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The Future of Healthcare: What Awaits The Healthcare Industry In The Future Podcast Transcript

Elijah 00:06

Welcome to the My CHN podcast and this is the CHN gang. My name is Elijah, I'm the content writer.

Mariela Salgado 00:13

Mariela, marketing manager.

Olga 00:16

Hi, I'm Olga, the web designer.

Elijah 00:21

Today we're going to be getting into the future of healthcare, and what that is going to look like for patients, providers and healthcare centers all alike. So just starting out the future of healthcare is more than likely going to be much more convenient, save much more time. Look, a pandemic has caused a lot of changes in a lot of different industries, but especially healthcare, and healthcare has been behind the curve on a lot of technology, technological advances, apps, and not necessarily apps, but are they behind? What's what's more specific?

Mariela Salgado 01:01

Oh, what's behind it. So it pretty much whatever, there were saying that the COVID pandemic has speed up healthcare technology that we were supposed to see in five years, but we're seeing it now. So a lot of companies speed up like, hey, we know we need to release that now. We thought we're gonna like release it later on let's release this now. And now everyone's kind of playing catch up with a lot of other big tech corporations.

Elijah 01:32

Okay. Do you want to talk about that? Briefly?

Olga 01:41

Yeah, just want to say so definitely, pandemic changed a lot for our clinic, as well. So we had to kind of switch to this virtual appointments. And as for me as being patient, of CHN, it was a unique experience, because I've never was able to visit a doctor through you know, zoom. But honestly, I realized there was kind of a lot of convenience in that because when you're saying, you not feeling well, you know, uh, you don't, you might not want to travel, to go see the doctor you want, you might not want to be around other people, you know, to spread your bacteria. So, you know, that's actually made a kind of like a positive switch, and spin it up all this technology, development.

Mariela Salgado 02:37

Another thing will be so in people, you know, at the beginning was, yeah, telemedicine. It's not only people are using technology that, you know, was supposed to be released, like, five, five, from years from now. Right. But they were also using telemedicine, like, for example, telemedicine, it came out back in the 2010, I believe 2010 2015. And people are like, Oh, my God, why I'll rather just go to the doctor, right? And now because he was an emergency, people got to use it. And they're like, Well, you know, what, like, Olga was saying I kind of like this more. So it not only, you know, we're using technology that we're not supposed to be using, but now we're using still the technology that we were supposed to be using. And this kind of, I don't know if you guys ever noticed I know this is a little off track a little random, but the Jetsons would would have it was like cartoon from the 60s. And yeah. And, and you know, you could call your doctor and it will come on the screen. And people will say, Oh, that's crazy. It was fun. It's a fun, but we're doing it now. Like you can, you can literally if you are able to set up your TV to see a zoom call, you can see your doctor there. So

Olga 03:56

Actually, a lot of technologies were predicted in like fantasy worlds, you know, like articles. So it definitely becomes a dream and it's thought before it becomes a reality. So that's what we're seeing here as well.

Elijah 04:14

That's a great point. So that goes into the emergence of virtual healthcare and telehealth. And that's been utilized by a lot of lot of hospitals or independent providers. Um, so what is telehealth and what can you do with telehealth? You can do chat with your doctor as Mariela and Olga were saying you can send and receive messages from your provider. There's for most monitoring and this is this is happening now and this is going to be even more integrated into the healthcare industry in the future. Remote Monitoring your doctor can use data from devices such as a glucose monitor. My CHN, we have a program like that. We have devices where individuals can get their their vitals read and we have teams that will look at that and and communicate to the patients let them know what's going on.

meme 05:00

I checked the heart check to check the brain, no sign of cardiac anomaly or unusual brain activity, because he was poisoned. My diagnosis is that you've experienced a severe anxiety attack.

Elijah 05:13

So moving on from virtual healthcare, data and technology, data and technology are going to be a huge. Probably the driving force behind healthcare in the future. So do you want to talk to us a little bit about data and technology? And how that can? How that may change healthcare in the future?

Olga 05:34

Yes, absolutely. So data is actually a big process. And data is a big part of, you know, healthcare, and we spend a lot of time and effort on that. So I know it's moving towards, where we will be able to have maybe like a one data system, which anybody would be able, any doctor would be able to connect to see the medical history. So it would be like an open, secure platform to share medical information. So that would actually help a lot. With the healthcare cost and time frames. As well as that I believe there's a lot of technology changes as well. More of bringing artificial intelligence into the healthcare. So robots and you know, digital hospitals, I think that's gonna be our next reality. So we'll have a lot of these jobs replaced by robots. And a lot of services will be done virtually. So this is what we're going towards not only in healthcare, but in a lot of other industries as well.

Mariela Salgado 06:52

And one thing what, for example, when she was saying the health medical record, it's not only medical. So for example, one thing that during the Pandemic, they noticed, is that we own like most places only have medical, and then they have dental, and they have other different electronic health records, right for patients. But what people have noticed now is that health is everything. It's not only like your body, it can also be your dental care, your mental health, all of that it's intertwined. So having that in one system, it's great, that's going to be in the future, everything having everything integrated, because I mean, every single. Yeah, you might see those as different things, but they're all part of your body. And when it comes to wellness, is everything in your body.

Olga 07:41

Absolutely. I agree. And I do know that some virtual options for dental are coming our way as well. So imagine you would be able to pretty much take your own dental test with a remote mini camera and send it over to your doctor. So you know, that's, that's a big change.

Elijah 08:05

Those are great points. That is going to be a huge, a huge situation. Mariela made a great point about health care ideologies, treating the person patients as a whole person, rather than in parts. And that's another part of healthcare is going to be very prominent. It's already I mean, it's really prominent now. You see it in most, I'd say most health care centers now My CHN, we have a patient centered approach, holistic approach where we approach the patient, it's all about the patient.

Mariela Salgado 08:34

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

Elijah 08:37

Oh, go ahead.

Mariela Salgado 08:38

So for example, I know when you go to the dentist, and if a dentist sees because dentists and hygienists know if someone is doing drugs, because there are certain drugs that affect your teeth in a certain way. So that's when they're able and if they, for example, if that dental practice is not in is not able to offer behavioral health, you know, be able to like, like, get counseling and get help to get out of that get help for for drugs, then they pretty much just that just let the patient know, hey, you need to take care of a little bit better of your teeth, but there's no integration with, you know, getting help for getting off drugs.

Olga 09:29

Definitely. So that consumer centric, patient centric approach is actually going to only become further it's going to only develop further and I think we're probably gonna switch from healthcare to more of just health and wellness. So, treating a patient treating the person as a whole and helping them prevent those diseases. Rather than treat the symptoms. Now, these days, we realize more and more how wellness and how your life lifestyle are connected to your health directly. So I think that's what the focus should switch on in the future for, for the healthcare.

Elijah 10:18

Great points. That's a lot of what is going to what a lot of health care providers are looking towards. Mariela mentioned the integrated care, which is another thing that we're seeing already and which will be even more integrated into the health care system in the future. So essentially, when doctors are able to collaborate with each other, so different kinds of coalition clinicians are collaborating with each other for the same person. So, for example, like your like Mariela was saying, your dentist, they can tell that there's been a certain type of drugs is being used because of how it's affecting teeth in a certain way. They can get in contact with a behavioral health specialist. And you'll see a lot of health care centers offer full service so Dental, they offer behavioral health, pediatric, a lot of newborns that model as well. You see that with places like like CHN we have, we're doing that as well. So those are, those are awesome points, guys. That's gonna wrap it up for today for this particular podcast. Thank you all for tuning in. You can find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, on our website www.mychn.org. I'm Elijah,

Mariela Salgado 11:33

Mariela.

Olga 11:34

And Olga

Mariela Salgado 11:35

Don't forget to share this podcast with friends and family and give us some love on reviews on Spotify and iTunes. Until next time.

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Eating Disorders: The Six Common Types Podcast Transcript

Elijah 00:00

Hi Everyone, this is My CHN Podcast Health Conversations Without Barriers. I'm Elijah Sharif.

Mariela Salgado 00:14

My name is Mariela Salgado,

Kaeside 00:16

And I'm Kaeside, Unachukwa.

Elijah 00:19

Today we're going to be discussing the six most common types of eating disorders, that we have a psychiatric nurse practitioner with us. And we're going to be going through the six most common types of eating disorders. So a lot of people probably don't know this, but most eating disorders are psychiatric, rather than about food. So a lot of us probably have that stereotypical idea in our head that oh, it's like, you know, you're bored, you're just eating or, you know, you just don't just don't want to gain weight. So you're just not eating and most eating disorders are a lot more complicated than that. So many disorders typically include their mental health conditions that can cause and unhealthy eating habits, obsessions with food, body weight, or body shapes, and there are six different types, and we'll quickly go through those. So the first type is anorexia. The second type, the most common types is bulimia. The third is binge eating. And the fourth is pica. The fifth is rumination. And the sixth is avoidant slash restrictive food intake disorder. And we'll get into those six symptoms a little bit later on. But right now I want to start with one of the most common types of eating disorders here in the West in America is binge eating disorder. You talk to us a little bit about your experience with binge eating disorder as far as the symptoms and the causes.

Kaeside 01:53

Okay, so binge eating disorder is a psychiatric disorder, the effects can affect anybody, it's the most common eating disorder in America. Pretty much people are individuals eating food in a short period of time. Usually, this leads to overweight them being overweight or being obese. And it can put them at risk for different diseases, heart diseases, diabetes.

Elijah 02:21

What are some of the things that can cause binge eating disorders? And is there anything any other kind of mental health disorders that are associated with that one?

Kaeside 02:32

Yes. So mood disorders can sometimes come with binge eating, one disorder would be like depression, some people might not feel good about themselves, or they might have low self esteem, which is another symptom of depression. And when they have low self esteem, they end up overeating because sometimes people think when you have depression tend to not eat, but sometimes it can go both ways. So you can sometimes eat, little over eat, so some people can overeat. So that's depression is another condition that can go with it.

Mariela Salgado 03:11

I think that's a very interesting point that you said that usually people think that when you get depression, ie you don't eat. And, for example, in my case, I know that if I'm stressed, I want to eat and I have to do things like chew gum, or, you know, drink water, because I know that it's not that I'm hungry, I ate, you know, I had my normal meal and breakfast or lunch. And it's just that I'm stressed or I'm having some kind of anxiety. And, and that's why I want to eat. But it's not because I'm actually hungry.

Elijah 03:52

So when I when I, when I'm particularly stressed, I like to eat or have certain things I had to go for.

Mariela Salgado 03:58

Yeah, I think the easiest thing to go for, it's like cookies and candy and stuff. But I mean, I wish I could go for an apple. But that's definitely not something I'm reaching for what I'm stressed.

Kaeside 04:12

Some people might have some type of negative, negative feeling towards themselves, like body shape and also decide to Binti, we see this also in teens in school, they might look at themselves because they have a lot of self esteem issues going on around that age. So always look, I certainly look themselves in the mirror. And want to binge eat, you know, so there's another group of individuals that that tends to eat.

Elijah 04:40

Yeah that's a very sensitive time. high school and middle school in particular, taking matters into your own hands and not not necessarily doing the right thing to get the results you might want.

Mariela Salgado 04:52

I, Yeah, especially because your parents kind of tell you to do your own things right. Like if you're hungry, go get food. Like you're old enough to go and open the fridge, cook whatever you can cook. So think it's like a double edged sword in a way.

Elijah 05:08

Now we move on to the next one. And this one is a bit on the opposite side of binge eating this one's anorexia. And so with anorexia that typically includes someone with anorexia would limit their food intake and or practice purging behaviors on these purging behaviors can be throwing up, that's the most common one. Typically, a lot of people with anorexia have a fear of gaining weight, even if they're underweight. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you can do, if you think you may be noticing some of the symptoms symptoms of anorexia within yourself.

Kaeside 05:46

Usually, it's hard for people with anorexia to actually notice it themselves. Usually, it's a family member, or somebody that notices it because left to the anorexic patient, they usually would not recognize they have this condition, they look at themselves in the mirror, and they will think they're way below their BMI, they still think that year they gain weight or their input fat. So it will be left to another person to make that diagnosis and not the the actual person with anorexia. So there are different things we look at. We look at the BMI, like the weight of the patient are you gaining weight at all? How has the weight has the weight just drastically dropped? Everybody has a BMI depends on age. So if you look at it and look at the patient, you can tell right, they're always restricting their diet restricting food not eating. I've had, I've seen patients that go five days, seven days, no food. Sometimes you would have to commit the patient to hospital. If the patient is under age would have to get the consent from the from the parents or sometimes would have to go court order, you know, to put some type of maybe a tube down the throat to actually put give make sure that they meet their nutritional needs. Because I mean, if you're not getting any nutrients, you can lead the cells in your body to virtually wear off and sometimes can lead to death. There are different ways that can you can put a tube in, you can get a peck tube, you know, different ways to make sure that they get those nutritions also you want to treat them with medications. In this case, we will give them like an antidepressant. And also we want to start them with therapy. But left to left for left to the anorexic patient, it's they would not come up and say oh I have anorexia.

Elijah 07:59

So it's usually something that a family member notices and they have to essentially look outside and seek seek I'm sort of professional help. So moving on to bulimia. So with this one, people bulimia typically eat large amount of food in short periods of time. And much like an anorexia, they worry about gaining weight, despite being at a normal body weight. They eat until they're painfully full during the binge eating episode, and they feel as though they cannot control or stop eating when they are in these eating episodes. Um, so can you talk to us a little bit about the the mindset or the psychiatric situation with bulimia kind of what's going on in the mind? And what are the kind of the brain functions that direct the person to have these kinds of disorders.

Kaeside 08:59

So it's sometimes usually caused by fluctuation and for issues in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in the brain. And when you have those issues, that's the same area that affects people with substance abuse. So there's some imbalance in in dopamine around that area. So pretty much bulimia and binge eating they have they're similar. The most notable difference in the vomiting. People with bulimia tend to eat to the point of the point where they get very full and they actually force themselves to throw up. You will see people with with bulimia, whenever you check the back of the fingers, you will see calluses sometimes and calluses will be formed by because they put their hands in the throat to make themselves throw up. If you also look at the lining of the stomach is really very eroded because of the acid that has destroyed the lining. If you look at their teeth also, sometimes it's stained because of the vomit. If you if you notice that the vomit is usually very acidic, so they're constantly doing it and you would see the discoloration in the teeth. So those are the things you look out for. Usually, it's fresh notice but maybe bands or usually they're more open to talking about it that people would not accept treatment would be therapy, antidepressant. Those are the go to treatment that will be it for bulima.

Mariela Salgado 10:44

I saw in a movie that one of the girls that suffer from bulimia after eating you know that would have a railer like meal with with their family and after eating, she will go to the restroom straight to the restroom, she will lock herself there. So it's usually you see what end that time window that they eat that they have to get rid of the I guess the what they have consumed right.

Kaeside 11:09

And they're very cautious about weight. Very, very cautious about weight. So that's another thing to look out for. Constantly checking weight.

Elijah 11:19

And that leads us to our the next most common eating disorder. Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder is when someone under eats due to a lack of interest in food, or a disdain for how some foods look smell or taste. This is not the kind of this is beyond like a, you know, you were a kid who didn't want to eat the broccoli or the brussel sprouts situation. And there was you sat there and you had to eat it. This is what a much different situation. What are some of the symptoms of avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. So a lot of times you'll see the eating habits will hinder the social activities. So like socializing things like eating with others having a lunch with friends. These individuals can be deficient in nutrition because they don't have an interest in a lot of foods. They avoid food to the point where the individual is not getting enough calories so they can be underweight. The next one is rumination disorder. With this eating disorder, individuals can vomit the food they've swallowed, and then chew it, chew it again. Eat it or spit it out. They can restrict the amount of food they eat and become underweight. So again, these individuals will vomit the food they swallow, and then shooting or physically kind of spit it up and then chew it again and repeat. The last of the six most common eating disorders, there are other pieces, the most common that you'll see is Pika. Pika involves eating objects that are not considered food. So people with pika may crave non food objects, such as ice, dirt, soil, hair, and the list goes on. So can you talk to us a little bit about how having these kinds of disorders, these eating disorders, the impacts that they have the psychological impact that they have on people who have them. Who have maybe they don't know they have them and they're not getting help or not able to get help? What is the psychological impact on people?

Kaeside 13:26

Okay, so the impact psychological impact will be on self esteem issues, you know, they might feel like they're not good enough. They might be asking, why do why me why did why do I have this, like, especially in our young population, it can really affect them. It usually affects most young people, most of the Western eating disorders. So usually see that even disorder among young people, self esteem issues is a big is a big part. That lack of the self esteem issues can cause other mood issues like depression, anxiety, and other autoimmune disorder. You know, with depression, it can lead to a whole different things worse, it can lead to suicide. That's the biggest psychological issue that I feel like eating disorders lead to.

Mariela Salgado 14:12

You know, I from a girl's perspective, I know usually they tell women you know, they're always like, I remember on the lookout, usually like aunts will tell my mom Oh, you need to watch out for her. You know, usually girls get some kind of eating disorder. But this is never applied to boys. So I feel like a boy or a girl can get an eating disorder, right? But usually it is very just for women like it's not just for women, but yes, the focus is always on women but they don't really pay attention to the boys because the boys are also can get a eating disorder. Why do you think is usually that, that is always the only focus on the girls when it comes to an end in order to?

Kaeside 15:06

Sorry, I don't understand the question.

Mariela Salgado 15:09

What do you usually think that they only think of the women when it comes to any disorder, but they don't think of the boys.

Kaeside 15:16

I think it's a society thing, I think is the way our society has been programmed to, they feel like they would have to check on the girls more because they're more prone to depression than men. They tend to notice when girls lose weight, I feel like the girls or women are also more conscious about their bodies. Now, then, men, I feel like it pretty much puts the light on them on the female more than male population.

Mariela Salgado 15:44

That makes sense. Okay.

Elijah 15:47

That's very interesting that the disorders affect a lot of the younger population. I'm also read a lot of eating disorders do affect, they affect men and women, they do affect women more, I think, to his point, that is a lot of society as well just think about just the expectations that when things are expensive, when when you show up, you go, you go out to dinner, and there's a lot more things that society society expects a woman to have to look like they do for men.

Kaeside 16:18

I used to, funny story, I used to work in a restaurant. And I think I will serve in this couple one day. And the lady had ordered. I didn't know this, I think it wasn't my table, someone else table. And the guy had ordered the filet. And the lady had ordered a Porterhouse. And I mean, I didn't know I just assumed that the Porterhouse was for the guy. And the filet, the little bitty six ounce filet was for the female. So I just grabbed the filet. And I took it to the I mean, we're all guilty of this someway or the other. So I took the filet, and I dropped it in front of the woman. And the man was like, No, that's, that's mine. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry.

Mariela Salgado 17:07

But yeah, it kinda makes there's like expectations, right? So how you're saying that. I felt like that sometimes on on a restaurant where I don't want to eat too much, right? And you shouldn't to be honest. Now that I'm very into that I've gotten into working out and like eating right, I know that I don't need 3000 calories a day. I'm five, two. So technically, I need 1200 to 1500 calories to maintain. I think is kind of going back, I think is kind of one of those things where we feel like if we don't get enough on a plate, or if we eat too much, it's already people are going to notice, but it's kind of like a self like you put on yourself sometimes. And sometimes people do notice, but it just really depends on like you said how big the plate is or how much the food is.

Elijah 18:07

Yeah, and I think we do there are a lot of expectations that even kind of extend beyond gender roles just in the West, probably because of how our food situation set up. You have so much access. And so what do you really need to eat all that? And now a lot of people are coming more into knowledge and healthier ways of eating. And then of course, there's you know, there's the hierarchy thing. People are always you know, you shouldn't eat that everybody's an expert. But that will conclude this podcast on the six most common types of eating disorders. This has been the My CHN Podcast, Health Conversations Without Barriers. We'd like to thank our guest. Thank everyone for joining us and thank everyone for watching and catch us on the next episode.

Mariela Salgado 18:49

Goodbye, everyone.

Kaeside 18:51

Thank you for having me. Thank you.

Mariela Salgado 18:52

Thank you for joining.

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The Pharmacist Part 2: Episode 3 & 4 Discussion Podcast Transcript Mariela Salgado 00:06

Hello everyone, and welcome to My CHN Podcast Health Conversations Without Barriers. This is Mariela and the CHN gang.

Olga 00:13

Hi all, I',m Olga.

Elijah 00:15

I'm Elijah.

Mariela Salgado 00:17

And we this is the second part to the first part of the pharmacist. So just a quick recap for episode one and two, we find out the horrible tragedy, Mr. Dan and his family, he's the pharmacist that they go through. But this is the catalyst to him becoming a spokesperson against the opioid abuse that is going on in his town. And for him to stop a doctor, Dr. Jacqueline Claygett, from operating and prescribing at that time. So now we start with episode three. And this one is Dope Dealers with White Lab Coats. Which I mean, for me actually, that that sounds that's a pretty good title for the episode. So we see the conflict between Mr. Dan and Robby, right, how they're having a conflict between how the FBI and the DEA are taking this case, and they feel like, well, for them, both of these two entities are not doing anything to stop Dr. Jacqueline Claygett. And what do you guys think they were feeling at the moment?

Olga 01:33

So definitely saying that, Mr. Dan was so determined he was willing to do anything to go beyond even though FBI wasn't even letting him participate in any investigation, they were pretty much laughing at him. So now he, he becomes even more determined to do anything he can to stop this.

Elijah 01:59

I thought this part was so interesting, because here they are, he's waiting on them. And they're looking at him like who are you? You're not even like you're nobody. And he getting more done than what the DEA is able to get done in that timeframe. And I think it's interesting, because they're like, Well, we had to wait for all of these bureaucratic kind of processes. And that was taken us a while, but he was able to get much more done faster than they could and they weren't even taking seriously.

Mariela Salgado 02:27

Yes, they were going through a level right of like bringing it up, bring it up. But this one, I was like, why are you guys going through all that? Let's just do something about it. We see a DEA agent, she talks about that there was no such thing as a prescription monitoring program. Do you guys know what that was?

Elijah 02:48

Where they were able to see who's prescribing what to which patient? And how much at that time, they did not have that program?

Mariela Salgado 02:55

That's kind of crazy. Because imagine having just like stacks of paper, who's gonna have the time to go through stacks of paper? And then I guess put them in Excel spreadsheets? I don't know, that just sounds like a lot of manual work. And then we see that they give us a number for how many prescription drug Oxycontin, Doctor Claygett prescribe. She wrote 180,000 prescriptions.

Olga 03:25

Oh wow, that's a that's a large number.

Mariela Salgado 03:28

That's a lot. And they kind of run that down because actually, she wrote 182,723. And it was all because you know, it was like a very small town. Right? Not not like a small town, but think of it as like suburban, I guess. But in the bad side of suburban, and there was only 10 pharmacies. So dear listener, we live in Texas, and unless you're in Midtown, or downtown Houston. And if you're in a suburban or rural area, there's probably what three pharmacists, three, not three pharmacists, I'm so sorry three pharmacies, or at most, I would say six, but you have to kind of like drive around. And if this was the case, for St. Bernard Parish, then that means in a small area, she was prescribing all this prescriptions. So that's, that's just blew my mind. So and then also, we see like, the videos of videos of the death and young people, right, and then it's just because of overdose. So apparently, this little community was ground zero for overdoses,

Elijah 04:50

Seeing all the kids dying back and forth, not back and forth, but over and over again. And I can only imagine how Dan was felt seeing that happen in his community after he after what happened with son. And then his daughter, she was talking about how she a lot of her friends had overdosed throughout her teenage years in her early, early adulthood. She's mentioned at some sound they make when they're when they're gasping for air. When they're going through it. She's like, Yeah, I had to sit there through like a couple of friends. I saw that happened a couple of times. I was like, wow.

Mariela Salgado 05:21

I can't imagine it. Because at that point, you already know that their dependence on of this drug is literally maybe something that they're doing every day at that at that point.

Olga 05:33

Yes. So definitely, that's a scary part. But the other point that scared me a lot is that when one of the sales people that the one of the salespeople for Purdue Pharma. He was interviewed in the show, and he said, so I knew that there was something wrong with this drugs, but I was keep going because of money. So that was a very crazy one for me, because pretty much all these people, they were, they were going in for money. And he said, if anybody else would be there, they would do the same thing in my position, because they were getting paid so much to promote this drug. They didn't even they couldn't stop, even though they knew they probably have a part of, you know, some people's death, some kids does.

Mariela Salgado 06:27

So they had another addiction, the sales rep.

Olga 06:31

To the money, and that's probably a bigger one.

Mariela Salgado 06:35

I believe I wrote it down. His name is Chris Davis. There we go. And he was a sales rep with Purdue Pharma. And he started in 1998. And he just says that, you know, the training the orientation was at, he said, it was like a lot of rah rah, which I'm pretty sure that just means like, it was very like positive, like, you can do this. And all these things were like, it was very intensive. Apparently, it was like, like a long period. But you also see the reason at the beginning, this sales rep, just thought, hey, we're just selling a medication that has been approved by the FDA. So they pretty much use that label of FDA approved to get in the hospitals and get to talk to the doctors. Right. So it's kind of like and he says, hey, you know, all the other work that it takes to even get this this this approval, like and it's true. It takes a lot of work.

Olga 07:46

Yes. And I remember him saying he was trying to work in the area. And then I know, he noticed Dr. Claygett, and how many she was prescribing. So now he says, Well, I just need the right doctor, I don't need the area. I just need the right doctor who's gonna make me a lot of money. So that's why when he figures out that, you know, Dr. Claygett, has, you know, a part of this and he's, she's pretty much run in the pill mill at this point.

Mariela Salgado 08:17

I know when he feels talking about, wait a minute, this is an I wrote it, dear listener, I wrote it. And he says that the sale rep was making 100, almost 180k a year.

Elijah 08:34

I think it was like $800,000 a year. It was almost a million. I remember the money. Crazy. Insanity.

Olga 08:44

I mean, makes you think at that point, like if you'd been in that position, would you do the same? I mean, I wanna think I wouldn't, but I mean, that's a that's a big, that's a big amount of money. I don't know.

Mariela Salgado 08:59

You start seeing him realize when he went to Dr. Claygett, its operation because before that he had gone to regular doctors, clinics, right, operate, he calls it and he says a low hanging fruit. So in a way they do get like they get all this data, right of what doctors prescribing what like, are they doing short opioids? Are they prescribing Oxycontin? Like do what level how do we turned this low hanging fruit into the big monsters the big wells that they were kind of the soul syrup we're using to kind of use for bragging rights. You guys heard that? Like, it's kind of like, like when you go hunting, I guess and you catch like a big, like a big prey. That's kind of how they were using this terms to refer to the doctors using pill mills in a way. We go back now to reports of criminal behavior, right? You see all these report of literally, there was a video of a guy robbing a pharmacist in a pharmacy and he said, Give me your oxycodone. I'm not laughing because I think it's funny. I'm just laughing because I laugh when something is kind of makes me nervous in a way. When you tell me someone went to arrive, a pharmacy, okay, first of all, when you tell me someone went to rob a bank, I'm like, Okay, well, you know, they're there for the money. But if you tell me someone robbed a pharmacist.

Olga 10:43

Definitely that that addiction is so strong, that people are willing to go above and beyond just to get the drug and it scares me. And it's crazy how the doctors are the ones who have this power pretty much they have power in their hands. And now they're abusing their power in their own benefit. So that doctor Claygett she was making millions as well as all the people who had attached to this drug they might they all made a lot of money. But the crazy part that they made the money on somebody's death pretty much that's that's really scary.

Mariela Salgado 11:24

So then you see a promo right. Because this promo this is marketing, from Purdue pharma, and it's called Partners against pain. You see testimonials from patients that suffer a chronic illness, right, that brings them pain, I didn't relate to the I believe he was a construction guy. And he said that he had back pain. When I say that I have I suffer back pain. I could relate to him. So, I okay, so I did a little bit of research, guys. And a lot of the people that are show in those commercials have passed away from overdoses have lost everything. Some of them are homeless, some of them lost their families, because they became addicted. For example, the grandma that, you know, she said, I can finally a play with my grandkids. When she lost her job, she lost her insurance, she can no longer get the pills. So she sold her car to get the pills. Then she sold her house and at some point she was homeless. So this was honestly not a good ending for all of them. And, you know, then you see like this, obviously, this is research that I've done now. But the marketing was so good back then that some doctors that it was it was not addictive? I mean, or, you know, they were paid to say that it was not addictive.

Olga 13:10

Yeah, it's crazy. And even the president of the the pharma company and the Purdue pharma company, he believed that he did not want to accept the fact that the drug was bad until the end. And that's just shows how how, how determined they were to make the money and you know, sell the drug, no matter what.

Elijah 13:38

I think that is really just goes to show how medical there's can be an impact on the computer community when it comes to certain ramifications. I can't really tell there was like a disconnect between the people who were one the fence when they had like to when the corporate people in Purdue pharma testified to Congress, there was a big disconnect. They showed all the impact that it had on the parish community. That community had been ravaged. I mean, people were going to the drugstore, robbing the drugstore, for drugs rather than money because their addiction has driven them to that point. Like that's, that community probably wasn't like, it was in Beverly Hills, but it wasn't like that, you know what I mean? So that that that's a big effect.

Mariela Salgado 14:26

There was definitely a big effect. We also see, Chris Davis says that the salaries of the sales rep right. There were coming from targets of opportunity, which are the low hanging fruit, which is the doctors that they call monsters. So pretty much he's telling us that this pill mill doctors are paying the sales reps salaries, and that's why they're able to make that much because it's coming from the doctors pretty much and then We see, you know, the the FBI agent. She, it's kind of they're still getting those receipts, right. I, the Director of this documentary, that he he's still playing those receipts of Mr. Dan. You see them still hearing all the recorded phone calls. But then she talks about the one time that she went to Dr. Clatgett's house. What does she find in Dr. Claygett's house?

Olga 15:37

Yeah, so I remember the bus she went to her house and her house was looking very kind of all over the place. And she she figured out that Dr. Claygett has kids, and she was very disoriented. When she was asleep. Dr. Claygett was asleep when they came into that house, but she felt very disoriented. So then the FDA agent, she suspected that maybe Dr. Claygett is using the drugs herself. And then they came to her house to ask her to give away her her license. And because of how much harm she's doing, and they they asked her to voluntarily give away her license, and Dr. Claygett said I have kids to pay to put through school, pretty much so she refused she, she refused to give away her her license at that point.

Mariela Salgado 16:37

That was actually in a way, the way I saw that. The FBI agent was pretty much extending a hand to her right, because she knew what was coming. She pretty much tried to get her to get help, and still be able to later on once she gets help go back and kind of rectify her her actions in a way. So then she as Olga said, she didn't stop actually, she continued. Then we find the smoking gun, right? We find that this is the way that they're going to be able to stop. How did they get the state board to pay attention to Dr. Claygett its case and stop her from operating as a doctor.

Elijah 17:39

Dan needed some evidence Dan spoke to her he asked her about the he had found some evidence of how much she was prescribing. And he asked her and he recorded it. And he asked her he's like, Did you by the way? Did you fill this prescription? She was like, Yeah, I did. And he's like, Well, you know, this is like, way over the line like this is way over what anybody would be recommended to be prescribed? Like, yeah. Who made you a doctor? She said it much more colorful than that. But that was pretty much the smoking gun. But the evidence for him to be able to go ahead, Dan and the DEA and everyone else is going to go ahead and move forward with the case.

Olga 18:16

Yes, I believe it was it was all about the little girl and she started her was 80 milligrams of oxycodone, which is very, very strong dollars for somebody who's pretty much under 100 pounds. That was pretty much it. That's all for that little girl. And that's what that smoking gun was fun for the FBI to actually proceed on this case,

Mariela Salgado 18:41

At that everyone noticed that there's no way she's practicing good medicine. So because automatically she was pretty much just filling out prescriptions. She was not thinking of who the patient was right? She was not there doing that due diligence that doctors do. This thing cracked me up where the FBI agent gave credit to Mr. Dan, she said he's pretty erratic, but he gets things done. Pretty much he said give credit when it's due.

Olga 19:17

So in reality, Mr. Dan he becomes like a big power to not just his community to not just his pharmacy but to the whole country because he pretty much started this fight against the drug and Dr. Claygett is not the only one and that's where it comes in. Whereas the scary part it mean that doctor Claygett is just one of many and the problem is not inherited but pretty much in Purdue Pharma. That's the main problem at this point.

Mariela Salgado 19:55

Oh my guys, guys, do you guys see this coming? I I did not at the end of the episode who shows up?

Elijah 20:03

Dr. Claygett. Yes, I was the crazy.

Olga 20:06

But the crazy part is she did not believe that she did anything wrong. She was even after the all of the years, she she actually got an accident and she got prescribed oxycodone and she said that it helped her. So she didn't she did not really. I don't know, I don't think she really realized what how much harm she did.

Elijah 20:29

I was gonna say, you know, she was also very she didn't really get a lot of she didn't get the justice that the people in the communities that she affected felt like she should have gotten. She didn't get like jail time. She just got her license taken away. And she really had to admit any wrongdoing. So probably in her mind. It's like, well, you know what I do? And then on top of that she was incapacitated for a lot of that time period when she was doing that. And then the accident had her even more incapacitated because that was like really shortly after I think that was like right before they went to trial. When she was in that accident, which is interesting. She got a hangman's Hey, it's a hey, man's fracture. That's kind of what they used to do way, way, way, way back from people committed crimes, unspeakable crimes they would, you know, that was a death, the death penalty at the time. So I thought that was interesting. That was like she got that happen to her.

Olga 21:22

That was the karma common for her. She's gonna get the jail time, but she got damaged pretty, pretty bad. I believe it was a really bad accident where she, she Yeah, she. I mean,

Mariela Salgado 21:36

I didn't even know that was possible in a car. It was something else when you see it, right? Because you can see it when she talks. What's it called? Like? She she has trouble, right? A little bit of communicating a little bit. So you see that she's living with this? What's called side effects.

Olga 21:55

Yeah, she's definitely paid for her crimes, for sure.

Mariela Salgado 21:58

And then we see, right, because she talks about the everything she went through to become a physician, which is understandable. We all know, it's several years in school. And you know, she was a mother too. So it was definitely hard work to get her license and be able to achieve being a mother and also adult. But then we cut back to Valentine's Day, February 14 of 2002. We see the DEA SWAT FBI bust into her office, and pretty much don't even call it a clinic. They call it an operation because of everything they found inside.

Olga 22:45

Yeah, so it was tax on money. And there was prescription, just empty prescriptions was her signature on the bottom, just waiting for the date and the name to be filled in. So definitely, they could have a lot of proof that is not a legitimate clinic that is just business of getting people addicted to this drugs pretty much.

Mariela Salgado 23:08

You know, when they asked her, did any of your patients die? She can't even answer that.

Elijah 23:15

She had to think about it.

Olga 23:17

She was blinded by all the money and power that she had. She lost her moral compass. She lost the track. She wasn't even accepting that she was doing harm.

Mariela Salgado 23:28

And then it cuts back into like Olga said this. She's not the only doctor right. There's other doctors doing it. And you see footage of other doctors pretty much doing the same thing where you see up what you were able to see in Dr. Claygett, that's where there was like a line of people. There was lines of people in the other footage in different cities, different clinics.

Olga 23:52

So from here, mister Dan goes against the Purdue Pharma that becomes his mission now. And that's a bigger enemy to go against. Because it's a whole operation is the whole production of this drugs and, you know, millions of people selling it across the country. So now he becomes determined to stop them.

Mariela Salgado 24:20

Yeah, you're right. He was a pretty much he was taking on a huge corporation, a bunch of money bunch of lawyers. It was gonna be extra hard for him. And then you see, like, one of the problems is that to register a pain clinic, how much do you have to pay for the registration?

Olga 24:20

I believe it was like, not a big amount and everybody started opening up their little prescription pain clinics. But pretty much that was just a side hustle to sell Oxycontin, then that's when they know that these appear everywhere around the country.

Mariela Salgado 25:03

To be honest, $100 for pain clinic does not then I mean, so...

Elijah 25:09

High ROI

Mariela Salgado 25:15

The return on investment you get back. All right, so then the community faces another tragedy, right. And it's an August 29 2005. We see how Hurricane Katrina, pretty much not a obliterates, but damages the community. An even bigger, I mean, more than just St. Bernard Parish, just as Louisiana, right, the whole state. So you notice how people start falling more into OxyContin and using. So, you know, Purdue pharma goes to see not to see but they get called into respond in a way to what they've been doing. And for their, I wouldn't say illegal marketing tactics, but it was kind of like shady marketing tactics. And they paid $134 million in fines, but they never took responsibility for what they did. And here, they go back into why because of this, they created the prescription monitoring program, right. So we touch back on how they didn't have it at the beginning and how they have it. Now the reason why it was created it was to protect patients and prosecute doctors that run pill mills, and to stop doctor shopping. Do you guys remember what doctor shopping it was?

Olga 26:50

Yeah. So it's pretty much where you can, you know, go find any doctor, you want to prescribe you anything. But I just want to say that, Mr. Dan, he is such a pretty much a random person, he is a pharmacist. But he becomes such a great bar in pretty much the whole country to stop the drug. So like you said that the Purdue pharma goes into the core, they pay a lot of money, they go bankrupt. So now this, the addicts are out of their drugs so that the oxycodone becomes not so available anymore. They bring in the drug monitoring system. So now they've tried to find other drugs. So now we go from oxycontin addiction into heroin strike, where people are switching into just a stronger drug and probably worse drugs. So So yeah, now we see how much harm really, Purdue pharma did. And, you know, they went bankrupt. All for what for money. Now, they they even lost that. So that's just, you know, a very low point at this time.

Mariela Salgado 28:06

Again, like, like, you see, like the the ones that saw this happen, right, because people couldn't find or their fix, which was oxycontin was the drug, drug cartels, right? So they were able to see that business opportunity, because pretty much it's the same fix just like a cheaper price. But the the price you pay is more than money. So you end up paying a higher price than that. And then he shows that there was another industry that did the same marketing tactics of using doctors. Before Purdue Pharma. You guys remember what that was?

Olga 28:46

Yeah, it was the cigarettes. The cigarette production, the nicotine, and they also refused in court that nicotine wasn't addictive. They all was straight up faces. They said no, no, we don't believe that. Even though you know, we all know how addictive it is.

Mariela Salgado 29:10

I don't know if you guys ever seen this is another show. Right? But it's, oh my gosh, I'm blanking on it. But it's back then. Even it was pregnant women were smoking. And then there was like posters like, It's okay. Go ahead.

Olga 29:27

And they smoke everywhere up until I believe 90s. They was able to smoke anyway.

Mariela Salgado 29:35

So this ends I would say they're really Mr. Dan did his best and he is a great person. Shout out to you, Mr. Dan. We're very proud of you, and we wish you the best.

Olga 29:52

He's a really an example of how somebody like a simple person can move the mountains pretty much And in this whole story, it's very sad and everybody failed a little bit in this story. The the farmer, the doctors, the FDA, FDA, the government, everybody has a little bit of blood on their hands in this story because they they ruin communities, they ruined people lives. And they ruined, you know, not just that Louisiana area, but it's all around the country. So, you know, we just have to be careful, and we just have to in the end of the day, we just have to be good people. We just have to, you know, it's not all about money. It's all about what you bring in because the people who saw they were making so much money at the at the point at that time, they paid later, they paid that money back and they paid was very hard consequences for their lives. So in the end of the day, it doesn't matter to them. So be be real and be, you know, a good person at heart. That's the point.

Mariela Salgado 31:06

100% So, guys, this was our take on The Pharmacist on Netflix. And don't forget to demonstrate your love by sharing this podcast with your friends and family or giving us a review on Spotify and iTunes. Until next time, bye, y'all.

Olga 31:26

Thank you all bye bye

Elijah 31:27

Bye.