Impacting the Stigma

Stigma is a major barrier to people getting the support they need for substance use disorders. People who are struggling with addiction often feel ashamed and isolated, and they may be afraid to seek help because they don’t want to be judged. This stigma can also affect family members, who may feel like they are to blame for the addiction or that they will be judged if they talk about it.

We need to do more to normalize the idea of addiction and to make sure that people know that they are not alone. We also need to make sure that there are accessible and affordable resources available to people who need help.

Recent Episodes

The Rothman Index, developed by Dr. Michael Rothman and his brother Steven, is a pioneering patient acuity score designed to help clinicians recognize patient deterioration earlier and more clearly. Presented as an easily understood, color-coded graph that updates in real time, the Index displays upward and downward trends in patient condition at a glance—transforming…

Hospitals collect enormous amounts of clinical data, yet preventable patient decline remains a persistent challenge. Over the past two decades, hospitals have invested heavily in early warning scores and rapid response infrastructure, but translating data into timely, meaningful action has proven difficult. As clinicians contend with alert fatigue and increasing documentation burden, a more…

Healthcare generates enormous volumes of clinical data, yet making sense of that information in real time remains a challenge. Subtle changes in vitals, labs, and nursing assessments often precede serious events, but when that information is fragmented across the medical record, emerging risks can go unnoticed. The central challenge facing hospitals today is not…