Good Medicine

About Good Medicine

In a challenging healthcare landscape, what keeps doctors inspired? Welcome to Good Medicine, the podcast that reconnects you with the heart and humanity of medicine. We feature conversations with healthcare's most brilliant innovators and storytellers to uncover the essential attributes of great patient care. Join us to cut through the noise and rediscover the profound joy and impact of being a healer.

Publisher

Rohan Ramakrishna

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Oct 2025

Latest episode

10 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Sept 2026

   Dr. Adam Rodman on What Happens When AI Outdiagnoses Doctors

   What happens when an AI outperforms doctors at diagnosis — and sounds just as confident when it’s wrong? In this episode of Good Medicine, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Adam Rodman, internal medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess, medical educator at Harvard, and creator of the podcast Bedside Rounds. Rodman is a rare hybrid: a historian of medicine who also runs clinical trials of large language models. He traces diagnosis from the ancient Greeks through Tim de Dombal’s 1970s decision-support system to his recent paper in Science, in which a reasoning model outperformed physicians on complex diagnostic puzzles — and then to a silent trial in a real emergency room. Rodman explains why an AI’s growing confidence doesn’t track its accuracy, why doctors working alongside AI sometimes do worse than AI alone, and why building a trustworthy AI doctor looks less like a chatbot and more like Waymo. A clear-eyed conversation about benchmarks, deskilling, medical education, and what physicians are actually for. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: https://www.roon.com/ Sign up for our substack: https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. -- (00:00) Intro (02:42) Meet Dr. Adam Rodman (and the pineapple pizza question) (04:17) Podcasting before it was cool: Bedside Rounds (06:16) The bizarre autopsy of Charles II (07:41) Epistemology: how doctors know what they know (09:53) The woman of Thasos and 2,500 years of diagnosis (12:16) Arthur Elstein and what actually makes a good diagnostician (15:31) What is clinical reasoning, exactly? (16:48) Tim de Dombal, AAPHelp, and the first AI in medicine (19:24) Radiology, ground truth, and Geoff Hinton's prediction (21:15) Why AI feels different from the stethoscope (23:34) The Paris Clinical School and the numerical method (25:21) Richard Cabot and the autopsy as the original benchmark (25:47) What makes a good benchmark? (29:14) Regulating generative AI: ARPA-H and ADVOCATE (31:16) The cost of inference and per-token benchmarks (33:22) Inside the Science paper: CPCs and the ER silent trial (38:13) Dr. CaBot, AMIE, and confidence that doesn't track accuracy (43:15) How AI fails differently than humans do (46:46) Where AI outperformance actually comes from (48:41) Why doctors plus AI did worse than AI alone (50:58) New workflows, not superhuman performance (51:59) Is AI the first point of access? (52:56) OpenEvidence vs. the frontier models (59:33) Physician deskilling: real risk or moral panic? (1:04:23) Waymo as the blueprint for an AI doctor (1:05:48) Redesigning medical school for 2035 (1:08:01) Is writing thinking? (1:12:05) Is AI improving care today? (1:15:48) Quick Hits

2. 

   12 Aug 2026

   Dr. Sachin Jain on Suing CMS, Fixing Prior Auth, and Why Health Insurance is Broken

   What happens when a health insurance CEO admits the system is broken? In this episode of Good Medicine, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Sachin Jain — CEO of SCAN Health Plan, former CMS official in the Obama administration, and one of the most outspoken physician executives in American health care. Jain recounts suing CMS, his former employer, over Medicare Advantage Star Ratings — and winning — and explains how SCAN got out of the prior authorization business by letting provider groups police themselves inside global risk arrangements. He mounts a candid defense of Medicare Advantage as a social safety net for low-income seniors while conceding what John Oliver got right about risk adjustment run amok, and tells the story of the Togetherness Project, which operationalized loneliness as a treatable condition at scale. Along the way he makes the case that physician executives owe medicine more than code-switching: they should be translators who mold business policy around patient needs. A conversation about candor, incentives, and fixing health care from within.New episodes are released wherever you get your podcasts.Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctorsIf you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care -- (00:00) Intro (03:26) Meet Dr. Sachin Jain (04:11) From internal medicine to CEO of SCAN (06:50) Why he's so outspoken (11:23) Suing CMS over Star Ratings (14:34) “Career malpractice”: VP at Merck out of residency (16:52) Identity: son of immigrants (19:42) Managing the doctor–payer tension (22:00) Prior authorization: why it exists (25:24) How SCAN got out of the prior auth business (27:02) Medicare Advantage 101 (32:08) Flat benchmarks and benefit cuts (35:15) John Oliver: what he got right and wrong (37:38) How a nonprofit competes with the giants (40:26) Vertical integration and antitrust (42:48) The Togetherness Project: treating loneliness (46:34) Health equity products at SCAN (48:54) “Health Insurance Is Broken” (50:55) Quick Hits: books, dinner guests, and anthems

3. 

   16 Jul 2026

   Dr. Ashish Jha on how to Actually Fix Healthcare and the Future of Medicine

   Are we any more prepared for the next pandemic than we were in 2019? In this episode of Good Medicine, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Ashish Jha — the former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and former dean of the Brown University School of Public Health — for a candid conversation about the risks we're ignoring and the health system we can still fix. Jha recalls the phone call from President Biden, explains why he left academia to build an AI-powered biodetection system against engineered pathogens, and warns what US withdrawal from the WHO really costs. Then he unpacks his ten-part Boston Globe series on bending the health care cost curve: hospital consolidation and site-neutral payments, capping commercial prices, nonprofit hospital status, prior authorization, administrative waste, value-based care, GLP-1s, and expanding scope of practice. Along the way he makes a deliberately bipartisan case designed to annoy everyone a little. A conversation about medicine, public health, AI, and affordability. New episodes are released monthly, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: https://www.roon.com/ Sign up for our substack: https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. (00:00) Intro (00:26) Getting the call to join the White House (03:15) What he loved and found hard about government (06:21) Defending policies he personally disagreed with (07:33) Are we ready for the next pandemic? (09:46) CDC cuts and leaving the WHO (10:50) Building AI-driven biodetection (13:16) The Boston Globe series: why he wrote it (17:18) Is rising health care spending actually a problem? (19:33) Hospital consolidation and market power (22:20) Site-neutral payments (23:48) Should hospitals lose nonprofit status? (26:34) Medicare, Medicaid, and capping commercial prices (29:28) Making sure savings reach patients (31:30) Insurance across state lines and vertical integration (34:39) What makes value-based care actually work (37:08) Prevention, GLP-1s, and long payoff timelines (39:13) End-of-life care and marginal therapies (42:59) Prior authorization and administrative waste (45:07) Fixing the broken claims and billing system (47:43) The future of independent physicians (49:50) Regulation and its unintended effects (51:46) Scope of practice and the physician shortage (55:39) AI, malpractice, and physician-level care (57:09) Quick Hits: restaurants, books, and mentors

4. 

   25 Jun 2026

   Dr. Ashwin Vasan on Public Health as a Moral Endeavor

   What happens when a doctor trained to fight HIV in rural Uganda takes charge of public health for the largest city in America? In this episode of Good Medicine, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the 44th Health Commissioner of New York City, whose path ran from trailing his immigrant neonatologist mother through Chicago's ICUs to delivering AIDS treatment alongside mentors Paul Farmer and Jim Kim. Vasan reflects on the WHO, PEPFAR, and the real promise of ending AIDS in our lifetime, then turns to the hardest years of his career: leading the NYC Health Department through the pandemic's backlash, launching HealthyNYC to reverse falling life expectancy, confronting Black maternal mortality, and building TeenSpace for youth mental health. He also makes a candid case on the MAHA movement, nutrition, and taking on the corporate food system. A conversation about medicine, public health, AI, and why health is fundamentally a moral project. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: https://www.roon.com/ Sign up for our substack: https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. (00:00) Intro (03:02) Trailing his mom through Chicago's ICUs (05:05) The immigrant physician's contribution to American medicine (08:41) From development economics to public health (12:54) Partners In Health in Uganda, Rwanda, and Lesotho (14:31) The beat-up Camry and a Jay-Z playlist (16:30) Building trust with patient communities (18:45) Inside the WHO and the case for reform (22:52) Can global health delivery survive US funding cuts? (26:35) PEPFAR, lenacapavir, and ending AIDS in our lifetime (29:42) Why public health is a moral endeavor (31:57) The call from Mary Bassett to join NYC Health (35:49) What surprised him as Health Commissioner (38:57) Protesters at home and his daughter's wisdom (41:31) Launching HealthyNYC and a life expectancy North Star (48:03) Confronting Black maternal mortality (51:35) Why healthcare affordability is a public health issue (53:16) Hospital price transparency and medical debt (56:12) TeenSpace and the youth mental health crisis (01:01:53) AI as prevention infrastructure (01:04:14) Modernizing public health data systems (01:07:46) MAHA, nutrition, and where medicine dropped the ball (01:13:14) Would he work with RFK Jr.'s HHS? (01:15:41) Quick Hits: mandates, mentors, and book picks (01:18:19) Why a physician community like Roon matters

5. 

   28 May 2026

   Dr. Jim Kim on Bending the Arc of Global Health

   What if the impossible is just an argument waiting to be lost? Dr. Jim Kim — co-founder of Partners In Health alongside Paul Farmer, former president of the World Bank, former president of Dartmouth College, and former head of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization — joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna and Vikram Bhaskaran for a sweeping conversation that traces the birth of the modern global health movement. From his childhood as the son of Korean refugees in a small Iowa farming town, to smuggling sputum samples through Miami customs, to the landmark Gates Foundation grant that cracked open multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment for the world's poorest, Dr. Kim shows how a handful of stubborn idealists bent the arc of history and saved millions of lives. He also reflects on what anthropology taught him about power, why the fight to treat HIV in Africa mattered, and how the dismantling of USAID and the rise of anti-science sentiment are forcing a new generation of physicians to scheme, plot, and reclaim their role as the natural attorneys of the poor. New episodes released wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/⁠ Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. -- (00:00) Intro (03:32) Welcome to Good Medicine, Dr. Jim Kim (04:22) Korean refugee parents and a childhood in Iowa (09:17) Muscatine, civil rights, and an early sense of justice (11:30) Quarterback of a 56-game losing streak (12:20) Summer science camp and finding his tribe (14:34) Look in the mirror — his father's reality check (17:19) Anthropology, Arthur Kleinman, and the MD-PhD path (19:59) What anthropology taught him about every room (22:25) The village idiot among economists at the World Bank (24:39) His mother, Zhu Xi, and a friendship with Xi Jinping (28:06) Meeting Paul Farmer and founding Partners In Health (33:18) From Haiti to a squatter settlement in Lima (35:25) An MDR-TB outbreak nobody wanted to admit (38:19) Why the global health establishment pushed back (42:30) The sputum mule and the Massachusetts State Lab (46:46) If we fail, this will be off the table (47:45) Bill Foege, Bill Gates, and the $45 million grant (50:00) HIV is next — and the Lazarus effect (52:00) Fighting the same battle to treat HIV in Africa (54:00) Pool purchasing, ACT UP, and the path to PEPFAR (56:35) Winning the WHO and launching 3 by 5 (1:00:28) The new crisis in global health funding (1:01:42) The arc of history doesn't bend on its own (1:08:24) How young physicians can get started today (1:10:25) Mental health, cancer care, and Rwanda (1:14:16) Why Roon could be world-changing (1:19:06) Lightning round: books, leaders, one wish (1:22:19) Physicians as the natural attorneys of the poor

6. 

   6 May 2026

   Dr. Anthony Fauci: A Lifetime of Service and Impact

   What does it look like to be in the room — and sometimes at the center of the fire — for every major public health crisis of the last 50 years? Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and advisor to seven U.S. Presidents, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a sweeping conversation that spans a Brooklyn pharmacy, the first AIDS wards, the Situation Room, and the front lines of COVID.Dr. Fauci traces the unlikely arc from delivering prescriptions on a Schwinn bike in Bensonhurst to architecting PEPFAR — the most successful global health program in history, credited with saving 26 million lives. He reflects candidly on his famous adversarial-turned-collaborative relationship with activist Larry Kramer, how that changed the way clinical trials are run in America, and why the scientific community needs a louder collective voice. He also addresses the Great Barrington Declaration, the vitriol of the COVID years, and what it means — as both a physician and a public servant — to tell the truth when people don't want to hear it. And he shares his deep concern about what's happening right now to the institutions he spent a lifetime building.New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re a US-based physician, continue the conversation with Dr. Fauci on Roon, visit: www.roon.com Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care -- (00:00) Intro (02:54) Welcome — Dr. Anthony Fauci (03:12) Growing up in Brooklyn: A family pharmacy and a calling (05:52) The Classics, the Jesuits, and a philosophy degree (07:43) Why he chose the NIH over private practice (10:38) Early career: Vasculitides and the bench-to-bedside approach (11:05) How treating rare autoimmune disease shaped his HIV work (13:41) The first AIDS patients at the NIH (1981) (15:07) Pivoting his career entirely to HIV/AIDS (18:06) Becoming director of NIAID — a job he didn't want (20:31) Advising seven presidents: The feeling of the Oval Office (21:30) The moment Bush commissioned PEPFAR (22:59) PEPFAR: 26 million lives saved (24:41) The contrast with today's global health commitments (27:06) The Godfather, Bethesda, and the secret PEPFAR meeting (31:16) PEPFAR's uncertain future under the current administration (34:12) Can other countries fill the U.S. funding gap? (36:20) Larry Kramer and the HIV activist community (39:00) Listening instead of running: The decision that changed everything (40:40) How activism permanently changed clinical trials and the FDA (44:33) Is an HIV vaccine possible? (46:30) The tools we already have to end the epidemic (48:34) COVID: How quickly mRNA became the obvious platform (50:41) Lessons from Operation Warp Speed (52:59) Buying doses before knowing if the vaccine worked (53:53) What the Great Barrington Declaration got fundamentally wrong (57:15) Handling years of personal attacks and vitriol (1:00:05) Did the broader medical community let him down? (1:01:40) The need for doctors to speak up — measles as a warning (1:02:38) An impassioned defense of the NIH (1:04:21) Quick Hits: Book recommendations (1:05:47) Most impactful mentor: Sheldon Wolff (1:06:29) Most inspiring leader: Nelson Mandela (1:07:16) Closing

7. 

   21 Apr 2026

   Dr. Mandy Cohen on Fixing the Broken Systems of Public Health

   What does it actually take to fix a broken health system — and what happens when the progress you've built starts to unravel? Dr. Mandy Cohen, former CDC Director, former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and longtime leader at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to lead at the intersection of medicine, policy, and operations. Dr. Cohen traces her journey from accidental operator during the HealthCare.gov crisis to architect of one of the country's most ambitious social determinants of health programs in North Carolina — and ultimately to the helm of the CDC during its most consequential rebuilding effort in decades. She speaks candidly about the promise and limits of value-based care, the systemic importance of primary care–led ACOs, and why she's deeply concerned about the current state of vaccine infrastructure. She also shares her framework for building public trust — transparency, relationships, and results — and why getting the payment models right is the only way AI will actually improve health outcomes rather than just optimize revenue. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/⁠ (https://www.roon.com/%E2%81%A0) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care -- (00:00) Intro (03:15) Welcome — Dr. Mandy Cohen (03:37) Why she went into public service (06:06) Discovering she was an operator: The HealthCare.gov crisis (08:30) The limits of ambition in government (10:40) Coalition building as a leadership tool (11:51) The origins of value-based care and CMMI (13:45) The case for primary care-led ACOs (16:31) Physician-led vs. hospital-led value programs (17:22) The complexity problem in programs like TEAM (19:10) Blood pressure control as a key intervention (20:25) Day one as NC Secretary of Health and Human Services (22:15) Rebuilding culture before setting priorities (23:30) Working across the aisle in North Carolina (25:11) The Healthy Opportunities Pilot: Social determinants at scale (26:53) Navigation as the highest-impact intervention (28:57) Behavior change and the limits of education programs (30:39) Coalition building for social determinants policy (33:26) Lessons that other states have learned from NC (34:13) Arriving at the CDC post-COVID (36:10) Modernizing siloed data systems (38:00) Rebuilding the CDC's lab infrastructure with private sector (40:01) Where pandemic preparedness stands today (42:55) The return of measles — and what it means (43:58) How Dr. Cohen rebuilt public trust during COVID (46:30) Trust in three parts: Transparency, relationships, results (49:05) Advising health systems on AI (51:00) Payment models and the AI trap (52:54) AI tools she's excited about (55:13) How health systems should evaluate AI vendors (58:31) Does Epic have too much power? (1:00:20) Paying for outcomes, not activity (1:03:22) Doctors building their own tools (1:04:42) Leadership philosophy for change management (1:08:30) Making hard calls that will upset people (1:10:54) Communicating under uncertainty (1:13:58) What the medical community should have done differently (1:17:17) Quick Hits: Mentors, books, and inspiring leaders (1:20:08) Guest recommendation for Good Medicine (1:20:39) Closing

8. 

   1 Apr 2026

   Dr. Anupam Jena on on What Economics Can Teach Doctors

   What if some of the most important forces in medicine have nothing to do with science? Dr. Anupam "Bapu" Jena—Harvard Medical School professor, practicing internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and co-author of the bestseller Random Acts of Medicine—joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to explore the hidden variables quietly shaping patient outcomes every day. Bapu is a physician-economist in the truest sense: someone who uses the tools of economic thinking—natural experiments, probabilistic reasoning, incentive structures—to expose what medicine often misses. In this conversation, they dig into why August-born children are 30% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, what a Jerusalem doctors' strike revealed about overtreatment, and why experienced medical doctors may actually produce worse outcomes than their younger peers. They also unpack the stubborn gap between what patients value—hope, dignity, time—and what payers are equipped to measure, and explore how AI is beginning to reshape clinical decision-making. Smart, surprising, and deeply grounded, this episode will change the way you see everyday medicine. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/⁠ (https://www.roon.com/%E2%81%A0) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. -- (00:00) Intro and guest welcome (01:00) Why Bapu Jena is a unicorn in medicine (02:45) Preview: natural experiments, ADHD, value-based care (04:24) Meet Dr. Anupam Jena: physician, economist, author (05:09) Economics or medicine first? The origin story (06:46) The University of Chicago, a snowy day, and a fateful meeting (09:37) The counterfactual: what if Bapu had become a cancer biologist? (09:47) How economics changes the way Bapu practices medicine (11:13) Fever thresholds and probabilistic clinical thinking (12:45) Anchoring bias and cognitive forcing in diagnosis (15:11) Two economics lessons every physician should know (17:35) What is a natural experiment—and why does it matter? (19:38) Why observational data misleads us (21:52) Steve Levitt, Freakonomics, and the origins of quirky research (23:56) The flu shot timing experiment: does when you get it matter? (27:36) Morning vs. afternoon immunotherapy: separating mechanism from causation (31:01) ADHD and August birthdays: the school cutoff effect (33:48) Has the birth-month finding changed clinical practice? (35:21) Redshirting, school readiness, and professional athletes (37:26) The Jerusalem doctors' strike and the paradox of less care (40:26) Non-STEMI patients and the risk of doing too much (42:12) Does physician experience predict better outcomes? (45:50) Defining value in value-based care (48:19) The limits of what payers can measure (52:16) The track record of value-based care programs (56:05) How Bapu uses AI in research and clinical practice (59:49) Automation bias and the risks of clinical decision support (01:02:47) What's next: Spotify releases and fatal car crashes (01:04:34) Quick hits: mentors, podcasts, and student wisdom (01:06:10) Closing thoughts and farewell

9. 

   11 Mar 2026

   Dr. Kedar Mate on AI & Scaling Life-Saving Interventions Across the Globe

   What does it take to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis in a Lima resource-limited community, help reshape global HIV treatment policy, and then pivot to harnessing enterprise AI for the world's largest health systems? Dr. Kedar Mate has done all three. As the former president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a co-founder of Qualified Health, Dr. Mate has spent his career proving that the biology of a wealthy patient and a poor patient are identical—and that the systems surrounding them don't have to be so different. In this conversation with Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna, Dr. Mate traces his formative work with Paul Farmer and Partners in Health, the pooled purchasing strategy that slashed the cost of life-saving TB and HIV medicines by up to 90%, and his role in expanding the Triple Aim into the Quintuple Aim by adding workforce well-being and health equity. He also makes the case that AI represents the most transformational force in healthcare since the internet—and explains why getting governance right is the difference between a breakthrough and a disaster. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: https://www.roon.com/ (https://www.roon.com/) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care Timestamps: (00:00) Intro and guest overview (02:15) Meet Dr. Kedar Mate (04:00) Growing up between New Jersey and Mumbai (07:30) Brown University: a history thesis on Haitians and HIV (11:00) How Paul Farmer changed everything (15:30) Defining health equity in plain language (19:00) Partners in Health in Peru: treating MDR-TB (24:00) The pooled purchasing strategy that broke the price of TB drugs (29:30) Replicating the model for HIV: the birth of PEPFAR (33:00) What is PEPFAR, and why its funding cuts are catastrophic (37:00) Health equity success stories in the United States (41:00) The Iron Triangle: why quality, cost, and access were seen as enemies (44:00) Don Berwick and the Triple Aim (47:30) Adding workforce experience to make it the Quadruple Aim (50:00) Kedar adds health equity: the Quintuple Aim is born (53:30) Age-Friendly Health Systems: a Quintuple Aim in practice (57:00) Taking over IHI in the spring of COVID (61:00) What COVID taught us about collaborative learning at scale (64:30) There is no quality without equity (68:00) Targeted universalism: a framework for convincing skeptics (72:00) Why Kedar left IHI to co-found Qualified Health (75:30) AI as healthcare's hyperscaler (78:30) What Qualified Health is building for enterprise AI adoption (82:00) Lessons from the EHR era (84:30) Ethical AI and proportional risk governance (88:00) Quick hits: magic wands, mentors, and vaccines in Florida (92:00) Closing thoughts

10. 

    19 Feb 2026

    Dr. Monica Bertagnolli on building a Learning Health System

    What if the greatest risk in modern medicine isn't AI—but the fact that nobody is tracking whether our treatments actually work? Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, and newly elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to make the case for a true learning health system—one where every patient interaction generates knowledge that makes the next patient's care better. Dr. Bertagnolli reframes AI not as a threat to physician judgment, but as a diagnostic tool that finally makes personalized, evidence-based medicine possible at scale. She draws a compelling analogy between health data and credit cards: we accept the risk because the utility is real. And she issues a quiet challenge to the entire field—millions of Americans are being treated according to guidelines today, and almost no one is systematically following their outcomes to see if those guidelines actually worked. This is a conversation about trust, infrastructure, and what it means to truly learn from the patients we serve. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠www.roon.com/⁠ (https://www.roon.com/%E2%81%A0) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. (00:00) Intro & Guest Background (00:42) Who Is Dr. Monica Bertagnolli? (02:53) Defining the Learning Health System (04:43) How AI Makes Learning Health Systems Possible (06:15) Why We Need Data from Millions of Patients (07:26) Data Safety, Trust, and the Sacred Patient Relationship (09:10) How Clinicians Can Rebuild Trust One Patient at a Time (10:35) The Courage It Takes to Trust an Institution (12:08) Infrastructure & EHR Networks: Where We Stand Today (13:44) Is the Technical Capability Already There? (14:52) AI Applications in Cancer Care Dr. Bertagnolli Is Most Excited About (16:17) Breast Cancer Guidelines and the Learning Health System in Action (18:03) Tracking Outcomes to Make AI and Guidelines Better (19:15) Risks and Unintended Consequences of AI in Medicine (20:25) The Cardinal Rule: Always Put the Patient First (21:29) Data Stewardship: Who Really Owns Health Data? (22:51) The Credit Card Analogy for Health Data Risk (24:52) Will AI Weaken Physician Creativity and Individualized Care? (26:17) The Scary Truth: Nobody Is Watching the Outcomes Today (27:26) Lightning Round (27:45) Most Impactful Mentor: Dr. Eugene Braunwald (29:20) Most Memorable Experience with a Politician (30:33) Book Recommendation: Ron Chernow's Mark Twain (31:01) Who Should Dr. Ramakrishna Interview Next? (31:35) Closing Remarks

11. 

    4 Feb 2026

    Dr. Demetre Daskalakis on where public health goes from here

    What happens when the people responsible for protecting public health are sidelined by politics? Dr. Demetre Daskalakis—former CDC division director, White House deputy coordinator for the national mpox response, and newly appointed chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center—has spent three decades at the intersection of infectious disease, activism, and policy. In this episode, he traces his journey from arriving in New York City at 17 during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to leading America's mpox response and ultimately resigning from the CDC over the politicization of vaccine science. Dr. Daskalakis shares why he believes joy—not fear—should drive public health messaging, how his early days in the East Village shaped his approach to patient communication, and what the measles resurgence reveals about eroding institutional trust. A vital conversation on moral leadership in medicine. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a US-based physician, continue this conversation on Roon: ⁠www.roon.com⁠ (www.roon.com) Sign up for our substack: ⁠⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:37) Who is Dr. Demetre Daskalakis (03:55) Arriving in New York at 17 during the AIDS crisis (05:15) The AIDS Memorial Quilt and finding his calling (07:19) Learning bedside manner from drag queens (08:35) Translating complex science for patients and politicians (10:32) When politicians understand but choose not to act (11:49) Shock of transitioning to government leadership (13:30) Proudest achievement: Making HIV prevention about joy (15:40) Advice for physicians entering public health (17:02) The revolution in HIV treatment (19:49) PrEP access and health equity in America (21:06) When mpox arrived in the US (22:27) The mpox redemption story (26:36) Fighting misinformation and protecting LGBTQ communities (29:24) Why monkeypox became mpox and back again (31:40) Leading CDC immunization during measles resurgence (33:15) The dangerous myth of natural immunity (36:13) Vaccine coverage decline and close-knit communities (39:21) How to rebuild vaccine trust (40:33) How normal CDC vaccine policy works (45:16) When vaccine policy moved to Twitter (47:12) Career scientists on a hijacked plane (49:40) Why he returned to New York and Callen-Lorde (51:12) What everyone should know about Callen-Lorde (53:16) AI and the future of community health (54:24) Advising the Mamdani transition team (57:18) Any interest in running for office (58:22) Lightning round: Mentors, books, and final advice (01:01:24) Outro

12. 

    21 Jan 2026

    Mark Cuban on Trust, Transparency, and Tearing Down Healthcare’s Opacity

    Why does a $30 generic cost $900 at your pharmacy? Mark Cuban—entrepreneur, Shark Tank host, and founder of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company—joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to expose the hidden economics strangling American healthcare. Cuban breaks down his trust formula (transparency divided by self-interest), explains how high deductibles have turned hospitals into subprime lenders, and reveals the games pharmacy benefit managers play with rebates, GPOs, and biosimilars. He shares how Cost Plus Drugs launched with 111 medications and a simple 15% markup—and why the industry is terrified of what happens when he gets access to brand-name drugs. From modular manufacturing pods that could produce gene therapies in hospital parking lots to direct contracting that eliminates prior authorizations entirely, Cuban offers a blueprint for dismantling opacity. His message to physicians? You're underpaid, overworked, and dealing with mishigas that shouldn't exist. Here's how we fix it. New episodes are released every other week. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠roon.com (roon.com) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/%E2%81%A0) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care. (00:00) Intro (03:30) Mark Cuban joins the show (03:48) First hustle: Baseball cards and garbage bags (05:15) Learning to sell at age 12 (05:23) Broadcast.com origin story (06:39) Follow your effort, not your passion (08:13) Getting paid to learn after college (09:42) AI as the great equalizer for entrepreneurs (10:29) How a cold email led to Cost Plus Drugs (12:06) Building a pharmacy on radical transparency (13:03) Where the 15% markup came from (13:30) The trust formula: Transparency divided by self-interest (14:36) Why healthcare economics are so broken (16:14) Health insurance is not a proxy for healthcare (17:18) How hospitals became subprime lenders (18:57) Prior authorizations and the 97-year-old veterinarian (20:45) Facilities fees and the overhead spiral (22:45) Cost Plus Wellness and direct contracting explained (25:24) How hospitals should structure contracts (27:23) Negotiating as a cash-pay customer (28:29) The $64,000 ankle surgery bill (29:50) Inside Cost Plus drug manufacturing (31:55) Modular pods for gene therapy and biologics (33:32) Selling to hospitals through the Cost Plus Marketplace (34:25) Supply chain vulnerabilities and key starting materials (35:59) How Cost Plus stacks up against Amazon and Costco (38:07) Why CVS and Express Scripts aren't really transparent (39:38) The PBM that lied about using Cost Plus (41:09) Rebate GPOs: The hidden fee machine (43:46) Why Cost Plus can't get brand-name drugs (46:46) The flow of money on a $600 prescription (49:03) What happens if PBMs disappear tomorrow (51:20) GLP-1s and the direct-to-consumer shift (53:05) Stop using the big PBMs (54:37) Communication: The key ingredient in good medicine (56:19) Why medical AI will fragment into silos (59:24) Mark's message to doctors in 2025 (01:01:58) Closing thoughts

13. 

    6 Jan 2026

    Dr. Zeke Emanuel on the ACA, Bioethics, and Ice Cream for Longevity

    What if the most effective longevity hack isn’t a supplement or a cold plunge, but a simple dinner party? Dr. Zeke Emanuel, oncologist, bioethicist, and key architect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna for a candid look at the intersection of medicine and politics. Dr. Emanuel reveals the gritty reality of passing legislation, explaining why "politics beats policy" and how the "scarce resource" framework he developed at the NIH shaped global COVID-19 vaccine distribution. They discuss the critical consequences of cutting Medicaid funding, the rise of medical misinformation, and why doctors must become more politically active to protect public health. Finally, Dr. Emanuel introduces his new book, Eat Your Ice Cream, challenging the modern obsession with biohacking. He argues that in a world fixated on optimization, fostering deep social connections is the ultimate prescription for a longer, happier life. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/ (https://www.roon.com/)⁠ Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/)⁠ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care (00:00) Intro: Dr. Zeke Emanuel (03:10) Beekeeping and the pursuit of new skills (04:50) Choosing policy over the lab (08:41) Redefining research ethics at the NIH (11:05) Allocating scarce resources: The COVID framework (17:35) Politics beats policy: Inside the Obama White House (19:40) Why malpractice reform failed (22:37) Frustrations with the ACA and bundled payments (27:12) The ACA’s biggest win: Saving lives via coverage (33:20) Why healthcare will dominate the 2032 election (34:55) The deadly consequences of cutting Medicaid (38:05) Future reform: Simplification and standardization (42:20) Vertical integration and antitrust enforcement (44:15) Combating misinformation and breaking algorithms (48:45) "Eat Your Ice Cream" and rejecting biohacking (52:40) The highest yield longevity hacks over 60 (57:50) Policy solutions for the loneliness epidemic (01:01:25) Communicating relative risk and vaccine safety (01:04:35) Lightning Round: Mentors and books (01:06:38) The "Bob Dylan" intro music (01:07:25) Life lessons from artisanal chocolate (01:09:40) Working for Rahm Emanuel? (01:10:45) Outro

14. 

    18 Dec 2025

    Dr. Tom Frieden on The Formula for Better Health

    What does it take to protect health at the scale of an entire city—or the world? Dr. Tom Frieden, former Director of the CDC and NYC Health Commissioner, operates at this massive scale. In this episode, he joins Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna to dismantle the "invisible" threats shaping modern medicine, from the "pus bucket" TB wards of 1990s New York to the high-pressure White House Situation Room during the Ebola crisis. Discussing his new book, The Formula for Better Health, Dr. Frieden breaks down his "See, Believe, Create" framework and the critical difference between regulation and the "nanny state." They dive deep into why hypertension remains the world’s deadliest—and most neglected—pathology, the failures of COVID-19 communication, and the "Big Six" lifestyle behaviors that actually determine longevity. Whether you are a clinician or a policymaker, this conversation offers a masterclass in how organized, rigorous action can save millions of lives. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:09) From Philosophy Major to Medicine (04:54) Defining Public Health (06:12) The Father’s Question: "How Would You Know?" (08:00) Inside the Epidemic Intelligence Service (11:08) The 1990s NYC Tuberculosis Crisis (12:04) The "See, Believe, Create" Framework (17:32) The Story of Jorge and Christian (21:13) The Ebola "Table Drop" Moment (25:01) Inside the White House Situation Room (27:12) COVID-19 Failures and Incident Management (30:26) The Assault on the CDC (34:35) Restoring Public Trust (36:36) The Ethics of Mandates (42:14) The Role of the Physician in Public Health (45:34) Hypertension: The World's Silent Killer (49:26) The HEARTS Technical Package (51:01) Global Implementation Challenges (56:55) AI as a Member of the Care Team (58:39) The "Big Six" for Longevity (01:00:30) Social Connection and Dementia Risk (01:03:07) Microplastics and Environmental Toxins (01:05:23) Misaligned Incentives in Healthcare (01:08:19) Quick Hits (01:10:36) Outro New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/ (https://www.roon.com/)⁠ Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/)⁠ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: jane@roon.care.

15. 

    3 Dec 2025

    Dr. Bobby Mukkamala: Leading the AMA While Fighting Cancer

    What happens when the President-elect of the American Medical Association becomes a patient overnight? In this episode, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, a longtime Flint-based ENT surgeon and incoming AMA President who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Dr. Mukkamala shares the harrowing moment his symptoms began during a public speech and his rapid transition from surgeon to patient. He discusses why seeing risk percentages from the other side of the gown changes everything and argues that family support should be treated as a vital clinical intervention. The conversation then pivots to the critical work ahead for the AMA. They explore the fight to index Medicare payments to inflation, the crushing impact of administrative burnout, the erosion of private practice, and why protecting NIH research funding is a matter of life and death. This is a deeply personal and policy-focused look at the fragile state of our healthcare system. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/ (https://www.roon.com/)⁠ Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/)⁠ Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: rohan@roon.care.

16. 

    3 Nov 2025

    Ben Rein on Why Brains Need Friends

    This week, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein to unpack the physiological harm of loneliness and the neuroscience of social connection. They discuss how isolation creates chronic inflammation, why social media can erode empathy, and how building social connection creates cognitive reserve to protect our brains as we age. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠⁠https://www.roon.com/⁠⁠ (https://www.roon.com/) Sign up for our substack: ⁠⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: austin@roon.care.

17. 

    16 Oct 2025

    Chelsea Clinton on Reproductive Rights, Research Funding, and the Future of Healthcare

    This week, Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna sits down with Chelsea Clinton—vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Health Access Initiative—to unpack maternal health in America, the confusion around emergency-room care laws, and the risks of research funding cuts. They talk about what restrictive statutes are doing to patients and providers, how to support clinicians on the front lines, and the practical policy moves that would make care safer, sooner. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: ⁠https://www.roon.com/⁠ (https://www.roon.com/) Sign up for our substack: ⁠https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/⁠ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: austin@roon.care.

18. 

    9 Oct 2025

    Welcome to Good Medicine

    As doctors, we navigate an increasingly complex healthcare landscape filled with administrative burden, regulatory pressures, and systems that often get in the way of patient care. Yet we persist because of what drew us to medicine in the first place: the privilege of healing, the joy of collaboration with brilliant colleagues, and the front-row seat to innovation. Good Medicine is a podcast about reclaiming what's essential in healthcare. Hosted by Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna, neurosurgeon and co-founder of Roon, each episode features honest conversations with physicians, researchers, and healthcare leaders who are shaping the future of medicine. New episodes are released every other week, wherever you get your podcasts. For more from Roon, visit: https://www.roon.com/ (https://www.roon.com/) Sign up for our substack: https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/ (https://rohanramakrishna.substack.com/) Find us on Instagram and X: @roondoctors If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future guest, please email us: austin@roon.care.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Contact Good Medicine

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.