Stephen Waxman: Easing the Horrors of Chronic Pain

Howie and Harlan are joined by Stephen Waxman, a leading neurology researcher, to discuss the promise of new methods developed by his lab to treat the ravages of pain. Harlan talks about the importance of ratings for Medicare Advantage plans; Howie assesses two sobering new reports on the solvency of Medicare.

Links:

Harlan’s Section

 Slides from Humana's Investor Day

 "Humana’s cautious defense of Medicare Advantage"

"What Are the Medicare Star Ratings?"

 "Early analysis: How health plans fared in the 2025 Medicare Advantage star ratings"

Interview with Dr. Waxman

 "F.D.A. Approves Drug to Treat Pain Without Opioid Effects"

"A brief historical perspective: Hodgkin and Huxley"

"A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve"

Nobel Prize: “Speed read: Signal to charge"

"Sodium channels and pain"

"Targeting a Peripheral Sodium Channel to Treat Pain"

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: "Ronald Niedermann"

 "Peripheral Sodium Channel Blocker Could Revolutionize Treatment for Nerve Pain"

"Interplay of Nav1.8 and Nav1.7 channels drives neuronal hyperexcitability in neuropathic pain"

 "Pharmacotherapy for Pain in a Family With Inherited Erythromelalgia Guided by Genomic Analysis and Functional Profiling"

 "Neuropathic Pain"

"A historical perspective on the discovery of statins"

 "Erythromelalgia"

"The Two Sides of NaV1.7: Painful and Painless Channelopathies"

 "Dr. Stephen Waxman awarded Sharpey-Schafer Prize for pain research"

Nobel Prize: "Robert Edwards"

"Gain-of-function mutation in Nav1.7 in familial erythromelalgia induces bursting of sensory neurons"

 "Scientists Identify Method to Study Resilience to Pain"

 "Chasing the genes behind pain"

 "Stephen Waxman: pioneer in axons, their disorders, and pain"

"I Feel Like I’m Burning Alive. It’s Hard for People to Believe Me"

 "‘How badly does it hurt?’ Challenges of measuring pain in clinical trials"

Howie’s Section

"2025 Medicare Trustees Report"

 "Analysis of the 2025 Medicare Trustees' Report"

 "Medicare gets a big (unofficial) surprise: a 17-year extension on when it’ll run dry"

 "Evan Sussman: Expanding Access to Fertility Drugs"

 "Trump gives major lift to 2026 Medicare Advantage payments"

 "June 2025 Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System"

 "Medicare Advantage’s supplemental benefits will cost taxpayers $86 billion this year, with little transparency"

 "How UnitedHealth turned a questionable artery-screening program into a gold mine"

 "From boom to bitcoin: A device maker’s surprising pivot amid a Medicare crackdown"

 

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