Rethinking Health in an Aging Society | Linda Fried, MD, MPH

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

To many health economists, the growing aging population is the greatest public health challenge facing America. The current fragmented and costly healthcare system is simply incapable of dealing with the complex medical and socioeconomic needs of this population, especially in an equitable way.

Our guest on this episode, Linda Fried, MD, MPH, has dedicated her life to rethinking how we can create better health futures for older adults. Her pioneering research has expanded our notions of aging and longevity in the 21st century. Dr. Fried, a geriatrician and epidemiologist, is Dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Senior Vice President of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and former Founding Director of the Center on Aging and Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Fried shares how her early experiences as a caseworker drove her to study medicine, surprising lessons from the martial arts aikido, what frailty means in the context of caring for older adults, why America is one of the most age segregated societies in the world, the flaws of over medicalizing health issues, redefining the roles of older adults in society, the importance of meaning and community in sustaining happiness in life, and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

2:30 - What Dr. Fried’s early experiences in social work taught her about justice, social inequity, and taking care of another person

11:47 - How an awareness of the social determinants of health shaped Dr. Fried as a clinician

16:46 - Why physicians need to stop “medicalizing” all aspects of a patient’s life

25:00 - How Dr. Fried came to be interested in geriatrics

28:19 - Dr. Fried’s dedication to extending “healthspan” as well as “lifespan” in our society

31:08 - The clinical definition of “frailty”

34:15 - The value that an older population could bring to our society

38:49 - The United States’ unique culture of age segregation and how it contributes to poor health outcomes for the elderly

45:38 - What the healthcare system and society at large can do to better serve elderly populations

50:55 - Dr. Fried’s advice for keeping true to your purpose as a medical professional

Dr. Linda Fried can be found on LinkedIn.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.0	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:05.0	And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.0	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.
0:13.2	What makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.1	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection.
0:23.0	What can we learn about the human condition
0:24.8	from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions,
0:30.0	we meet with deep thinkers working across health care,
0:33.0	from doctors and nurses to patients and health care
0:35.4	executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.
0:40.1	Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heart-breaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.0	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.8	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us
0:57.1	about some of life's biggest questions.
1:02.4	According to many health economists, the growing aging population presents the greatest public health challenge facing America.
1:09.0	The fragmented and costly health care system we have now is simply incapable of dealing with a complex medical
1:15.0	and socioeconomic needs of this population, especially in an equitable way.
1:20.4	Our guests on this episode, Dr. Linda Freed, has dedicated her life to rethinking how we can create better health futures for older adults.
1:29.0	Her pioneering research has expanded our notions of aging and longevity in the 21st century.
	...

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