Equation
2026/05/06 | 32 mins.
Many clinical algorithms, including the eGFR test for kidney function, have actually had race baked into them and produce different results for Black patients. Most of us assume these algorithms are based on science, but what if the science is wrong?

A full transcript of this episode is available at https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2601974.
Intention to Treat | Season 2: The Race Equation (Trailer)
2026/04/27 | 2 mins.
What happens when medicine gets race wrong? In a new 8-week series, The Race Equation confronts harmful assumptions about race in clinical medicine, why they endure, and what it will take to change.

Follow “Intention to Treat” on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Brain Injury and Consciousness
2024/09/25 | 25 mins.
New research using functional brain imaging reveals that many patients considered to be in a coma or vegetative state and who are unresponsive may actually be conscious and aware.

A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2408662.

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About Intention to Treat

Welcome to “Intention to Treat,” a podcast exploring the critical issues shaping medicine today. In a new 8-week series, The Race Equation, we confront harmful assumptions about race in clinical medicine—from diagnostic algorithms to guidelines—exploring how these practices took hold, why they endure, and what it will take to change them. Hosted by health care journalist Rachel Gotbaum, the “Intention to Treat” podcast from the New England Journal of Medicine delves into groundbreaking research and clinical advances while sharing the personal stories from doctors and their patients, offering listeners a behind-the-scenes look at discoveries that are changing medical practice on the front lines of health care. Listen to The Race Equation and follow “Intention to Treat” on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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