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.
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.
Listen on:

Episodes
Jun 7, 2023
Jun 7, 2023
37 min
“Intention to Treat” host Rachel Gotbaum talks with patient Awilde Peña and oncologist Deb Schrag about a new approach to treating rectal cancer that sidesteps the need for radiation, thereby avoiding long-term side effects and preserving fertility.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2303850.
Jun 7, 2023
37 min
Jun 21, 2023
Unleashing CRISPR on Cancer
Jun 21, 2023
Jun 21, 2023
52 min
In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” host Rachel Gotbaum explores the story of a teenager who’s now in remission from previously relapsed lymphoblastic leukemia and talks with the investigator who developed the “off-the-shelf” CAR T cells that made her treatment possible.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2303851.
Jun 21, 2023
52 min
Jul 5, 2023
The Plight of Primary Care, Part 1
Jul 5, 2023
Jul 5, 2023
54 min
This episode of “Intention to Treat,” explores the crisis in primary care in the United States, as increasing numbers or primary care physicians leave the field — driven out by corporatization, growing time pressure, and the inability to form the relationships that enable good care.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2303852.
Jul 5, 2023
54 min
Jul 19, 2023
The Plight of Primary Care, Part 2
Jul 19, 2023
Jul 19, 2023
53 min
What is driving U.S. physicians out of primary care — and keeping trainees from going into it in the first place? In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” host Rachel Gotbaum explores the breakdown of the system and possible ways to save it.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2305758.
Jul 19, 2023
53 min
Aug 2, 2023
Prospects for Pain
Aug 2, 2023
Aug 2, 2023
42 min
Some types of pain have proven resistant to all available medications. In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” Rachel Gotbaum talks with a patient with neuropathic pain and a researcher exploring new sodium-channel blockers that offer promise for such patients.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2305759.
Aug 2, 2023
42 min
Aug 16, 2023
Aug 16, 2023
50 min
People living with HIV have increased risk for cardiovascular disease (and other diseases of aging) earlier in life than those without HIV. In this episode of “Intention to Treat,” researcher Steven Grinspoon describes a new strategy for preventing collateral damage.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2307347.
Aug 16, 2023
50 min
Aug 25, 2023
Obesity and Heart Failure
Aug 25, 2023
Aug 25, 2023
38 min
Cardiologists now recognize that heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) may be caused by obesity. This episode of “Intention to Treat” examines new evidence that treating obesity can prevent HFpEF.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2307349.
Aug 25, 2023
38 min
Sep 13, 2023
Awakened Hope for Narcolepsy
Sep 13, 2023
Sep 13, 2023
32 min
In this episode, a patient with narcolepsy describes her rough, long road to diagnosis and treatment, and a researcher elucidates both the condition and a new therapeutic direction.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2308308.
Sep 13, 2023
32 min
Sep 27, 2023
What We Don’t Know about School Shooter Drills
Sep 27, 2023
Sep 27, 2023
31 min
This episode peers into U.S. schools to examine a widespread but non–evidence-based approach to preparing children and staff for gun-violence incidents.
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2308309.
Sep 27, 2023
31 min
Oct 11, 2023
The Long Haul of Long Covid
Oct 11, 2023
Oct 11, 2023
1 hr 3 min
This episode explores long Covid, an often-disabling but unexplained syndrome of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. How is it affecting millions of people, and what is being done about it?
A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2309483.
Oct 11, 2023
1 hr 3 min

About the Host
Rachel Gotbaum, the host and producer of the NEJM podcast “Intention to Treat,” is an award-winning health care journalist with more than two decades of experience reporting and hosting audio documentaries, narrative features, breaking news, and podcasts. Rachel has worked as an editor, reporter, and producer on several national radio programs, including NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Weekend Edition,” and “Here and Now.” Her stories have aired on NPR, “Marketplace,” CBC Radio, and PRX’s “The World” and have been published by the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Kaiser Health News. She has frequently focused on the culture of medicine and its effects on all aspects of health care, from policy to patient outcomes.



