Raise the Line: Recent Episodes
Osmosis.org, Dr. Sahil Mehta, Scott Shaw, Eric Kinariwala
Osmosis.org explores solutions with top experts to strengthen the capacity of our healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
An 11-year-old boy in rural Zambia once told Dr. Genesis Mwamba that he was about to attend school wearing shoes for the first time in his life. That moment, Dr. Mwamba says, crystallized why he started the Lead Me Back Foundation to provide school supplies and other support to marginalized communities in his native country.
As you’ll learn in this inspiring installment in our NextGen Journeys series, Dr. Mwamba started the foundation in 2021while still a medical student because he had experienced the power of education as an “equalizer” in his own life, taking him from humble roots to a career in medicine.
He and his colleagues have grown the bootstrapped organization to a point where it now provides hundreds of thousands of people across the country with educational access, climate education and community health clinics. “I've always been drawn to opportunities and initiatives that bring help to humankind,” he tells Raise the Line host Dr. Parsa Mohri.
This episode also explores:
- What building "with" a community rather than "for" it looks like in practice;
- The storytelling strategy that attracted donors and partners;
- How his mother’s untimely death inspired his commitment to preventive medicine.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lead Me Back Foundation
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"We have an untapped army of 200,000 PAs that really could step up and drive some change in the healthcare system if we weren’t restricted,” says Dr. Jennifer Kolb, capturing her motivation for pushing to update practice regulations for physician associates that date back more than 50 years.
As Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs at the American Academy of Physician Associates, Dr. Kolb has been in the middle of the fight at the state and federal level to grant PAs more independence from physicians, full billing rights, and the increased ability to practice across state lines, among other changes.
In this pertinent conversation with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Kolb explains how these updates could help close huge gaps in access to healthcare, better manage the fight against chronic diseases and improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Kolb also addresses:
- Why the name shift from "assistant" to "associate" took her years to fully appreciate;
- How a 10-year gap in life expectancy across Chicago zip codes shapes her view of health equity;
- Why PA’s shouldn’t wait for permission to start making change in their communities.
Mentioned in this episode:
American Academy of Physician Associates
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
Most adults who smoke want to quit, and about half try to do so in any given year, yet fewer than one in ten succeed. That persistent gap between intention and outcome is one of the central challenges in public health, and it's exactly the kind of problem that calls for new thinking about how to communicate with people to support behavior change.
Dr. Amanda Graham has been a leading force in doing just that in her role as chief health officer at Truth Initiative, the nation's largest non-profit public health organization dedicated to preventing addiction among young people and helping people of all ages to quit tobacco. On this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, Dr. Graham, who holds a PhD in clinical health psychology and has done 25 years of NIH-funded research focused on technology-based cessation interventions, helps us understand the interplay between behavioral science and digital communications in the field.
"A well-timed message can really be powerful in interrupting what for many people is kind of an automatic behavior, especially via text, which data tell us is an extraordinarily powerful modality,” she explains to host Lindsey Smith.
Tune-in to understand where the field is heading, and to learn about:
- Why "push" technology may work better than apps and websites when it comes to breaking automatic behaviors;
- How the rise of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco has scrambled decades of public health messaging;
- How highschool smoking rates plunged from over 30% to less than 2%.
Mentioned in this episode:
Truth Initiative
Program with Mayo Clinic
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
"I always remember feeling like I was part of the clean plate club," says Dr. Christle Guevarra, recalling a childhood spent quietly convinced that her weight was a matter of willpower. That belief followed her through a competitive powerlifting career and medical practice until she finally tried a GLP-1 medication herself and, as she describes it, the constant mental noise around food quieted down.
Now a board-certified family and sports medicine physician, traveling team doctor for U.S. Figure Skating, and author of The Beginner's Guide to GLP-1s, Dr. Guevarra brings a rare combination of clinical authority and lived experience to the conversation around obesity medicine.
In this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, host Lindsey Smith talks with her about what's actually changed in how physicians understand the issue and what it means for patients. "The biggest thing is reframing how we approach weight loss. It's not just a willpower problem, it is a neurobiological problem."
Tune in to learn about:
- Why she said no to a GLP-1 prescription for two years and what finally changed her mind;
- The real story behind concerns about muscle loss on these medications;
- What happens when the “food noise" goes silent and a new set of challenges takes its place.
Mentioned in this episode: Dr. Christle's website
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
Millions of Americans were saddened and outraged by the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 that took the lives of twenty children and six adults, and were left feeling helpless about the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. that, sadly, continues to this day. But for our guest today, Shannon Watts, her feelings of devastation about the shooting turned to rage and fueled her unlikely rise to leading Moms Demand Action, which she grew into one of the largest grassroots organizations in the country, mobilizing millions of volunteers to push for stronger gun safety laws. “I wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with a badass army of women because that’s who gets things done in this country,” she says.
In this inspiring conversation with Raise the Line host Michael Carrese, Watts pulls back the curtain on how the group achieved its successes and the philosophy of "losing forward" that kept volunteers showing up year after year. In her recent book Fired Up, Watts describes how she is bringing insights from that experience to a new mission: helping women identify their values, abilities, and desires and acting on them without waiting until everything is perfect.
Tune-in to learn about:
- The "false fires" women mistake for passion;
- Why losing estrogen and testosterone in midlife might actually make women braver, not less so;
- The one exercise she does with every woman she coaches.
Mentioned in this episode:
Fired Up book
Moms Demand Action
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
In the United States, nearly 70% of people say they want to die at home, yet the majority still die in medical settings, often after receiving care that may not match their goals and values. Closing that gap between preference and reality is at the heart of the work being done by End Well, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming how we think about, plan for, and experience the end of life. "The gap isn't about people wanting the wrong things. It's that our culture and our incentives aren't aligned with helping those wishes actually happen at the end of life,” says Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, End Well’s founder and president.
As Dr. Ungerleider explains to Raise the Line host Michael Carrese, End Well sponsors an annual symposium and year-round activities to bring together clinicians, patients, caregivers, and innovators to improve that alignment. Key steps include earlier integration of palliative care, allowing providers time for listening and goal setting with patients, and normalizing conversations about what matters most to people.
This compelling conversation on reframing end of life care also covers how to bring wonder, joy, and hope into end-of-life conversations, and End Well’s work to change how death is portrayed in the media.
Mentioned in this episode:
End Well
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
While Elsevier’s most recent Clinician of the Future Report shows increasing adoption of artificial intelligence tools among physicians and nurses, and optimism that they will improve quality of care in the future, a majority raised concerns about trust and reliability. To increase the level of trust, 60% said transparent citations of evidence-based and peer-reviewed research will be key.
How to provide that transparency is our focus today as Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith welcomes Elsevier colleagues Rhett Alden and Raman Kaur to guide us through the complexities involved, including the concept of traceability and what role it plays in how AI tools such as Elsevier’s ClinicalKey AI are built and deployed.
“Traceability changes the confidence that a clinician has in an AI tool so that they aren’t trusting the AI, they’re trusting the underlying evidence they’re consuming from the AI-assisted platform,” says Raman, who brings years of experience as a primary care practitioner to her work.
It's also important, Rhett adds, to provide additional information, pulled from both the clinician's query and the patient's medical record, to inform clinical thinking. “ClinicalKey AI can be more than a response engine by establishing a larger context to provide a more precise answer for that individual patient.”
In this thought-provoking discussion, these experts also provide insights on:
- Mitigating bias in AI results;
- Using AI responsibly with sustainability in mind;
- What type of clinician will benefit most from AI
Mentioned in this episode:
ClinicalKey AI
Clinician of the Future Report
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
It’s been one year since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an unprecedented move, dismissed all the members of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), kicking off what would turn out to be a very concerning and busy year for infectious disease specialists. We’re going to recap this turbulent period – which includes a resurgence of measles, an unusually rough flu season, the emergence of a new COVID strain and outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola – with Dr. William Schaffner, one of the country’s most frequently quoted medical experts on infectious disease, vaccination, and public health.
As a member of ACIP for decades, Dr. Schaffner brings unique insight into the dismantling of the committee and the distrust of vaccines that lies at the root of the changes. As he explains to Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, while many vaccine critics are beyond reach, there are those he describes as vaccine hesitant that may be persuadable if the right approach is taken. “Beyond providing facts, we have to listen to them and respond to their concerns and make them feel comfortable. Information is fundamental, but behavior change only comes with a change in attitude.”
Tune in for a wealth of wisdom and context that includes observations on:
- What’s complicating containment of the Ebola outbreak;
- Challenges in public health communication in the current social media environment;
- What grade health authorities should get on their response to the hantavirus outbreak.
Mentioned in this episode:
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
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"Do nothing for us without us." According to today’s guest Robyn Bussey, that operating principle is the basis for effective community health work. "You don't go into a community and dictate. You go and listen and trust and be a partner," she adds. As you’ll learn in this enlightening conversation, Bussey is following that approach in her current work as Just Health Director at the Partnership for Southern Equity, an Atlanta-based nonprofit advancing racial equity and shared prosperity across the South.
On this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, Bussey provides illuminating examples of community-rooted work in South Fulton County and rural Georgia, and explains why community health workers may be the most underutilized asset in addressing health disparities.
This wide-ranging interview with host Michael Carrese also explores:
- Bussey’s candid perspective on what happened to the surge of interest in health equity that occurred during COVID;
- Why life expectancy gains in many Southern states have lagged behind the rest of the country;
- Her advice to students and early-career clinicians about where they're needed most.
Mentioned in this episode: Partnership for Southern Equity
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As concerns escalate about the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in Africa, we bring you the unique insights of Dr. Peter Piot, a renowned microbiologist who co-discovered the virus 50 years ago during the first recorded outbreak of the disease. His on-the-ground account of that crisis was provided to us in April before the current outbreak was declared, but it contains valuable historical perspective and shares lessons learned that he carried forward in his consequential career. “What I saw from the beginning is the most important thing is to listen to people and that you need to act fast to save lives, before you have the evidence you would like to have.”
He followed his contributions on Ebola by diving into the fight against HIV/AIDS, eventually reshaping global response in leadership roles at the World Health Organization and United Nations. As he shares with host Lindsey Smith, the learnings in that case were more pragmatic than scientific. “We had to redefine HIV/AIDS not as a medical problem but as an economic and security problem in order to get it on the political agenda.”
Tune in for a fascinating episode that takes you from the gritty frontlines of public health crises to the battles for funding and attention in the halls of power as Dr. Piot shares what it actually takes to move the world to respond effectively to health threats.
Mentioned in this episode:
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
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The ongoing outbreak of hantavirus infections that originated with passengers on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius in April has generated concerns across the globe. This very rare occurrence has led to a number of deaths, required quarantining of passengers and prompted emergency responses from public health authorities in multiple countries.
On this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, we’re tapping the expertise of a leading authority on the subject, Dr. Jamie Childs of Yale University, to provide you with a scientific understanding of hantaviruses and what level of threat is posed by this situation. In short, Dr. Childs believes this is not the start of a pandemic. “The Andes variant involved here is one of the most dangerous hantaviruses, but it is totally controllable with contact tracing.”
This timely conversation with host Lindsey Smith is informed by Dr. Childs’ decades of hantavirus research as well as learnings from his role leading the CDC’s environmental investigation during the landmark 1993 hantavirus outbreak in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. And be sure to stay tuned to hear his concerns about the factors complicating containment of the current Ebola outbreak in East Africa.
Note: this conversation was recorded on May 19th, 2026.
Mentioned in this episode:
Yale School of Public Health
Yale Institute for Global Health
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We mark National Mental Health Awareness Month on this episode by tapping the expertise of Dr. Steve Strakowski, an internationally recognized expert in bipolar disorder, who has spent decades studying the neurobiology and treatment of mood conditions while pushing just as hard on the structural barriers that keep effective treatments out of reach for more than half the people who need them.
In this conversation with Raise the Line from Elsevier host Michael Carrese, Dr. Strakowski explains why access, not science, is now the biggest obstacle to improving mental health outcomes. He also addresses the heavy toll society pays for underfunding mental health prevention and treatment programs. “The money is spent eventually, but in the most expensive places like emergency rooms and prisons, and there is the human cost of suffering and suicides."
This important discussion also covers:
- The persistent problem of Black patients presenting with mania being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia;
- Why he describes bipolar disorder as a reward-processing illness;
- The emerging therapies he finds encouraging.
Mentioned in this episode:
Indiana University School of Medicine
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"When the workforce does not align with the population, your system is misaligned by design." That candid observation comes from Tina Loarte-Rodríguez, DP, RN who has spent much of her two decade career in patient safety, risk management, and systems leadership as the only Latina in the room, which she sees as a signal of a systemic failure that demands structural solutions.
As we mark National Nurses Month, Dr. Loarte-Rodríguez joins Raise the Line from Elsevier host Lindsey Smith to explain why a culturally congruent workforce has important implications for access, trust and quality of care.
This wide-ranging discussion also covers:
- What Dr. Loarte-Rodriguez means by "narrative infrastructure" and how a book series born during COVID is now shaping workforce conversations nationwide;
- The case for making mentorship a core institutional system;
- Why nursing burnout is not about a lack of resiliency.
Mentioned in this episode:
Latinas in Nursing
The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
The doctor is in....the box. That’s one way to describe how patients are now encountering their physicians in what’s being described as the future of telehealth. Imagine that instead of a cancer patient in a rural area driving hours for an appointment to see their specialist at an academic health center, they can go to their local clinic and see a life-size, real-time, 3-D projection of them in a seven foot tall light box. The doctor can see the patient through two-way video, and is assisted by a clinician in the exam room.
The technology behind this remarkable scene is provided by a Los Angeles based start-up called Proto Hologram, whose founder and chairman, David Nussbaum, joins us on this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier. "Our holograms start where Zoom ends and where physically being there begins," says Nussbaum, a TIME Healthcare100 honoree who has spent the last decade developing commercial and educational applications for holograms.
In addition to clinical settings, Proto units are being used at medical schools and senior living facilities and are playing a role in public health campaigns about breast cancer and vaccines. Join host Lindsey Smith for a fascinating conversation that covers:
- The role of holograms in extending access to specialty care;
- How the technology could be used to combat loneliness among seniors;
- Nussbaum's philosophy of "commercializing the impossible".
Mentioned in this episode:
Proto Hologram
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“One of the reasons The Pitt has been so successful is because it's showing real expertise in a time when everybody thinks they're an expert,” says Dr. Mel Herbert, who brings decades of experience as an emergency medicine specialist to his work as a writer and consultant on the hit HBO Max show. Dr. Herbert, who was also a consultant on the groundbreaking TV drama ER, is one of seven physicians on The Pitt’s writing and production team, which explains the high degree of medical accuracy that is a hallmark of the show. But Dr. Herbert is also proud of the emotional accuracy captured on screen. “It's about the emotions. It's about the stress. It's about how it really affects the doctors and the nurses that I've found the most interesting to write about.” In this candid conversation with host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Herbert talks about his own struggles coping with the demands of life in the emergency room and the importance of letting clinicians know that help is available. “You don't have to suffer. We can help you now in ways we couldn't even do ten years ago. That's the story I want to tell.” In addition to his work using TV as an educational vehicle, Lindsey and Dr. Herbert discuss his real world efforts to provide emergency medicine education across the globe through his companies EM:RAP and EM:RAP GO.
Stay tuned to this very special episode of Raise the Line with Elsevier in which you will also:
- Learn how writers tackle misinformation and hot button health topics;
- Get a behind the scenes look at how actors learn complex medical terminology;
- Discover who Dr. Herbert’s favorite characters are.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Pitt
Mental Health Resources from American College of Emergency Physicians
EM:RAP
The Extraordinary Power of Being Average
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
"Headache is just a teeny piece of the puzzle," says Dr. Regina Krel, an insight that’s at the heart of why migraine syndrome, one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, remains so persistently misunderstood. In this informative conversation with Raise the Line from Elsevier host Michael Carrese, Dr. Krel, the director of Headache Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center, explains migraine as a storm that sensitizes the entire brain, not just the site of the headache, which explains the long list of symptoms people experience including sensitivity to light and sound, brain fog, fatigue and problems with balance. “The headaches can be severe, but it’s the other symptoms that really kind of take over your whole body that make patients dysfunctional.” Dr. Krel also explains why migraine disproportionately impacts women in the prime of their working and caregiving years, and offers guidance for treating migraines in women, whose symptoms are commonly dismissed by non-specialists.
Stay tuned to also learn about:
- The "migraine triangle";
- Why stigma around migraine persists even in doctors' offices;
- New treatment options including neuromodulation devices.
Mentioned in this episode:
Headache Center at Hackensack University Medical Center
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
To mark the sixth anniversary of Raise the Line from Elsevier we're revisiting one of the most remarkable stories we've had the privilege of sharing over the last 575 episodes. To do that, we're delighted to welcome back Dr. David Fajgenbaum, a physician-scientist who repurposed an existing medication that saved his own life from Castleman disease, an ultra-rare condition that nearly killed him on five occasions. Because there was no treatment specifically for Castleman, Dr. Fajgenbaum set out to find a previously approved medication that might work. “I eventually found a drug that was made for another disease 50 years ago. It's been over 12 years that I've been doing great on this medicine.”
When he first joined us in 2022, Dr. Fajgenbaum was just launching a non-profit organization called Every Cure with the hope of replicating the success he achieved in his own case, and as you’ll learn in this inspiring interview with host Lindsey Smith, its work has already saved thousands of lives. “It's a tragedy if someone dies while there's already a drug in their local hospital that could help them.”
In the latest installment of our Year of the Zebra series on rare conditions, you’ll hear an inspiring example of a life saved by this approach and also learn about:
- The role of artificial intelligence in scanning thousands of medications and diseases to find possible matches;
- How Every Cure decides which drugs merit the costly research needed to confirm a match;
- Dr. Fajgenbaum’s philosophy of “living in overtime.”
Mentioned in this episode:
Every Cure
Osmosis Video on Castleman Disease
Dr. Fajgenbaum's Bestselling Memoir, Chasing My Cure
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
How AI Could Strengthen the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at Yale School of Public Health and Affiliate Faculty at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs
“Ultimately, AI needs to be a tool that doesn't break down trust or empathy or clinical judgment, but rather helps enhance those things.” That aspirational perspective from Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at the Yale School of Public Health and Affiliate Faculty at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, frames a nuanced conversation about one of healthcare’s most consequential changes. Drawing on his experience as New York City Health Commissioner during the COVID-19 crisis and decades in global and public health, Dr. Vasan argues that the future of AI in medicine should be shaped less by the technology itself than by the values guiding its implementation, and that physicians need to play an active role in this process. “I think it behooves us to engage with this technology and steer it in the directions that we want as a society.”
This timely discussion also offers Dr. Vasan’s thoughtful perspectives on:
- How AI could allow physicians to focus on the human side of care;
- The risks of AI reinforcing inequities and driving costs higher;
- Public health as the marriage of science, society and trust.
Join host Lindsey Smith for a valuable Raise the Line episode on how AI can be harnessed to benefit patients and provides alike.
Mentioned in this episode:
Yale School of Public Health
Yale Jackson School of Public Affairs
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
Imagine you had a tutor who was with you every time you were studying and, because they knew your learning style, strengths and weaknesses, could hand you the right content at the moment you needed it to deepen your understanding of a topic. That’s the pedagogically powerful experience students are having with AI-enhanced learning systems such as Osmosis AI, making possible what our guest, Elsevier’s Chief AI Officer Paul Crockett, describes as a new era of precision learning. “We now have signal from how students actually engage with content – such as where they get stuck and how they learn – and that behavioral data can tell you more about what a learner needs than any sort of static assessment. That's a profound transformation,” he says. In this fascinating conversation with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, Crockett also highlights how AI enables tutoring-like interactions with students which supports deeper reasoning rather than rote memorization. That in turn, helps Elsevier achieve the goal of getting students ready to practice medicine, not just ready to take tests. In addition, limiting the AI’s sources to the evidence-based material in the Osmosis and Elsevier content libraries provides both students and faculty with the level of trust and verifiability they desire. Tune in to learn how this meaningful shift from static content delivery to dynamic, data-informed learning experiences is changing healthcare education.
Mentioned in this episode:
Osmosis AI
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“Everything I’m not, made me everything I am.” For Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, that song lyric captures how growing up in a community marked by food insecurity and limited access to healthcare shaped a lifelong mission to improve health on a broad scale. Dr. LaMar, as he’s known, has pursued that mission in a variety of impactful roles, including CDC disease detective, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Reflecting on today’s public health challenges, Dr. LaMar sees the biggest problem not as a specific disease, but rather the constant “noise” of modern life and the social isolation that fuels sedentary lifestyles and chronic disease.
This thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation with host Lindsey Smith also explores:
- The rise of the “know-it-all-ogist” and the dangers of misinformation;
- The importance of transparent communication and humility when navigating public health crises;
- Going beyond community engagement to being a true community partner.
This is a great opportunity to hear from a seasoned and encouraging voice at a time of unprecedented challenges for public health professionals and programs.
Mentioned in this episode:
DLM LLC
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“Every person deserves kindness, dignity, and respect, regardless of what their medical situation is,” says Madison Donnelly, PA-C, who joins host Dr. Parsa Mohri on the latest installment of our NextGen Journeys series. As you’ll hear in this thoughtful conversation, Madison is bringing that commitment to patient advocacy and equitable care to her patients at Community Care Physicians in Albany, New York. A graduate of Hofstra University’s PA program, Madison describes how the profession’s flexibility and team-based approach enables clinicians to expand access to care, particularly in high-demand specialties like women’s health and primary care. Drawing on her work in obstetrics and gynecology, she highlights persistent gaps in women’s health, including America’s troubling maternal mortality rates and the long delays many patients face in receiving diagnoses for endometriosis and other conditions. “There’s a difference between telling someone something and being heard,” she notes, emphasizing that women’s symptoms are still too often dismissed in clinical settings. The episode also explores overlooked populations -- including NICU families and patients with eating disorders -- where stigma, mental health challenges, and fragmented follow-up care can leave people vulnerable long after the initial medical crisis. Don’t miss this Raise the Line dialogue about the evolving role of physician associates and how early-career clinicians can help build a more humane and responsive system.
Mentioned in this episode:
Community Care Physicians
Hofstra University Physician Assistant Program
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We’ve spoken with many guests about clinical and technological trends impacting healthcare providers, but less so about the trends on the business side of practicing medicine. So on this episode, we’re going to make up for that by spending our time with Dr. Alexander Vaccaro, an influential spine surgeon and president of one of the largest musculoskeletal practices in the U.S. -- Rothman Orthopaedic Institute -- which treats patients at over 40 locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Florida. While Dr. Vaccaro understands the desire for financial stability that’s increasingly driving young physicians into the arms of hospital systems, he worries about what’s being lost with the resulting decline in the number of independent practices. “If you didn't have private practice advocating for the doctor, the insurance companies would bully the healthcare profession.”
Join Raise the Line host Michael Carrese for a candid and lively conversation that also covers:
- How physician autonomy and entrepreneurship can drive innovation;
- The economic and policy forces reshaping private practice medicine;
- The role of research partnerships between private practices and universities.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rothman Orthopaedics
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
We've had many conversations on Raise the Line about the challenges of health communication in today's world of information overload, but none of our guests have the kind of expertise Dr. Tesfa Alexander has acquired in a career that has taken him from Madison Avenue to the halls of government and academia. From guiding tobacco education research at the FDA to leading public health initiatives at MITRE, Dr. Alexander has developed a deep understanding of the science and strategy behind effective health communication. “Successful campaigns keep the long game in mind where you want to develop a lasting relationship with your target audience,” he tells host Lindsey Smith. That relationship needs to be built on understanding culture, beliefs, priorities and daily realities, and only then can you develop messaging that will resonate, he explains. Dr. Alexander also believes these relationships can be leveraged to help people sort out facts from misleading or inaccurate claims. “I strongly recommend shifting our focus from combating misinformation head on, and instead working with the communities who we are seeking to serve.”
This fascinating look at communication science also covers:
- How stories drive belief;
- The importance of working with community partners who are trusted messengers;
- The power of audience segmentation.
Tune in as Dr. Alexander unpacks what it takes to influence beliefs, and ultimately behaviors, in an era defined by misinformation and institutional mistrust.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy
If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast
We’re marking Rare Disease Month 2026 by highlighting the powerful story of Shanthi Hegde, a young patient advocate working to transform how bleeding disorders are understood, treated, and supported. This work is fueled by her own arduous journey with two rare bleeding disorders and immune dysregulatory syndrome, and an extended diagnostic odyssey marked by dismissal, underdiagnosis, and structural bias. “I was told many times by many providers that these disorders are not common in Indians and that my bruises were there just because I'm brown.” Admirably, Shanthi pushed past this mistreatment, advocated for her medical needs, and devoted herself to tackling a range of issues confronting rare disease patients from mental health access to affordable drug pricing to research equity.
In this remarkable Year of the Zebra conversation with host Lindsey Smith, you’ll also learn about:
- Shanti’s work with the Hemophilia Federation of America;
- How gaps extend beyond treatment to include insurance coverage, provider training, and substance use care;
- What clinicians can do to improve the work they do with rare disease patients.
Join us for a conversation that connects patient voice to system change, and explores what real equity for rare disease communities will require.
Mentioned in this episode:
Hemophilia Federation of America
Shanthi's LinkedIn Profile
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Few issues have tested public trust in medicine as deeply as vaccines, and few individuals have influenced that dialogue more than Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a longtime member of the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee. In this timely and candid interview with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Offit points to this year’s severe flu season and a resurgence of measles as alarming proof points of how a changing federal perspective on vaccine policy is having a real impact on public health. “You’d like to think you can educate about the importance of vaccines, but I fear at this point the viruses themselves are doing the educating.”
In this wide ranging discussion, Dr. Offit also addresses:
- The rigorous and painstaking process of developing vaccines, based on his experience co-inventing the rotavirus vaccine.
- Shifting levels of public trust in scientific organizations.
- Promising innovations in vaccine development.
Don’t miss this deeply-informed perspective on the interplay of science, policy, and public education, and his encouraging message to young clinicians about managing the current challenges in public health.
Mentioned in this episode:
Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Perelman School of Medicine
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“I do not believe we should be testing to test. We have to know, is this test going to change management and is it going to make a difference,” says pediatric allergist-immunologist Dr. Zachary Rubin. His knack for providing that sort of straightforward guidance explains why Dr. Rubin has become a trusted voice on allergies, asthma, and vaccines for his millions of followers on social media platforms. It’s also why we couldn’t ask for a better guide for our discussion on the rise in allergies, asthma, and immune-related conditions in children, and how families can navigate the quickly evolving science and rampant misinformation in the space. On this episode of Raise the Line, we also preview Dr. Rubin’s new book, All About Allergies, in which he breaks down dozens of conditions and diseases, offering clear explanations and practical treatment options for families.
Join host Lindsey Smith for this super informative conversation in which Dr. Rubin shares his thoughts on a wide range of topics including:
- What’s behind the rise in allergic and immune-related conditions.
- Tips for managing misinformation, myths and misunderstandings.
- How digital platforms can be leveraged to strengthen public health.
- How to build back public trust in medicine.
Mentioned in this episode:
All About Allergies book
Bench to Bedside Podcast
TikTok
YouTube Channel
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If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. Youcan also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes atwww.osmosis.org/podcast
“Climate change is the biggest health threat of our century, so we need to train clinicians for a future where it will alter disease patterns, the demand on health systems, and how care is delivered,” says Dr. Sandro Demaio, director of the WHO Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health, underscoring the stakes behind the organization’s first regionally-focused climate and health strategy. The five-year plan Dr. Demaio is leading aims to help governments in 38 countries with 2.2 billion people manage rising heat, extreme weather, sea-level change, air pollution and food insecurity by adapting health systems, protecting vulnerable populations, and reducing emissions from the healthcare sector itself. In this timely interview with Raise the Line host Michael Carrese, Dr. Demaio draws on his experiences in emergency medicine, global public health, pandemic response and climate policy to argue for an interconnected approach to strengthening systems and preparing a healthcare workforce to meet the heath impacts of growing environmental challenges. This is a great opportunity to learn how climate change is reshaping medicine, public health and the future of care delivery.
Mentioned in this episode: WHO Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health
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We have a special episode of Raise the Line on tap today featuring the debut of host Dr. Parsa Mohri, who will now be leading our NextGen Journeys series that highlights the fresh perspectives of learners and early career healthcare professionals around the world on education, medicine, and the future of care. Parsa was himself a NextGen guest in 2024 as a medical student at Acibadem University in Turkey. He’s now a general physician working in the Adult Palliative Care Department at Şişli Etfal Research and Training Hospital in Istanbul. Luckily for us, he’s also continuing in his role as a Regional Lead for the Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative (OHLI). For his first guest, Parsa reached out to a former colleague in the Osmosis family, Negeen Farsio, who worked with him as a member of OHLI’s predecessor organization, the Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship. Negeen is now a graduate student in medical anthropology at Brunel University of London, a degree which she hopes will inform her future work as a clinician. “Medical anthropology is a field that looks at healthcare systems and how human culture shapes the way we view different illnesses, diseases, and treatments and helps you to see the full picture of each patient.” You are sure to enjoy this heartfelt conversation on how Negeen’s lived experience as a patient and caregiver have shaped her commitment to mental health and patient advocacy, and how she hopes to marry humanity with medicine in a world that yearns to heal.
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New research is transforming the outlook for cervical and uterine cancers -- two of the most serious gynecologic malignancies worldwide – and we’ll be hearing from one of the people shaping that progress, Dr. Mary McCormack, on this episode of Raise the Line. From her perch as the senior clinical oncologist for gynecological cancer at University College London Hospitals, Dr. McCormack has been a driving force in clinical research in the field, most notably as leader of the influential INTERLACE study, which changed global practice in the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer, a key reason she was named to Time Magazine’s 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in health. “In general, the protocol has been well received and it was adopted into the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines which is a really big deal because lots of centers, particularly in South and Central America and Southeast Asia, follow the NCCN’s lead.”In this conversation with host Michael Carrese, you’ll learn about how Dr. McCormack overcame recruitment and funding challenges, the need for greater access to and affordability of treatments, and what lies ahead for women’s cancer treatment worldwide.
Mentioned in this episode:
INTERLACE Cervical Cancer Trial
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“The world is a very volatile place, with currently 110 conflicts globally, and yet healthcare staff in the hospitals, even here in London, are not prepared to be the only clinician who can help in a crisis or hostile setting,” says Dr. James Gough, CEO of the David Nott Foundation, which equips providers with the skills and confidence needed to function in war and other extraordinary situations. A former British Army doctor injured in Afghanistan, Gough brings lived experience as well as a background in tech to his current role at the Foundation, which itself is anchored in decades of field work amassed by its namesake, a renowned war surgeon. As Dr. Gough points out to host Lindsey Smith, the cause could be helped by augmenting medical school curricula, but in the meantime, the Foundation is filling the knowledge gap by using prosthetics, virtual reality simulations and cadavers to train a broad swath of health workers including surgeons, anesthetists, and obstetricians. Tune in to this important Raise the Line conversation as Dr. Gough reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of NGOs in doing this work, his plans to expand the Foundation’s footprint in the US, and the gratifying feedback he’s received from trainees now operating on the frontlines in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Mentioned in this episode:
David Nott Foundation
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“People are not looking for a perfect, polished answer. They're looking for a human to speak to them like a human,” says Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist and one of the most trusted science communicators in the U.S. to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. That philosophy explains her relatable, judgement-free approach to communications which aims to make science more human, more accessible and less institutional. In this wide-ranging Raise the Line discussion, host Lindsey Smith taps Rivera’s expertise on how to elevate science understanding, build public trust, and equip people to recognize disinformation. She is also keen to help people understand the nuances of misinformation -- which she is careful to define – and the emotional drivers behind it in order to contain the “infodemics” that complicate battling epidemics and other public health threats. It’s a thoughtful call to educate the general public about the science of information as well as the science behind medicine. Tune in for Rivera’s take on the promise and peril of AI-generated content, why clinicians should see communication as part of their professional responsibility, and how to prepare children to navigate an increasingly complex information ecosystem.
Mentioned in this episode:
de Beaumont Foundation
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“Delivering a baby one day and holding a patient’s hand at the end of life literally the next day...that continuity is very powerful,” says Dr. Jen Brull, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). And as she points out, that continuity also builds trust with patients, an increasingly valuable commodity when faith in medicine and science is declining. As you might expect given her role, Dr. Brull believes strengthening family medicine is the key to improving health and healthcare. Exactly how to do that is at the heart of her conversation with host Lindsey Smith on this episode of Raise the Line, which covers ideas for payment reform, reducing administrative burdens, and stronger support for physician well-being. And with a projected shortage of nearly forty thousand primary care physicians, Dr. Brull also shares details on AAFP’s “Be There First” initiative which is designed to attract service-minded medical students – whom she describes as family physicians at heart -- early in their educational journey. “I have great hope that increasing the number of these service-first medical students will fill part of this gap.”
Tune-in for an informative look at a cornerstone of the healthcare system and what it means to communities of all sizes throughout the nation.
Mentioned in this episode:
AAFP
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“This is a time to reimagine public health and public health/healthcare system integration,” says Dr. Deb Houry, the former chief medical officer for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this thoughtful Raise the Line conversation, Dr. Houry reflects on unprecedented federal action in vaccine guidance and other issues since her noteworthy resignation from the CDC in August, and sees a more decentralized landscape emerging where states and localities play a larger role in providing public health recommendations. And while she acknowledges upsides to this shift, she’s also concerned what the absence of a national consensus on health standards could mean. “Diseases don't recognize borders, and it’s also important that people have equitable access to preventative services, vaccines, and other things,” she tells host Lindsey Smith. Tune in for Dr. Houry’s seasoned perspective on this consequential moment in public health, and her encouraging message for learners and early career providers considering a career in the sector.
Mentioned in this episode:
DH Leadership & Strategy Solutions
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“My most powerful content is when I lead with my voice as a mom because I have the same concerns about keeping my kids safe as my audience does. It’s a powerful and effective way to find common ground with people,” says Dr. Jess Steier, a popular public health scientist and science communicator seeking to bridge divides and foster trust through empathetic, evidence-based communication. Dr. Steier has several platforms from which to do this work, including Unbiased Science -- a communication hub that uses multiple social media platforms and other communications channels to share validated health and science information -- and as executive director of the Science Literacy Lab, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reaching a diverse audience seeking clarity and reliable information on scientific topics. “The science is less than half the battle,” she explains. “It’s about how to communicate with empathy.”
Join Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith for a valuable conversation that explores:
- What sources Dr. Steier relies on to validate information
- How she uses “escape room” exercises to train clinicians on empathetic communication
- Why tailored, story-driven messages reach audiences more effectively than facts.
Mentioned in this episode:
Unbiased Science
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“I realized that rather than talking one-to-one with patients in the exam room, you could talk one-to-many on social media,” says Dr. Kevin Pho, explaining the origins of KevinMD, the highly influential information sharing site he created for physicians, medical students and patients twenty years ago. Since then, KevinMD has become a valuable space for clinicians and patients to share stories and perspectives on topics from burnout and moral injury to technology and trust. In this conversation with Raise the Line host Michael Carrese, Dr. Pho reflects on the dual paths that have defined his career: as a practicing internal medicine physician and as one of healthcare’s most trusted online voices. And despite the challenges of doing so, Dr. Pho encourages other medical providers to follow his lead. “Patients are going online, and if physicians are not there, they’re going to get information that’s perhaps politically-driven or simply inaccurate.”
This thoughtful conversation also explores:
- How social media has reshaped health communication
- The risks and rewards for clinicians of having an online presence
- Why medical schools should teach negotiating skills
Mentioned in this episode:
KevinMD
Establishing, Managing and Protecting Your Online Reputation
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“We’ve created this ecosystem where the vast majority of information on social media, particularly in nutrition science, is inaccurate or misleading,” says Dr. Jessica Knurick, a registered dietitian and Ph.D. in nutrition science specializing in chronic disease prevention. As you’ll learn on this episode of Raise the Line with host Lindsey Smith, countering that trend has become Dr. Knurick’s focus in the past several years, and her talent for translating complex scientific information into practical guidance has attracted a large following on social media. Beyond equipping her audience with the tools to think critically and make informed choices for themselves, she also wants them to make the connection between the generally poor health status of most Americans with public policies on food and health and advocate for more beneficial approaches. “We can create systems that put the most people in the position to succeed versus putting the most people in the position to fail.” Tune in to learn from this trusted voice on nutrition, food policy, and public health as she shares her perspectives on:
- Strategies for risk reduction and behavior change
- What can rebuild trust in medical information
- How you can cut through the noise and spot misinformation online
Mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Knurick’s Website
TikTok Channel
Instagram Feed
Facebook Page
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Could studying the DNA of extinct animals – or even bringing them back to life – help us save today’s endangered species and inform modern medicine? That may sound like the premise for a Hollywood movie, but it’s work that our Raise the Line guest, Dr. Beth Shapiro, is actually engaged in as Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, which describes itself as the world’s first and only de-extinction company. “It's not just about learning about the past. It's learning about the past so we have more validated scientific information that we can use to predict what we can do to better influence the future,” she tells host Michael Carrese. An internationally-renowned evolutionary molecular biologist and paleogeneticist, Dr. Shapiro is a pioneer in ancient DNA research and has successfully sequenced genomes, like that of the dodo, to study evolution and the impact on humans.
At Colossal Biosciences, she leads teams working to bring back traits of extinct species such as the mammoth, not for spectacle, but to restore ecological balance. “When species become extinct, you lose really fundamental interactions between species that existed in that ecosystem. By taking a species that's alive today and editing its DNA so that it resembles those extinct species, we can functionally replace those missing ecological interactions.” Tune into this utterly fascinating conversation to hear about what Jurassic Park got wrong, the positive ecological impact of reintroducing giant tortoises to Mauritius, and the ethics of using gene editing and other biotechnologies.
Mentioned in this episode:
Colossal Biosciences
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According to the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, women make up 70% of the global healthcare workforce but hold only about 25% of leadership positions. Our guest today on Raise the Line, Dr. Roopa Dhatt, has been a leading voice in the movement to correct that imbalance through co-founding an organization called Women in Global Health (WGH), which has established chapters in over 60 countries since it started a decade ago. Dr. Dhatt is also pursuing that agenda and addressing other pressing issues in healthcare as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. “We’re changing the equation so women delivering health are also viewed and valued as leaders,” says the internal medicine physician and assistant professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Beyond leadership equity, Dr. Dhatt is also seeking to address systemic pay inequities and high levels of violence and harassment experienced by women in the health sector, issues that were highlighted in research conducted by WGH. Although WGH has seen high-level success influencing policy at the World Health Organization and United Nations, Dr. Dhatt says the heart of its success is local. “Women community health workers have begun to see themselves as leaders and the heroines of health in their communities. That’s profound change.” Join host Michael Carrese for a probing conversation that identifies the structural barriers blocking advancement for women and that explains why the health of communities and the planet depend on inclusive leadership.
Mentioned in this episode:
Women in Global Health
WHO Report: Delivered By Women, Led By Men
Dr. Roopa Dhatt on LinkedIn
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“They say it takes a village to raise a child. I really think it takes a village to treat a patient,” says Dr. Lanae Mullane, a naturopathic doctor and clinical strategist who has spent years at the forefront of bridging functional medicine, nutraceutical development, and digital health. In this episode of Raise the Line, host Lindsey Smith explores Dr. Mullane’s view that naturopathic medicine complements conventional care by expanding -- not replacing -- the clinical toolkit, and that collaboration should be the future of medicine. “At the end of the day, collaboration and connection create the best outcomes for the people we serve,” she says. Their in-depth conversation also spans the shifting landscape of women’s hormone health, including the perimenopausal transition and long-overdue calls for research equity. “We're not just smaller versions of men. We need to have dedicated research for us.” Tune in to learn about the importance of grounding health in sustainable habits, rethinking midlife care for women, and how to help patients take ownership of their health.
Mentioned in this episode:
Joi + Blokes
SuppCo
Dr. Mullane's Clinical Website
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“It’s kind of a miracle, frankly,” says Dr. John Buse, a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, referring to the effectiveness of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications such as Ozempic in treating type 2 diabetes, promoting significant weight loss, and reducing cardiovascular risk. As a physician scientist for the last three decades at UNC, Dr. Buse has played a key role in ushering in this new era of diabetes care, leading or participating in over 200 clinical studies on this class of drugs and others. “Nothing has impacted diabetes care like the GLP-1 receptor agonists. I have lots of patients whose diabetes was never well controlled who have seen all their metabolic problems essentially resolved.” In this fascinating conversation with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Buse not only explains how these drugs work, but also provides a clear-eyed look at side effects, and addresses issues of cost and access. Join us for the remarkable story – including the role played by Gila monsters -- behind one of the biggest developments in medicine over the past several years from a world renowned diabetes researcher and clinician.
Mentioned in this episode:
UNC School of Medicine
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“It wasn’t a profession, it was a way of life,” observes internationally respected psychiatrist Dr. Nasser Loza, reflecting on a century-long family legacy in mental health care that began when his grandfather founded The Behman Hospital in Cairo. In this candid Raise the Line conversation with host Michael Carrese, Dr. Loza traces the transformation of psychiatry he’s witnessed in his long career as increases in classifications, payment bureaucracy, reliance on pharmaceuticals, and technological disruption have each left their mark. The cumulative costs associated with these changes have, he laments, pushed care out of reach for many and hindered the human connection that is key to the discipline. He describes his prescription for countering these trends as a focus on effective and modest aims. “Rather than saying, come and see me in therapy for five years and I will make a better person out of you, I think focusing on symptom-targeted help is going to be what is needed.” In this wide-ranging interview, you’ll also learn about progress on advancing the rights of mental health patients and lowering stigmas, how to manage the rise of online therapy and use of AI chatbots, and the importance of empathy and transparency in mental health counseling. Don’t miss this valuable perspective on a critically important dimension of healthcare that’s informed by decades of experience as a clinician, government official and global advocate.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Behman Hospital
Maadi Psychology Center
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“When I was in medical school, no one had even heard of mitochondrial disease. Today, every student who graduates here knows what it is and has seen a patient with it,” says Dr. Mary Kay Koenig, director of the Center for the Treatment of Pediatric Neurodegenerative Disease at UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School. That remarkable change in awareness has been accompanied by advances in genetic sequencing, the development of clinical guidelines, and the emergence of potential treatments in some forms of mitochondrial disease. In fact, Dr. Koenig’s multidisciplinary team at UTHealth’s Mitochondrial Center of Excellence has been a key player in clinical trials that may yield the first FDA-approved treatments for it. As you’ll learn in this Year of the Zebra conversation with host Michael Carrese, her work in neurodegenerative diseases also includes tuberous sclerosis, where advanced therapies have replaced the need for repeated surgeries, and Leigh Syndrome, which has seen improvements in diagnoses and supportive therapies leading to better quality of life for patients. Tune in as Dr. Koenig reflects on an era of progress in the space, the rewards of balancing research, teaching and patient care, and the need for more clinicians to center listening, humility and honesty in their approach to caring for rare disease patients and their families.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mitochondrial Center of Excellence
Center for the Treatment of Pediatric Neurodegenerative Disease
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“Giving learners options gives them a better learning experience. It’s more holistic and more comprehensive,” says Sean Moloney, CEO and founder of EmbodyXR, an extended reality platform focused on the use of immersive technologies in medical education. In this eye-opening Raise the Line conversation, Moloney explains how AI-powered extended reality (XR) --which integrates augmented, virtual, and simulation-based environments -- allows learners to interact with patients, explore multiple diagnostic choices, and experience varied outcomes based on their decisions. The result, he notes, is not only stronger engagement in learning, but a measurable improvement in understanding. Despite these gains, Moloney is quick to point out that he sees these technologies as complements to traditional training, not substitutes for it. “We’ll never replace in-person teaching,” he says, “but we can make learners even better.” Beyond training future clinicians, the EmbodyXR platform is also offering new modes of patient and caregiver education, such as augmented reality guidance for using medical devices at home. Join host Lindsey Smith as she explores how EmbodyXR achieves and maintains clinical accuracy, the connectivity it offers between headsets, personal computers and mobile devices, and other capabilities that are shaping the future of how healthcare professionals and patients will learn.
Mentioned in this episode:
EmbodyXR
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Why has America struggled so much to effectively manage the opioid use crisis? One of the answers, as you’ll learn in this eye-opening episode of Raise the Line, is rooted in laws and attitudes from the early 20th century that removed addiction from the realm of medicine and defined it as a moral failing. “The federal Harrison Act of 1914 forbade any physician from prescribing opioids to people with addiction, so it became more the purview of law enforcement or behavioral health or religion,” says Dr. Melody Glenn, who regularly confronts the consequences of this history during shifts in the emergency department at Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. And as Glenn explains to host Caleb Furnas, the resulting stigma associated with addiction has extended to the treatments for it as well, especially methadone, despite its effectiveness. Drawing on her dual expertise in emergency and addiction medicine, Glenn dispels misconceptions that medication-assisted treatment merely replaces one addiction with another, and emphasizes that harm reduction is critical to saving lives. Her desire to break prevailing stigmas led her to discover the story of Dr. Marie Nyswander, who pioneered methadone maintenance therapy in the 1960s and is featured in Dr. Glenn’s new book, Mother of Methadone: A Doctor’s Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis. You’ll leave this instructive interview understanding the roots of our flawed approach to addiction treatment, meeting an overlooked pioneer in the field, and admiring a devoted and compassionate physician who is following in her footsteps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Banner-University Medical Center
Mother of Methadone book
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“We don't view a person with chronic pain as someone who has a chronic illness and the effect of that is we can't follow patients continuously over prolonged periods of time,” says Dr. Jacob Hascalovici, a neurologist and pain specialist based in New York City. In co-founding Bliss Health, Dr. Jacob, as he is known, has set out to create a continuous care model for chronic pain treatment that matches the approach taken for patients with diabetes or high blood pressure. The Bliss Health formula includes an initial meeting with a physician that produces a care plan; remote therapeutic monitoring on an ongoing basis; and a monthly meeting with a nurse to review data and determine next steps, including additional appointments with physicians as needed. All of this occurs via a digital platform which provides a welcome option for patients with mobility issues and can fill gaps in access to specialists, especially in rural areas. Dr. Jacob is also hoping to make chronic pain patents feel respected, which is not always the case in their encounters with the healthcare system. “Because pain is not something that can be seen or measured, oftentimes patients feel marginalized, dismissed and disempowered by providers.” Join Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith for a valuable conversation that also touches on policy changes that could strengthen telemedicine, and has details on the first non-opioid based pain medication to receive FDA approval in over 20 years.
Mentioned in this episode:
Bliss Health
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In recent months, public health advocates in the United States have raised concerns about proposed changes to vaccine policy, cuts to food assistance programs, rollbacks of environmental protections and reductions in public health staffing. Chief among them has been Dr. Georges Benjamin who, as executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) since 2002, has led national efforts to create a healthier America. Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith recently sat down with Dr. Benjamin to understand more about the current state of public health and explore the path forward, and learned that a top priority for APHA is battling the misinformation that Dr. Benjamin believes is fueling support for many of these changes. “The challenge we have right now is that as a society, we've gone into our little corners and live in our own ecosystems. More people are getting their information from a single source and they're not validating that information to make sure that it's true.” Tune into this thoughtful and timely conversation to hear Dr. Benjamin’s advice for curbing the spread of misinformation, how APHA is trying to help people understand the value of public health initiatives, and what the U.S. can learn from other countries about improving public health.
Mentioned in this episode:
American Public Health Association
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“Probably the most exciting thing I've seen in gene therapy over the last ten years is we now have a lot of tools for selective delivery, which will hopefully make treatments more safe and a lot more successful,” says Dr. Jessica Duis, a geneticist and pediatrician focused on the management of individuals with complex, rare disorders. Dr. Duis, who has worked on several gene therapies that are now approved or progressing through the accelerated approval pathway, is currently VP of Clinical Development at GondolaBio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutics for genetic diseases.
As you’ll learn in this Year of the Zebra episode with host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Duis is encouraged by other recent advances in genetic technology as well, and thinks momentum will grow as breakthrough treatments emerge. “I think we're hopefully going to continue to see companies that are working in rare disease be more successful and really drive how regulators think about making decisions in terms of bringing treatments to patients. I think we’re at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the future of truly transformational therapies.” This wide ranging conversation also explores Dr. Duis’ team approach to patient care, her work on clinical endpoints, the importance of patient communities, and her book series, Rare Siblings Stories.
Mentioned in this episode:
GondolaBio
RareDiseaseDoc
Elsevier Healthcare Hub on Rare Diseases
Rare Sibling Stories
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With nearly one in ten newborns in the US requiring care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the importance of NICUs has never been more clear. On today's episode of Raise the Line, we're shining a light on the extraordinary world of NICUs with Lindsay Howard, a veteran nurse with over 17 years of experience caring for premature and critically ill infants. She currently works in a Level IV NICU at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, one of the most advanced neonatal units in the country. “We call ourselves ‘the ER of the neonate world’ because we're never full. We have to make space no matter what comes in off the street, and at the biggest medical center in the world, we see all the things,” she explains. In this enlightening conversation with host Lindsey Smith, Howard describes how advances in medicine have made it possible to provide more types of care for younger and smaller babies, creating a need for NICU nurses to develop subspecialties. In her case, Howard is on a dedicated team that handles the placement and maintenance of all central line IVs, and has earned certifications in neonatal and pediatric chemotherapy and biotherapies. “We see babies that we may not have seen before being born with cancerous tumors who need chemotherapy to try and eliminate it, or just give them more time with their family.” This is a revealing look inside the workings of a top tier NICU where you’ll learn about approaches to care that support healthy neurodevelopment, how clinical staff handle the emotional challenges of the job, and how her own experience as a mother with twins needing NICU care impacted her work.
Mentioned in this episode:
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital
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“When you think about where we were as a country before Medicare and Medicaid were created and where we are now, it’s an incredible story,” says Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who until earlier this year was the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In a recent essay for The Century Foundation, where she is now a senior fellow, Brooks-LaSure used the 60th anniversary of enactment of those foundational insurance programs to help put their impact on individual Americans, the healthcare system and society at large in perspective. One prominent example is the desegregation of hospitals, which was achieved in part by withholding reimbursements for care unless facilities served Blacks as well as whites. Another is making it possible for more people with disabilities to live at home instead of in institutional settings. But as you’ll hear in this probing Raise the Line conversation with host Lindsey Smith, Brooks-LaSure worries that many gains in coverage and other progress made over the years through Medicare, Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are at risk because of a new federal law that calls for a trillion dollar decrease in spending, resulting in potentially millions of people losing their coverage, cuts to clinical staff and medical services, and the closure of hospitals and clinics, especially in rural areas. “Most rural hospitals in this country are incredibly dependent on both Medicare and Medicaid to keep their doors open and there's an estimate that over 300 hospitals will close as a result of this legislation, so that, I think, is a place of incredible nervousness.” Whether you are a patient, provider, policymaker or health system leader, this is a great opportunity to learn from an expert source about the range of potential impacts that will flow from changes to critically important insurance programs that provide coverage to 40% of adults and nearly 50% of children in the U.S.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Century Foundation
Essay on 60th Anniversary of Medicare & Medicaid
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It seems there are news stories every week about the accelerating pace of innovation in gene therapy, but only about 50 therapies have been approved so far by the US Food and Drug Administration. Our guest today, Dr. Bobby Gaspar, leads a UK-based biotech company, Orchard Therapeutics, that developed one of those treatments using gene-modified stem cells in your blood that self-renew, so a single administration can give you potentially a lifelong effect. “Our approach is about correcting those hematopoietic stem cells and allowing them to give rise to cells that can then correct the disease,” explains Dr. Gaspar. The therapy in focus is lenmeldy, the first approved treatment for metachromatic leukodystrophy, also known as MLD, a devastating inherited disorder that affects roughly 600 children worldwide. But Dr. Gaspar is optimistic that learnings from Orchard’s work on MLD could be useful in treating much more common disorders including frontotemporal dementia, Crohn’s disease and others. This highly informative conversation with host Lindsey Smith also explores the importance of newborn screening, community collaboration in advancing clinical trials for rare diseases, and a future in which each gene therapy will be used as a tool for specific applications. “There will be many gene therapies available, some of which will become the standard of care for certain diseases, but it won't be for every disease.”
Mentioned in this episode:
Orchard Therapeutics
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You are in for a dose of inspiration in this episode of Raise the Line as we introduce you to a rare disease patient who was a leading force in establishing the diagnosis for her own condition, who played a key role in launching the first phase three clinical trials for it, and who is now coordinating research into the disease and related disorders at one of the nation's top hospitals. Rebecca Salky, RN, was first afflicted at the age of four with MOGAD, an autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system that can cause paralysis, vision loss and seizures. In this fascinating conversation with host Lindsey Smith, Rebecca describes her long and challenging journey with MOGAD, her work at the Neuroimmunology Clinic and Research Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the importance of finding a MOGAD community in her early twenties. “There's a sense of power and security when you have others on your side. You're not alone in this journey of the rare disease,” she explains. Be sure to stay tuned to learn about Rebecca’s work in patient advocacy, her experience as a nurse, and the three things she thinks are missing in the care of rare disease patients as our Year of the Zebra series continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
The MOG Project
Neuroimmunology Clinic & Research Lab at Mass General
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“You have to love what you do, especially in healthcare, and the earlier you find that, the better. So that’s why I love to see HOSA helping young people find what it is that they want to do,” says Dr. David Kelly, a fellow in oculofacial surgery at University of California San Francisco and HOSA’s board chair. You can still hear the excitement in Dr. Kelly’s voice describing his earliest experiences with HOSA -- a student led organization with 300,000 plus members that prepares future health professionals to become leaders in international health – even though they happened sixteen years ago when he was a sophomore in highschool. Through hundreds of competitive events and hands-on projects, HOSA creates a framework for developing skills in communication, professionalism and leadership starting in middle school. Programs are offered throughout highschool and college as well, which Dr. Kelly took advantage of before becoming an active alumnus and joining the HOSA board as a way of giving back to an organization that has given so much to him. Since taking the reins as board chair last year, one key focus has been preparing to mark HOSA’s 50th anniversary in 2026. Dr. Kelly sees the occasion as not only an opportunity to celebrate what HOSA has accomplished, but to ensure it is positioned to continue helping the healthcare industry tackle important challenges in the future. Examples include chronic workforce shortages and improving how clinicians communicate with patients and team members. Join host Lindsey Smith on this uplifting Raise the Line episode for an optimistic look at the next generation of healthcare leaders.
Mentioned in this episode:
HOSA
HOSA Alumni Registration
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“We've been able to show that even by 30 days of age, we can predict with some accuracy if a child is going to have a diagnosis of autism,” says Dr. Geraldine Dawson, sharing one of the recent advancements in early diagnosis being aided by artificial intelligence. Dr. Dawson -- a leading scholar in the field and founding director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development – explains that an AI examination of a child’s pattern of visits to medical specialists in its very early life is an objective diagnostic tool that can supplement the current subjective reports from parents which vary in reliability. Another objective diagnostic tool in development uses a smartphone app developed at Duke that takes video of babies watching images and applies AI-aided Computer Vision Analysis to measure for signs of autism. This enlightening Raise the Line conversation with host Lindsey Smith is loaded with the latest understandings about Autism Spectrum Disorder including advancements in early therapeutic interventions, the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, and the role of the mother’s health and exposures during pregnancy. You’ll learn as well about what Dawson sees as necessary societal shifts in how autism is perceived, the numerous factors contributing to a near tripling of diagnoses over the past two decades, and how early intervention and informed advocacy can make a meaningful difference in the lives of countless families.
Mentioned in this episode:
Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development
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"Burnout and trauma are not mental illnesses. They live in your physiology. They live in your biology. They live very specifically in your nervous system,” Dr. Rola Hallam says with a conviction rooted in her own successful journey to overcome the effects of chronic stress she accumulated during many years on the frontlines of humanitarian crises in Syria and other conflict zones. Out of concern for the multitudes of health professionals who, like herself, spend years carrying the weight of their traumatic experiences without seeking help, or who pursue ineffective remedies for relieving it, Dr. Rola -- as she’s known – has shifted her focus to being a trauma and burnout coach. Among her offerings is Beyond Burnout, a twelve-week program that includes multimedia content as well as live coaching and teaching about developing nervous system awareness and regulation. “Most wellness initiatives fail because they're not rewiring the nervous system to come out of survival mode and back into what is called the ventral-vagal state, which is our state of social connection and of healing and repair.” She also stresses that healing is not an individual pursuit, especially for providers who work in a relational field, and teaches about the benefits of borrowing from a colleagues’ state of calm and offering them the same. Don’t miss this insightful and giving conversation with host Lindsey Smith that covers Dr. Rola’s wrenching experiences providing care in desperate conditions, the critically important distinction between empathy and compassion, and how empowering frontline workers to heal their trauma can uplift individuals and empower entire communities.
Mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Rola Coaching
Beyond Burnout Assessment
CanDo - Humanitarian Aid
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“Seeing that you can get through the most difficult times in life, succeed, and then also return to your community and work in service to your community was a lesson that has stuck with me,” says Dr. Uche Blackstock, the Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity and our guest on this inspiring episode of Raise the Line with Osmosis from Elsevier. It was a lesson the Harvard-trained physician learned from her own mother – also a Harvard trained physician – who overcame poverty, sexism and racial bias to forge an inspiring path. In her bestselling book, Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, Dr. Blackstock weaves her mother’s remarkable story with her own and argues for systemic change in a healthcare system riddled with racially-biased practices and policies that impact patient outcomes. As she explains to host Lindsey Smith, Advancing Health Equity’s work to drive measurable and sustainable change is focused on embedding equity as a core value in the leadership, strategy, and organizational practice of health systems. “We exist to challenge inequities, empower underrepresented communities, and help build a healthcare system where everyone can thrive.” Don’t miss a thought-provoking conversation with a nationally respected voice that also addresses race correction factors that impact the care of Black patients, and the work required of health institutions to build trust in effected communities.
Mentioned in this episode:
Advancing Health Equity
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
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“Pandemics are a political choice. We will not be able to prevent every disease outbreak or epidemic but we can prevent an epidemic from becoming a pandemic,” says Dr. Joanne Liu, the former International President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and a professor in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University. You are in for a lot of that sort of frank and clear-eyed analysis in this episode of Raise the Line from Dr. Liu, whose perspective is rooted in decades of experience providing medical care on the frontlines of major humanitarian and health crises across the globe, as well as wrangling with world leaders to produce more effective responses to those crises and to stop attacks on medical facilities and aid workers in conflict zones. Firsthand accounts from the bedside to the halls of power are captured in her new book Ebola, Bombs and Migrants, which focuses on the most significant issues during her tenure leading MSF from 2013-2019. The book also contains insights about the geopolitical realities that hamper this work, including lax enforcement of international humanitarian law, and a focus on national security that erodes global solidarity. Join host Lindsey Smith as she interviews this leading voice on our preparedness to meet the needs of those impacted by violent conflict, forced migration, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and other grave challenges.
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“As parents dedicated to getting a treatment for our children in their lifetimes, we have turned the rare disease drug development landscape upside down and created a new model,” says Nicole Johnson, co-founder and executive director of the FOXG1 Research Foundation. That’s not an exaggeration, as the foundation is on track to make history as it begins patient clinical trials on a gene replacement therapy next year. The former TV news producer and media executive unexpectedly entered the world of patient advocacy and drug research after her daughter, Josie, was born with FOXG1, a genetic disorder which causes severe seizures and impedes normal movement, speech, and sleep among other problems. Johnson is also making an impact in another important dimension of the rare disease space in her efforts to educate parents, teachers, and students about disability inclusion through her Joyfully Josie book series and “Live Joyfully” education programs. Tune-in to this fascinating Year of the Zebra conversation with host Lindsey Smith to find out how the foundation is aiming to bring a drug to market in less than half the time and at a fraction of the cost than the industry standard, and how this model might impact research on other rare disorders.
Mentioned in this episode:
FOXG1 Research Foundation
Joyfully Josie Book
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Today on Raise the Line, we bring you the unlikely and inspiring story of a woman who was afraid of blood as a child but became an accomplished nurse; who struggled with learning disabilities but became an effective educator; and who, despite lacking business experience or knowledge of graphics, built a successful company that produces visually rich educational materials for nurses and other providers. “I think the theme of my life has been I have struggled with learning, and I didn't want other people to struggle,” says Jennifer Zahourek, RN, the founder and CEO of RekMed which has developed a sequential, interactive learning system that includes illustrated planners, books, and videos used by millions of students and providers. The initial focus was to provide nurses with everything they needed to know from “the basics to the bedside” but RekMed now offers content for medics, respiratory therapists, medical assistants, and veterinarians as well. Driven by her belief in the power of visual learning and her “just freakin’ do it” attitude, Jennifer overcame her fear of launching a business and quickly realized just how well nursing had prepared her for the hard work and unpredictability of entrepreneurship. “Nursing teaches you how to just be resilient, to pivot, to delegate, to work on a team and to handle high stress. I think nurses could literally be some of the best entrepreneurs on the planet,” she tells host Lindsey Smith. Tune in to this lively and valuable conversation as Jennifer shares lessons from bootstrapping a publishing company, insights on the evolving landscape of healthcare education, and advice on embracing change in nursing, especially with the expanding role of AI.
Mentioned in this episode:
RekMed
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“Very often, doctors try to suppress what they feel or don't even have the vocabulary to describe their emotions,” says Professor Alicja Galazka of the University of Silesia, an observation based on decades of work with physicians to enhance their emotional intelligence and resilience. Galazka, a psychotherapist, psychologist, lecturer and coach, believes this deficit is rooted in part in a lack of instruction in the internal and external psychological dimensions of being a medical provider. “There is not enough space created in medical school for teaching and training students about how to deal with their own stress and all of the skills connected to building relationships with patients,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Those same skills are also critical to working effectively as a member of a care team, which is an increasingly common arrangement in hospitals and clinics. Galazka employs simulations, dramatic role-playing, mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and other methods in her work with an eye on increasing the emotional agility and sensitivity of her trainees and clients. Tune in to this thoughtful episode of Raise the Line to hear Galazka’s ideas on how to reshape medical training, why she is a proponent of narrative medicine, and the merits of embedding psychologists on care teams as a resource for both patients and providers.
Mentioned in this episode:
University of Silesia
International Association of Coaching Institutes
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"Older adults have this special clarity about who they are and what they want, which is incredibly inspiring," says Dr. Julia Hiner, explaining, in part, why she loves her work as a geriatrician in Houston, Texas. She also enjoys the challenge of the medical complexity these patients present and the opportunity it creates to see the patient as a whole person. In fact, as you’ll hear in this upbeat conversation with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, there’s almost nothing about geriatrics that Dr. Hiner does not enjoy, which explains her passion for teaching the subject at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and trying to convince more students to pursue it as their specialty. The need is great, given that there are only 8,000 geriatricians in the US despite a rapidly growing senior population. Tune in to learn why Dr. Hiner thinks clinicians avoid the field and the steps that can be taken to improve the situation, including requiring courses in geriatrics. You’ll also learn about the importance of capacity assessments, the troubling, and under-reported, problem of elder mistreatment, ageism among health professionals and much more in this super informative episode.
Mentioned in this episode:
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School
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"It was pretty apparent to me that something was going on with him," says Kristi Levine, describing the realization that, based on her experience as a Montessori teacher, her infant son, Trey, was missing developmental milestones. Unfortunately, Kristi’s hunch turned out to be correct and Trey was later diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation called CACNA1A which is impacting his motor skills, balance, coordination and speech. Kristi and her husband, Eric, join host Michael Carrese on this installment in our Year of the Zebraseries to help us understand the disorder and its implications for Trey and their family, which includes Trey’s older sister Stella. “There's a lot of guilt involved in being a parent of a child who has a disability because you never feel like you're doing enough,” shares Eric, even though they both work full time and have becoming experts at juggling work, caregiving, advocating, and volunteering with the CACNA1A Foundation. In this candid interview, Eric and Kristi discuss the challenges of parenting a child with complex medical needs, the importance of community support, the ongoing search for treatment options, and share some advice for clinicians caring for patients and families living with rare disorders. “We just want medical professionals to respect and understand what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and to see our kids holistically, and not just try to fix the problem medically. Understand that for us, the biggest thing that we want for our kids is just their quality of life.”
Mentioned in this episode:
CACNA1A Foundation
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We have a special guest on today's episode whose voice will be familiar to regular listeners. Last year at this time, Dr. Raven Baxter occupied the Raise the Line host chair for a special ten-part series we produced in collaboration with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness (CoRe) at Mount Sinai in New York City, where she serves as the Director of Science Communication. The series explored the latest understandings of post-acute infection syndromes -- such as Chronic Lyme and Long COVID -- with an array of experts from the Center and other researchers and providers. In this episode, we check-in with Dr. Baxter to get an update on the work of the Cohen Center, especially with regard to its mission to educate providers. “We're building programs so that clinicians can earn credit for learning about chronic illnesses that are infection associated, and we've also developed a 200-page provider manual. I really think that we will be able to shift the narrative that currently exists,” Dr. Baxter tells host Michael Carrese. That narrative includes lingering skepticism among providers of some infection-associated illnesses, which Dr. Baxter witnessed herself as a Long COVID patient, an experience that has added meaningful perspective to her work. Dr. Baxter is also working on her own time to advance knowledge and combat misinformation through a robust social media presence as “The Science Maven” and helps other scientists and clinicians to do the same. "If we're not there to fill in that void, other people will fill it for us and the narrative may not be consistent with the truth or facts." This is a great opportunity to learn about the art and science of communications that can reach clinicians and patients alike.
Mentioned in this episode:
Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness
The Science Maven
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On this episode of “Raise the Line” we welcome Dr. Sheldon Fields, a trailblazer in the nursing field and the president of the National Black Nurses Association. In a candid conversation, Dr. Fields shares his inspiring journey from the bedside to becoming a prominent figure in nursing, HIV/AIDS prevention and academia and also shares the challenges he faced as a Black man in a predominantly white and female field. "I fell in love with a profession that has not always loved me back," he tells host Kelsey Lafayette. Dr. Fields brings over thirty years of experience as an educator, researcher, clinician, administrator, consultant, health policy specialist, and entrepreneur to his current role at NBNA, and as the inaugural associate dean for equity and inclusion at the College of Nursing at Penn State University, where he also serves as a research professor. Listeners will find Dr. Fields' insights on navigating a career in healthcare particularly valuable, as he stresses the importance of resilience, continuing education, and mentorship. It's a compelling listen for anyone interested in the intersection of health, policy, and social justice.
Mentioned in this episode:
National Black Nurses Association
ClinicalKey AI Free Trial
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We’re honored to continue our global tour of medical education today with Professor Katarzyna Taran, MD, PhD, a pioneering interdisciplinary researcher of tumor cell biology, an award winning educator noted for her focus on student engagement, and -- in a first for a Raise the Line guest -- a shooting sports certified coach and referee. As Professor Taran explains to host Michael Carrese, these seemingly disparate professional activities require the same underlying attributes: patience, the ability to overcome barriers, openness and adaptation. She believes those last qualities are especially important for today’s medical students to acquire given the accelerated pace of change in healthcare. “They need to be equipped with the ability for critical thinking, to analyze and synthesize, and to search for unconventional solutions.” Professor Taran tries to impart these skills, in addition to the medical and scientific knowledge students must know, through a high level of engagement. “Teaching is relational, so try to be familiar with students' concerns. Talk to them, listen to them and you will become someone they trust.” In this wide-ranging and engaging conversation, Professor Taran also discusses her work as the head of the Laboratory of Isotopic Fractionation in Pathological Processes in Chair of Oncology, the use of neurodidactics in teaching, and the connection between the science of pathology and the future of humans in space.
Mentioned in this episode:
Medical University of Lodz
ClinicalKey AI Free Trial
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We like to think of Osmosis from Elsevier as a global community of millions of learners, connected by a desire to serve humanity and an inclination to use a diverse mix of educational resources to help them become excellent healthcare practitioners. On today’s episode of Raise the Line, we’re going to learn how Osmosis has created an opportunity for hundreds of those students from sixty countries to actually solidify those connections through the Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative (OHLI). Our guide to this effort is Osmosis Community Specialist Alfred Collins, who brings a keen interest in developing tech solutions to power the future of human communication to his work with OHLI.
“Technology collapses barriers to communication and to understanding the nuances behind culture, behind global perspectives,” he tells host Lindsey Smith. One example he cites is how OHLI members learn about variations in the way different cultures approach collaboration, an important insight to gain as they head into team-based healthcare environments. OHLI members convene regularly over video sessions to hear from leaders in healthcare and learn about hosting successful on-campus events, among other enriching content. They also have an opportunity to provide feedback on improving the Osmosis learning platform, and this year they’re participating in a “hackathon” aimed at improving the future of healthcare. Tune in to find out more about what the OHLI program offers, how to apply, and how Alfred thinks virtual reality and AI technologies will impact the future of community building.
Mentioned in this episode:
Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative
ClinicalKey AI Free Trial
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David Game remembers the days when the use of digital technology in education publishing amounted to putting a dictionary on a compact disc. Now, as the senior vice president of Product Management, Global Medical Education at Elsevier, he oversees a suite of learning materials that use artificial intelligence, virtual reality and 3-D modeling. “We’ve expanded into immersive technology with Apple Vision Pro that enables you to be inside the human body, to see and explore the human heart from the inside out and it is absolutely stunning,” says Game, whose long career in publishing includes experience in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, China and India. As Game has witnessed first-hand, advancements in ed tech, including distance learning, have provided students with an array of options and modalities to choose from that accommodate different learning styles and life circumstances, and that puts a premium on being able to meet students where they are. “We want to make sure that students find learning from our materials engaging, efficient, and aligned with how they live their lives and do their work.” Join host Lindsey Smith for this fascinating episode of Raise the Line to learn how Elsevier is leveraging the innovations offered by Osmosis, Complete Anatomy and ClinicalKey Student to enrich the learning of medical students on their journey to becoming excellent clinicians.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Complete Anatomy
ClinicalKey Student
Osmosis
ClinicalKey AI Free Trial
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An interesting new study from the Geisinger health system in Pennsylvania examining if genomic screening in a large population increases the identification of disease risk prompted Raise the Line to re-release a previous episode about a textbook designed to help all medical providers understand the clinical applications of genomic testing. Genomics in the Clinic: A Practical Guide to Genetic Testing, Evaluation, and Counseling from Elsevier Science Direct dives into the use of this important tool in diagnosis and screening, indicating how individuals may respond to drug therapies, and more. “We really need to educate all healthcare providers about the practice of genetics because they're going to be involved directly or indirectly in genetic testing and conveying information about what the results mean to patients and their families,” explains co-author Dr. Ethylin Wang Jabs, enterprise chair of the Department of Clinical Genomics for Mayo Clinic. Jabs and her co-author, Dr. Antonie Kline, director of Clinical Genetics at the Harvey Institute for Human Genetics at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, chose a format that makes heavy use of case studies to help readers get a better grasp on this complicated field and they also include chapters on direct-to-consumer testing and the ethical and social implications in genomic medicine. “Any kind of potentially predictive testing can have ethical issues related to it, including insurance coverage, testing for family members, protections for minors, and more,” says Dr. Kline. Join host Caleb Furnas for an illuminating episode on an area of discussion in medicine that’s growing in importance as the use of genetic testing rapidly increases.
Mentioned in this episode: Genomics in the Clinic: A Practical Guide
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To mark International Rare Disease Day, we're going to introduce you to a remarkable young woman, Zainab Alani, who is not letting her challenging rare condition stand in the way of her dream of becoming a physician. After noticing Zainab’s struggles with muscle weakness and fatigue at age 15, her mother – a physician – took her to doctors advocating for a diagnosis of the rare autoimmune condition generalized myasthenia gravis (MG). Unfortunately, a series of clinicians attributed her symptoms to her menstrual cycle and other errant causes and even accused Zainab of being ‘a lazy teenager.’ “Despite having that support and knowledge behind me, these doctors were dismissing my symptoms because of that deceiving label of rare,” Zainab explains to host Lindsey Smith. Wanting to spare others from this frustrating diagnostic odyssey, Zainab turned to advocacy once in medical school and is working with her sister and others through the organization Rare Aware Glasgow to raise awareness among the general public about rare conditions and to spur the medical community to adjust its perspective. “We don't expect medical professionals to know every single rare disease, we just want them to acknowledge their existence and not dismiss them when a family member or a patient brings them up as a differential diagnosis.” In this inspiring episode in our Year of the Zebra podcast series you’ll also learn about intersectionality creating burdens in medical diagnosis and a questionable basis for patients being denied access to new treatments.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rare Aware Glasgow
The Myasthenia Medic
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Having the ability to manage uncertainty is helpful in all professions, but perhaps especially so in medicine where uncertainty abounds and the stakes for managing it are high. Despite that, medical students receive little training in this area, something which our guest today, Dr. Jenny Moffett of RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin, is working to change. “There are approaches to uncertainty that can be learned. We can change our perspective and perceptions around uncertainty, stepping away from always viewing it as something aversive, but perhaps maybe looking at it with a little bit more curiosity and openness, and that's definitely a transformation that faculty can make,” says Dr. Moffett, the program director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Professions Education. In addition to a perspective shift, Moffett also believes providers should develop skills to talk about uncertainty with patients in an open and honest way. “Clinicians can say, I'm on this journey with you. I don't have all of the answers, but we have paths, we have options, and I'll be there with you as we work them out.” Join host Caleb Furnas as he explores Dr. Moffett’s fascinating work in this area which includes development of an immersive puzzle game that encourages students to address complex, ambiguous, and unpredictable issues.
Mentioned in this episode:
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
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The Role of Clinicians in Addressing Climate Change: Dr. Catharina Giudice, Climate and Human Health Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
“The healthcare system is in this interesting intersection when it comes to its roles and responsibilities as it pertains to climate change,” says our Raise the Line guest Dr. Catharina Giudice, a research fellow in climate and human health at Harvard University. As she explains to host Hillary Acer, the medical industry is a major producer of the greenhouse gasses that are contributing to serious health impacts on patients, especially those who are already vulnerable due to pre-existing conditions and economic struggles. Giudice, whose academic work focuses on healthcare sector climate preparedness, believes this paradox requires a response from clinicians. “There's so many small things that you can do as an individual clinician to make a difference in the climate change intersection.” Options include working to change hospital practices, educating peers and patients on the health impacts of climate change, and advocacy in the public policy arena. In this thought-provoking installment in our NextGen Journeys series, you’ll also learn how the healthcare delivery system is being affected by climate change, and about a new concentration in climate change and planetary health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mentioned in this episode:
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Harvard University Center for the Environment
Practice Greenhealth
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We continue our NextGen Journeys series today featuring fresh perspectives on education, medicine, and the future of health care with an impressive medical student who was brought to our attention by a previous podcast guest, Dr. Michael Foti, whom we'd like to thank for the recommendation. Nikolas Bletnitsky is in his third year at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Middletown, but that's just one element in his medical education. Over the last several years, Nick has done extensive work in the field of OB-GYN -- completing clinical electives in Paris, France and Bologna, Italy, in addition to the Mayo Clinic -- where he has pursued his intense interest in a variety of subspecialties, including maternal fetal medicine. “Right now I'm doing a lot because I'm young and I have the energy and I want to see a lot to give me different perspectives on things so that I can incorporate them into my own practice,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation in which you’ll learn about current practice in OB-GYN in the US and Europe, neonatal palliative care and advances in fetal surgery, along with what Nick has learned about having crucial conversations with the parents of patients when tough news needs to be discussed.
Mentioned in this episode: Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine,
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Today, our ongoing global tour of medical education on Raise the Line stops in the Republic of Ireland by way of a conversation with the head of school at Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine, Dr. Colin Doherty, who is in the midst of revising the school’s curriculum. In that process, particular attention is being given to how medical education needs to change to adjust to the potentially transformative impacts on health, healthcare and society from artificial intelligence, big data and climate change. As Dr. Doherty tells host Caleb Furnas, a recent creative workshop with internal and external stakeholders produced reassuring results. “It was really gratifying that central to the future of our workforce is not technology, but the humanity of the healthcare worker.” The widely-published epileptologist believes achieving that will require a regulatory framework that strikes the right balance. “Let AI help us with making the right choices for treatment, but don't put it between us and our relationship with the patient.” There is much to contemplate in this fascinating discussion of advances in understanding epilepsy, managing change in academia, instituting love as an outcome measure, and the many challenges and opportunities of leading a 300-year-old medical school into the future.
Mentioned in this episode: Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine
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On this episode of Raise the Line, we're going to learn about the organization behind one of the most important exams in healthcare: the NCLEX, which is the licensing exam for nurses in the US. The influence of the test, which is overseen by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), is hard to overstate because of its role in driving what nursing students and educators focus on. That was made evident when the heavily revamped Next Generation NCLEX, launched in 2023, placed much greater emphasis on clinical judgment than had been the case on past exams. “I think the education transformation prompted by the new exam is still going on. The launch was more of a catalyst than I expected,” says Dr. Philip Dickison, CEO of NCSBN, who was director of Health Professions Testing at Elsevier before joining the Council in 2010. Through administering licensing exams and serving as the collective voice of nursing regulators across the country, Dickison says NCSBN strives to achieve its ultimate goal, which is building public confidence in the competence of nurses. “I see our job at the Council as making sure there is a moment of trust between a patient and their nurse.” Join host Liz Lucas, Senior Content Manager for Nursing at Osmosis from Elsevier, as she explores the important work that goes on behind the scenes in the healthcare industry to help ensure public health and safety, and uncovers what Dickison learned as a military medic that still influences his work today.
Mentioned in this episode:
National Council of State Boards of Nursing
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We have a special Raise the Line episode today that takes a look at some behind-the-scenes work happening at Osmosis from Elsevier to expand the reach and impact of our educational content, which is now being used by learners in nearly 200 countries. Over the past year, dozens of volunteers have been hard at work translating over 100 Osmosis videos into Arabic while simultaneously researching whether these translations increase student engagement and comprehension, and improve educational equity. Our host, Dr. Amin Azzam -- who has played an oversight role in this project -- is joined by two other key members of the team: Mohammad Kabakibi, the founder of Chain of Education, an online learning platform he developed while in school at Lebanese American University; and Dania Reina, who is an e-learning creator and a pharmacist from Brazil. “In the beginning, we had one or two volunteers, but now we have more than fifty. This is huge and this only happens because we are building this for us and to leave for other healthcare professionals who will hopefully keep it going,” says Reina. Research has shown significant learning improvement among video watchers and as a bonus, the people doing the subtitles report enhanced knowledge of the subjects they work on. These positive outcomes have spurred Kabakibi to look for other opportunities to make an impact, including helping Arabic speakers learn how to do research in English. “I believe one of the legacies that this project will carry through me will be my continuous mission in reducing barriers when it comes to healthcare and education,” he shares. Check out this inspiring episode to learn about other offshoots of the project, how this work supports lifelong learning, and why AI is not up to the task.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chain of Education
Osmosis Video with Arabic Translation
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We kick off 2025 on Raise the Line by sharing some good news for providers struggling to keep up with the growing number of applications for genomic testing: a new book from Elsevier Science Direct has been designed to arm you with the knowledge you need. Genomics in the Clinic: A Practical Guide to Genetic Testing, Evaluation, and Counseling dives into the use of this important tool in diagnosis and screening, indicating how individuals may respond to drug therapies, and more. “We really need to educate all healthcare providers about the practice of genetics because they're going to be involved directly or indirectly in genetic testing and conveying information about what the results mean to patients and their families,” explains co-author Dr. Ethylin Wang Jabs, enterprise chair of the Department of Clinical Genomics for Mayo Clinic. Jabs and her co-author, Dr. Antonie Kline, director of Clinical Genetics at the Harvey Institute for Human Genetics at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, chose a format that makes heavy use of case studies to help readers get a better grasp on this complicated field and they also include chapters on direct-to-consumer testing and the ethical and social implications in genomic medicine. “Any kind of potentially predictive testing can have ethical issues related to it, including insurance coverage, testing for family members, protections for minors, and more,” says Dr. Kline. Join host Caleb Furnas for an illuminating episode on an area of discussion in medicine that’s growing in importance as the use of genetic testing rapidly increases.
Mentioned in this episode: Genomics in the Clinic: A Practical Guide
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Brothers Inspire and Share Life Lessons Through Endurance Sports: Kyle and Brent Pease of the Kyle Pease Foundation
Today, we have an especially inspiring episode in our Year of the Zebra series on rare conditions featuring Kyle Pease and his brother Brent, who recently helped each other complete the 140.6 mile Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, a challenge they also took on together in 2018. What makes their story extraordinary is that Kyle, who was born with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia, participated in these races with Brent's assistance, making them the first push-assist brother duo to finish the grueling competition. With over 125 endurance races under his belt, Kyle has become a leading disability advocate, demonstrating resilience and breaking barriers through sports. “Competing really reminds me of my life. I go through many ups and downs throughout my day just as I do in this sport. You get through a lot of different challenges throughout the competition by just focusing on the idea that anything is truly possible,” he tells host Lindsey Smith. To amplify their message of inclusivity and determination, the brothers co-founded the Kyle Pease Foundation which sponsors races and other awareness building events and they deliver speeches to a variety of organizations to share the lessons they’ve learned. “We want to encourage people to figure out what their finish line looks like. What are the things you work for and how do you get there,” says Brent. Tune in for an uplifting conversation to learn about the Foundation’s workforce inclusion program, their book, Beyond the Finish, and the “secret weapon” that makes their racing and other endeavors possible.
Mentioned in this episode:
Kyle Pease Foundation
Beyond the Finish
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The use of simulation in nursing education has been growing in recent years not only because of its proven effectiveness as a training method, but because of limits on clinical training placements, and a dearth of nursing faculty. Today on Raise the Line, we’re happy to welcome one of the pioneers in this area, Dr. Pamela Jeffries, the Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing which is consistently ranked among the top graduate nursing schools in the US. “Now that we've moved to competency-based education and outcomes, I feel simulation is one of the mechanisms that's going to help faculty to see our students demonstrate those competencies needed across domains,” Jeffries tells host Maria Pfrommer, director of Nursing Education at Osmosis from Elsevier. Dr. Jeffries is also known for her work improving the online learning landscape in nursing education. “Online learning is so important in nursing because if you look at our students, they're typically working part-time or even full-time and need that flexibility.” Maria and Dr. Jeffries also get into the details of Vanderbilt’s graduate nursing programs and discuss the game changing potential of AI in nursing education and practice in this informative episode.
Mentioned in this episode:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
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“Being a provider yourself doesn't protect you or your loved ones from illnesses and it really brings the humanity back into medicine to recognize that we're all struggling and that the patient in front of you is processing what they hear in their own way,” says Dr. Marta Perez, and OB-GYN and mother of a child with a rare condition. As Perez shares with host Lindsey Smith, her young daughter’s struggles with Smith-Magenis Syndrome – which causes an array of developmental delays and other challenges -- has made her, and her physician husband, better doctors by sharpening their understanding of the difficulty patients have navigating the healthcare system and dealing with dismissive providers. “That's been something really formative for us in how we approach patients in our own practices. We understand the stresses in medicine.” In this candid interview, Perez talks about how she and her husband juggle two demanding jobs and a child with special needs, the impediments to finding treatments for rare diseases and the emotional impact of realizing your child will not have the kind of life you hoped they would have. Don’t miss an episode rich with lessons for providers and parents as our Year of the Zebra series continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
@Dr.MartaPerez
Smith Magenis Syndrome
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This episode of Raise the Line is special for a couple of reasons. Our guest, Toh Hong Keng recently graduated from medical school at the age of seventy, making him one of the oldest medical students in the world; and Shiv Gaglani is taking a break from his 3rd year of medical school -- which he is completing at the age of 35 -- to make a rare appearance hosting the show so he can compare notes with Toh about being a non-traditional med student and to learn from his inspiring example. Toh is a retired tech sales executive who earned his medical degree this summer from Southwestern University PHINMA in the Philippines after a long career in the Asia-Pacific region. As he tells Shiv, Toh brushed aside the opinions of acquaintances that pursuing a medical degree in his late sixties was a little crazy. “I’m a firm believer that at this age, we should be able to do what we like to do, not what people think we should be doing.” Tune in to find out what sparked his interest in getting the degree, what his biggest challenges were, how his classmates interacted with him, what he considers highlights of the experience, and what he plans to do next. You’ll also learn about the concept of “sayang” which Toh relied on when he was facing doubts along this very difficult, but rewarding journey.
Mentioned in this episode:
CNN Article About Toh
Southwestern University PHINMA School of Medicine
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Leaning into the ancient wisdom that ‘practice makes perfect’ nursing educators are increasingly embracing approaches such as simulation and competency based education that provide students with low-risk opportunities to practice skills. You might even say that the ‘see one, do one, teach one’ framework has evolved into ‘see one, do one, debrief, get assessed and do it again.’ But while research shows these hands-on methods lead to increased patient safety and better clinical outcomes, they can be challenging to implement as we’ll learn on this episode from April Rowe Neal, PhD, RN, the graduate nursing simulation educator at Winona State University College of Nursing & Health Sciences. “It can be hard for a lot of faculty because it's not necessarily how we've all been trained, right? You have to take more of that ‘guide on the side’ role rather than having all of your lecture notes perfectly typed to deliver to your students,” she explains to new Raise the Line host Kelsey LaFayette, DNP, Senior Content Manager at Osmosis from Elsevier. On the plus side, Rowe Neal thinks these methods build a partnership between the learner and the teacher. Find out why that happens, learn how her program uses scaffolding to set students up for success and get Rowe Neal’s take on the role of mindfulness for medical learners and providers in this insightful conversation.
Mentioned in this episode:
Winona State University College of Nursing & Health Sciences
2024 is the year today’s Raise the Line guest, Michelle Hughes, is supposed to die. That’s according to the diagnosis she received three years ago from an oncologist who told her she had a rare, incurable form of cancer that had already caused innumerable tumors throughout her body. As a mother of three – with her youngest child being just a few weeks old at the time of her diagnosis – this was obviously devastating news. But fortunately, the optimism and encouragement of a second oncologist allowed for a new path forward. “It changed my entire world when that one doctor had hope,” she tells host Lindsey Smith.
Fueled by the advice of her new doctor “to just live your life” Michelle embraced a healthy lifestyle that includes distance running, including a recently completed triathlon. She has also embraced the role of empowering others to face their challenges through “My Journey to Just Live” an organization she created that keeps her busy doing a blog, social media posts, speaking engagements fundraisers and other activities. Join us for a special edition of our Year of the Zebra series focused on rare diseases to learn about Michelle’s challenging journey to motherhood, being a parent to three young children, and living with terminal cancer. “I remind my children and myself that cancer doesn't define me. I'm so much more than that.”
For information on the November 16th online premiere of a documentary about Michelle’s story, visit My Journey to Just Live
What good are dazzling advancements in science – such as the rapid development of an effective COVID vaccine – if public distrust of science and medicine leads people to reject them? That’s the sort of question animating the work of today’s Raise the Line guest Dr. Kathy Reeves, president and CEO of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. A key part of the answer, Reeves believes, is to increase the level of humanism in healthcare, defined as providing kind, safe, trustworthy care. “Humanism in healthcare is the vehicle to allow science to make an impact, and it is what is needed to change a broken healthcare system,” she tells host Caleb Furnas. Her conviction is based on numerous studies showing that patients who feel heard, understood, and treated with empathy by their healthcare providers report higher satisfaction levels and improved quality of life. The approach boosts provider satisfaction and lowers costs as well. “There's more science in the value of humanism than in many of the things I learned almost thirty years ago when I was a pediatric resident.” Tune in to this insightful episode to discover what providers can do in less than a minute to create a connection with patients, what Reeves and the foundation are doing to support providers who want to incorporate humanism into their practice, and how the White Coat ceremony got started.
Mentioned in this episode:
Arnold P. Gold Foundation
We've learned quite a bit on Raise the Line about the growing trend of providing medical care in the home, particularly as it relates to services enabled by advances in remote monitoring technologies. In this episode, we’re adding to that base of knowledge by focusing on what's happening with in-home physical therapy services. Our guide will be Palak Shah, PT, the co-founder and head of clinical services at Luna, a leading provider of in-home physical therapy that has completed one million patient visits in twenty-eight states since its founding in 2019. “Our patients appreciate this option so much because there are so many hurdles to access -- time constraints, ability to come to a clinic, the cost of travel, the dependency on family and caregivers -- and Luna eliminates all of that,” Shah tells host Michael Carrese. The company has also focused on convenience for its 3,000 licensed providers through developing an app that integrates documentation, care coordination, billing, scheduling and other administrative tasks. But can you actually provide high-quality care for a full range of patient needs in what might often be small spaces? Based on data from its patient population in Southern California, Shah says Luna found that 87% of people can be seen in the home because large pieces of equipment are not needed to provide the required treatments. Tune in to learn how the services are paid for, how the system works for the hospitals and practice groups the company partners with, and what Luna’s providers say about working in the home environment.
Mentioned in this episode: Luna
Over a long and very active career as a researcher, clinician and educator, Dr. Nicholas Talley has witnessed the traditional mind/body dichotomy fade in relevance as science has determined just how integrated they really are. “The body talks to the mind, the mind talks to the body, and we're exploring how this happens and what we can do to interfere, if you like, to make a difference and perhaps restore health by doing so,” he says. Dr. Talley, a distinguished laureate professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia, is an international authority in the field of neurogastroenterology with more than 1,000 peer reviewed publications. Much of his work centers on disorders of gut-brain interaction, including functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, and GI complications in diabetes. “What keeps me going is this idea that gut-brain connections are going to be very important, not just in gastrointestinal diseases, but in fact in many diseases that affect people across the spectrum of internal medicine.” Join Raise the Line host Caleb Furnas for a fascinating look at this burgeoning field as well as insights on probiotics, possible pharmaceutical interventions on the horizon and how artificial intelligence is impacting medical education.
Mentioned in this episode:
University of Newcastle
Today’s Raise the Line guest provides a great example of how to embrace the range of career options that are available to medical practitioners. In the dozen years since earning his medical degree, Dr. Andres Acevedo-Melo has been a medical liaison and advisor for two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, provided recruitment support for clinical trials, and been an editor with a publisher of open access journals. He also spent two years as a student leader in our Osmosis Medical Education Fellows program. “You might have a plan for your whole medical career, but you can also have alternatives. Consider your life like a stack of possibilities where you can choose one, but if you get detoured from that path, you can learn something from that,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Dr. Acevedo-Melo, who just finished an internal medicine residency program at Fundación Santa Fe de Bogota, also discusses his interest in coaching as a tool to improve the leadership skills of providers. “I think we can use coaching to help our students and our colleagues know themselves better so they can try to identify what leadership style they should use to get results. Because at the end, if we are benefited, our patients will also benefit so it would become like a snowball effect.” Don’t miss this engaging interview that offers insights on the use of AI in clinical trial recruitment, why providers need to prioritize their mental health, and the connection between golfing and effective leadership as our NextGen Journeys series continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Fundacion Sante Fe de Bogota
PLOS ONE Journal
“I thought that education and medicine was a pathway for me to not only get out of my small town but to also make a huge impact somewhere in the world,” says Jermaine Blakely, a third-year medical student at Howard University College of Medicine. But Blakely didn’t wait for medical school to start making a difference. While an undergrad at Morehouse College, he created a program that paired students with local churches to help the homeless, as well as women who were victims of domestic violence. Although he was pre-med at Morehouse, his path to medical school included detours to get a Masters in Health Policy and Management at NYU and several years working in healthcare IT at hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area, giving him a broader perspective than his younger classmates on the opportunities before them. “I think we're asking the wrong question to medical students. Instead of asking what they want to specialize in, we should ask ‘what do you want to do with your medical degree’ because I think your degree should be a passport to many different career paths.” Possibilities for Blakely include creating a medical device company, joining a venture capital firm or maybe falling in love with a specialty and having a clinically-focused career. Regardless, there’s little doubt we will be hearing about his positive impact in the years ahead. Don’t miss meeting this inspirational young leader as our NextGen Journeys series continues.
Howard University College of Medicine
One way to look at today's guest is that if he were a zebra, he would have extra stripes because, unfortunately, he has more than one rare condition, which is a first for a guest in our Year of the Zebra series. After struggling with various GI issues most of his life, Brian Kennedy, an Elsevier colleague, was diagnosed several years ago with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), a rare disorder that prevents the pancreas from playing its proper role in aiding digestion. At the same time, he was told he had MALS, another rare condition, that interferes with blood flow in the abdomen. Both of these disorders can cause chronic pain in addition to a host of other difficult symptoms. While it was a relief to finally have answers, Brian says it also sparked a long period of grief. “You start to realize your life is not going to go back to the way you had it, but you just have to accept it and then you sort of think about the things I can do and focus on those and not the things that I can't do anymore,” he tells host Michael Carrese. That shift in perspective and connecting with a community of other EPI and MALS patients has helped Brian to stay as positive as possible and focus on being as healthy as he can under the circumstances. Listen-in to learn about these challenging diseases, the therapy that is helping Brian eat without subsequent debilitating pain and his advice to providers about dealing with rare disease patients.
Mentioned in this episode:
Primal Pancreas by A. Toxopeus
Mission Cure
“If you really want to build a relationship with your patients, a model based on insurance doesn't enable you to spend enough time with them to build that connection,” says Dr. Ginamarie Papia, a practitioner of integrative medicine based in New York. That explains why the 30-something entrepreneur has just launched her own virtual “direct-to-patient” medical practice that she describes as a more affordable version of the concierge model. The move reflects frustration among providers of her generation with the confining, administrative approach to healthcare delivery that’s contributing to high levels of burnout, and their desire for a better work-life balance. It also reflects a realization that millennials and subsequent generations are digital natives who grew up in a culture with high expectations for convenience. Dr. Papia tells host Michael Carrese that her primary care practice will provide natural, holistic solutions with a particular focus on weight loss and women’s health, including options beyond birth control medication for younger women struggling with hormone or menstrual cycle issues. Join us for a grassroots-level look at evolving models of healthcare delivery, the benefits of integrative medicine and the role of social media in providing patient education.
Divinely Guided Health
The Upward Spiral Podcast
As we continue our Year of the Zebra focus on rare disorders, we’re going to focus on the productive relationships that can develop between the families of children with rare diseases and the researchers who are trying to develop treatments and cures. Join Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith as she explores the various dimensions involved with Jennifer Wells, whose young son has a neurodevelopmental syndrome called CAGS (Chopra Amiel Gordon Syndrome) and her son's physician, Dr. Maya Chopra, a clinical geneticist who co-discovered the gene in question and who is leading an international study on CAGS. “It's so important as researchers that we engage and include families in our research design and methodology so we understand what are the most relevant and meaningful endpoints that we're going to use for trials,” explains Dr. Chopra, director of Translational Genomic Medicine at the Rosamund Stone Zander Translational Neuroscience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. In turn, family members can be a critical connection to the tightly-knit communities that grow up around specific disorders which are eager for the latest information. “As materials become available from Dr. Chopra and her research team, then I try to partner with them to get it out to the community and have those resources available,” says Jenifer. Tune in to this fascinating discussion to learn about other benefits of these relationships, what’s happening in CAGS research, and an approach to research being pursued by Dr. Chopra that will help make small studies more scalable, potentially benefitting multiple conditions at once.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rosamund Stone Zander Translational Neuroscience Center
In 2010, our guest, Rob Long, was on the cusp of an NFL career after being a star punter at Syracuse University. But that bright future was sidelined when Rob was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain tumor just five days after his final college game. Fortunately, emergency surgery and treatment gave him a second chance. As you’ll learn in this fascinating episode of Raise the Line, a new purpose took the place of his NFL dreams and today he's the executive director of Uplifting Athletes, a nonprofit using sports to raise awareness and resources for rare diseases. One signature program developed under his leadership is the Young Investigator Draft held annually since 2018 at the home stadium of the Philadelphia Eagles. “Our program is modeled after the NFL draft, but instead of drafting the top athletes in the country, we draft and fund the next generation of rare disease researchers,” Long tells host Lindsey Smith. So far, Uplifting Athletes has provided fifty researchers with over one million dollars in grants through this approach. Tune in to learn about other innovative work that has connected hundreds of rare disease patients with professional athletes and provided opportunities for researchers to attend patient & family conferences as our Year of the Zebra focus on rare disorders continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Uplifting Athletes
Given Osmosis from Elsevier’s mission to educate the next generation of healthcare providers, it’s fitting that our 500th episode of the Raise the Line podcast features a conversation with Parsa Mohri, a medical student at Acibadem University in Turkey. As you’ll learn in this thoughtful interview with host Hillary Acer, Parsa applied a “Monday morning” test in choosing medicine as a career: what kind of job would he feel motivated to go to at the start of every work week for decades. “I picked medicine because I could find meaning and value in the work as well as enjoying it at the same time,” he explains. Parsa has also sought out meaningful roles on campus, including serving as a member of a committee that gathers feedback from students on the effectiveness of the education they are receiving and shares it with faculty. “This gives faculty a chance to offer any form of alternatives so when the next students come by, they will have a smoother and a more efficient education.” That drive to improve medical education also explains Parsa’s involvement in the Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative where he is guiding and mentoring fellow medical students and helping to foster a supportive and inclusive learning community. Parsa is a great example of the many compassionate and creative medical learners we have featured throughout the 500 episodes of Raise the Line, and we hope to introduce you to many more inspiring future clinicians as the podcast continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Acibadem University
“When I make a diagnosis of cancer, that's changing the landscape of that patient's life forever. Their trajectory is being set by the words I write down on my report. So, that’s why I say pathologists are the most important doctors you’ll never meet,” explains Dr. Jennifer Hunt, interim dean at the University of Florida College of Medicine. As she tells host Michael Carrese, it was the intervention of mentors that facilitated her exploration of pathology, sparking a passion in her for the importance of mentorship and sponsorship. Her career as a practitioner, educator and leader at some of the most prestigious health systems in the country has provided Dr. Hunt with many opportunities to pay that assistance forward and has led to an interest in coaching as an additional modality for career and personal development. “In medicine, coaching has been underutilized but as a dean, I'm seeing more requests for recruitment packages that include coaching, and I think that shows it's becoming a more mainstream tool.” This Raise the Line episode also covers how the college is preparing students to practice medicine in a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence, and the advantage of being able to offer them a wide range of clinical settings from urban to rural, and academic to community-based. “We have educational venues that cover all of the practice of medicine and that also opens up possibilities for doing community-based research and clinical trials enrollment across lots of different settings.”
Mentioned in this episode: University of Florida College of Medicine
“Nurses have a lot of answers. We're problem solvers. We're innovators,” says Dr. Sarah Szanton, who is a case in point for using her experience doing home visits as a nurse practitioner to help pioneer an innovative model of elder care called CAPABLE. It’s a four-month long program in which a nurse, occupational therapist and handy worker address difficulties an older adult may have in daily living as well as the safety issues in their home so they are able to age in place while achieving the best possible health status and quality of life. So far, it has served 10,000 people in twenty-three states, and efforts are underway to scale the model as broadly as possible to meet the needs of the country’s burgeoning senior population. “If the CAPABLE program were a drug, it would be a blockbuster. It cuts disability in half and saves seven times what it costs,” she explains. As you’ll learn in this informative conversation with our new Raise the Line host Caleb Furnas, Dr. Szanton is in a position to shape healthcare delivery far beyond elder care in her role as dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Tune in to learn about a community healthcare model being developed based on work in Costa Rica, and how the school deploys simulation technologies to hone difficult skills and develop empathy for both patients and fellow providers.
Mentioned in this episode:
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
CAPABLE
You might think training for and completing ultramarathons while managing the long hours and other demands of a medical residency would be too much to handle, but in the case of Dr. Estello Hill, athletics have fueled his success on the job. “It's really taught me what I'm capable of, how I can push myself and when I should dial back. I think it's given me an intense sense of balance with everything,” he explains. Dr. Hill just wrapped up his internal medicine residency at the University of British Columbia and has begun a fellowship there in gastroenterology where he can pursue his special interest in the gut microbiome. “It's an exciting space that I think is going to open up some new understanding for a lot of disease processes that we don't actively understand now, and also potentially open up new treatment pathways.” In this inspiring installment in our NextGen Journeys series, Hill and host Hillary Acer also discuss how he sees AI being integrated into medical care, and his interest in longevity medicine, complete with book recommendations on nutrition and other keys to a healthy lifestyle.
Mentioned in this episode: The University of British Columbia
For our NextGen Journeys series, host Hillary Acer sat down with Dr. Brian Le at a major moment of transition as he was just finishing up his residency in family medicine at Adventist Health in Glendale, California. As he embarks on his next chapter, Dr. Le reflects on the highlights of his medical education journey and takes stock of the key lessons he will bring forward with him. “I think the biggest thing that I've learned so far is you really don't know what you don't know, which goes to one of the reasons why I wanted to pursue medicine... there's always an endless pursuit of knowledge and of improving yourself,” he shares. There’s also an endless amount of knowledge coming at today’s clinicians which, he says, requires a good dose of humility. “Those who don't remain humble, in my opinion, can't really thrive in this environment just because there's always something new to learn.” Dr. Le’s learning journey included earning a DO from A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Arizona -- one of Osmosis’ key learning partners -- a master's degree in medical health sciences from Touro University in California, and serving as an Osmosis Medical Education Fellow and curriculum consultant. Considering that wealth of education and experience, it’s no wonder you’re in for a wisdom drop on learning, medicine, and the future of healthcare from one of the newest members of the next generation of caregivers.
Mentioned in this episode: A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine
In this installment of in our Next Gen Journeys series featuring conversations with learners and early career practitioners in medical professions around the globe, we introduce you to Dr. Bradley Max Segal, a physician in the Department of Health, South Africa with a self-described passion for technology and innovation. Although he’s only a few years out of medical school, Dr. Segal has worked extensively at the intersection of healthcare and data science to develop solutions to the challenges found in low resource health systems, often serving as a bridge between technical and clinical teams. “Oftentimes you have groups that are speaking a completely different language so the approach I take is about being aligned in terms of what the problem is, aligning the language and aligning the solution,” he tells Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith. Of course one of the biggest questions in healthcare regarding the use of technology is the role of AI. On the plus side, Dr. Segal sees great potential for AI chatbots to be used as an extension of very limited clinical staff in under resourced areas leading to improved patient engagement and understanding of their health. He cautions, though, that providers need to develop the ability to discern the quality of the many AI tools that are coming their way at a fast pace. “I think the main skillset that's going to become increasingly relevant is the ability to understand how these systems are evaluated and where they can go wrong. Understanding how not to use them is oftentimes more important than when to use them.” Join us for an insightful conversation on the realities of deploying technology in healthcare especially in low-resource areas.
Department of Health South Africa
Today on Raise the Line, we make a stop in Northern Europe on our ongoing tour of medical education around the globe and bring you the perspective of Dr. Povilas Ignatavicius, a hepato-pancreato-biliary and liver transplant surgeon and vice dean at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, which is the largest institution of higher education for biomedical sciences in that country. In particular, Dr. Ignatavicius shares his insights on medical simulation and student evaluations, which are among his areas of responsibility. As he describes to host Michael Carrese, his school takes an approach to simulation that values a continual presence of instructors and distributes resources so that individual programs such as surgery and nursing can offer access to what he describes as improved simulation technology. “Our students are exposed to medical simulation starting in year one. Our plan for the next year is that they will spend about 30% of the time with medical simulation at different levels,” he explains. This enlightening conversation also touches on the growth of international students at the university, how AI is impacting education, and a key quality that he thinks sets his school apart from others in Europe.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
Last year’s declaration by the U.S Surgeon General that loneliness and isolation are a public health crisis was based on research showing that they have a negative impact on mental health, blood pressure, cognitive performance and, most relevant to our discussion today on Raise the Line, immune system function. That’s why it’s important for people dealing with chronic illnesses to stay socially connected at whatever level they are capable of, says our guest Dr. Rose Perry, a neuroscientist and executive director of an applied research non-profit called Social Creatures. “When your symptoms aren't good, being isolated can be like throwing gasoline on the fire. I don't think lack of social connection is a cause of chronic illness, it's really about setting conditions that make healing maximally possible,” she says. At Social Creatures, Dr. Perry and her team create programs designed to help populations at risk for social isolation feel like they are connected and supported. As she explains to host Raven Baxter of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mount Sinai, providers should be aware of programs like hers and affinity groups (e.g. knitting clubs) in their locality and engage in “social prescribing” as part of a treatment plan. “A lot of doctors will develop a resource list so they can pull it up and then kind of matchmake their patient with an organization.” Don’t miss this final episode in our special series on Post-Acute Infection Syndromes where you’ll hear about practical strategies providers can use to help address an often overlooked factor in someone’s ability to be as healthy as possible.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Medical school and residency are daunting enough without dealing with a chronic illness on top of it, but that has been the reality for our guest today, Dr. Kyle Dymanus. In this candid interview with Raise the Line host Hillary Acer, Dymanus shares a wealth of wisdom about balancing studies, work and wellbeing gained during her years as a med student at Medical College of Georgia and her current residency in urology at Rush University Medical Center. A key for her was having a network of supporters outside of her professional circle to help her manage ulcerative colitis, a condition she was hesitant to disclose to colleagues and supervisors. “My friends and family were literally the ones on the ground calling my doctors to schedule appointments and following up when they didn't send medications to my pharmacy. I honestly could not have done it without them,” she shares. On a promising note, Dymanus believes more support is being made available within residency programs as recognition grows about the mental and physical health impacts that can result from the demanding, high stakes work involved. “The traditional thinking with residents and doctors is you need to be strong, you need to kind of suffer through this, but I think a lot of programs are now being more proactive, and they’re providing supportive resources for residents ahead of time.” Hillary and Dr. Dymanus also touch on her interests in medical device development, outcomes research, quality improvement, and global health inequities. You won’t want to miss this inspiring episode in our Next Gen Journeys series featuring fresh perspectives on education, medicine, and the future of healthcare.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rush University Medical Center
Having a child with a complex illness can be especially challenging for parents because of differing opinions among providers about causes, symptoms and treatments for disorders such as long COVID and chronic Lyme. “A common theme I would hear from parents is that they really had to push their providers to consider Lyme. Sometimes they even had to beg for testing to be done because it just wasn't considered a possibility,” says Dr. Charlotte Mao, a pediatric infectious disease physician working with leading foundations in the Lyme disease and associated infections arena. Adding to challenge is that kids often have trouble explaining their symptoms, says Dr. Lael Yonker, a pediatric pulmonologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I think takes a lot of patience by the pediatrician, listening carefully to the parents and patient, and really trying to dig into what their symptoms actually mean.” Join host Raven Baxter of The Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mount Sinai as she draws out valuable guidance on how providers can work effectively with both children and parents during a journey laden with uncertainty. Key tips include having humility for the limits of your own knowledge, keeping an open mind for unexpected possibilities and having respect for what patients know about their own body. Don’t miss this wisdom drop from these deeply experienced pediatricians and researchers as our series on Post-Acute Infection Syndromes continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
“Helping patients with complex illnesses is a lot like rock climbing. You're looking for toe holds and finger grips that you can use to get from where you are to where this patient wants to be,” says Dr. Leo Galland, an internist and author who specializes in undiagnosed or difficult to treat illnesses. His fellow guest on this episode of Raise the Line, co-founder of the California Center for Functional Medicine Dr. Sunjya Schweig, agrees and says figuring out that next anchor point depends on taking the time to learn about all aspects of a patient’s life and lifestyle, and building a cooperative relationship with them. “Listening is the first therapeutic step,” he tells host Raven Baxter of The Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at Mount Sinai. In this deeply informative conversation, both experts underscore that working in this realm requires moving past differential diagnosis and symptom management and persisting in the search for root causes. “You have to embrace the complexity and the individuality of illness. Thinking for yourself and always questioning is really important and, you know, being a real pain in the butt kind of person is what you've got to be,” adds Galland. This special episode is packed with valuable insights on the limits of testing, the role of disease triggers and mediators, the power of lifestyle changes and much more as our series on Post-Acute Infection Syndromes continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
One key theme in this episode of Raise the Line is that attention to details matters for both patients with post-acute infection syndromes and the clinicians helping them as they grapple with often debilitating symptoms caused by dysautonomia, cardiac complications and other disorders. For patients, it’s about paying close attention to their bodies and diet, and being intentional about their use of energy. For providers, it’s listening very carefully to patients as they describe their fatigue, pain, lightheadedness and other symptoms and keeping up with the latest research on treatments so there are options to offer if there’s little or no progress being made in physical therapy, which is sometimes the case. “Don't just assume therapy is gonna go smooth. It rarely goes smooth. So, have an answer for the patient who says, ‘I'm not feeling better, what should I try next,’” says Dr. David Putrino, director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at Mount Sinai. It’s also important to set expectations for patients who may think a few weeks of PT will resolve their issues, as is often the case with recovery from an injury. “What we're looking to do is reduce the number of flare-ups that happen, reduce the severity of those flare-ups, and ideally reach a point of symptom stability,” says Dr. Jenna Tosto, a leading expert in neurophysiological rehabilitation at Mount Sinai. To help patients understand the amount of progress happening, if any, host Dr. Raven Baxter, a long COVID patient herself, says keeping a daily journal and using fitness trackers can reveal important details. This expansive conversation includes valuable insights for patients and providers alike on breathwork, emotional regulation and other techniques to try during the search for improvement and recovery in complex chronic illnesses.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
We continue our Year of the Zebra focus on rare diseases today by exploring the ability of AI technology to aid in the diagnosis of rare and other conditions by analyzing the voice and speech of the patient. This approach is promising enough that the National Institutes of Health has invested in research projects to test its effectiveness, and the private sector is pursuing it as well, including the company Canary Speech whose technology can be trained to detect conditions that are traditionally difficult to identify, or those where early identification is crucial to treatment. “With just seconds of conversational speech, we can screen for multiple behavioral and cognitive conditions,” says Caitlyn Brooksby, Canary's vice president of Marketing and Strategic Partnership. One prime example she offers is a study on Huntington’s disease done in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in which more than a thousand features of speech were identified differentiating healthy patients from those with the disease. “Every ten seconds, we're looking at millions of data points, but we don't look at the words you say. We're looking at biomarkers within speech such as duration per word, word-per-second, bandwidth and contrast. It's really incredible what we can gather from speech alone,” she explains. Canary is in the second iteration of its Huntington’s model which is showing accuracy rates of 90% and above, and it recently added mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease to its offerings. Join host Lindsey Smith on this episode of Raise the Line to learn more about this promising approach to diagnosis.
Mentioned in this episode:
Canary Speech
Exercise is good for you, except in very specific cases when it isn’t. One of the few examples, post-exertional malaise (PEM), is the subject of today’s Raise the Line episode in our series on post-acute infection syndromes produced in collaboration with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mt. Sinai. “The key to understanding PEM is that it's not just fatigue. It's really the worsening of symptoms or the onset of new symptoms after exercise,” says Dr. Rob Wust of Vrije University Amsterdam. His research group is one of several around the world now focused on this previously obscure phenomenon due to the prevalence of long COVID in which PEM is a nearly universal symptom. And while it’s good news that this debilitating affliction is receiving new attention, no clear picture of causes and treatments has yet emerged. In terms of suspects, the body’s energy suppliers, mitochondria, are a popular target, but while Wust’s team and others attempt to unravel the mysteries of mitochondrial dysfunction, millions of patients suffering with PEM need strategies to avoid exhaustion. In that regard, Dr. David Putrino of the Cohen Center says patients and clinicians alike need to take all use of bodily energy into account, not just obvious activities such as walking. “The brain uses a lot of energy, so cognitive exertion will cause crashes. Emotional exertion will cause crashes and so will digestion and even sweating.” Join host Raven Baxter of the Cohen Center as she explores what can be done for patients as the race to find better diagnostics and treatments for PEM continues in some of the world’s top scientific centers.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Long COVID Physio
It’s hard for many to believe a tick bite or case of COVID can lead to severe mental illness, but we’ll be hearing from someone on this episode of Raise the Line who lived through just that experience. Dr. Raven Baxter also happens to be the host of this special series on post-acute infection syndromes produced in collaboration with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mt. Sinai. While struggling with long COVID, Raven developed panic attacks and other mental health problems, and even though she explained to providers that she previously had no history of mental illness, there was reluctance to attribute the symptoms to her body’s reaction to SARS‑CoV‑2. Unfortunately, this is not surprising to Dr. Shannon Delaney, a psychiatrist whose patients share similar stories. “People who are going through this can be suffering a lot, not only because of their symptoms, but because of invalidation from the medical community,” says Delaney, who believes brain inflammation caused by immune system dysregulation can explain why mental health issues emerge in this context. While Raven’s other guest, Dr. Mike VanElzakker, concurs, his research at Massachusetts General Hospital and the PolyBio Research Foundation focuses on the vagus nerve as a contributing factor to symptoms of various types. “I would argue at least part of what people with these complex chronic illnesses are experiencing is an ongoing sickness response and that may be because there is a signal that's constantly bombarding the vagus nerve, which may be sensitized by inflammation.” This is an eye-opening look at mind-body connections that are challenging conventional wisdom.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
“I think education is very much of an artistic process. I love to think of this as kind of being in a museum. It's about curation of an experience,” says Alex Kendall who oversees the physician assistant training program at Emory University. As he takes on the role of director, Kendall’s background in art and anthropology give him an interesting perspective from which to build on and realize the program’s vision and mission, which are rooted in evidence-based education, leadership development, interprofessional education and creating patient-centered, community-oriented clinicians. Toward that end, one curated experience is participation in the longstanding Emory Farm Worker project in which students care for thousands of migrant workers from Florida, Georgia and other states. Among other things, it’s a great opportunity to deepen awareness of the social determinants of health and practice caring for diverse populations. Looking to the future, Kendall and colleagues are keen to prepare their students for growing trends that will impact their work as clinicians including team-based care, the aging of the population and the increase in climate-related health problems. “We ask ourselves what does the future of health and society look like in ten years and what is needed from physician assistants? Our job is to identify what medical education then needs to look like in order to meet those future challenges.” This expansive conversation with host Hillary Acer also touches on Emory’s cognitive apprenticeship curriculum, scaffolded learning, making primary care an easier choice of specialty and the growing interest in point of care ultrasound.
Mentioned in this episode:
Emory University School of Medicine PA Program
Emory Farm Worker Project
Why do patients with long COVID have such a wide array of symptoms affecting so many bodily systems? That bedeviling question is the focus of this episode of Raise the Line featuring Dr. Resia Pretorius, head of the Department of Physiological Sciences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and a renowned researcher in coagulation. “The underlying concept of what is happening, in our minds, is that long COVID is a widespread vascular endotheliitis, which is driven by the presence of all sorts of inflammatory molecules in circulation,” she tells host Dr. Raven Baxter of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE). Because endothelial cells line blood vessels that travel to every part of the body, their impairment produces a range of symptoms. Dr. Pretorius and her research colleagues have discovered that “microclots” – abnormal proteins that prevent clots from breaking down – are another ingredient in the long COVID recipe due to their possible role in reducing oxygen flow to the brain and other organs. Because of their unusual structure, microclots are not detected by customary blood tests, leading Dr. Pretorius to add her voice to the chorus of stakeholders calling for the development of new diagnostic tests and additional treatments. “We need a concerted effort for trials. We need FDA approval for the laboratory test that we developed. I’m confident we will get it done, but it will take time, which is sad.” Tune in to learn about the possible causes of microclots, promising research on anticoagulation therapy and why long COVID is not a “checklist” disease, as our special series on post-acute infection syndromes continues.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
In a word cloud generated from this episode of Raise the Line, ‘communication’ would dominate: communication between the immune system, nervous system and connective tissue; communication between patients and providers; and communication among providers to solve challenging diagnostic puzzles. As our special series on post-acute infection syndromes continues, host Raven Baxter of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) is joined by neurologist Dr. Ilene Ruhoy, immunologist Dr. Anne Maitland and physical therapist Dr. Valerie Iovine Rogers to unravel the interconnectedness at work in these diseases and reveal key insights about caring for patients. “In the complex disease world, there isn’t a nice protocol that we have in other parts of medicine, so it takes a lot of listening and a lot of trial and error,” says Dr. Ruhoy. “The most important thing is to continue digging into that story and building that practitioner-patient relationship so that there's trust there,” adds Dr. Maitland. All agree that a lack of specialists in mast cell activation syndrome, hypermobility disorders and related areas puts a premium on developing referral networks so that diagnostic roadblocks do not end the search for answers. “It really harps on the importance of an interdisciplinary care team where all of us have to communicate with one another and educate the patient so they know what they're advocating for and where they need to go,” Dr. Rogers explains. Don’t miss this instructive conversation on both the art of patient care and the science of these often debilitating illnesses.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
If we didn’t know Dr. Brian Ogendi, we might be concerned about someone being able to pull off a residency and two fellowships while being a father of two young boys, but we do know Brian through his work with our Osmosis Medical Education Fellows (OMEF) program in which he played a major role while earning both his MD and MBA degrees. In other words, we’re not worried. Host Hillary Acer checked in with Brian recently as he was wrapping up med school and preparing to start a residency in Internal Medicine/Physician-Scientist Pathway at UVA Health with a fellowship in infectious disease and critical care medicine. “For me, medicine and research really go hand in hand. They enhance each other, they sharpen each other,” he explains. He’s already demonstrated that in his role as research advisor to the OMEF program where he drew on his work at the NIH and elsewhere to provide grounding and encouragement to learners. Brian is hoping to put all of this education and experience to work providing care to underserved communities both in the United States and in his native Kenya, leveraging a global network built through Osmosis to do so. Don’t miss this uplifting installment in our Next Gen Journeys series full of advice on juggling heavy workloads and family responsibilities while gaining the skills to become an effective, community-minded physician.
Mentioned in this episode:
UVA Health
Diagnosing Post-Acute Infection Syndromes: Special Series from The Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mount Sinai
“Tick-borne illnesses are incredibly stealthy and complicated and if I wasn't living and breathing it every day and seeing the intensity of these symptoms in patients, I would never believe it,” says Shannon Delaney, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City. The complexity of such illnesses and the symptoms they cause is a key reason it can often take years to reach a diagnosis, which is the focus of this episode of Raise the Line, part of a special series on post-acute infection syndromes that Osmosis from Elsevier has created in partnership with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In addition to Dr. Delaney, host Dr. Raven Baxter of CoRE welcomes Dr. Amy Kontorovich, an associate professor in Cardiology and Genomic Medicine at the Icahn School and Dr. David Putrino, director of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mount Sinai, to explore the limitations of current diagnostic tools and protocols and what changes are needed to improve patient care. Key themes include developing better tests for pathogens and educating providers to listen more carefully to patients. “In a typical medical encounter, the biggest dropped ball is completely disregarding an acute infection in the medical history,” stresses Putrino. All agree that providers need to be more comfortable with uncertainty and resist the urge to develop treatment plans that don’t address root causes. “If more doctors could just say, ‘I don't know’ I think it would do a great service to patients," adds Kontorovich. This is a candid and enlightening discussion about the importance of developing a collaborative, patient-centered mindset to provide the best care for those suffering with a range of post-acute infection syndromes.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Today, we add another voice to our ongoing conversation on Raise the Line about how to improve the nurse staffing crisis faced by the US healthcare system. That voice belongs to Bhavdeep Singh, founder and CEO of Global MedTeam, a startup focused on bringing foreign-born nurses to the US to fill staff shortages. When Singh, who has deep experience in healthcare management, learned from a hospital executive that the annualized cost of employing one travel nurse can reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars in some locations, he realized there was room, and a need, for new approaches. “There's some wonderful work being done in this space, whether it's process improvement, remote monitoring, or software to make sure that we have the right kind of scheduling…all of these things are very helpful, but that's not going to get us to where we need to be. We will still have a huge shortage.” Singh believes employing pre-credentialed nurses from abroad, especially from the Philippines which has a long history of sending nurses to the US, is a viable part of the solution and his firm has put processes in place to make it a turnkey experience for employers. “We handle everything for the client including immigration from start to finish.” Join host Michael Carrese as he explores potential healthcare impacts on the “supplying” countries, the storied reputation of Filipino nurses and how this approach might also work for shortages in allied health professions.
Mentioned in this episode: Global MedTeam
Today, we’re excited to bring you the first episode in a special Raise the Line series that Osmosis from Elsevier has created in partnership with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. PAIS: Root Causes, Drivers, and Actionable Solutions is a ten-part examination of a range of post-acute infection syndromes such as long COVID, tick-borne illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, and connective tissue disorders. Your host, Dr. Raven Baxter, a molecular biologist and Director of Science Communication at CoRE, will be joined by an impressive array of specialists in the field to explore causes, symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, as well as the devastating impact on patients who often struggle for many months or even years with a troubling span of symptoms affecting everything from muscle movement to mental health. As you’ll learn in the series, diagnostic protocols are lacking for many of these conditions, leading to delayed treatment and prolonged suffering for patients. In this inaugural episode, Dr. Baxter is joined by microbiologist Dr. Amy Proal, CEO of the PolyBio Research Foundation; Yale University Professor of Immunobiology, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki; and Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine who will discuss the Building Blocks of PAIS.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
For those proponents of psychedelic-assisted therapy concerned that demand for therapists will outstrip supply in the coming years, you may be reassured by today’s conversation with Dr. Ingmar Gorman and Dr. Elizabeth Nielson, psychologists who have been involved in FDA-approved clinical trials of MDMA and psilocybin, and the co-founders of a company called Fluence Training which is working to scale education for this purpose. As they explain to host Shiv Gaglani, they see their task, broadly speaking, as serving three categories of people: those with general interest in the field; all types of clinicians who want to be able to have informed conversations with patients wishing to discuss their current and/or future use; and those who want to become therapists in this modality. Fluence is especially well-positioned for that last group because of Gorman’s and Nielson’s involvement in designing therapy protocols in clinical trials, but also because of their work developing therapy manuals for drug companies. “If and when their drugs go to market, we’ll be able to train clinicians in the community who will be working with those compounds,” says Gorman. One bottom line message in this richly-informed discussion is that the field needs all comers and they hope people aren’t dissuaded by misconceptions about what’s required. “We hear all the time, 'I want to be involved, but I’d have to go back to school and get all these years of clinical experience' when the reality is there's just so many ways now to get involved,” says Nielson. This is a great overview of the status of training, the potential pitfalls awaiting the field, the importance of managing patient expectations, and much more.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.fluencetraining.com/
Part of why we love bringing Raise the Line to you is we get to introduce you to creative, committed people who see challenges in the healthcare system as opportunities to improve it. Today’s guest, radiation oncologist Dr. David Grew, is a perfect example. In the depths of COVID when his patients had to meet with him unaccompanied by a support person, he realized his ability to help people understand the complexities of their care was more important than ever, so he doubled-down on his practice of making simple drawings for them on whatever piece of paper was handy. When patients told them they were bringing the papers home so they could explain things to family members, he realized he needed to up his game. “That’s when the light bulb went off. I need to digitize these drawings so that we can scale this educational moment between a doctor and a patient,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Armed with a laptop and basic educational software, Dr. Grew founded the company PRIMR and started building a library of short, animated videos containing the most common explanations he would give patients. When clinical trial managers noticed what he was doing, they wanted in and so a major focus of PRIMR is educating potential trial participants as well. “I'm on a mission to make sure that patients have an easy way to understand clinical trials.” Listen in to find out about a major medical and societal benefit to better education about these trials and to learn how Dr. Grew thinks PRIMR can help with the crisis of physician burnout.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.primrmed.com/
“Maybe we think we’re just students and we’re just learning, but you can have an impact as a medical student,” says Dr. Desiree Franco Lugo, who has acted on that insight throughout her recently completed journey at Anáhuac University, Mexico and during her participation in the Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship, where she has served as a Regional Lead for the past two years. Des, as we’ve come to know her, has happily embraced one of the most important roles Regional Leads play: being a mentor to fellow med students. “I love talking to them and seeing how they develop and follow their own dreams. I literally feel like a proud mom with them,” she tells host Hillary Acer. Speaking of which, Hillary, as leader of the OMEF program, has the same pride in all that Des has done to support her peers through hosting events, writing blogs, conducting research and so much more. Beyond Osmosis, Des has developed a global footprint in medical education through internships and being selected to participate in prestigious international conferences. All of those experiences have stoked a previously unknown passion for medical education, and given her confidence to pursue other passions for entrepreneurship and leadership. This is an invigorating conversation in our NextGen Journeys series that underscores what can come from jumping at opportunities, or as Des puts it, having an attitude of ‘less fear and more go for it.’
Mentioned in this episode:
Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative https://www.osmosis.org/community
Promising research, a growing respect for the patient voice and innovative ways of using technology to support patients might be adding up to a new reality of Alzheimer’s and other dementias being experienced as chronic diseases like some cancers are now considered to be. We’re going to learn about that trend and other positive developments in the space on this special episode of Raise the Line with the leaders of CaringKind - one of the nation’s premier organizations focused on Alzheimer’s and dementia caregiving - who took time out from preparing for its annual gala on June 3 for an in-depth discussion of what’s new, what’s coming and what’s most important for the individuals and families affected by dementia. One welcome theme is that the voices of those with lived experience are being given more weight. “We're going to see more grassroots-driven change where people living with dementia are not just participants in research, but they are partners in research, and they’re actually pushing policy change," says Chief Innovation Officer Stephani Shivers. Tune in as host Michael Carrese explores advancements in diagnostics and research with CaringKind adviser Dr. Anne Kenney; gets briefed on a new Medicare pilot program from Stephani; and learns about the “Forget-Me-Not” gala -- which includes dancing robots -- from CEO Eleonora Tornatore-Mikesh. “For the gala, we're really excited about weaving in the work that we're diving into in the next couple of years to ‘connect to living’ -- to culture and music, people, science and services. Being able to utilize technology to bring joy and socialization back to your life is part of that.” This is a revealing look at the current and future state of caregiving for diseases that are affecting a rapidly growing number of Americans and their families.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.caringkindnyc.org/gala/
“There is a revolution at hand in which, after years of struggling to locate a new source of organs, there may finally be an answer and to everyone's surprise it is animal organs. Pigs may save the day,” says Dr. Andrew Cameron, chief of the Division of Transplantation at Johns Hopkins Medicine. While he’s encouraged by recent progress in using genetically-modified pig organs in humans, Cameron points to other ways of addressing this chronic shortage which include creative use of social media to raise awareness of the need, and even compensating people for donations. But, as you’ll learn on this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani, running the transplant program is just one of the hats Cameron wears. As director of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief, he has a hand in overseeing all surgical subspecialties, so Shiv also explores his thoughts on the role of robotics and other technologies in both performing operations and in training surgeons. And in what is perhaps an unexpected turn, Cameron expresses his excitement about non-surgical developments to improve health such as the new class of weight loss drugs. “We're not here for me to do fancy surgeries. We're here to take care of sick people, so if there is a non-operative solution that’s better for the patient, we're all in on that, too.” It’s an expansive and fascinating conversation you won’t want to miss.
Mentioned in this episode:
Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery: www.hopkinsmedicine.org/surgery
DONOR App: www.thedonorapp.com
TEDx Talk on Xenotransplantation
Today’s Raise the Line guest has a simple but powerful message for medical providers, born of a mother’s heartbreak. “It's going to be rare in your career to meet a zebra but the impact you can have is phenomenal. An early diagnosis could make the difference between life and death for these children,” says Bethan Keall who lost her young daughter Matilda (Tilly) in 2022 to neuroblastoma, a rare cancer most commonly found in children. Because some symptoms of the disease can be easily attributed to other causes, early diagnosis is difficult, particularly if providers are not on the lookout for it. Tilly’s diagnosis of an aggressive form of neuroblastoma introduced Bethan and her husband to the unfortunate realities of a lack of funding and coordination in the UK around pediatric oncology. “For childhood cancer you really need as much collaboration among doctors as possible to understand how treatments can get better because there are relatively few cases,” she explains to host Lindsey Smith. In coping with Tilly’s tragic death at the age of four, her parents have dedicated themselves to Neuroblastoma UK to support research efforts and have benefitted from the emotional and social support provided by a charity called Jak’s Den, founded by the family of a victim of childhood cancer. This is a wrenching, illuminating episode in our Year of the Zebra series offering important insights from a parent’s perspective for providers and policymakers alike.
Mentioned in this episode:
Jak’s Den https://www.teamjak.org.uk/
Neuroblastoma UK https://www.neuroblastoma.org.uk/
Today, we're continuing our close look at clerkships and residency programs and what students can do to be successful in them with Dr. Sharon Bord and Dr. Amelia Pousson, who are both physicians and assistant professors in emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where, as most listeners know, Osmosis co-founder and Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani is pursuing his third year of medical school. “I think one of the things that students really feel when they rotate in the ED is the team-based atmosphere. Emergency medicine providers help each other be the best versions of ourselves that we can in medicine. That is really unique,” explains Dr. Bord, who serves as the emergency medicine clerkship and sub-internship director. For her part, Dr. Pousson wants students to realize there are many paths to becoming a wonderful emergency physician. “There's lots of ways to sort of peel the orange and get it just right even if the path there looks a little bit different for each person,” she says. Both agree that among the keys for success are rigorous honesty and self-reflection about your goals and limitations, and whether the specialty is a good fit. Tune in for an expansive conversation that provides valuable wisdom and fascinating insights into one of the most vital and challenging of medical specialties.
Mentioned in this episode: Johns Hopkins Core Clerkship in Emergency Medicine
Medical school is so demanding that it’s always impressive to meet students who make time for other activities, and doubly impressive when what they devote their precious free time to is intended to improve healthcare. That’s why we’re delighted to welcome Drs. Lawsen Parker, Rebecca Wolff and Stephanie Koplitz to Raise the Line today. As they were wrapping up their terms as leaders of the Student Osteopathic Medical Association this Spring, they joined host Hillary Acer for an inspiring conversation about medical education, the role of students as advocates, and the future of healthcare. Lawsen, Rebecca and Stephanie also reflect on what being a medical student in the COVID era has been like and how it has shaped their perspectives on healthcare and leadership. Perhaps Lawsen sums it up best by telling Hillary that after his experience in SOMA, “I can’t imagine my career without being a leader, and an advocate for my colleagues, my patients and myself.” Don’t miss this opportunity to hear what is on the minds of these future leaders in healthcare.
Mentioned in this episode: https://studentdo.org/
Today’s guest is a trailblazing surgeon who performed the first successful nerve allograft, among other important achievements, but that’s actually not what host Shiv Gaglani wanted to focus on in this interview with Dr. Susan Mackinnon. After seeing her speak recently at a Johns Hopkins Grand Rounds presentation, Shiv immediately asked her to be a guest on Raise the Line because of her passion to change the culture and climate in the medical profession, partly by reconnecting it with its core mission. “We need to get it to a point where you can take the Hippocratic oath, which says if I don't agree to look after the care for prince and slave alike, I should die. We need to get back to that.” Mackinnon candidly details her own journey to being able to recognize and regulate her energy state so that she can perform at the highest level of creativity with colleagues and rise above the counterproductive “I win, you lose” mindset that often prevails in medicine. This free-flowing conversation is packed with insights gathered over a long career and offers much food for thought about how to find happiness and spur innovation at work, and the importance of self-care for providers. There’s also more book recommendations than in any other Raise the Line episode!
Mentioned in this episode:
Energy Leadership by Bruce Schneider
Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
There are more than 2,600 colleges and universities with nursing degree programs in the United States, offering a mix of options from associate-level degrees to doctorates. Ensuring that those programs deliver high-quality education is the focus of today's guest, Kathy Chappell, PhD, RN, the CEO of the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, also known as ACEN. “We have this regulatory compliance function as an accreditor, but at the end of the day, it's about high-quality education for nurses. We want their students to excel so it's really our job to be their support and partner in understanding and meeting the standards,” Chappell tells host Hillary Acer. The veteran clinician and educator says ACEN is also assuming the role of partner in the broader cause of addressing the nursing shortage by using its influence to support the expansion of education programs, which she thinks should be a national priority. “I would consider it to be a public health crisis. I really do. I think it's as critical as the COVID pandemic.” This is a great scan of nursing education that includes a discussion of international accreditation, interprofessional education and the challenges nursing programs face in preparing students for a very demanding profession.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.acenursing.org/
When Raise the Line host and third year medical student Shiv Gaglani witnessed the creation of a “heart song” at the bedside of a terminal patient during his recent neurology clerkship, he immediately wanted to know more about the clinical applications of music therapy and realized the Osmosis audience would want to as well. That’s why we’re happy to bring you this fascinating episode featuring Shiv’s interview with Kerry Devlin, MMT, a senior music therapist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine. “I like to describe music therapy as a relational therapeutic encounter. Music is both the tool that I'm using as a music therapist, but it's also the medium that we're working in. And we're using that tool and that therapeutic medium to travel together to work towards someone's individualized healthcare goals,” Devlin says. In the case of dying patients, she creates music that incorporates recordings of their heartbeat and breath sounds with their favorite song and gives the result to the family as a keepsake. For other patients, she adapts her work to suit their clinical situation such as taking a rhythmic approach with people dealing with movement disorders or singing with someone with Parkinson’s disease to help them maintain articulation. As you’ll learn, the applications are wide ranging and include group work as well as one-on-one sessions. This is a meaningful and memorable episode you won’t want to miss about a powerful therapeutic tool whose use is growing.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/center-for-music-and-medicine
We've had the pleasure of speaking to nursing leaders at a variety of health systems and at nursing schools on past episodes of Raise the Line, but today we're going to zoom out for a big picture perspective on the profession and its current and future challenges and opportunities with Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, RN, MBA, president of the American Nurses Association, which advocates for the nation's 5.5 million RNs. In a frank assessment, Mensik Kennedy says nursing is actually not in need of new ideas to solve the problems it faces. “We've known about the solutions for decades, but yet we for some reason or another have not put those solutions into play,” she explains to host Hillary Acer. Mensik Kennedy thinks the slow pace of progress on issues such as staffing challenges, workplace violence, DEI, burnout and wellbeing can be attributed in part to the fact that only 5% of hospitals have a nurse on the board of directors. “When decisions need to be made, nurses' voices often are not heard or at that table to make needed changes.” Don’t miss this chance to hear a wealth of insight on the true value of nurses from a leader recognized nationally as one of the 100 most influential people in healthcare, and be sure to stay tuned to learn about an innovative “tribrid” model of delivering care.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/
After working alongside healthcare providers in under-resourced countries, today’s Raise the Line guest Dr. Rebecca Weintraub came to see that the desire to serve patients and the curiosity to learn how to be the best clinician possible are universal, but the best tools to do so are not. That’s what led her to launch the Better Evidence program at Ariadne Labs which designs, tests and scales data-driven digital tools that help manage diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainty. Currently, Better Evidence engages over 200,000 current and future clinicians and public health leaders in 147 medical schools and clinical sites across 182 countries. “If you are an isolated provider or a trainee, we believe evidence-based clinical tools help you improve your clinical confidence and clinical acumen. We're trying to help create the habits of educating yourself on the journey to being an excellent clinician.” In this illuminating conversation with host Hillary Acer, Weintraub also talks about other capacity-building work such as helping to prepare clinicians for major public health roles, and the critical importance of providers having reliable internet and cell connectivity, something she expects will improve in the near future. Don’t miss this on-the-ground view of some key elements in improving the delivery of healthcare across the globe.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.better-evidence.org/
As we’ve learned on previous episodes of Raise the Line, people dealing with rare diseases usually wait 4-7 years before receiving a diagnosis, during which time their condition can deteriorate significantly. Shortening this “diagnostic odyssey” is the mission of today’s guest, Lukas Lange, and in an interesting twist, he’s doing it by involving the patients themselves. The company he co-founded, Probably Genetic, has developed a system that starts with rare disease patients, or the parents of children with rare conditions, describing the symptoms involved on a website. “We run algorithms on that data in real time as you're on the website and if the algorithms think that this person might have a specific genetic disease, then we have a whole telemedicine system built in the background where we process that information and you get your test kit within about 48 hours of being on the website,” he explains to host Hillary Acer. Once the at-home test results are processed, a genetic counseling session is conducted via telemedicine. Tune in to find out why Lange believes having this knowledge is powerful for patients even if there may be no treatment available yet for their condition, and how it may be useful down the road with clinical trial recruitment, real world evidence tracking, and even early stage R&D for treatments.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.probablygenetic.com/
We've devoted quite a bit of time on Raise the Line to learning about persistent workforce shortages in human healthcare and what is being done about them, but as yet have not turned our attention to the fact that veterinary medicine is facing the same headwinds. To find out more about how that challenge is being addressed and to learn about other current issues in veterinary medicine we turn today to Dr. Kathryn Meurs, Dean at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. One cause of the lack of veterinarians is too few slots for students, but Meurs says there is good news on that front. “There are several new veterinary schools coming online and many existing schools have increased their class size like we have.” Meurs says the profession is starting to think outside the box for other ways to build capacity including getting practices to offer more flexible work schedules, asking vets planning to retire to stay on part-time and expanding the role of veterinary technicians. Join host Hillary Acer to learn all about that and about the educational and research career tracks open to veterinarians, the importance of vet students developing great people skills, and the many clinical trials underway at NC State that sit at the intersection of human and animal health.
Mentioned in this episode: https://cvm.ncsu.edu/
The question of how generative AI and other recent advances in technology will change medical education is one we're continually seeking answers to on Raise the Line, and today we're turning to a really well-placed expert to weigh in on this issue. He's Dr. Warren Wiechmann, senior associate dean of Clinical Science Education and Educational Technologies at University of California Irvine, a school known for its embrace of technology. Dr. Wiechmann is considered the architect of the school's iMedEd Initiative, a comprehensive curriculum that uses everything from augmented reality to 3D printing as catalysts for curricular innovation. As he tells host Michael Carrese, integration of technology across subjects has been a key element of UCI’s approach. “We have our physiologists working closely with our anatomists, working closely with our clinical skills people. We're integrating point-of-care ultrasound into very early physiology lectures. We even have our physiologists doing a session using EKG devices.” Wiechmann stresses, though, that new tech has to meet a high bar for effectiveness before being used instructionally. “Just because it's new technology doesn't mean it's going to be useful.” As for the impact of generative AI, Wiechmann is keeping his eye on managing for inherent bias in large data sets and leveraging AI to help level the playing field for students with learning differences. Tune in to learn more about this fascinating educational evolution.
Mentioned in this episode: https://medschool.uci.edu/
Most people associate being a physician with achieving financial security, but according to a recent report issued by Medscape, only about half of physicians in the United States report having a net worth over $1 million. That's where today's guest comes in. Brett Riggins founded Physician Wealth Systems in 2022 to help doctors achieve financial security through real estate investments that generate passive income. “Real estate could be that ‘means to an end’ kind of thing. It could produce this situation where it allows you to separate your time from your money and we can allow physicians to practice with passion, not practice because they have to,” Riggins tells host Michael Carrese. In this illuminating conversation, Riggins addresses the level of knowledge and time commitment involved, steps for getting started and determining your fundamental “why” for engaging in real estate investing. “No matter what profession you're going into, self-realization is the biggest piece of separating yourself from who you used to be and understanding where you want to go,” he counsels. And for those paying off student loans who think their options to make outside income are limited until they are debt free, stay tuned to learn about some strategies that could get you started.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://physicianwealthsystems.com
On today’s Raise the Line, we continue our Next Gen Journeys series featuring conversations with learners in medical professions around the globe. Our special guest is Omer Rott, a longtime participant in our Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship and Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative programs. Omer will soon be earning his medical degree from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. In addition to pursuing a career as a pediatrician, he’s an aspiring diversity and inclusion medical educator who has founded DiverseMedEd, an organization dedicated to improving how healthcare professionals interact with and treat patients from different backgrounds. “There is a big gap in medical education about diverse patient populations. I think healthcare providers and many other people are afraid about how to approach someone or how to ask about their situation, which might lead them to not say anything or not even act the way they think they might need to.” Through a website (link) and social media posts, Omer has already built a following, many of whom are patients happy to be seeing these issues addressed. Join host Hillary Acer for a refreshing look at how the healthcare provider community can be more inclusive, and what lessons Omer has drawn from his extensive work mentoring fellow students over the past five years.
Mentioned in this episode:
DiverseMedEd
Equity Graphic
Elsevier Blog - Is Wearing Pins Appropriate?
The importance of understanding the connections between animal and human health reached new heights due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this has long been a rich area of study and it’s also the foundation of the long and impressive career of today’s Raise the Line guest, Dr. Sue VandeWoude, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. Before assuming that role, Dr. VandeWoude was Director of CSU’s One Health Institute, an interdisciplinary center dedicated to advancing translational science. In this revealing conversation with host Hillary Acer, you’ll learn about developments in research and teaching in this area, what’s behind a curricular overhaul at the school, and about plans to enhance collaboration between basic science faculty and clinical instructors at CSU.
Mentioned in this episode: https://vetmedbiosci.colostate.edu/
Raise the Line has been honored to be part of Osmosis from Elsevier’s Year of the Zebra campaign and we’re happy to share that this successful effort will continue throughout 2024. To mark that commitment and to celebrate Rare Disease Day, we have a very special episode of the podcast for our listeners in which, for the first time, we interview a child faced with the challenge of living with a rare condition. She is Maddie McNeer, a seven-year-old from Kansas who developed a rare eye disorder called Coats disease which is characterized by abnormal development of blood vessels in the retina. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, affected individuals may experience loss of vision due to changes in the retina and, in severe cases, retinal detachment. Maddie and her mom, Loren McNeer, join host Lindsey Smith to share their family’s journey with Coats disease including the multiple treatments she’s had, the challenges in finding information and support, the positive experiences with healthcare providers and Maddie’s remarkable ability to rise above it all and, as she says, not let Coats disease hold her down. This is a super informative and inspiring episode that you won’t want to miss.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.coatsdiseasefoundation.org/
https://www.osmosis.org/zebra
“I feel like I'm living a dream in many ways. It's really gratifying to be working in this area,” says
Dr. Peter Hendricks, a clinical psychologist at University of Alabama Birmingham who is pursuing a long-held interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. In addition to being chair of Psychiatry there, he is also a professor in the Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention and Intervention which explains why he is researching the use of psilocybin in patients with fibromyalgia, a condition which commonly involves chronic pain. “Pain involves a physiological sensation but also a psychological reaction to that pain. If we can alter psychological processes, we might be able to help people better cope with the experience of pain,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Although Hendricks has been excited about the prospect of being able to add this “new” tool to help treat addictions, PTSD, depression and other mental health conditions that are not well served by current therapies, he realizes the dangers of hype and the need for a balanced perspective. “I think it’s important to note that those of us who were enthusiastic were never under the impression that this would cure everything for everybody. It could really change your life or it may not -- and that's OK -- but it would be nice for that to be an option for those who could benefit from it.” Tune in for a super thoughtful Raise the Line episode on both the promise and challenges of psychedelics and the daunting amount of work left to be done to develop sustainable therapeutic protocols and business models.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uab.edu/cappi/
After many months of emotionally wrenching, exhausting work on the frontlines of COVID, and the unexpected death of his mother, Dr. Michael Foti found himself in an emergency room dealing with what he suspected was a heart attack, but it was actually a panic attack caused by untreated anxiety and depression. “As healthcare providers, we're afraid to speak up about our mental health because it's seen as a weakness,” he explains. He’s trying to change that culture in his role as a clinical assistant professor of Internal Medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. One key message he tries to get across to students is that healthcare providers have to be healthy themselves before they can do the most effective job possible helping patients. As he tells host Michael Carrese, he’s also urging providers experiencing mental health issues to speak up to help normalize the experience. “The more that we can share these stories amongst colleagues, then they will feel more empowered to get the help that they need.” On this insightful episode of Raise the Line, you’ll also have the opportunity to hear Dr. Foti describe Touro’s standardized patient program and its efforts to increase self-directed learning and interdisciplinary education.
Mentioned in this episode: https://tourocom.touro.edu/
Our guests today have set a big goal to tackle a big problem. Jack Needham and James Naylor co-founded Sanctuary Health to build the largest video library for patient education motivated by the fact that patients forget approximately half of what doctors tell them in appointments. The young British entrepreneurs are aiming to move the healthcare system beyond the practice of handing every patient with a new diagnosis the same generic pamphlet as they leave an appointment. Based on research, they’ve chosen short-form video as the most effective vehicle. “Studies have consistently shown that if you break a video down into small topics with one learning outcome, then information recall and confidence levels around that information are consistently higher,” Naylor tells host Michael Carrese. And thanks to recent advancements in AI technology, videos can be easily translated into multiple languages, creating efficiency for providers and relevance for patients. Having built a presence with providers of virtual healthcare, Sanctuary is now working to license its ready-to-use content to payers, hospitals, and other stakeholders. Tune-in for a lively discussion the various ways Sanctuary Health is helping healthcare providers tackle this critically important problem.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.sanctuaryhealth.io/
Due to rising awareness of the importance of nutrition to good health and patient demand for alternatives to so-called Western medicine, the number of medical schools offering naturopathic programs has grown in the past two decades in the United States. Today on Raise the Line, we're going to learn more about this approach to medicine, the education and training involved, and where the field is heading with Dr. Kristina Conner, Dean of the School of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University. As she explains to host Michael Carrese, Dr. Conner believes the rising interest is partially rooted in people wanting to have an array of options to improve their health. “They understand ‘maybe I do need to be on this medication for the rest of my life, but what else can I do to optimize my day to day life’ and that's where we can fill in the gaps as naturopathic doctors because we do have a different tool set and a different approach.” Tune in to learn about the similarities and differences in training compared to more traditional medical professions, the different modalities naturopaths use, and the challenges and opportunities involved in expanding the profession. “I think there's better understanding about naturopathic physicians and our level of training and the role that we can play within the healthcare system.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://bastyr.edu/academics/naturopathic-medicine
Today we continue our series Next-Gen Journeys, featuring conversations with students, residents, and early career medical professionals around the globe to get their fresh perspectives on education, medicine, and the future of healthcare. We’re delighted to do that today with Dr. Josh Bliss, a third-year internal medicine resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, who will continue his training there next year as a hematology-oncology fellow. Josh was actually one of the first Osmosis Medical Education Fellows, later transitioning to a role creating and editing pharmacology content with our education team. In this heartfelt conversation with host Hillary Acer, Josh shares how his mother’s death from cancer when he was young spurred his interest in medicine and how his passion for the field has expanded over time to include the relatively new science of exercise oncology. “We are starting to look at exercise both in the lab and in clinical trials with patients where you could potentially dose exercise like you would a drug. You can measure it and standardize it and look at clinical effects.” For those hoping to build a multi-dimensional career in medicine, there is plenty of inspiration to draw from in this episode.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nyp.org/
About one-third of Californians live in areas where there's a shortage of primary care providers, and this gap is especially apparent in what's known as the Inland Empire -- a rural region in the southern part of the state. As we’ll learn on today’s episode, the barriers to access this creates might only get worse because population is expected to grow sharply in that area. Our guest, Dr. Timothy Collins, has the challenge and opportunity of developing solutions to these thorny problems as CEO of UCR Health, a clinical enterprise affiliated with the University of California Riverside School of Medicine. “I think tremendous opportunities exist to create a more integrated network that's focused on quality and access to be able to address all of these challenges,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Strategies including connecting with K-12 students to get them to see themselves as future physicians and helping to clear the pathways to med school. “You can change the game if you can move backwards to create opportunities for individuals that may not see a pathway towards success.” Tune in to learn about other tactics being used -- including debt forgiveness and optimizing healthcare teams -- and find out how UCR Riverside is working to increase the level of engagement by patients in their own care.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.ucrhealth.org/
How do we solve for nursing shortages in a thoughtful way in which we're reinventing the way we deliver care? That question is asked and answered on today’s episode of Raise the Line by Mandy Richards, Chief Nursing Executive for Intermountain Health which operates thirty-three hospitals in seven states. The veteran nurse leader believes the go-to strategies of doing a better job at recruitment and retention, while important, will not be enough, so it will be necessary to reskill the current workforce and redesign nursing education. Or as she puts it to host Michael Carrese, “Are we ensuring that our students in nursing school are getting taught and equipped with what they're going to need when they come out?” Richards is also keenly interested in improving the transition from education to practice -- in fact she’s pursuing her PhD at Yale on that topic -- especially at the very start of the clinical work experience to avoid what is known as “transition shock.” As part of her academic work, she’s created a research project featuring a dedicated educational unit that trains new graduate nurses in cohorts in the first month on the job. In addition to reinforcing critical thinking skills, the experience helps establishes peer relationships the new nurses can rely on going forward. Tune-in for a wealth of other ideas and insights on this key challenge in modern healthcare including establishing travel pools within health systems and the potential for ambient listening technology to improve nursing efficiency.
Mentioned in this episode: https://intermountainhealthcare.org/
Physician Assistant remains one of the fastest growing professions in the US, and the expansion of their role in healthcare delivery seems to be growing just as quickly. One of the biggest changes in that regard, according to Jonathan Bowser of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, is that states are opening up opportunities for PAs to practice with more autonomy to fill needs in the healthcare system. “That requires PA education programs to think about who are we putting out there, what environments they are going into, and how do we best prepare them for those environments,” says Bowser, who runs the school’s Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant Program (CHAPA), one of the oldest PA training programs in the country. The need to adapt their program to these new realities and the desire to take advantage of advances in learning science led CHAPA to overhaul its curriculum in recent years. The result is a ‘spiral curriculum’ - an iterative approach to learning that reinforces key concepts and knowledge as students progress through their years of training. Join host Hillary Acer as she learns about the underpinnings of CHAPA’s curricular approach, what the program is doing to prepare PAs to be leaders and the growing importance of residencies and fellowships to prepare PAs to work in clinical specialties.
Mentioned in this episode:
CHA/PA Program Overview
Managing Transitions by William Bridges
Make It Stick by Peter Brown
We're marking a couple of firsts on today's episode of Raise the Line. In the hundreds of podcasts we’ve done, we've never interviewed a goddess before, nor had a guest who has won an astounding seventy-five teaching awards, but that is the happy situation we face today in welcoming Dr. Linda Costanzo to the show. She’s been on the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine for forty-three years, earning the nickname “Physiology Goddess” for her trio of books -- including Costanzo Physiology 7th Edition, published by Elsevier -- that have been translated into thirteen languages. One key factor in Costanzo’s longevity as an effective teacher is finding new challenges in long-taught material. “I sort of concocted a scheme to dig into areas of comfort to get that edge back, that fear of falling short, I would call it,” she explains to host Michael Carrese. This lively conversation is packed with valuable insights on teaching and learning including tips for how students can maintain enthusiasm for their studies, standards teachers should set for themselves and the “stepwise” approach to teaching that she has also employed in her textbooks.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://medschool.vcu.edu/
Costanzo Physiology, 7th Edition
It’s not often that you have the chance to benefit from the sweeping perspective of someone who has been in the same profession for 50 years, but that is the fortunate circumstance we find ourselves in on this episode of Raise the Line. Our guest, Dr. Jim Gordon, describes the remarkable evolution of physical therapists from being limited to hospital-based, post-op rehabilitation to becoming community-based providers of choice in a wide and growing list of specialties from orthopedics to oncology. “We have established ourselves as essential actors in the healthcare system. We have the education and research behind us, but most important, I think we have credibility among other healthcare professionals and with patients.” As the leader of one of the top ranked physical therapy programs in the US at the University of Southern California, Gordon is in a position to shape the future of the field as well. As he tells host Hillary Acer, he sees a greater role for physical therapists in prevention and primary care, and also expects changes in the application of new technologies in neurorehabilitation, his area of specialty. “What we’re trying to do is not look at technologies as a solution in and of themselves and instead develop a patient-centered approach which focuses on how people are able to use these technologies to make their lives better.” Don’t miss this great opportunity for a unique look at the current and future state of a vital part of the healthcare system from a leading figure in the field.
Mentioned in this episode: https://pt.usc.edu/
"Our faculty are really dedicated to trying to bridge that gap between academics and clinical practice," says Dr. Lisa Beals, the Nursing Department Chair at Missouri Southern State University and today’s Raise the Line guest. A key factor in that effort is recording students while they perform clinical simulations and providing the students themselves, their peers and faculty an opportunity to watch the playback and weigh in on what happened, an area of expertise for Beals based on her research in the field. “It's just like a constant motion or cycle of feedback, which the literature speaks to of being so important to develop student learning.” As Beals tells host Hillary Acer, one of the department’s other main missions is to foster a culture of caring. “We're here to help them and support them in whatever way we can knowing that they face so many challenges, particularly now, to further their education.” Learn more about the successful recipe for training tomorrow’s nursing workforce from a pioneer in nursing education.
Mentioned in this episode: MSSU Nursing Program
February marks a major transition for Dr. Steven Halm as he moves on from leading one of the nation’s oldest schools of osteopathic medicine, at Des Moines University, to launching of one of its newest, at Xavier University, which is set to welcome its first class in 2027. Launch is actually a fitting word to use due to his background in aviation as a licensed pilot and former Senior Aviation Medical Examiner for the FAA. In fact, Halm believes medicine has a lot to learn from commercial aviation in the use of simulation to achieve the highest standards of safety. “One of my goals for the first week of the new medical school at Xavier is to have students in a simulation lab, working with task trainers and interacting with standardized patients in real scenarios of taking care of patients.” Other plans include an emphasis on newer teaching approaches such as small group and active learning paired with what he considers to be the fundamentals. “Student success depends on a combination of great faculty and great resources.” Join host Hillary Acer for a birds-eye view of osteopathic medical education and stay tuned to learn about Halm’s leadership education program for medical students and residents.
Mentioned in this episode:
Xavier University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Why Hospitals Should Fly by John Nance
“I think philanthropy’s role oftentimes is to come in and be the innovator,” says Dr. Bennett Nemser who is in a good position to do that as chief program officer at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation managing its health portfolios. Perhaps the best example of this is its involvement in psychedelic research where the Foundation is one of the largest private funders in the country including being a major backer of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine. While he is excited about the progress being made in that space, Nemser says the Foundation is intent on ensuring equitable access to any new therapies that emerge, one of the organization’s chief overall aims. “We need to get the price point down so that we can make sure we have access to a lot more people that can benefit from this.” As Nemser tells Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani, the Foundation is seeking to have similar impact in other critical areas. “We’ve provided over a billion dollars in charitable support to underserved communities, children's health and education, the arts, Lyme and tick-borne disease, psychedelics, veterans services and sustainability.” Don’t miss this expansive look at philanthropy’s change-making potential.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.steveandalex.org/
All health organizations aim to be ‘patient-centered’ but not many actually give patients decision making power. That’s not the case with the 1,400 Community Health Centers (CHC) across the US which require 51% of board members to be patients. “That does so many things that I think changes the dynamics of healthcare and how it's delivered,” says Dr. Kyu Rhee, president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers. Impacts include co-locating oral and mental healthcare with primary care and ensuring culturally appropriate delivery of care. Although CHCs already comprise the largest primary care system in the country -- serving 31.5 million Americans (1 in 11 people) regardless of ability to pay -- Rhee envisions eventually serving 30% of Americans. As he explains to host Michael Carrese, getting there will require a deepening of existing partnerships with local communities and more funding from state and federal governments. “An investment in Community Health Centers actually saves lives and saves money.” This is a great chance to learn about an innovative model of healthcare that looks beyond the exam room to address all factors in a patient’s life that may be barriers to better health, focuses on addressing health disparities and supports the resiliency of impoverished and underserved communities.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nachc.org/
“Patient engagement is shockingly bad across the system. Doctors just don't have the time or mechanisms to educate their patients,” says former Amazon product manager David Neyhart. It’s something he learned firsthand during a scary health odyssey that included many rushed appointments where there was no chance to ask questions, and at best he’d be handed subpar educational materials. He’s filling this information gap through a company he co-founded called Encap Health which provides physicians with a seamless and customized way to give their patients the information they need to manage and improve their health. “We integrate with their EHR, so based on what the doctor's already entering - billing codes, prescriptions or visit notes -- we extract that and send related content to that patient automatically.” It comes in the form of an email from the doctor’s office with a list of health information and links where they can learn more. A patient with osteoporosis, for example, would get information on options for exercise and nutritional guidance specific to that condition. Importantly, neither party has to learn how to navigate a new app or web portal. Tune in as Neyhart fills in host Michael Carrese on how this process builds trust between patients and providers, and how he is eyeing a future in which Encap provides more personalized, proactive content journeys to guide patients on a path to improved health.
Mentioned in this episode: https://encaphealth.com/
For the two million Americans diagnosed with cancer each year, the emotional toll of absorbing the news is often exacerbated by uncertainty about the variety of treatments, and confusion trying to navigate a fragmented healthcare system. Accompanying patients on that journey and smoothing the way for them is where Thyme Care enters the picture, a company that supports and supplements the care provided by oncology practices at no cost to patients. “We do the types of things that everybody in the oncology space knows should be done, but it’s often hard to operationalize them at scale,” says Dr. Brad Diephuis, the company’s chief business officer and a cancer survivor himself. Those things include tracking patient reported outcomes and providing proactive symptom monitoring throughout cancer treatment in order to catch problems early and prevent unnecessary interventions and hospitalizations. Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in 2022 indicates Thyme Care is delivering on its value proposition for insurance plans and other payers: reducing costs and increasing patient satisfaction. Join host Michael Carrese in learning why Diephuis thinks its shared savings model is succeeding, how its “care pod” model works, and what the company’s plans are for growth.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.thymecare.com/
“I did not see myself as a leader, to be honest. I had my mind made up on doing something else, but it has been an amazing journey,” says Dr. Tiffany Morris, director of Nursing at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. That journey includes being the inaugural department chair in the nursing program at Elon University School of Health Sciences and serving as an interim dean in North Carolina A&T’s School of Nursing. She returned to North Carolina A&T earlier this year partly because of the larger impact she can have due to the school being the largest Historically Black College and University in the nation. “The opportunity to serve students who are normally underrepresented and be able to produce healthcare providers that look like the people that they're serving is an amazing opportunity,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Highlights of the curriculum include an accelerated nursing program which allows those with bachelor’s degrees to earn an RN in twelve months, advanced simulation training -- including access to new 3D technology that allows for virtual dissection -- and an emphasis on providing culturally appropriate care, which Morris stresses goes well beyond race to include culturally-based food preferences and spiritual practices and beliefs. Morris has a research interest in the latter where she focuses on why African-Americans have a lower rate of hospice enrollment. Find out about one key factor in turning that around, why the university is pursuing R1 research status and new degree offerings coming soon.
Mentioned in this episode: North Carolina A&T School of Nursing
Sacramento, California has long been one of America’s most racially diverse cities, so it stands to reason that reducing disparities in healthcare delivery is a focus of Dr. David Lubarsky, the CEO for UC Davis Health in Sacramento. “We've realized that health equity can really only be achieved if you actually have the time and resources to get what's needed to make yourself well or keep yourself well,” he tells host Michael Carrese. With that tight correlation between economics and equity in mind, UC Davis Health leaned into its role as an employer and launched an effort to hire more people from the communities it serves. “We've managed in two years' time to go from having 6% to 20% of our unlicensed workforce from the ten most underserved zip codes in the city.” Lubarsky is also focused on the diversity of learners in the UC Davis School of Medicine, which he also oversees, because it’s been well established that patients from historically marginalized groups have better outcomes when their providers look like them. Tune in to learn about the strategies he’s pursuing to that end, where he sees AI fitting into healthcare delivery and what’s included in the system’s historic $7 billion capital building campaign.
Mentioned in this episode: UC Davis Health
Having a waiting list of 20,000 people to take your training is a pretty good sign you’re onto something important. That’s the mixed blessing Dr. Richard Schwartz faces as interest in Internal Family Systems -- an innovative therapeutic approach to trauma and other mental disorders he developed -- continues to grow. The “family” in this case are the multiple parts of a person’s psyche that, in Schwartz’s view, need to listen to each other in order for people to overcome traumas and function well. “This is an alternative paradigm for understanding all kinds of what are seen as mental illnesses. Part of my goal is to bring this different perspective to all of these things that have been so medicalized,” he explains to host Shiv Gaglani. A welcome discovery of IFS is that among the parts, there is a core Self that can't be damaged and knows how to heal. As Schwartz explains it, IFS therapy works by opening enough space for the Self to pop out and start relating to, and leading, the other parts that may be critical, protective or play other roles. Don’t miss this fascinating look at an evidence-based therapeutic approach that challenges conventional thinking and offers hope to patients with a long history of struggle. "There are many heavily diagnosed people who feel hugely relieved to know they're not sick."
Mentioned in this episode: https://ifs-institute.com/
Lessons From A Healthcare Entrepreneur’s Journey - Ari Blum, CEO and Founder of Clover Learning
Today’s guest, Ari Blum, enjoyed working as a hospital-based radiologic technologist and became a successful edtech entrepreneur, but he’s not one to sugarcoat either experience. That’s why this in-depth conversation with host Shiv Gaglani is a great learning opportunity for those interested in a healthcare career, or entrepreneurship, or both as Ari describes his remarkable journey creating and running Clover Learning, which helps medical imaging students prepare for certification exams and empowers working professionals to efficiently earn their continuing education credits. A longstanding entrepreneurial mindset spurred Ari to convert what was a side hustle creating short continuing education videos into an ed-tech platform that has been used by more than 50,000 learners. And while he loves what he does and the impact he has, he cautions that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. “If you take the time -- and in many cases, people's money -- and you're convincing people to leave a job and come work for you and spend their money on your product or service, there's a stewardship with that and there's a weight and there's a sacrifice.” But for those motivated to manage those challenges, Ari says this is a better time than ever to get projects off the ground. Tune in to find out why he thinks that’s the case, where he thinks AI is going in healthcare and what plans he has for expanding the reach of Clover Learning into other medical fields and beyond.
Mentioned in this episode:
Clover Learning
"This" - Song by Darius Rucker
Group dental practices are common now, but that was not the case thirty years ago when solo practitioners dominated the space. On this special episode of Raise the Line produced in collaboration with Areo Dental, we’re going to hear from two leading figures in changing that paradigm, Dr. Rick Workman, the founder and executive chairman of Heartland Dental and Pat Bauer, the company’s CEO. As you’ll learn in this fascinating conversation led by Areo Dental’s co-CEOs -- Dr. Anushka Gaglani and Dr. Abhishek Nagaraj -- Workman and Bauer grew Heartland from a handful of practices into the largest dental support organization in the US with more than 1,700 locations. Workman attributes that success to thinking of their members as customers, and making sure to create value for them and respect for dentistry. “We have to understand they have to have clinical autonomy and our job is to do everything we can to make their lives better and easier and to always honor the patient.” Heartland does that by providing everything from operational support to benchmarking for quality assurance to vetting technology, among many other services. From a business perspective, Bauer thinks an additional factor in Heartland’s growth has been being in synch with the needs and goals of the practices. “It's about alignment with our doctors, alignment with the owners, alignment with all the teams, and that led us to be able to continue to grow because more and more people become successful.” Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn about the evolution of dental practices in the US, what it means for patients, and what lies ahead for the field.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.areodental.com/
https://heartland.com/
It's safe to say the majority of people reading this post have used Uber as a ride service, and many have also tapped Uber Eats for food delivery. What you might be less familiar with is the Uber Health platform that enables healthcare organizations to arrange rides and services on behalf of patients including deliveries of prescriptions, groceries, and over-the-counter items to their homes. Patients don’t need to have an Uber account, credit card or even a smartphone because everything is handled for them by a care coordinator. According to our guest Dr. Mike Cantor, the company’s chief medical officer, the aim is to make the healthcare system more efficient and effective by improving access to the services people need to stay healthy. “In the value-based care system where you can save money by being preventive and keeping people away from hospitals, Uber is potentially a really good set of solutions for the healthcare system and ultimately for the patients as well,” he says. Cantor is well-placed to help guide Uber’s potential impact on healthcare because of his rich background as a clinician and executive working on quality improvement and care management programs for healthcare providers and health plans. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion with host Derek Apanovitch about how healthcare delivery is being impacted by one of today’s most disruptive and innovative companies, and learn what partnerships Uber is forming to grow its healthcare role including support for caregivers.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uberhealth.com/
Today's guest fits into one of Raise the Line’s favorite categories of people: physician entrepreneur. We've talked before on the podcast about the overlapping qualities of drive, curiosity, and desire for impact that both share, and that last trait is the core interest of Dr. Navin Goyal. A great example is OFFOR Health, a mobile healthcare company he co-founded that expedites care for children in the US who face long waits for procedures. “If you’re a four-year-old with dental disease and you're on Medicaid, you have an average nine-to-twelve month wait to get into an operating room. We can enable that procedure within one month,” says Goyal. His experience with OFFOR led to the formation of LOUD Capital, which allows Goyal and his partners to seek out other business opportunities that have a social impact. Since launching in 2015, LOUD has partnered with over seventy portfolio companies in healthcare and beyond. But despite his success, Goyal has embraced the concept of being an underdog, hence the title of the book about his journey, Physician Underdog, and his weekly newsletter Underdog for Good. Check out this episode with host Shiv Gaglani to find out why he likes the term, what qualities a potential investment needs to have to get him excited and what he sees as a key upside to having physicians working in a variety of industries.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.loud.vc/
Underdog for Good Newsletter
Physician Underdog Book
Beyond Physician
One silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is a jump in enrollments in public health degree programs and that’s welcome news to Dr. Jan Carney, director of the Master of Public Health program at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, who believes the field needs a massive injection of personnel. “We need probably an 80% increase in people working in state and local health departments to have the essentials of public health.” As Vermont’s former Commissioner of Health, Carney knows the challenges public health officials face and brings those insights to Larner’s online-only MPH program, which covers the broad domains of the field from epidemiology to biostatistics to environmental health and also exposes students to the particular health challenges in rural communities. The program also prepares students for perhaps the biggest challenge facing the field: communication of health information in an era of misinformation. To that end, Carney is urging more ascertainment of how different groups of people prefer to receive information and is suggesting a major change in approach. “Maybe we can start to think of public health communication more as a conversation than a one-way information flow.” Join host Michael Carrese for insights from a national force in public health into how education is evolving to prepare public health practitioners for their vital work in challenging times for the profession.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uvm.edu/publichealth/
Raise the Line’s in-depth look at the potential use of psychedelic compounds in mental health treatment continues today with a focus on the role they may play in helping people overcome substance use disorders. Our guest is Dr. Jeeshan Chowdhury, whose own mental health journey led him to found Journey Colab, a company combating addiction through psychedelic care while employing a unique stakeholder model that includes indigenous communities in ownership. “We have put 10% of the founding equity of the company into an irrevocable purpose trust so that the land, the traditions and the people that our medicines and our work are inspired from can benefit from it,” explains Chowdhury. He tells host Shiv Gaglani that indigenous traditions also inform how the company approaches psychedelic therapy itself. “When we look at their use, it is always done in the context of an expert healer, often called a shaman, and it's done as part of a very well-honed protocol and in the context of a larger community.” Check out this thoughtful discussion to find out why Chowdhury thinks of the therapeutic use of psychedelics as akin to surgery, and how Journey Colab is working with rehab center partners to integrate psychedelic care through clinical trials with the goal of creating an integrated treatment program.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.journeycolab.com
Today’s episode touches on some regular themes we explore on Raise the Line such as equal access to quality healthcare, provider burnout and the impact of AI on medicine, but on this episode, we have the welcome opportunity to take a look at these key issues from the perspective of a doctor-turned-entrepreneur in Brazil. Today, Dr. Bruno Lagoeiro is an executive at Afya, one of the largest medical education groups in Brazil, but he started out as a med student who was interested in solving problems he and his classmates were encountering. After years of experimentation, and guidance from a business mentor, the solution they developed was Whitebook, a mobile app for clinical decision-support that’s used in tens of millions of patient encounters every year in Brazil. Join host Shiv Gaglani as he draws out the details of Dr. Lagoeiro’s amazing journey to improve healthcare in a huge and diverse country that faces delivery challenges in poor and remote communities and a provider workforce being drained by bureaucracy. Despite these hurdles, Dr. Lagoeiro has an optimistic message to share about the power of providers to change healthcare and the promise of AI to allow them to focus more on the human aspects of medicine.
Mentioned in this episode: Afya
Among the key qualities everyone wants in their healthcare providers is a love of learning and desire to serve others. That’s why we at Osmosis are confident Dr. Lewis Nasr will be a great physician and why we chose him to be the first guest in a new series of interviews on Raise the Line we’re calling “Next Gen Journeys.” The series will highlight fresh perspectives on medical education and the future of healthcare offered by students and recent graduates from around the globe. Starting with Dr. Nasr is a natural choice because of the many contributions he's made to Osmosis over the last several years including service in the Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship program and being a key contributor to our Year of the Zebra initiative. In this engaging conversation with host Hillary Acer, Lewis brings the perspective of medical students trying to learn in very challenging circumstances in which their personal safety and access to basic needs can be at risk. “It's another layer of obstacles that you have to get through. This gives international students a resilience and adaptability that they can bring to clinical practice.” Lewis also discusses his interest in hematology-oncology and reflects on entering the field at a time of remarkable clinical and technical advancements. “It's exciting to see cancer go from what is perceived as a death sentence to something manageable. I really hope to be part of the scientific wave of making cancer history.” We have no doubt that he will be, and neither will you after hearing from this thoughtful, compassionate young physician.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.osmosis.org/world
https://www.osmosis.org/zebra
https://www.mdanderson.org/
Today’s Raise the Line guest, Dr. Megan Meyer, has a pretty simple message for proponents of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) who are concerned that demand for therapists will outstrip supply in the coming years: don’t overlook the largest group of mental health providers in the nation. “Social workers provide more mental health services than psychologists, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses combined and we’re embedded everywhere. I don't think the psychedelic renaissance can actually achieve its aims without us,” says Meyer, who is an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Meyers adds that social workers also happened to be well-equipped for PAT because they’re trained to act as guides in helping clients find their own voice and not impose their own perspectives or biases. Getting large numbers trained will require collaboration across disciplines, universities and training institutes such as the project she’s working on with colleagues at the university’s Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing to survey social workers and nurses regarding their current knowledge and training needs related to psychedelics. Join host Michael Carrese for an expansive conversation about the role social workers can play in minimizing the risks and realizing the potential of psychedelics including issues of bias and diversity, community-based models of post-therapy integration and learning from the practices of indigenous societies.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.ssw.umaryland.edu/
There's a relatively small number of people who have had the opportunity to create a medical school from the ground up, which is why today’s Raise the Line guest, Dr. Robert Hasty, is particularly interesting to talk to because he’s had that chance three times. Currently, he is involved in launching one of the nation's newest medical schools, the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine, in one of its fastest growing areas, Central Florida. “I think one of the things I've learned is that everything is incredibly connected at a medical school -- the facility, the curriculum, the culture, the clinical rotation partners...it all has to work together, so that's one of the things that we've done.” Hasty and his team have also designed a modern curriculum that’s taking a “lecture-less,” team-based, case-based, systems-based approach that interweaves clinical skills and knowledge of basic science throughout the four years. And on top of all that, given the school’s proximity to Disney World, you can see fireworks every night from campus! Join host Shiv Gaglani for this hopeful look at the cutting-edge of medical education.
Mentioned in this episode: https://ocom.org/
If you get nothing else from listening to this memorable episode of Raise the Line, you’ll at least have the chance to do a breathing exercise in real time along with host Shiv Gaglani and his guest, Dr. Michelle Thompson, who is triple board certified in lifestyle, integrative, and osteopathic family medicine. Dr. Thompson has come to rely on a breathing practice for her own daily wellbeing and offers to do it along with all of her patients as well as countless medical students, residents and colleagues. In fact, as a strong advocate for provider wellness, she's created full-day programs for physicians and nurses to learn tools like breathwork for resilience and self-care. “Self-care is not selfish. If we are caring for ourselves, we are more available to others,” she explains. In addition to her role as medical director of the Lifestyle Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Thompson is a national force in establishing lifestyle medicine programs in health systems across the country, as nearly 100 organizations have done. Taking it a step further, UPMC is building a new hospital in the city that Thompson says is going to have a “lifestyle village” on the first three floors to facilitate the efforts of community members to choose healthy habits. Join us as we explore the impact lifestyle and mind-body medicine is having on patient care, employee wellness and medical education in Pittsburgh and far beyond in this perspective-shifting conversation.
Mentioned in this episode: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Active and fun are rarely the first words associated with medical education, but today’s Raise the Line guest, Dr. Amin Azzam, contends learners get the most value when they can engage with their education rather than passively receive knowledge. As Azzam relates to host Hillary Acer, the vice president of Strategic Operations at Osmosis, he remembers first seeing the power of active learning while observing a class of med students as a psychiatry resident. “I sat behind a one-way mirror and watched these students leading their own small-group learning and it was just palpably infectious how excited they were to learn medicine.” In the ensuing years, Azzam has happily been utilizing and developing active learning strategies as a professor at three Bay Area universities and in his role as Faculty Engagement Coordinator at Osmosis, one of many key roles he has played as a longtime team member. One of his most impactful creative strokes was creating the first medical school course dedicated to improving the quality of health information on Wikipedia, both providing a unique learning experience and improving health content that has been viewed 88 million times by people around the world. Speaking of global impact, he’s also been instrumental in Osmosis initiatives to facilitate learning by medical students in war-torn Syria and refugees seeking medical care. Check out this lively and fascinating look at learner-centric education and the power of providing opportunities for students to do social good while learning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Osmosis OMEF-ONSA Program
Wikipedia Education Foundation
“When we say ‘treatment for menopause,’ it implies that menopause is a disease, when really it’s a normal and expected time of life,” says Dr. Anna Barbieri, an integrative medicine physician and specialist in menopause certified by the North American Menopause Society. That attentiveness to word choice is reflective of a new perspective that’s driving Dr. Barbieri and her peers to see menopause more holistically than in the past and to forge new approaches to the care they provide. "Menopause care is not checkbox medicine. We have to work with our patients individually," Barbieri shares with special guest host Dr. Deborah Enegess, herself a practicing gynecologist as well as a clinical content writer for Osmosis. A personalized approach involves tailoring care plans that take exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management and other lifestyle and psychological factors into account in an effort to help patients feel better in the short term and longer term. Providers also have to contend with a shift in long-held thinking about the use of hormone therapy and a bewildering array of supplements that are touted as effective remedies for various symptoms. To help sort through all of this complexity, new resources have come on the scene in recent years, including the digital platform Elektra Health -- of which Barbieri is the founding physician -- that describes its mission as “smashing the menopause taboo.” Check out this engaging exploration of what looks to be a promising time for women in search of individualized, integrated and informed care during their menopause journey.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.elektrahealth.com/
We've been careful on Raise the Lineto use the term psychedelic-assisted therapy because, as we've heard from previous guests, these compounds are best administered in the context of a therapeutic relationship in a safe, controlled setting. Today, we're going to focus on the therapy part of the equation with Dr. Mary “Bit” Yaden, an assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Yaden contends that administering a two-to-three-month course of psychedelic-assisted therapy will be vastly different for professionals used to conventional mental health treatments that involve taking medications daily and which might or might not include long-term courses of talk therapy. “This is taking a pill twice, and participating in psychotherapy is integral to its success. This is not ‘maybe I feel better today taking an SSRI, but I'm not quite sure.’ This is deliberately taking a medicine that changes your mental state in a way that is not ordinary,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. And while she’s encouraged by growing evidence that psilocybin and other compounds are showing therapeutic promise, she’s concerned about history repeating itself, as reflected in a 2021 article in JAMA Psychiatry she co-authored entitledPsychedelics and Psychiatry, Keeping the Renaissance from Going Off the Rails. “I think a great tragedy could be if there is so much overblown hype that we become disenchanted too early or that we start allowing for practices that are not safe.” Don’t miss this highly engaging and instructive conversation on the full picture of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Mentioned in this episode: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/
Today’s Raise the Line guest has created two new degree programs at Brown University, is a vice president and board director at one of the oldest venture capital firms in the nation, and was CEO at a groundbreaking digital healthcare company. Oh, and he’s still in his twenties. As an investor, Morgan Cheatham -- who is also a third-year medical student at Brown University -- is applying his impressive experience, intellect and energy to the use of computation in improving patient care, and he’s encouraged by what he sees. A prime example is Abridge, a company that uses an AI audio system to capture and summarize the information patients share during appointments, allowing the doctor to focus on the patient, not on typing notes. “A guiding light in my career has been how we take this sacred one-to-one relationship and scale it one to many, and Abridge is the company that does just that,” Cheatham tells host Shiv Gaglani, who also happens to be a successful healthcare entrepreneur and third-year medical student. And while Cheatham is excited by the potential application of AI in healthcare, he notes that the medical community needs to move quicky to establish quality standards for its use. “How do we build the right validation benchmarks and evaluation criteria to know whether or not it is performing well?” Don’t miss this fun and fascinating conversation that also covers the necessity of embracing ambiguity, remaining curious and seeking diverse perspectives to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare and technology.
Mentioned in this episode: Bessemer Venture Partners
“I really have challenged the students that have graduated from Duke the last couple of years to consider being ambassadors for science and for communication of what is good science,” says Dr. Mary Klotman, executive vice president for Health Affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University. She notes that the stakes of disinformation are too high to do otherwise, as up to 300,000 COVID-19 deaths can be attributed to unfounded fears about one of the safest vaccines ever produced. It's just one of many educational imperatives Klotman is pursuing to prepare future clinicians for a constantly changing healthcare landscape. Others include helping students put new tools such as AI in the context of patient care, creating more opportunities to learn in ambulatory settings where 90% of healthcare is now delivered, and more multidisciplinary training to reflect a growing team approach to medical care. To help develop those interprofessional habits, Klotman has championed a “One Duke” approach. “Whether you're a student, senior investigator or a clinician, take advantage of the broad expertise here to solve a problem whether it's engineering in medicine, or it's data science. That is the nature of scientific problem solving today.” Join host Shiv Gaglani on this episode of Raise the Line for a wide-ranging look at how a leading academic center is innovating to adjust to dynamic changes in society, technology and healthcare.
Mentioned in this episode:
Duke University School of Medicine
Duke's Program on Medical Misinformation
Instead of fretting about AI replacing jobs humans currently do, Dr. Nigam Shah is urging people to adopt a perspective about the technology that echoes President John Kennedy’s famous charge in his inaugural address: ‘ask not what this technology can do to you, ask what you can do with this technology.’ “If medicine simply automated everything we were doing 200 years ago, we’d have a machine that would do bloodletting. But we didn't fall into that trap,” says Shah, the chief data scientist at Stanford University. Instead, he suggests, people in the healthcare arena should think about what a human and a computer can do together that neither of them could do alone. In this fascinating episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani, Shah also issues a call to action to the medical community about training AI for medical purposes. “If you really want to use these things, we have to create the instruction-tuning data so that they produce the output that we expect.” As for predictions of AI being the author of our salvation or doom, count him as skeptical. “I'm quite sure both sides are overblowing it for different reasons, and the truth will land somewhere in the middle. We’ve got to proactively pick the amazing and stay away from all the fearmongering.” There is much to be learned in this engaging conversation about the history of AI hype cycles, how to use AI to maximize productivity and the challenges inherent in AI-human interaction.
“What's really exciting and scary in medical education right now is we're seeing large language models enter the scene,” says today’s Raise the Line guest Dr. Adam Rodman, who is well-placed to make such an assessment. As co-director of the Innovations in Media and Education Delivery Initiative (iMED) at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Rodman is witnessing, and influencing, how new technologies are shaping both medical education and the future of healthcare. In his view, AI can’t replace a doctor right now, but it can make remarkable insights into how humans think. “We need to start to grapple with what it means when a lot of these cognitive processes that medical education is designed to train for get offloaded to a machine,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. He summarized his thoughts on AI, with co-author Dr. Avraham Cooper, in a piece for the August issue of the New England Journal of Medicineentitled “AI and Medical Education: A 21st-Century Pandora's Box” and invokes another concept rooted in ancient Greece as he describes AI as a ‘pharmakon.’ “There really is a way these technologies could dramatically improve what it means to be a patient -- and hopefully what it means to be a physician -- but the same technologies could be used to make things worse.” The ancient references are not surprising coming from Rodman, a medical historian who enjoys exploring the roots and evolution of the field on his long-running podcast Bedside Rounds. Don’t miss this richly informed conversation on how humans perform when interacting with AI, the advent of virtual tutors, and how AI might be used to improve student assessments and enhance the doctor-patient relationship.
When Munjal Shah and his colleagues chose to use Hippocratic in the name of their new AI-based company, it wasn’t just about signaling their product was involved with healthcare, it was also intended to leverage the ‘do no harm’ philosophy associated with the term. After all, formerly fanciful fears of ‘robots’ replacing doctors have become more realistic since the advent of generative AI last year. Shah addresses that issue up front in this revealing Raise the Line episode with host Shiv Gaglani. “We're going to be restricting the product when it comes out. It's not going to be able to do diagnoses.” Instead, the platform will focus on serving the needs of patients after their diagnosis, especially for those with chronic conditions. Shah sees his healthcare-specific chatbots answering questions about symptoms, medications, post-op care and other routine matters as a vast, virtual and low-cost expansion of the healthcare workforce. “What would happen in the world if we could have 30 million nurses? How much would America's health improve? That's the vision we're after.” And he argues that healthcare expertise available in every home in every language, 24-7 would be a major factor in improving access. “We want to really solve health equity for everybody.” Tune in to find out how Hippocratic AI plans to establish itself as a trusted source of accurate healthcare information, how they intend to manage AI’s ‘hallucination’ problem and how his system could actually improve patient engagement.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.hippocraticai.com/
“I have coaching involved in all of my programs. It's just done wonders not only for the work I do, but for me personally,” says Dr. Rachel Salas, a professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University and certified strength and life coach. It wasn’t always this way. Salas was well into her career as a sleep specialist and clerkship director before being introduced to a strengths-based approach to personal and professional development. As she tells host Shiv Gaglani on this episode of Raise the Line, focusing on her strengths was a transformative shift and she is committed to sharing this powerful technique with students, colleagues and even patients. “If a patient is a learner, I know they’re going to like some materials to read about their diagnosis. If someone has a strength of being analytical, I'll probably need to spend a little bit more time talking about the different numbers in their sleep study report.” Knowing yourself and your strengths, she says, is also a valuable tool in helping medical students decide what specialty to pursue. “We want people to be their authentic selves. Who are they? Who do they want to be? How can we help you match your strengths with the meaningful career you want to have?” Based on the success she’s seen at Johns Hopkins, Salas is helping to spread the philosophy to other medical schools. Check out this enlightening conversation that also includes insights on applying precision medicine to treat problems with sleep.
You’re going to hear something in this episode of Raise the Linethat you most likely have never heard before: what DNA sounds like. Our guests today all had an interest in musically representing DNA for different reasons, and have come together to pursue this theme as a way to raise awareness for rare diseases. Dr. Aditi Kantipuly had used the arts once before to achieve that goal by writing the children’s book The Zebra Alphabet.After coming across music based on genetic sequences composed by University of Chicago professor Stephen Taylor, a new idea formed. “Can we make a song for rare genetic conditions?” She expanded the possibilities by connecting with Casey McPherson, a Texas-based musician who had written a song based on his daughter Rose’s rare gene mutation. How do they do it? “DNA consists of four letters -- A, T, C, and G -- and you can map those to anything,” explains Taylor. McPherson built melodies based on the amino acids involved in Rose’s condition. “Being a pop artist, I was looking for patterns. I was looking for motifs.” The aim is to engage people emotionally and intellectually in the fight against rare diseases. As McPherson puts it: “We have the technology to cure many of these diseases, we just don't have the structures to do it at scale. Music is a huge way of inspiring us to think differently.” Don’t miss this fascinating discussion with host Michael Carrese on a unique intersection of art and science.
Mentioned in this episode:
To Cure a Rose Foundation
http://stephenandrewtaylor.net/
“I see health systems being systematically disintermediated by certain payers and some tech companies who are eager to take the easy stuff and leave health systems with really complex, sick and often very poor patients,” says veteran healthcare executive Dr. Marc Harrison. “I need a speedboat to change that.” He’s building that speedboat in partnership with venture capital firm General Catalyst, and will leverage his deep experience -- most recently as CEO of Intermountain Healthcare -- to set a new course for healthcare in the US. “Healthcare should be accessible, affordable, of high quality, consumer-centric and a combination of the digital and legacy world,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. “A ‘clicks & mortar’ future, as we like to say.” In this thoughtful episode of Raise the Line, Harrison also touches on his own health struggles and discusses his book Possibility Unleashed which examines how to create environments where people get to do their very best work. “How do they get to run hard, run fast, be collaborative and do more in that context than they could ever do on their own?” Don’t miss this wisdom drop from one of the country’s leading figures in healthcare reform.
Mentioned in this episode: Dr. Marc Harrison’s book, Possibility Unleashed.
While it’s encouraging that efforts to provide culturally competent care have gained a foothold in the wake of COVID, today’s Raise the Line guest says it is time to expand the conversation to encompass the concepts of cultural safety - which involves awareness of historical power dynamics -- and cultural humility -- which requires an inward look. “Are you reflecting on your own values, beliefs, and background and what you're bringing to the table,” Dr. Raj Sundar explains to host Michael Carrese. Sundar tries to practice all of this himself with patients in his family medicine practice in Washington, but also works at a broader level as a community organizer with culturally diverse populations and reaches an even wider audience through his Health Care for Humans podcast aimed at educating clinicians on cultural safety in healthcare. He acknowledges up front how challenging this work can be, especially because well-intentioned efforts to connect culturally with patients can backfire unless they are well-informed, but it is more than worth the effort. “This work is messy and sometimes doesn't have a black or white answer, but it can provide moments of joy. When patients feel known, seen, and heard they feel like they can trust you.” Sundar is a thoughtful source of guidance in this enlightening look at what can be done at the individual and institutional level to facilitate cultural connection in healthcare.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.healthcareforhumans.org/
Our focus on the renaissance in research into psychedelics continues on this episode of Raise the Line, but instead of looking at their potential therapeutic applications, we're going to hear about using them as a tool for learning how the brain works. “We don't have a great idea about the neural basis of self-conception, and psychedelics make us question so many of our fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality,” says Dr. Michael Silver, director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Dr. Silver, who is also a professor of Optometry, has the advantage of using the extensive knowledge we already have of how visual activity works in the brain as a predicate for his research. “We have the ability to do human neuroimaging and objectively define many areas in the visual cortex, while it’s still unclear how some higher order areas of the brain are defined,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. The Center was established in 2020 in part to fill a need for credible information about psychedelics and its work is informed by a wide range of disciplines including molecular and cell biology, psychology, neuroscience and journalism. In fact, one of the Center’s founding members is journalist Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling books How to Change Your Mind and This is Your Mind on Plants. This is a truly fascinating conversation on the nature of visual perception, standards for training psychedelic facilitators and the possible recategorization of mental health disorders, among other implications of psychedelic research.
Mentioned in this episode:
UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Psychedelics
Sam Harris Podcast
“I'm betting it's going to be more good than bad, but I have some big concerns about where things are headed,” warns Dr. Matthew Johnson of Johns Hopkins University when prognosticating about what impact the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment will have on society at large. As he tells host Shiv Gaglani, once these compounds are more widely available, there is real potential for unscrupulous actors to take advantage of people and cults to form. “One of the critiques is about this “new religion” component. I've been really concerned about that because I see even within the deepest layers of science, it’s very difficult to trust people with the magnitude of effect psychedelics have in people.” It's perhaps surprising for one of the scientists responsible for the renaissance in psychedelic research to articulate those concerns, but Dr. Johnson notes there is a long history, going back centuries, of psychedelics waxing and waning due to social and political factors. For now, he is focused on the efficacy of psychedelics in combating nicotine addiction, an area he pioneered starting a decade ago. Preliminary results of a study building on his early work indicate psychedelic-assisted therapy may be twice as effective as the leading nicotine replacement therapy. Up next is a multi-site trial on nicotine, plus studies on using LSD to treat chronic pain and psylocibin to deal with opioid addiction and PTSD. Don’t miss this thoughtful, nuanced and super informative discussion on one of the most interesting areas in medical science today.
For our 400th episode we’re happy to be diving into one of our favorite topics -- direct-to-consumer healthcare -- with a leading force in the space, Dr. Kapil Parakh. In his role as senior medical lead at Google, Dr. Parakh has led projects to expand access to health information and help people achieve their fitness goals using Fitbit and other means. He’s also helped launch products that reach a billion people and pioneered partnerships with a range of organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association. “I've found my passion around innovation and digital health, and the intersection of consumers and health,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Tune in to gain from Parakh’s broad insight into how AI and digital tools are making a difference in the science of health, and the opportunities for wearables and other digital tools to help doctors and patients work together to improve health. “You can take these consumer-grade tools and intelligently use them in many different clinical and population health settings. You just have to understand what that data means and how to use it.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.google.com/fit/
“We don't have a shortage of nurses in this country. We have a shortage of nurses willing to practice in the healthcare environments as they are today,” says Rebecca Love, an educator, innovator and leader who has devoted her career to improving the profession of nursing from multiple angles. She’s currently pursuing one of those efforts as chief clinical officer at IntelyCare, an app which smooths out the scheduling process for nurses looking to pick up extra shifts. “We created a platform that allows nurses more of a credentialing passport to work anywhere they want, when they want to.” Love is also involved in a broader effort to change how nurses are paid, correcting an historical artifact of their services being included in the daily rate of a hospital room instead of being billed as a separate service, as she explains to host Michael Carrese. “Nursing is still the only healthcare profession that does not have a billable service which makes them a cost center to hospitals and as long as that’s the case, healthcare systems are never going to invest in anything to make the lives of nurses better.” Tune in for a powerful perspective shift on one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare today from a leading advocate for the nursing profession.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.intelycare.com/
Twenty years ago, health outcomes in Eastern North Carolina lagged behind state averages but those deficits have largely been erased, and Dr. Mike Waldrum, Dean of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, thinks he knows why. “We’ve done it primarily with a community-based focus and taking students only from North Carolina that we know have a propensity to want to practice medicine in the environments that we're here to serve. That's kind of our sauce,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Building on that approach, the university started a rural residency program in recent years, and out of four graduates in its first cohort, two have agreed to stay in the communities in which they trained. And while that kind of incremental progress on the ground level is important, Dr. Waldrum knows change is needed at the system level as well. Some things ECU Health can do on its own, such as implementing a unified electronic medical record across all of its care sites that allows it to model where health needs are and intervene early. But what he sees as the necessary restructuring of how the healthcare system is organized and financed will take a group effort. “We need Medicare, Medicaid, the insurance industry and others as partners in how we transform the system.” Tune in for a thoughtful look at the challenges of improving healthcare in rural communities, and the special role academic “safety-net” health systems play in that effort.
Mentioned in this episode: https://medicine.ecu.edu/
If you were to make a word cloud based on this episode of Raise the Line, community would be the most prominent term. For starters, Dr. Allison Brashear was attracted to Buffalo for its reputation as a welcoming community -- a city of good neighbors, as she puts it -- which reminded her of her roots in the Midwest. She was also encouraged that the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine already had a well-established reputation as a community partner. And, as she tells host Derek Apanovitch, she has seen the impressive strength of the Buffalo community in the wake of the deadly, racially motivated shooting at a supermarket last May. Part of the school’s response to that tragedy has been developing an anti-racist curriculum and focusing students on addressing health inequities. “There's an elective where students can go provide healthcare in the neighborhood, so they actually kind of walk in a patient's shoes... because if you don't understand the social determinants of health of your patient, then you're not going to be able to make a difference.” Brashear adds that the school’s wide variety of partners -- from the VA to community-based primary care clinics -- further enriches the educational experience. “There's a wealth of opportunities to learn here in Buffalo, and that's one of the things that makes it really great.” You’ll also learn about Brashear’s efforts to boost the number of graduates who stay in the region to practice medicine, the University’s research strengths, and her own work as an internationally renowned researcher in several rare neurologic disorders in this in-depth conversation.
Mentioned in this episode: medicine.buffalo.edu/atp1a3
“We thought it was the end of psychedelic research, and the great dreams we had were for some future generation,” says Dr. Bill Richards, referring to the 1970s when the Nixon administration criminalized psychedelic compounds. At that point, he could not have imagined there would once again be the thriving interest in psychedelics for both therapeutic and non-clinical purposes that we see today. On this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani, we take a unique, multi-generational look at psychedelic research with two guests who happen to be related to each other. Dr. Bill Richards' extraordinary contributions to the field started sixty years ago and he was instrumental in helping Dr. Roland Griffiths reignite psychedelic research in 1999 at Johns Hopkins University after decades of dormancy. His son, Dr. Brian Richards, has made his own significant mark in the space, contributing to some of the original research administering psilocybin with cancer patients and healthy normal adults. He also teaches and mentors students at the California Institute for Integral Studies, the leading psychedelic medicine certificate program worldwide. They’re currently colleagues working with cancer patients at Sunstone Therapies, a company focused on defining the standards for optimal delivery of psychedelic-assisted therapy. You’ll hear about the range of patient experiences they’ve witnessed, the critical role of therapists who guide the sessions, what it’s like to work together and whether they think the US is ready to integrate psychedelics into medical care, among many other dimensions to this fascinating issue.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.sunstonetherapies.com/
Sacred Knowledge by William A. Richards
“After an hour in this machine, I learned more about my health than the health system had told me my entire life.” That’s our Raise the Line guest Andrew Lacy describing a full body MRI scan he underwent several years ago in Canada that sparked the idea for the company he subsequently founded, Prenuvo, which uses advanced MRI technology for preventive screenings. Growing curiosity about the state of his health as middle age approached had prompted Lacy to undergo a diagnostic gauntlet: colonoscopy, genetic screening, blood tests and more. But he didn’t get the comprehensive answer he was seeking until the MRI. “Seeing the results of that scan felt like I was seeing the future of healthcare. From that moment on, my mission was to figure out how can I take this and bring it to the world,” says Lacy, a serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor in a wide range of industries. He has taken big steps toward fulfilling that mission by raising $70 million to establish scanning centers in nine locations in North America with plans for many more. Prenuvo’s MRI technology candetect solid cancer at Stage 1 as well as 500 other medical conditions, and has already proven to be invaluable for many clients, as he tells host Shiv Gaglani. “There's a potential to have a lifesaving diagnosis in one out of every twenty-five people who are scanned.” Tune in to learn how Prenuvo is hoping to deepen our understanding of aging and early disease progression, shift the healthcare system toward a prevention-first model and help people take control of their own health.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.prenuvo.com/
Use this promo code for a $300 discount on a whole-body scan: OSMOSIS
When Tracy Dixon-Salazar was a young mother of two she described herself as a mediocre high school student with no real academic or career ambitions. Today, she has a PhD in Neurobiology and Neurosciences, is credited with uncovering the genetic driver of a rare form of childhood-onset epilepsy, and she also identified the first precision therapy for it. Unfortunately, the spark for this remarkable change of course was her daughter Savannah’s battle with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) which caused hundreds of seizures a day, stopped her cognitive development and nearly killed her several times. It all started thirty years ago at a time when the condition was poorly understood. “Nobody really knew what to do with this kid so I realized I had to fight, I had to become her advocate. You'll do anything for your babies and so I had to become educated,” she explains to host Michael Carrese. Dixon-Salazar moved on from her academic life several years ago to become a full-time advocate as executive director of the LGS Foundation where she works with over 200 gene-specific advocacy groups for rare diseases. “It gives me so much hope. The ability for patients to have a voice in the whole process has changed. Now patients have a platform.” Don’t miss this incredible story of a mother’s persistence that changed the prevailing dogma about epilepsy and LGS and ushered in new approaches to treatment that have affected many children beyond Savannah.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.lgsfoundation.org/
“There's never been a better time to do what we do in our fields and the future of life sciences is so incredibly bright,” says Dr. Lloyd Minor. From his perch as dean of Stanford University School of Medicine, Minor sees the convergence of biomedicine, information science and technology dramatically increasing the pace of discovery-driven science and translational science. As a result of observing and contributing to the culture of discovery at Stanford, and based on his own groundbreaking work as a physician-scientist in otolaryngology, Minor has distilled the necessary elements of innovation into what he calls the “Four Cs of Innovation” -- combination, collaboration, chance, and culture. “A culture of inquiry and collaboration is so important to making scientific advances that benefit patients and there is a level of collaboration and cohesiveness here that I think is very, very conducive to interdisciplinary scholarship,” he tells Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani. But Minor acknowledges that this time of unprecedented change and new technology in healthcare has been stressful for providers, which informs his approach to leadership. “There's never been a more important time for empathy in leadership and for leaders to be engaged listeners.” Tune in for a fascinating look at how academic medicine is both driving change and adapting to it, how Stanford is applying precision medicine for preventive health and the importance of balancing the opportunities and risks of AI in healthcare.
Mentioned in this episode: https://med.stanford.edu/
The failure of patients to take their medications as prescribed costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $500 billion a year, not to mention the adverse health outcomes it causes. Today’s Raise the Line guest, Sebastian Seiguer, co-founded and leads a company called Scene Health that is tackling this problem with a system that combines video technology, clinical coaching and validated interventions to improve medication adherence rates. Based on evidence gathered in multiple clinical trials, the Centers for Disease Control recently concluded that using asynchronous video is equivalent to an in-person Directly Observed Therapy - the current gold standard for adherence. “It’s an incredible thing. It's the first time in healthcare that an asynchronous video appointment is being treated the same as an in-person appointment,” Seiguer tells host Shiv Gaglani. Scene Health is currently supporting patients across multiple chronic and infectious conditions, including diabetes, asthma, opioid use disorder, tuberculosis and hypertension. Check out this enlightening conversation to learn why adherence is so low in the first place, how Scene Health is educating patients on how and why their medications work, and other applications for this approach.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.scene.health/
To the uninitiated, interoperability may sound like a surgical term, but it actually refers to how IT systems and other technologies communicate with each other. The goal, of course, is seamless communication to improve efficiency and quality of care, but that's obviously a big challenge. Today on Raise the Line, we dive into this important issue with two people who come at it from different professional perspectives, but who share that goal. Oh, and they also happen to be brothers!Jake Engle is a Senior Director at Oracle Cerner, a supplier of health information technology used at thousands of facilities worldwide. His brother, Dr. Sam Engle, is a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Wisconsin. On the patient care side, Dr. Engle talks about the value of having a complete patient history in hand prior to appointments to maximize the efficiency of the time spent, but also to avoid doing duplicate tests. “Especially with kids, you never want to have to repeat labs if you don't need to. I feel very strongly about that.” From the tech side, Jake Engle addresses the challenge of trying to synthesize data from multiple sources such as EHRs, insurance records, public health databases or commercial products focused on one niche of healthcare. “I think the healthcare systems are a bit late to the game and it's much a more complicated game.” You’ll also learn about efforts to make it easier for patients to access their health data, the need for data standards in the industry and how their personal relationship contributes to this work.
Dr. David Yaden’s interest in studying spiritual experiences started with one of his own. As he describes it, it was a totally spontaneous experience involving an intensely altered state of consciousness that left him with an enhanced, positive perspective on life. “This became an obsession, really, to understand this. I learned that these experiences have been studied throughout history by scholars and increasingly by scientists,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. “As I learned more, it became more and more clear that this is what I wanted to study, and that's what I still do.” He happens to be in a perfect spot to do it as the Roland R. Griffiths Professor in Psychedelic Research on Secular Spirituality and Well-Being at Johns Hopkins, named for a leading figure in the modern renaissance in psychedelic research. The basic scope of the project he’s managing is non-clinical. Topics of study include better quantifying the risk-benefit ratio of psychedelics as a positive intervention; looking into how psychedelic experiences that have a spiritual character relate to similar experiences not triggered by psychedelics; and collecting data from non-Western population centers across the world to provide a more complete picture of how much cultural expectations play a role in influencing these experiences, as well as how similar they are across cultures. There is much to learn in this probing look at a fascinating dimension of psychedelic research.
Mentioned in this episode: https://griffithsfund.org/
“I think we're doing something really special here to change the way healthcare is delivered in South Florida, so keep an eye on us,” says Dr. Julie Pilitsis, dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Florida Atlantic University. For one thing, class sizes in the medical and nursing programs are both increasing to tackle less than ideal access to health services. “If you get diagnosed with a lump on your breast in Florida, it takes you thirty days on average to see a doctor, while the national average is three to five days,” she notes. And just as FAU’s educational and clinical programs are supporting the communities they serve, Pilitsis tells host Shiv Gaglani that they need support in return. “I think academic medicine and academic hospitals are essential. Everybody wants good healthcare, but I think sometimes they don't understand the economic impact that good healthcare brings to the area.” Shiv and Dr. Pilitsis also explore advancements in functional neurosurgery, the role of artificial intelligence in reducing burnout and her landmark career as the first female neurosurgeon to become a dean in this enlightening episode.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.fau.edu/medicine/
Shortly after starting his job as Dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in 2014, Dr. Charles Lockwood was presented with the exciting opportunity to help design a new medical education building. In contemplating requirements for the new space, he raised the challenge to colleagues that when the facility was completed in 2020, medical knowledge would be doubling every seventy-three days. “That fundamentally altered the way we thought about the building, and we accelerated the process of curricular reform that we had started,” he explains to Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani. That reform included dramatically reducing the amount and length of lectures, substantially increasing active and problem-based learning, introducing more assessments and requiring students to learn how to be good researchers to help them discern what’s credible within the ever-growing amount of information available. But Dr. Lockwood also sensed a need to address the way students manage the rigors of a medical education and clinical practice. “What we've tried to do is to stress the need for grit and for embracing the classic stoic teaching about taking on obstacles and challenges as wonderful opportunities to grow and become more resilient.” Lockwood credits this perspective for the institution performing well through the worst of the pandemic. “I think the most surprising thing was the relative lack of burnout at the end of it. We're moving on to new challenges, but it didn't leave us hollowed out.” Tune in for a fascinating conversation about adopting an “anti-fragile” mindset, the dangers of overreliance on heuristics in making clinical decisions, and the implications of generative AI for medical education and patient care.
Mentioned in this episode: https://health.usf.edu/medicine/
After battling chronic illness as a child, Dr. Janelle Sokolowich swore she’d never step foot in a hospital again and started pursuing a different path in college. But life had a way of bringing her back to the world of medicine. “I started thinking back to all the nurses that made such an impact on me as a child and helped me to grow up to be a functioning adult,” she explains to host Michel Carrese. Now as academic vice president and dean of the Leavitt School of Health at Western Governors University, Dr. Sokolowich is in a position to help many others like herself pay it forward by becoming healthcare providers. The school serves 20,000 to 30,000 students per month and seventeen percent of all BSN holders in the country are graduates, but Sokolowich is keenly aware this can be an unattainable dream when cost and other factors come into play. That’s why Leavitt strives to keep tuition low and her performance as Dean is evaluated based on how much debt students have when they graduate, and if they are earning a livable wage two years post-graduation. “We want to be the most inclusive university in the country and we see ourselves as personally responsible for advancing health equity through education.” Check out this thoughtful conversation about competency-based education, strategies for meeting health needs in rural America and the importance of mentoring. “I want to build that next set of nurse leaders and I take it personally, because I have been gifted and blessed with many that have done it for me.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.wgu.edu/online-nursing-health-degrees.html
Major depression, smoking, anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease...is it possible for hallucinogens to play a positive role in all of these conditions? There are indications the answer may be yes, which is why Dr. Al Garcia-Romeu and his colleagues at The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research are so busy. “We're learning more, but as we learn more, the rabbit hole gets deeper and so it's a really fascinating time to be involved in this work and to see the expansion in all these different areas.” As he explains to Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani, this is not about research for the sake of research. “A big part of the end goal here is to get this in a place where anybody who wants to quit smoking in the country can go to a clinic and get this type of treatment because we’ve shown that it seems to work.” Garcia-Romeu recognizes there are many steps to be taken before that’s a reality --including, of course, FDA approvals if clinical trials are successful -- but there is also a need to train a national corps of providers to guide psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions, a better system for recruiting diverse populations for studies, and insight into how current and future providers perceive psychedelics and their potential utility, a topic the Center is also researching. Don’t miss this in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in a fascinating area of medical research.
Mentioned in this episode: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/
When Deepak Thomas contracted Lyme disease in his twenties, he quickly discovered how difficult it can be for a person to navigate the healthcare system, particularly when filling prescriptions. “When it came to accessing medications that could keep me healthy and eventually kick this condition, I found myself making three to four trips to the pharmacy every week, despite being covered by a generous healthcare plan.” So, by drawing on many years of experience working for leading tech companies such as Oracle and eBay, Thomas co-founded Phil, which offers a platform designed to remove provider and patient barriers to starting and continuing prescriptions. It’s an important problem to tackle because 50% of treatment failures and 25% of hospitalizations in the U.S. can be attributed to people failing to take their medicines. Thomas says a differentiating feature of Phil’s system is it works with the electronic health record or prior authorization programs the provider already uses while the automation runs behind the scenes. “The prescriber gets the benefits of automation without having to learn a new set of tools.” As for patients, they are sent a link -- often while still in the prescriber’s office - which takes them through the process. "The enrollment rates into the patient access programs offered by the manufacturers are easily 90% on average across all of our programs." Check out this episode of Raise The Line with host Michael Carrese to learn about a new approach to solving a vexing problem in healthcare, and the other areas of pharma services Thomas wants to focus on next.
Mentioned in this episode: https://phil.us/
As our Year of the Zebra focus on rare diseases continues, we’re putting several neurological conditions in the spotlight whose symptoms include neck pain, vertigo, swallowing issues, memory trouble and many more: idiopathic syringomyelia; idiopathic scoliosis; and the Arnold-Chiari Syndrome type 1 caused variously by cavities in the spinal cord and brain herniation. Fortunately, our guide is one of the world’s leading experts in this area, Dr. Miguel Bautista Royo-Salvador, Director of the Institut Chiari & Syringomyelia Escoliosis de Barcelona, and President of the Chiari and Scoliosis and Syringomyelia Foundation. In his fifty-plus years of focus on these conditions, Dr. Royo-Salvador has alternated between research activity and clinical practice in which he applies a treatment method he developed called the Filum System. Inventing this new approach was sparked by a patient who experienced very little improvement from what was the standard surgical treatment at the time. “I have come to the conclusion that an abnormally intense caudal traction of the entire central nervous system is the cause of the descent of the cerebellar herniation in Chiari Syndrome type 1, as well as of scoliosis and syringomyelia and others. To speak figuratively, it's like a pull from below on the whole central nervous system,” he explains to host Michael Carrese. After 2,100 procedures with a subjective improvement rate of 95%, Dr. Royo-Salvador and the Institute are working to broaden awareness of this minimally invasive approach. Tune-in for an educational journey into these rare conditions and a proven technique to relieve patient suffering.
Mentioned in this episode: https://institutchiaribcn.com/
In this episode of Raise the Line, we dive into the fascinating story of a very old technology, EEGs, being mined for data using a very new technology, AI, that's changing the way treatments are being developed for disorders of the brain. Joining host Michael Carrese to explain is Dr. Jake Donoghue, co-founder and CEO of Beacon Biosignals, a startup that’s using AI to unlock precision medicine for various neurological, psychiatric and sleep disorders. “We utilize our AI tools to bring quantitative endpoints into clinical trials to see if the drugs are impacting brain activity,” Donoghue explains. AI’s ability to quickly recognize subtle changes in electrical activity that might otherwise go unnoticed can accelerate the trial process and hopefully, approval of new therapies. Donoghue is also interested in the area of sleep medicine because of its connection to a wide variety of issues including depression, PTSD, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. “We think there's a lot of opportunity to bring quantitative insights to this fundamental state that all humans go through and map some of these really robust features of brain activity to increase understanding of disease and health.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://beacon.bio/
If psychedelics are eventually authorized by the FDA for use in mental health treatment, much credit will go to The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research which sparked a renaissance of interest in the compounds starting in 2006 under the guidance of Dr. Roland Griffiths. The first study was actually not about clinical applications of hallucinogens but rather it observed their impact on healthy people. “One of the most remarkable findings Roland Griffiths encountered early on was that people would endorse the statement that they had one of the top five or the single most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives,” says Associate Center Director Dr. Fred Barrett, who met host Shiv Gaglani in his office in Baltimore for this extended conversation. And while the Center is actively researching potential clinical use of psychedelics, which is promising, it remains interested in how they may improve the lives of those not in need of mental health treatment. “What are the opportunities for spiritual growth? What are the opportunities for increasing well-being? There's an opportunity for exploration here that, if we're very careful, may have utility and value outside of the medicalization of these compounds,” adds Barrett. Don’t miss this expansive (dare we say mind-expanding?) discussion of the possible reasons psychedelics may help people with depression, why they are not prone to misuse, and what they tell us about the nature of consciousness itself.
Mentioned in this episode: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/
“The unifying theme across our portfolio is that whatever a company we invest in is building can make a population-level health impact. For us, that means that what they're doing is going to lead to innovation that is ultimately accessible to huge portions of the global population,” says Gurdane Bhutani, co-founder and managing partner of MBX Capital, a venture capital partnership dedicated to investing in early-stage companies focused on big public health problems. As he explains to host Shiv Gaglani, that ambitious mission is focused on three main themes: accumulated environmental exposure (exposome), biosecurity and biodefense, and healthcare infrastructure. “The majority of disease pathogenesis today is environmental in nature, not genetic. So we're looking at companies that are developing exposomic sequencing technologies that help us better understand these environmental exposures.” One such company is using human-relevant tissue models to test for environmental contaminants. Others include a nurse scheduling platform and a firm that’s localizing radiology systems for underdeveloped areas. Bhutani has a track record of investing in interesting and impactful companies in healthcare (in fact, he was an early backer of Osmosis!) so you won’t want to miss his insightful perspective on promising ideas for improving health and healthcare systems.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.mbxcapital.com/
One challenge in developing treatments for rare diseases is finding enough people with the condition to mount valid clinical trials. Databases that contain diagnostic codes for specific conditions can help, but those miss people who may have the condition but have yet to be conclusively diagnosed. That’s where Verana Health comes in, a digital health company that uses AI to mine its data network of more than 20,000 healthcare providers and the clinic notes they make about patient encounters. “If you wanted to find somebody with a specific genetic defect, or a specific condition for which a diagnostic code doesn't even exist, clinic notes represent really the only place you could discover that information,” explains Dr. Michael Mbagwu, an ophthalmologist and Verana’s Senior Medical Director. Verana partners with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Urologic Association to manage their clinical registries which were built to improve quality of care, answer research questions and help physicians report quality metrics. Join host Michael Carrese for an exploration of the ways medicine is being changed by the ever-growing amount of data available and the new technologies which allow clinicians and others to analyze and use all of that information. “Some of the things that we just assumed were never possible or were kind of hopeless endeavors are now possible for the first time thanks to AI.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.veranahealth.com/
“In 2010, it took three-and-a-half years for medical knowledge to double. Now it takes around seventy-three days,” says Dr. Ted O’Connell, who is among the many medical educators who wrestle with how to help students manage that kind of information load. Artificial intelligence can be a tool for synthesizing vast amounts of data, he says, but it also has the potential to massively increase the amount of information coming at a student. “I think it will be very important for learners to understand what their learning style is so they can harness AI to help them,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. O’Connell plays an important role in the field, serving as regional director of undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and the author of eighteen medical textbooks with Elsevier where he also serves as editor-in-chief of ClinicalKey MedEd. Don’t miss a wisdom drop from this best-selling author, podcast host, speaker, company founder and family physician about the importance of mentorship for medical students, the need for further diversity of images in medical learning materials, and other ways to improve medical education.
We've heard many stories on Raise the Line about patients and their family members who, upon getting a rare disease diagnosis, build a non-profit organization from scratch to boost advocacy and research for the condition in question. This is obviously a pretty big hill to climb for people with no background in such things. Well, today we're going to learn about Beacon for Rare Diseases, a UK non-profit designed to provide the expertise and support needed to get a rare disease patient group off the ground, and to connect these groups with each other for the purpose of mutual education and support. “What we've seen is that people forming and building patient organizations can help really trigger a new community around that, and help drive the field forward,” Beacon CEO Dr. Rick Thompson tells host Shiv Gaglani. “What we want to do as an organization is help those patient groups form, to grow, and to professionalize their work.” Tune in to find out how Dr. Thompson’s background in evolutionary biology, research and education impacts his work at Beacon, why rare diseases should be approached in the same way as cancer, and his interest in repurposing existing drugs for use in treating rare diseases.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.rarebeacon.org/
“It is my deepest wish for all of my students to find me as a mentor and a coach,” says Beth Hendricks, RN, MSN and assistant professor at New Mexico State University School of Nursing. That can be traced back in part to a nursing educator early in her career who took that approach and built her confidence. Being devoted to paying that forward is one reason Hendricks is the winner of the 2022 Osmosis Raise The Line Faculty Awards in the RN-Nurse Practitioner category. Her student nominators describe her as both empathetic and driven to see them succeed, which is a deliberate balance Hendricks tries to strike. “Having their backs but also challenging them is the best method for connecting with students,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Check out this insightful conversation on how to motivate students to fight through “imposter syndrome,” the importance of learning to think like a nurse, and why she encourages students to find their unique learning style among many other tips for educators.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
We've learned quite a bit on Raise the Line about at-home monitoring technology for chronic disease management, but on this episode we're going to explore the use of tech for a different aspect of the patient experience: post-surgical care. It’s a significant issue because hospitals are incentivized to discharge patients as soon as possible, leaving many to recover at home with varying degrees of support. “The whole postoperative period is a huge black box of missing information. We really don't know how patients are doing after their surgery because we’re not capturing the 24-7 experience the patient is living through,” says Dr. Sanjeev Suratwala, an orthopedic spine surgeon who co-founded Recuperet Health to fill that information gap. He tapped software engineer and management consultant Gary Arora to develop Recuperet’s technology platform with the aim of keeping it simple for users. “You simply log in with your credentials. It's like watching Netflix on your browser. You don't need to download or install anything,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Patients wear Fitbits that track vital signs, and the system is designed to send alerts to providers -- and a patient-designated caretaker - if something seems concerning. Tune in to learn how Recuperet is leveraging AI and gamification as part of its approach, and how this solution can be broadened to other specialties beyond orthopedics.
Mentioned in this episode: https://recuperet.io
“I noticed early on in my academic career that the traditional methods of engagement and the lecture was no longer working for millennials and Gen Z, which is the first generation to completely grow up being immersed in technology,” says Dr. Nicolene “Nikki” Lottering of Bond University in Queensland. That set the assistant professor of anatomy and forensic anthropologist on the path of determining how to use technology effectively without going too far. “For me, it's about the responsible use of technology to meet students halfway and harness that power to engage them and make them excited about what they're learning.” This thoughtful approach is one of the reasons Lottering is the winner of the 2022 Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Awardin the Anatomy and Physiology category. Another, according to her student nominators, is her compassion for her students. This became particularly pronounced during COVID which presented enormous challenges to educators and students alike. “I believe good education comes from a place of genuinely caring about your students,” she tells host Michael Carrese. “We can learn as a community and we can, through learning, find coping strategies as well. It's not always about the content, but it's actually about the community.” Don’t miss this inspiring conversation from an educator with many insights on how to connect students to their learning and to each other.
Mentioned in this episode: www.Osmosis.org/faculty-awards
Perhaps the most noteworthy element of Osmosis from Elsevier’s Year of the Zebra educational initiative is the new, open-access, peer-reviewed journal Rare. Open Research in Rare Diseases.It joins Elsevier's leading collection of 2,500 publications in science and medicine. Rare is an open journal in multiple senses because, in an unusual step, contributions are being welcomed from patients as well as scientists. “We need the patient's voice to find out what their needs and challenges are every day,” says editor-in-chief, Dr. Wendy van Zelst-Stams. “We really want to have both a clinical impact on rare disease patients and an impact on their well-being in daily life.” Dr. van Zelst-Stams is taking on this new role in addition to her work leading the Clinical Genetics Section in the Department of Human Genetics of the Radboud University Medical Center and the Dutch Society of Clinical Genetics. In this enlightening conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, you’ll learn about Europe’s efforts to improve care for rare disease patients, the “DNA-first” approach her program takes to reduce the diagnostic odyssey, and the types of content that will be featured in this multidisciplinary scientific journal.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/rare
“Even my mother always told me that my biggest strength is my explanation capability,” says Dr. Kishore Banerjee, the winner of the 2022 Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Awards in the Medicine - Osteopathy category. It’s a skill the pathologist and educator has continued to hone over many years of teaching. “If you can create analogies and compare things with a real-life experience, then it becomes very easy for the student.” Better yet, Dr. Banerjee tells host Michael Carrese, is the prospect of enhancing the images he is trying to create for students using new technologies. “If we can create an immersive experience for students using the metaverse or artificial intelligence, that would be wonderful.” Throughout the podcast, Dr. Banerjee emphasizes the importance of making the learning process an enjoyable experience, one that students look forward to, which aligns him perfectly with the core Osmosis value of Spread Joy. “If the learning is happening in a fun environment, only then can you learn it properly.” By the end of this delightful conversation, you’ll understand why Dr. Banerjee was selected as a winner out of the thousands of nominations Osmosis received from nearly 400 institutions worldwide.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
Some of you may have a general idea about how Osmosis got started, but today you are going to get the full, fascinating story from one of its co-founders, Shiv Gaglani, who we welcome back to the Raise the Line podcast as our special guest. Shortly into his first year of medical school at Johns Hopkins in 2011, Shiv, and his co-founder Ryan Haynes, realized medical education was overdue for an upgrade. “The research was clear on how people learn and how to get them to engage in their education, but professors weren't being taught how to teach. We wanted to bring evidence-based education tools like spaced repetition, test-enhanced learning, memory palaces and flipped classrooms to medical education.” They also wanted to make it fun, efficient and personalized, keying off the customized recommendations media giants such as Netflix and Facebook were using. After completing their second year, both took a leave from med school to build Osmosis based on those insights. After growing it from a crowdsourced question bank for classmates into a global education platform serving millions of future healthcare professionals, Shiv shepherded the acquisition of the company by Elsevier in 2021, freeing him to return to Johns Hopkins to complete his degree which he recently moved to Baltimore to do. So, what’s it like to go from running the company to being a student using the product he helped build? Tune in to this delightful episode to find out, to learn what specialties he’s considering and for advice on using “negative” emotions to achieve productive outcomes.
Join us on this special episode of Raise the Line as we speak with Theodosia Adanu, Principal Librarian and Head at University of Ghana and winner of the 2022 Raise the Line Faculty Award in the Librarian category. When host Lindsey Smith asked Adanu which of the Osmosis values she resonated with most, her response was immediate. “When I think of the heart, I think of passion. I think for anyone to be able to make a difference, you ought to be passionate about things, and this is one thing I'm passionate about.” According to her students, Adanu’s unwavering drive to affect change and encourage them to succeed are just two of the reasons she was nominated and chosen for the award. In her conversation with Lindsey, Adanu describes the parts of the job she loves most, including helping students discover and learn new things. She also touches on concerns about information literacy. “I do my best to make sure that everybody knows about it and is practicing the tenets of information literacy. That's a gap I'd like to see through.”
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
One effective approach to teaching is to identify where students may have some weaknesses and then provide them with additional resources or information to shore up their understanding of that topic. Well, that’s exactly what Elsevier’s ClinicalKey Student Assessment is designed to do, and because it’s an online platform, the process is efficient for both instructors and students. “It’s a foundation to help students in that journey of self-discovery and self-learning which, hopefully, will set them up for the rest of their careers,” says Dr. Phil Xiu, the platform’s editor-in-chief. Xiu’s journey to that role includes many years of involvement in medical education and health tech, from writing textbooks to becoming the series editor of Elsevier’s Crash Course book series which has sold over a million copies and been translated into eight different languages. In this enlightening conversation with host Michael Carrese you'll also learn about efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in medical training, how blockchain technology is being used to enhance patient access to their complete medical record, and how being a practicing family physician shapes Xiu’s work as an educator.
What if your vibrator not only brought you pleasure but also provided valuable health data? That's precisely what Anna Lee, co-founder of Lioness, is striving to achieve. In this episode of Raise the Line, our host Shiv Gaglani sits down with Anna to discuss her journey from being an engineer at Amazon to starting a company focused on women's sexual pleasure and health. Despite the stigma around female pleasure, Lioness is dedicated to serving an underserved community, and the data they've collected is shedding light on the importance of sexual wellness. As Anna puts it, "Orgasms are the canary in the coal mine for healthcare implications and overall health." Join us to hear Anna's inspiring story and learn about the challenges of creating a smart vibrator in a male-dominated industry.
Mentioned in this episode: https://lioness.io/
It’s another special episode of Raise the Line, where we have the honor of speaking with Susan Spielberg, overall winner of the Student Advisor category in the 2022 Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Awards. Chosen from a pool of over 1,000 nominees representing 377 institutions worldwide, Susan truly embodies the six core values of Osmosis, as evidenced by the glowing testimonials and videos submitted by her students and colleagues. Join host Michael Carrese as he dives into Susan's educational career and her current role at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she serves as a student advisor across the pharmacy and dental schools. In this engaging conversation, Susan shares her approach which involves proactively seeking out those who may be hesitant to ask for help. "I find that many people have difficulty asking for help. That's why I feel the need to go out and find them." Tune in to learn more about the types of support students increasingly need, why she thinks teaching the affective is just as important as academics, and why she’s known as the “grandma” of LECOM.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
Even for those with experience in the healthcare system, dealing with health insurance can be confusing and complicated. And for millions of Americans, they have the additional challenge of navigating this complexity in something other than their native language, which is a real barrier to access. Knocking down those barriers is where today’s Raise the Line guest enters the picture. Myong Lee is co-founder and CEO of Clever Care Health Plan, a culturally sensitive Medicare Advantage plan that's tailored to the customs, values and linguistic needs of the diverse communities it serves. The company was sparked by Lee's experience watching his Korean American parents struggle with a system that wasn't designed for them. The mission goes beyond just providing customer service in different languages to including different health customs as well. “My parents certainly have never been to a gym. We saw the opportunity to be able to allow seniors to be able to practice healthcare the way they want to with access to herbal medicine and Tai Chi classes.” Join host Michael Carrese for an exploration of incorporating Eastern and Western medical traditions, assisting seniors in accessing the care they need and deserve and launching a company during a pandemic.
Mentioned in this episode: https://clevercarehealthplan.com/
Join us for this special episode as we continue a series of conversations with the winners of the Osmosis from Elsevier 2022 Raise the Line Faculty Awards which recognize the inspirational educators who are responsible for training future generations of healthcare professionals. Winners were chosen fromover 1,000 nominations received from 377 institutions around the world. The interviews feature testimonials from the students and peers who nominated the eventual winners focusing on how they embody the six Osmosis core values. Today we feature Michael Moore, the overall winner for the Physician Assistant category. Tapping into his deep passion for education and helping students to succeed, Professor Moore has played an integral role in launching two PA training programs in rural Indiana and Michigan. In his conversation with host Michael Carrese, Moore discusses the growing role of physician assistants on the healthcare team, what he loves about interacting with students, and the need for them to prioritize critical thinking skills. "Something that I think we can work on in even the undergrad years is more critical thinking." From PA education and training to day-to-day responsibilities, you'll gain valuable insights into this critically important and growing profession.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
We’re turning the tables on Raise the Line co-host Shiv Gaglani today who will be answering questions, instead of asking them, about Osmosis from Elsevier’s Year of the Zebra campaign.
As Shiv explains to host Michael Carrese, he first became interested in rare diseases meeting patients as a medical student at Johns Hopkins University a decade ago. His discomfort with the standard advice given to medical students to think of horses (the common condition) and not zebras (the rare condition) when determining a diagnosis sparked an interest in learning more. In the ensuing years he created a partnership between Osmosis and NORD, one of the leading rare disease organizations in the world. One result of that relationship is 200 Osmosis educational videos on rare conditions which provide critically needed information to health students, providers and patients. He has also sought out rare disease patients and parents of children with rare conditions to find out what more could be done to help them. “The more of them I've met, the more inspired I am by their stories and the things they've done as community organizers, researchers, scientists, advocates and policy changemakers.” Don’t miss this lively conversation about the components of the campaign - including Elsevier’s new open access journal on rare diseases - and how you can get involved. And, you won’t want to miss Shiv’s recounting of his climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for the campaign, including the special photo taken at the summit.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/zebra
Join us on this special episode as we continue a series of conversations with the winners of the Osmosis from Elsevier 2022 Raise the Line Faculty Awards which recognize the inspirational educators who are responsible for training future generations of healthcare professionals. Winners were chosen fromover 1,000 nominations received from 377 institutions around the world. The interviews feature testimonials from the students and peers who nominated the eventual winners focusing on how they embody the six Osmosis core values. On today’s episode, hostLindsey Smith speaks with Dr. Joanne Baxter, the first female dean of Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Ōtākou in 148 years. As a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Dr. Baxter discusses the importance of DEI in both the medical field and society at large. Drawing from her Māori heritage, she emphasizes the significance of collaborating with marginalized communities to ensure equitable healthcare access. Through her conversation with Lindsey, she explains the importance of understanding the roots of inequality and highlights how the younger generations are leading the way. “This next generation really embraces and engages with conversations about equity and diversity in a way that is much more open and progressive.”
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
One of our favorite themes on Raise the Line is how technology can help people become better informed about their own health, allowing them to participate more actively in maintaining and improving it. Well, today, we're going to take a deeper look at that issue with the help of Carol Lucarelli, Executive Director of Marketing and E-Commerce at Omron Healthcare, the global leader in remote blood pressure monitoring and personal health technology. “We want individuals to take responsibility for understanding what ails them and be part of the care plan to get better.” The medical devices Omron makes can help do that by providing patients and their providers with timely data from remote monitors of various types. One of the most common is blood pressure monitors, which Lucarelli says could go a long way in preventing strokes and heart attacks if used diligently. And it stands to reason that if providers are on top of changes in key health measurements taken at home, they can catch problems early lessening the need for trips to the doctor’s office or emergency room. Join host Michael Carrese for an informative look at the current role of remote monitoring, what’s coming down the road and how medical devices can help facilitate a dialogue between providers and patients.
Mentioned in this episode: https://omronhealthcare.com/
How will the healthcare system navigate unprecedented workforce and financial challenges? What can be done about staff and leader burnout? How can healthcare systems increase diversity and equity? These are the types of big picture questions Deborah Bowen and her colleagues confront at the American College of Healthcare Executives, an international society of more than 48,000 executives in hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations. After nearly three decades with the organization, Bowen has a deeply informed take on the kinds of support leaders need in motivating teams to realize their vision. But she is also quick to point out that change in healthcare is not just about who is sitting in the C-suite. “What I love most about healthcare is there are very influential people all throughout the organization. I think anybody who really has the intention to be a leader can be a leader,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. Don’t miss this chance to hear from someone who has been named one of the most influential people in healthcare about COVID’s impact, why she’s excited about the future of the field and what emerging healthcare professionals can do to change the system.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.ache.org/
Join us on this special episode as we start a series of conversations with the winners of the Osmosis from Elsevier 2022 Raise the Line Faculty Awards which recognize the inspirational educators who are responsible for training future generations of healthcare professionals. Winners were chosen fromover 1,000 nominations received from 377 institutions around the world. The interviews feature testimonials from the students and peers who nominated the eventual winners focusing on how they embody the six Osmosis core values. We start with Dr. Athanasios Hassoulas, Director of the Master of Science Psychiatry Program and Digital Education Lead at Cardiff University in Wales who won the “Other Health Professionals” category. Dr. Hassoulas tells host Michael Carrese about how his teaching innovations are informed by students and about the challenges and opportunities of incorporating digital technology into teaching practices. Dr. Hassoulas also shares how his personal experience with OCD led him to pursue a career in psychiatry and inspires his teaching philosophy. "I think care is the philosophy that underpins what I do.” Don't miss this insightful conversation with a remarkable educator who is breaking down barriers and raising the bar for excellence in medical education.
Mentioned in this episode: www.osmosis.org/faculty-awards
Regular listeners to Raise the Line know that research into rare diseases should matter to everybody because it has led to treatments for much more common conditions that have improved and saved millions of lives. Statins are usually the prime example of that. Well, on this episode we're going to get into much more detail on this point with someone who literally wrote the book on the subject: Dr. Jules Berman. His 2014 work published by Elsevier, Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs, Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases, shows that much of what we now know about common diseases has been achieved by studying rare diseases, and therefore, accelerating progress in the field of rare diseases will lead to yet more advances affecting common conditions. “If you have a rare disease and you think about the phenotype that results from it, you can often find that same phenotype occurring much more commonly in acquired disease, so the treatment for the rare disease can often help people with the acquired disease.” Don’t miss this provocative conversation with host Michael Carrese as Dr. Berman shares why he thinks researching one rare disease at a time is a flawed approach, especially in light of his belief that there are more than 50,000 rare conditions.
Lucy Landman is one of only a few children known worldwide to have a genetic disorder called PGAP3, in which a single missing gene can cause seizures and severe physical and cognitive limitations. Luckily for Lucy, her parents Geri and Zach Landman are both physicians whose expertise has been a big help in obtaining a diagnosis and in advocating for her. The Landmans are bringing that know-how and a fervent desire to help all children with single gene disorders to the non-profit they founded, Moonshots for Unicorns, which is already working with Nationwide Children’s Hospital on a promising gene therapy. “There are so many of these single gene disorders that should be amenable to things like gene therapy and drug repurposing. So, we don't want this just to focus on PGAP3.” Listen to this moving episode with host Michael Carrese to learn what causes PGAP3, how the rare genetic disorder has impacted Lucy’s life and health, and the suspected connection between PGAP3 and Autism. Dr. Landman also addresses the big gaps she sees in newborn screening, medical education and research efforts from a rare disease perspective.
Mentioned in this episode: www.moonshotsforunicorns.org
Eighty percent of rare diseases are caused by genetic mutations, which is why many of our recent guests have highlighted the importance of pursuing gene therapies as potential treatments and cures. That’s why we’re particularly pleased to have Dr. Gaurav Shah on Raise the Line today. He’s the CEO of Rocket Pharma, a company that’s in hot pursuit of developing curative gene therapies for patients with inherited genetic diseases, and showing remarkable results in some cases. For instance, a gene therapy for a rare and fatal heart condition called Danon disease is moving every parameter in the right direction, a result Dr. Shah is understandably proud of. “When gene therapy works, it really works. We were able to demonstrate the power of gene therapy for heart disease for the first time in our species,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Don’t miss this fascinating look at the art, science and practicalities of developing gene therapies and where Rocket Pharma is seeing progress. You’ll also learn about the many career options in drug development and hear how Dr. Shah’s background as a Grammy-winning artist informs his approach to leadership.
Mentioned in this episode: https://rocketpharma.com/
“Burnout to me is about losing control, not overwork. It's about being unable to solve problems, and problems beginning to stack up with no end in sight.” Today’s Raise the Line guest Justin Welsh earned that insight the hard way after a demanding corporate job led to a panic attack so severe it prompted a 911 call. Five years later, after founding a one-man business called “The Saturday Solopreneur,” he’s gained full control of his work life and has the number one rated course on LinkedIn which helps more than 10,000 people identify, share and monetize the knowledge they already possess. Listen in to this enlightening episode with host Shiv Gaglani as Justin shares his journey from successful digital health executive to self-employment and what he’s learned along the way about himself and what really matters to him. He details how he gained such a large following in short order, and offers advice for healthcare workers and digital health entrepreneurs on advancing their careers and preventing burnout. And stay tuned for an insightful take on the impact of AI that should reassure those with real world knowledge and experience, and the wisdom that can come from both. “Try not to look for ways to cut the line in place of real learning. Do the work, make the mistakes, analyze the mistakes, iterate, repeat.”
Mentioned in this episode: linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh
“The qualities of a provider that were envisioned fifty years ago are completely different from what the world needs for tomorrow. It’s completely different,” insists Dr. Abebe Bekele, who is entrusted with educating this new breed of physician at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. As Bekele explains to host Shiv Gaglani in this special in-person interview on the campus of UGHE in Butaro, Rwanda, COVID-19 has demonstrated that doctors now need to be able to serve as leaders of institutions, manage large projects, raise money and interface with influential public sector players such as policymakers and journalists. The program at UGHE has been designed with that in mind by providing a grounding in liberal arts and humanities along with the necessary medical content. As you’ll learn in this insightful conversation, the relatively young school -- which was established by Partners in Health in 2015 -- is taking a thoughtful approach to meeting healthcare needs in the region through admissions policies and scholarships that are boosting the number of female physicians and incentivizing its graduates to practice medicine in their home communities. Beyond connecting with Dr. Bekele, Shiv’s visit gave him a chance to meet with students and faculty to gain a deeper understanding of the partnership Osmosis has with UGHE which is part of a larger effort to support medical education in Sub-Saharan Africa, including in Namibia where he was born. As you’ll hear, Shiv came away seeing UGHE as a model for health education in an increasingly interconnected world.
Mentioned in this episode: https://ughe.org/
“Our rare disease community is looking to solve for many different types of policy barriers because we have a very diverse patient community,” says Annie Kennedy, who was drawn to the rare disease issue due to some personal experience early in her life. After spending many years as a patient advocate -- including being with patients during provider visits -- she has developed a keen understanding of where the healthcare system can be improved to do justice to rare disease patients and families. That insight informs her work as chief of Policy, Advocacy and Patient Engagement at the EveryLife Foundation where she helps provide patient communities with tools and resources they can use to make their voice heard in the policy arena. In fact, next week, EveryLife is holding its annual Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill during which members of the rare disease community will meet with lawmakers in Washington to provide meaningful perspectives and encourage their support. “There are more than thirty million Americans living with rare diseases, so this is a real public health priority,” she tells Raise the Line host Michael Carrese. One resource EveryLife has brought to the table is a study on the total cost of living with a rare disease, not just the costs of medical care, which is helping to inform policy discussions. You’ll also learn about some key steps pharma companies, insurers and providers can take to support the rare disease community and where the field is heading in the next few years.
Mentioned in this episode: https://everylifefoundation.org/
“In about three weeks, I went from a completely normal thirty-year-old to somebody with a heart transplant. It was crazy,” says Dr. Alin Gragossian, who shares her remarkable experience on this edition of Raise the Line. What makes her tale even more interesting is that at the time of the life-threatening heart episode that necessitated the transplant, she was finishing up a residency in emergency medicine. In fact, Dr. Gragossian is dually trained in emergency medicine and critical care medicine. Since her transplant, she’s been using her platform to share her unique experiences with other health professionals and raise awareness about the importance of organ donation. “I’ve had a lot of amazing lessons from what I call ‘patient school’ that medical school never really taught me,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Listen in to this fascinating episode to hear Dr. Gragossian describe what life is like after an organ transplant and the lessons learned as a transplant patient that she’s applying to her medical career. She gets candid about what she would change about medical school curriculums and what would encourage more people to become organ donors. Then, she talks about her podcast, “Both Sides of the Stethoscope” and emphasizes the power of strong patient communities and support groups.
There are so many choices to make as an undergrad in med school: selecting which medical field to go into; whether to go down the academic path; and how to use your knowledge and skills to find success and create positive change in the world, to name a few. On today’s episode we’re going to hear from someone who helps students work through all of those questions and also assists faculty colleagues with adjusting to the changing medical education landscape. Dr. Kim Tartaglia does all of this wearing several hats at Ohio State University Wexner College of Medicine including Professor of Medicine, Director of the “IMWell” program for internal medicine residents and Director of Faculty Mentorship. “There are so many different ways to make an impact that there’s not one path to success and there’s not one path to be impactful,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Listen in to this episode as Dr. Tartaglia shares her perspective on how medical education has changed since the pandemic as well as how students and academic leaders are relating to each other differently as they work to improve the med ed system. You’ll also learn how she chose her specialty in med school, what drew her to stay in academics, how she established an enjoyable career in medical academics, and the benefits of attending OSU’s College of Medicine. And stay tuned to the end for an enlightening discussion of the role of lifestyle medicine in treating and reversing disease, and the benefits of coaching and mentorship for med school residents.
Mentioned in this episode: https://medicine.osu.edu/
A singing guest! A poetic chat bot! This special episode of Raise the Line features those unusual artistic highpoints along with the substantive and interesting conversation you always get with host Shiv Gaglani. Our guest, Dr. Mark Korson, is a metabolic geneticist and Director of Education and Physician Support Services at VMP Genetics who believes patients have a crucial role to play in the education of both learners and practicing clinicians, especially when dealing with rare diseases. “Patients teach about disease a whole lot better than I do because they tell stories and storytelling is so incredibly powerful as a teaching tool.” Tune in as Korson talks about career opportunities in genetics and metabolic disease, the ways he integrates patient voices into his teaching, and the biggest opportunities and challenges in treating genetic and metabolic diseases and biochemical disorders. Plus, he shares his advice for learners about pursuing a career in the increasingly complex and demanding healthcare field. “You have to protect your personal life and protect it greedily because if you don't do that, at some point it's going to impact how you like your career.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.vmpgenetics.com/
“There's a real diversity of jobs available that folks don’t always think about initially when they think about going into healthcare,” says Marc Cummings, the President and CEO of Life Science Washington, a nonprofit trade association serving the life sciences industry in the state of Washington. Dr. Tina Albertson, the Chief Medical Officer at nearby Lyell Immunopharma, agrees. For instance at her company, which does R&D on cell therapies for solid tumor cancers, there’s a need for specialists in logistics who organize and monitor the movement of patient cells that need to be flown to other locations to be genetically engineered and returned to the bedside for use in treatment. As these industry veterans share with host Michael Carrese, the Seattle region is a well-established hub in the growing biotech sector due to a unique blend of strengths including longstanding non-profit research institutions and powerhouse tech companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. “This region is really well-prepared for innovation from a basic science standpoint and also from the tech side of our community,” says Albertson. Check out this revealing discussion of the challenges and opportunities in life sciences, the critical role AI and machine learning is now playing, and what they wish more people understood about clinical trials and drug development.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://lyell.com/
https://lifesciencewa.org/
“With psychedelics right now, there's a lot of hype around the compound, which is somewhat important, but Sunstone Therapies is really founded on the belief that the delivery is more important than the drug,” says Dr. Manish Agrawal, the company’s co-founder and CEO. As interest in the use of psychedelics for mental health treatment grows and various compounds continue to move down the path of FDA approval, Agrawal wants to be sure the medical system is prepared to provide the safest and most effective experience for patients. In fact, his company is conducting clinical trials to help define the standards for optimal patient care. Serious thought is given to everything from lighting to how patients are greeted, and of course there is great emphasis placed on training therapists properly and supporting them as they do what can be emotionally taxing work. “When people come through Sunstone, we want them to feel loved and held -- because they're dealing with very difficult issues -- but also the rigor and the discipline of a very thorough process that is very safe.” Listen to this super thoughtful conversation with host Shiv Gaglani as Agrawal discusses a new model of mental health care, psychedelic-assisted group therapy, and the transformative results he’s seen in patients. “In the right context with the right amount of support and understanding, psychedelics can help people resolve difficult emotions.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.sunstonetherapies.com/
Our guest on this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, ended up in the medical field because he’s always had a nagging need for social justice. “That was a place that I found where social justice is needed and is probably the foundation for healthy populations,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Dr. Gitahi is the Group CEO of Amref Health Africa, the leading Africa-based health development international NGO whose vision is to achieve lasting health change in Africa. Tune-in to this episode to learn about the key areas Amref Health Africa is focused on as well as how African countries are training and retaining more healthcare workers and physicians in their communities. You’ll also get a glimpse into the challenges African communities have experienced throughout the COVID pandemic and the key role that trust plays in gaining respect and compliance for public health measures, like vaccinations. Then, Dr. Gitahi shares his vision and goals for Amref Health Africa over the next ten years and offers powerful advice for aspiring healthcare leaders who want to create social change through medicine.
Mentioned in this episode: https://amref.org/
Why is it that Hispanics make up 20% of the U.S. population, but only 6% of the physician workforce? Well, Dr. Pilar Ortega, founding president of the National Association of Medical Spanish and co-founder of the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement, is working towards closing that gap. As an immigrant herself, she and her family have experienced trying to navigate a medical system that wasn’t designed for them. Now as an emergency physician and clinical associate professor with dual appointments at the University of Illinois Chicago Departments of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education, she’s tackling those issues head-on. She will also have the opportunity to address these concerns in her new role asVice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Wearing her academic hat, Dr. Ortega utilizes her bi-cultural background to create resources and credentials for Spanish-speaking providers, including two books published by our parent company, Elsevier: Spanish and the Medical Interview: A Textbook for Clinically Relevant Medical Spanishand Spanish and the Medical Interview: Clinical Cases and Exam Review. Don’t miss this enlightening episode of Raise the Lineas Dr. Ortega shares her thoughts with host Shiv Gaglani on why language should be seen as a professional skill, the importance of language re-education and the discrimination both Latino providers and patients face.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.namspanish.org/
“Patients don’t understand how little we actually know in medicine. I'm not sure if doctors understand this, either,” says Dr. Lisa Sanders, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine who is perhaps best known as the author of the “Diagnosis” column for the New York Times Magazine. You’re in for more of that refreshing frankness from Sanders whose fascinating career path includes network TV journalism, advising the popular “House, MD” series on Fox and writing several books, including her most recent, Diagnosis: Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries.In this lively exchange with host Shiv Gaglani, Sanders shares insights on a wide range of topics including opening up the diagnostic process, the critical importance of being able to take a good patient history and the work she is about to begin as the medical director of the Long Covid Clinic at Yale New Haven Health. Plus, she offers her take on the impact AI will have in aiding the diagnostic process. “I think it's going to be important, but it won't make diagnosis a science because bodies are too variable, symptoms are very variable and the way people tell their stories is different.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/column/diagnosis
“In medical school, you don't learn about leadership. You don't learn about what skills are required to make large-scale strategic decisions that can impact your patients,” says Nita Gombakomba, who will complete her medical degree later this year at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. As national president of the Student National Medical Association -- which has been fighting for equity and diversity in the medical field for sixty years – Nita has cultivated a broad perspective on medical education and the practice of medicine as she contemplates the future she and her classmates are facing. As she explains to host Michael Carrese, adding leadership training to medical school curricula is particularly important for students from underrepresented communities who see few role models in the ranks of healthcare leadership. As president of SNMA, she’s made leadership opportunities for members a focus, as well as community service initiatives and addressing health disparities. “We've really been pushing the focus on how housing instability also doubles as healthcare instability and the other health disparities that are related to that.” Tune in for a thoughtful perspective from the trenches of medical education and learn why it was important for Nita to take a break from med school to earn an MBA.
https://snma.org/Mentioned in this episode:
“I know it's hard for people to think about holding on if they're in despair, but there's the possibility of healing coming ahead. Don’t give up hope,” says Dr. Rick Doblin, who has devoted his career to getting MDMA and other psychedelics approved by the FDA. As you’ll hear in this episode of Raise the Line, he could be on the verge of seeing his decades-long dream come true. On the day host Shiv Gaglani spoke to Doblin (January 5, 2023) successful results from a Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA to treat PTSD were released by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies – an organization Doblin founded thirty-six years ago. This sets in motion a process that could result in FDA approval of MDMA for this use in 2024. That’s very good news for the millions of Americans with PTSD – and hundreds of millions worldwide – whose disease is resistant to other treatments. One of the next big steps is training therapists to incorporate these drugs into their work, something MAPS and other organizations are moving quickly to accomplish. Tune into this fascinating conversation about the political and social factors that have held up legalization of psychedelics for decades, other promising applications of MDMA, what fuels Doblin’s passion for normalizing the use of these promising medications, and the largest ever conference on psychedelics coming to Denver, Colorado in June.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://maps.org/
https://psychedelicscience.org/
The growth in skepticism about science that was fueled by disinformation during the pandemic has been a frequent topic on Raise the Line, with many insightful guests from medicine and academia offering analysis of the problem and possible solutions. On today’s episode, we’ll hear from someone who is very well-placed to actually make progress on this front. Max Bronstein, the Assistant Director for Health Innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss the broad support President Biden has provided for science – elevating his science advisor to the cabinet level being a prime example – and also provide details about programmatic investments that tell the tale at a deeper level. At the top of Bronstein’s list of examples is the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, also known as ARPA-H, which aims to drive transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs with a focus on equity. “The mission is about making sure there are cures for diseases, better diagnostic platforms and better technologies out there, but also making sure those are actually available to all Americans.” Don’t miss this inside look at new efforts to strengthen the biotechnology workforce, broaden access to clinical genetic sequencing, advance development of treatments for rare diseases, and much more as a new era in health innovation gets underway.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/
“It's still early days in the application of all this technology relative to its long-term potential, but even so, it's already producing some big wins for patients,” says Dr. Matthew Might, whose impactful career in computer science and medicine has been shaped by the rare disease odyssey of one of his children. His son, Bertrand, was the first person in the world diagnosed with a particular form of NGLY1 deficiency, a neurogenic degenerative condition that causes developmental delays, seizures and frequent infections. Unfortunately, Bertrand succumbed to an infection at the age of twelve in 2020 but by that time, Dr. Might's work in precision medicine had led to crucial discoveries for dozens of children with NGLY1 deficiency. Now, as director of the Hugh Kaul Institute of Precision Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he uses an AI-based system programmed to connect the dots in extensive databases of medical literature to make inferences about potential therapies for uncommon diseases. Check out this fascinating conversation with host Shiv Gaglani about the promise of this approach, the challenges in repurposing drugs and conducting clinical trials in the rare disease community, the need for more genetic counselors and Dr. Might’s work on President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which he calls the Rosetta stone of the human genome.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uab.edu/medicine/pmi/
We welcome one of the nation's most respected health and health policy thought leaders to Raise the Line on this episode. Susan Dentzer’s remarkable career includes many years of reporting on healthcare for major national news outlets, being a senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and serving as a board leader in medical education and health system delivery, just to name a few of her contributions. Earlier this year, Ms. Dentzer was appointed president and CEO of America's Physician Groups, an organization representing more than 350 physician groups providing coordinated, value-based healthcare for more than ninety million patients nationwide. She's also currently board chair of Research America, which advocates on behalf of biomedical and health-related research and innovation. Tune in to this elucidating discussion with host Shiv Gaglani that delves into what the pandemic revealed about value-based care and virtual care; what is helping to lessen clinician burnout; surprising views among medical students on the use of tech in healthcare; what is at the root of the public’s mistrust of science, and much more. “The reality of healthcare is very complicated. What I would make a plea for is that we all try to engage in developing a greater understanding of the issues, as opposed to seeing them through a narrow lens.”
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.apg.org/
https://www.researchamerica.org/
“There's a reservoir of hope, energy and optimism many of us have that we may not know about until we're really tested,” says attorney and author Scott Reich. The heavy test he and his wife Ilissa have endured for the past three years started when their infant son Eli was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called FOXG1 Syndrome which causes severe seizures and impedes normal movement, speech and sleep, among other problems. Scott vividly recalls the moment when Eli’s doctor explained there was no hope for treatments or a cure. “I just felt an instantaneous gravitational pull that despite the intense emotion that overtook us in the doctor's office, we were going to do something about it.” That “something” includes starting the nonprofit foundation Believe in a Cure which is currently funding over fifty research and development projects worldwide focused on this pernicious disorder. Join us for this enlightening conversation with host Shiv Gaglani to learn about the multi-pronged strategy scientists are pursuing to overcome the mutation in this so-called master gene, the promising results emerging from preclinical programs and the supportive global community Believe in a Cure has helped create for the hundreds of other families fighting the same battle.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.webelieveinacure.org
“I’m currently sitting 100 feet away from a giant lab full of robots where we can do up to 2.2 million experiments a week,” says Dr. Chris Gibson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Recursion, a company whose mission is to create a more efficient path to drug discovery. You are going to hear a lot of mind-boggling numbers from Chris in today’s Raise the Line episode, but they all boil down to this: advances in genetics, computing, artificial intelligence, mRNA capability and other technologies are all converging to accelerate the testing of drugs at an incredible pace. This is particularly good news for people with rare diseases who are often in a race against time for development of therapies. Although only founded nine years ago, Recursion already has four programs in clinical trials. A key factor in this success is a bold departure from the traditional hypothesis-based approach to science driven by lab failures Chris experienced while earning his MD-PhD. Once he and his colleagues cast aside their bias about what was driving the disease in question, they achieved success in animal testing. “We just modeled the genetic loss of function because we knew that incontrovertibly to be true, and then asked the cells what was actually driving the disease and what could make it better.” Don’t miss this fascinating look at reengineering drug discovery through gene mapping, training neural networks and other leading-edge technology.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.recursion.com/
You might think improving healthcare quality is largely in the hands of the clinicians providing the care, but much of this challenging work is actually done behind the scenes by professionals who lead quality reviews, institute new protocols for safer care and focus on performance improvement, among many other efforts. “We are on a journey to really change the perception of what quality is. We want to make it more prospective and actually solve problems for patients and the healthcare workforce,” says Stephanie Mercado, CEO and Executive Director of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. On this episode of Raise the Line, we get an inside look at this critically important function in healthcare, and at the Healthcare Quality Workforce ReportNAHQ recently released that recognizes the field’s progress, but also outlines places for improvement. “The areas most important for the future of healthcare are things where the workforce is performing at lower ends of the competency spectrum. Those include health data analytics, change management and payment models. So, we have a lot of work to do.” Check out this revealing conversation with host Michael Carrese to learn what the future holds for quality professionals as healthcare challenges mount.
Mentioned in this episode: https://nahq.org/
Regular listeners to Raise the Line know so-called "rare diseases" aren't really rare when you consider up to thirty million Americans are affected by them directly. That makes it likely you know someone who is impacted, or you know one of their colleagues, friends or loved ones. That fact has hit home at Osmosis over the last few months as we've started planning a major focus on rare diseases for 2023, which we're calling The Year of the Zebra. Several teammates have come forward to tell us their rare disease stories and we'll be sharing some of those on the podcast in the coming months. First up is our Director of Nursing Education Dr. Maria Pfrommer and her husband, Jack, who join host Shiv Gaglani to offer insights into the diagnosis and treatment journey they’ve been on to deal with Jack’s battle with retroperitoneal fibrosis, an inflammatory condition which can cause obstructions in the urinary tract. While Maria’s vast clinical knowledge and experience in healthcare systems has obviously been helpful, it was still a struggle to get the right diagnosis and treatment due to limited experience among healthcare professionals with rare conditions. “From my perspective, I really think that we need to learn more about rare disorders from every level of care,” she says. Tune in for great real-world advice for healthcare professionals dealing with rare disease patients including the importance of listening to the patient, understanding their whole life picture and focusing on transitions of care.
Grace Wilsey was born with a deadly genetic mutation so rare that at the time of her birth, it had never been identified in another person. The disorder, NGLY1 deficiency, causes a wide range of physical and cognitive problems such as muscle weakness, speech deficiencies and seizures. “The NGLY1 gene is in every cell in the body. It's almost like a firefighter that's on call, ready to go when there's a problem. Without it, the cell just kind of overwhelms itself with stress and starts to die,” explains Matt Wilsey, Grace’s father, who joins us on this episode of Raise the Lineto talk about the daunting journey he and his family have been on since Grace was born in 2009. That journey involves starting a foundation and biotech company that’s fueling research on NGLY1 deficiency which could have an impact on more common diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson's. The researchers the Grace Science Foundation supports include several Nobel laureates whose work is providing reason for optimism. In fact, Matt says they hope to start a clinical trial in early 2023 to study a gene therapy that has shown promise in animal testing. Listen to this fascinating conversation with host Shiv Gaglani to learn about the race with time to unlock the secrets to a gene that is fundamental to human life.
Mentioned in this episode: https://gracescience.org/
“You know, it's easy to say that default answer that everything's okay, but it's really not. She's lost a lot of her vision, she's got hundreds of seizures at night, and she's having difficulty walking,” shares Luke Rosen about his eight-year-old daughter Susannah. She was born with KIF1A-associated neurological disorder -- or KAND -- a rare, degenerative genetic disease for which there is currently no cure or treatment. On this episode of Raise the Line, Luke talks about how he and his wife Sally summoned the strength to move beyond their family’s own challenges to create KIF1A.org which is working to rapidly discover a treatment for all patients and families affected by this devastating disorder, but to also create a supportive community. “Five years later, we have approximately four hundred families around the world that we've identified and there's not one family I know that doesn't play a significant role in what we do.” Thanks to that global community and partnerships with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Columbia University, the n-Lorem Foundation, the Jackson Laboratory and many other organizations, there’s reason to be hopeful, as Luke shares with host Shiv Gaglani. “Susannah has been fortunate enough to just have started an experimental treatment. We really are on the brink of several things for, hopefully, the entire community.” Tune in for a candid and moving look at how families and supportive scientists and healthcare providers are mobilizing to fight back against a rare and pernicious threat to their children.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.kif1a.org/
As we continue our focus on rare diseases on Raise the Line, we’re delighted to be joined by Dr. Alaa Hamed, Global Head of Medical Affairs, Rare Diseases at Sanofi, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Although most well known for their focus on lysosomal storage disorders including Gaucher and Pompe disease, Dr. Hamed and his team at Sanofi are also working in adjacent disease spaces depending on the systems affected. “For example, the lysosome in Pompe disease affects the neuromuscular tissues, so we have a neuromuscular disorder interest as well.” In their discussion, Dr. Hamed and host Shiv Gaglani also touch on the efforts Sanofi is making to shorten the diagnostic odyssey for rare disease patients, including building more disease awareness and greater global infrastructure. “From the inception, we thought that having universal access is a key part of the rare disease equation.” You’ll also learn about the challenges of drug development, the importance of maintaining policy incentives to focus on rare diseases, and where innovation is needed most to advance outcomes for patients.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.sanofi.com/
“Imaging has really become the tip of the spear of the patient journey,” says Daniel Arnold, CEO of Medality. In order to train future radiologists in this critically important and complex specialty, and keep current practitioners on top of their game, Arnold and his team are on a mission to transform the way radiologists learn by offering an online solution that mimics practicing radiology in the field. “Our goal is to make it easy for radiologists to learn a new subspecialty in just five minutes per day.” In his conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Arnold touches on how Medality (formerly MRI Online) is connecting radiology practices with people who have the skills they need most. The two also discuss the importance of getting imaging diagnoses correct the first time, why radiologists can't just rely on what they learned in residency and fellowship, and the impact of artificial intelligence and other technological advances in the field. “Being a part of the puzzle around how we disseminate new lifesaving technologies is what really motivates us and gets us excited.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://mrionline.com/
“One of the reasons I really wanted to be at Walmart is that you're touching people that truly have a need,” says Dr. John Wigneswaran, the retail giant’s Chief Medical Officer. And giant is not an overstatement. 150 million Americans visit a Walmart every week, and there is a store within ten miles of 90% of the U.S. population. In terms of healthcare, there are roughly 5,000 Walmart pharmacies, 4,000 of which are in medically underserved areas. Walmart visitors also have access to primary and urgent care, labs, x-ray and diagnostics, behavioral health, dental, optometry and hearing services. So, clearly, the company is in a unique position to make a big impact in the healthcare space whatever they choose to do. One of their most recent choices is to boost the participation of rural and underserved communities in clinical research, which Dr. Wigneswaran sees as an extension of their existing mission. “Ultimately, what we're trying to do to is drive safer, high quality and equitable care, and research is just one of the levers,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Tune in to learn about the evolution of a growing player in America’s healthcare system which could include initiatives in diabetes, nutrition education, wound care and HIV.
Mentioned in this episode: Walmart Health and Wellness
It’s not hard to start feeling relaxed when you experience a virtual reality visit to a mountain top, taking in the beautiful views of forested peaks and valleys and hearing the rustling breeze. You can actually feel transported from the real world. But imagine how much more transporting it would be if you could also smell the pine trees? Well, now you can, thanks to OVR Technology, a Vermont-based company that has overcome substantial technical challenges to seamlessly add scent to the VR and AR experience. “Research has shown quite directly that adding sense of smell to VR tangibly increases presence and immersion and the key factors that everybody is looking for when they experience a VR environment,” says neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Herz, the company’s chief scientific adviser. And because not everyone has positive associations with scents from the real world, says CEO Aaron Wisniewski, OVR is creating new ones to facilitate the therapeutic impact of the scented VR experience. Both stress that the applications for the technology go well beyond recreational use, and the units are already being deployed in clinical settings with one study showing a major -- and lasting -- drop in levels of pain, stress and anxiety among inpatients after doing just a few short sessions with the OVR headset per week. Don’t miss this fascinating conversation with host Michael Carrese as we explore how OVR’s groundbreaking technology is adding a powerful new dimension to the virtual world.
Mentioned in this episode: https://ovrtechnology.com/
“We're the richest country on the planet, healthcare access has to be core to who we are,” says Karthik Ganesh, CEO of EmpiRx Health, one of the fastest growing healthcare services companies in the country and the industry’s only value-based Pharmacy Benefit Manager. Ganesh and his team believe that radical changes are needed in the country’s healthcare system and they’re working to create a better experience for patients, providers, businesses, and insurance companies alike. Ganesh has deep experience in the healthcare insurance industry and health data management with stops in his career at Aetna, Express Scripts and Deloitte, and he's also the author of The Happiness Model: A Roadmap to Inner Peace. In his conversation with host Michael Carrese, Ganesh talks about why employers need to learn more about value-based care, and how healthcare needs to become a less transactional relationship with the provider. He also touches on some of the key factors that make EmpiRx different from traditional PBMs. “We are as equally focused on health outcomes as we are financial outcomes.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.empirxhealth.com/
Would you rather be poked with a needle, or get a diagnosis from a non-invasive scan? Most of us would choose the latter, if we had the option. Needle biopsies also come with the risk of infection and other complications that can be avoided by obtaining a diagnosis via imaging. Those are just some of the advantages underpinning the work of Perspectum, a global precision health company focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment, and management of metabolic diseases and cancer. As founder and CEO Dr. Rajarshi Banerjee explains to host Michael Carrese, “I can work out with incredible clarity what kind of prostate cancer someone has, and what treatment they're likely to respond to, just from a scan.” Other applications include diagnosing and monitoring liver disease, and more recently, doing multi-organ scans to aid in evaluating long COVID. Banerjee also sees a role for Perspectum’s computer-assisted imaging technology in combatting the rising tide of chronic disease in the U.S. “Unless we do something about them, there is going to be a fourfold rise in breast, colon and liver cancer in the next two decades.” Check out this enlightening look at new tools to help providers customize treatments and provide better care for patients.
Mentioned in this episode: Would you rather be poked with a needle, or get a diagnosis from a non-invasive scan? Most of us would choose the latter, if we had the option. Needle biopsies also come with the risk of infection and other complications that can be avoided by obtaining a diagnosis via imaging. Those are just some of the advantages underpinning the work of Perspectum, a global precision health company focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment, and management of metabolic diseases and cancer. As founder and CEO Dr. Rajarshi Banerjee explains to host Michael Carrese, “I can work out with incredible clarity what kind of prostate cancer someone has, and what treatment they're likely to respond to, just from a scan.” Other applications include diagnosing and monitoring liver disease, and more recently, doing multi-organ scans to aid in evaluating long COVID. Banerjee also sees a role for Perspectum’s computer-assisted imaging technology in combatting the rising tide of chronic disease in the U.S. “Unless we do something about them, there is going to be a fourfold rise in breast, colon and liver cancer in the next two decades.” Check out this enlightening look at new tools to help providers customize treatments and provide better care for patients.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.perspectum.com
“We know that whenever nurses are listened to in policymaking arenas, health outcomes improve,” says Dr. Michelle Acorn, chief nurse at the International Council of Nurses, a federation of nursing associations. That’s why she’s focused on making sure nurses are at the decision-making tables all over the world. “ICN ensures that nurses have a voice in developing and implementing health policy so that we can meet the real needs of patients, families and communities.” Acorn makes a point of getting into the decision-making arena herself, including at the recent United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York where she raised awareness of health disparities. “Our health systems need resources to provide patient- centered and culturally-appropriate care to the diverse populations we serve,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Tune in for a wide-ranging exploration of current global trends and challenges in nursing, lessons from COVID-19, and major leadership opportunities in the nursing profession.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.icn.ch/
Science As a Force for Social Good: Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet
The first scientific paper on the clinical features of patients infected with what came to be known as COVID-19 was published in The Lancet, launching that famed journal's prominent role in COVID research, which it has maintained throughout the pandemic. But being an influential force in science and medicine is nothing new to this nearly 200-year-old publication, which is published by Osmosis' parent company, Elsevier. We explore that role on this episode of Raise the Line with The Lancet’s Editor in Chief, Dr. Richard Horton. A physician by training, Dr. Horton himself has often been described as a global force in science and medicine, partially for his work in greatly expanding the content offerings and global reach of The Lancet’s family of publications, but also for his outspokenness on politically charged issues. “I don't apologize for not being impartial. I would say it's the only way you can be. You have to look at the world, diagnose the world view you have, and then we use our journal to try and achieve certain objectives. It's what science was all about originally,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Insights abound in this penetrating and lively look at the intersection of science and society, what lessons we should learn from COVID and the prospects for humans solving the existential threats we’ve created. “Our role at The Lancet is to draw attention to the dangers that face the human species, but also, to the solutions that are available to us.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.thelancet.com
Deploying community-based health workers has been a popular tactic to boost vaccination rates during COVID, but when the crisis ends, how can they stay engaged to help achieve other public health goals? That’s the kind of question Maria Thacker-Goethe grapples with as CEO of the Atlanta-based Center for Global Health Innovation. “You have to have the respect to keep paying people and not leave them high and dry because that will just break down trust,” says Thacker-Goethe, who is also the President and CEO of Georgia Bio. A key link in public health efforts in Georgia and beyond, she takes a ground-up approach to fostering collaboration among stakeholders in order to develop and share innovations, particularly those focused on health equity. A good example is a new “innovation district” the Center is building that will, in a unique twist, co-locate high tech health companies with public health organizations. As she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, Thacker-Goethe believes an underlying issue connecting all of this work is building trust through better communications, including more effective use of popular social media platforms, a tactic not yet fully embraced by the public health establishment. Don’t miss this fascinating exploration of innovation in public health, and stay tuned to learn about a special project that shares the wisdom of public health pioneers.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://cghi.org
https://www.9lessons.org
The first thing you see when you walk into the medical school building at the University of Texas at Tyler is a teaching kitchen, and the director of the nutrition curriculum is a dietician from the East Texas Food Bank. That should give you some idea of how differently the school’s founding Dean, Dr. Brigham Willis, sees its mission. “What we're trying to do is create a very unique program focused on how we can serve the particular needs of East Texas,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. And in a region that has some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and smoking in the country, that means focusing on lifestyle medicine. “Our students are actually going to have the opportunity to become nutrition coaches and personal trainers which I think is really foundational to what we're trying to do. Instead of just saying, “eat better," they're going to have actual strategies and be a connection to resources to be able to help patients do that.” It also means being deeply embedded in the community in everything they do, and recruiting students from the region to increase the chances that they will eventually practice there and help reduce a physician shortage. From limiting lectures in favor of active learning, to requiring students to become certified EMTs in the first six weeks, to pushing to make education tuition free for all students, Dr. Willis and his team are taking full advantage of the opportunity to build a medical education from the ground up, as you’ll learn in this fascinating episode.
Mentioned in this episode: https://medicine.uttyler.edu
Ninety percent of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut, says Jeff Glueck. So, if you are like the many millions of Americans with a digestive disorder, happiness and calm may not come easily. Enter Salvo, a “medical clinic in an app” that provides specialty care for people suffering from chronic GI conditions. In this episode of Raise the Line with host Michael Carrese, hear how the loss of a child and the illness of two others, combined with Glueck's love of entrepreneurship and data-based solutions, motivated him to start the company. Tune in to find out about Salvo's “Whole Self Science” approach that incorporates diet, mind, movement, sleep, labs, and more; the company's continually expanding data set; and the program's promising results. Glueck also talks about his role as an integrator at work and why he believes this type of better-care, lower-cost medicine is the future. And stay tuned to hear why he thinks students should be giving serious thought to the type of work environment they want for their future careers.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.salvohealth.com/
Heather Fullmer will never forget seeing her nursing license for the first time and realizing the date of issuance was the same as her son Michael’s birthday. She had spent the week since delivering him in the NICU as Michael’s struggle with the rare, life-limiting skin disorder Epidermolysis Bullosa began. “It was a surreal moment. I became a nurse professionally, and in my personal life on the exact same day,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. EB is a pernicious disease which causes skin to tear at the slightest touch, with resulting wounds that don't heal. “If I had to sum up Michael's day,” says her husband, Ryan Fullmer, “it's probably fear and pain. We still haven't been desensitized to his screams, or the disappointment on his face from not being able to enjoy the day-to-day things that he sees his friends do.” In this inspiring episode of Raise the Line, you’ll learn how the Fullmers rose above their all-consuming struggles to care for Michael to forge a new approach to rare disease research with the support of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and his wife, Jill. The resulting EB Research Partnership raises millions of dollars a year to fuel promising efforts to find a cure for EB and, ultimately, other rare diseases. Tune in to learn how the “venture philanthropy” model they use differs from typical investing, and hear about important fundraising events for EB including Venture Into Cures hosted by Spiderman actor Tom Holland. And be sure to stay tuned to hear their advice to medical providers on the importance of building rapport with patient families, and taking an interdisciplinary approach to treating rare disorders.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.ebresearch.org/founders.html
https://www.ebresearch.org/our-mission.html
https://www.ebresearch.org/venture-into-cures.html
Mikey's World video
Although many countries are facing a shortage of physicians, Israel is being hit particularly hard by this problem, especially in rural areas. But as we’ll learn in this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Peter Gilbey and Dr. Yair Blumberg of The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University are doing their part to reverse that trend by developing new approaches to medical education. “If you take the best local people and train them, they will stay in the area,” says Dr. Gilbey, chair of the Department of Research and Innovation in Medical Education. For Yair Blumberg, the school’s Physiology Coordinator, doing more to embed technologies such as ultrasound in the educational journey is a key focus. “Point-of-care ultrasound may be one of the major tools future physicians are going to use, so we decided as a strategic teaching method to teach the students to use ultrasound from basically the first day of medical school.” Tune in to this discussion with host Shiv Gaglani in which Drs. Gilbey and Blumberg shed light on the biggest challenges they’re facing as medical educators, how medical education is impacting health outcomes in Israel, and the innovative solutions they’re implementing in their curriculum. They also share their best advice for medical students on overcoming burnout and meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic while progressing in their medical careers.
Mentioned in this episode: https://medicine.biu.ac.il/en
As the rate of new medical knowledge continues to accelerate, how can medical students and practitioners keep up with it all and make sure they are providing the most up-to-date care to their patients? One answer is being provided by AMBOSS, a German medical technology company whose platform has greatly improved the way medical knowledge is acquired and utilized at the point of care. In this episode of Raise the Line, AMBOSS Co-founder Dr. Sievert Weiss joins host Shiv Gaglani to explore ways to increase adoption of new technologies in medicine, reminding us that even the thermometer was rejected when first introduced. He also shares his thoughts on the direction healthcare should head in order to enhance the doctor-patient relationship. “I think it's super important to get away from this patriarchal model to a model that is more on eye level”. Don’t miss this thought-provoking conversation on these and many other critical issues in healthcare.
Imagine 60% of your skin having open wounds every day. That's the grim reality of those with Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, a rare genetic connective tissue disorder which results in blisters and tears to the skin being created from even minor contact or friction. The range of complications this causes for almost every normal activity – from eating to bathing to sleeping – is daunting, leading our guest today, Brett Kopelan, to call EB “the worst disease you’ve never heard of.” He should know. Brett and his wife have the equivalent of fulltime jobs just managing daily care for their daughter Rafi, who suffers from a severe form of EB. Advocating for Rafi led to Brett becoming Executive Director of debra of America, the only national not-for-profit providing all-inclusive support for patients battling the disease. In this revealing discussion with host Shiv Gaglani, Brett opens up about his frustrations with the health insurance system, the challenges of raising money for rare diseases, and why he feels there is a need for more doctors to specialize in rare disorders for patients over twenty-three. Brett shares some positive news as well about several promising gene therapies on the horizon. “I can say that the past two years has really been the first time that I've felt I'm working for my child's life, not for beyond her. So that's an exciting thing.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.debra.org
Just a few weeks ago we shared the story of John Crowley’s family and their battle with Pompe disease on Raise the Line, and in this episode, we’re honored to share another remarkable story of a rare disease parent and the contributions they've made beyond their efforts to help their own loved ones. Nick Sireau is the CEO and Chair of Trustees of the AKU Society, an award-winning patient group that helps people with Alkaptonuria (AKU), sometimes referred to as black bone disease, a rare disorder affecting both of his children. In AKU patients, a build-up of acid in the body leads to a painful breakdown of bones and joints, and serious heart complications. Nick’s tireless efforts have led to some extraordinary results, including making the very first treatment for AKU available. Nick is also Founder and Chair of Orchard, a medical charity that works to develop new and better treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a misunderstood mental illness that Nick has battled for many years. Join host Shiv Gaglani for a fascinating look at the impact one parent has had on the welfare of so many, and for advice for those weighing career options in the healthcare field. “There are hundreds, if not thousands of these ultra-rare diseases that just nobody is touching.”
Mentioned in this episode:
https://akusociety.org/
https://www.orchardocd.org/
As Dr. Katie Kay reflects on what adjustments need to be made to nursing curricula in light of the pandemic, she is not focused mainly on academic content. “We have to address some gaps in curriculums across the board that really prepare individuals for what they're going to encounter in the healthcare setting.” Assessing grit, making sure students seek out resources when they are struggling and adding resilience and wellness training to the mix are top-of-mind examples. As University Dean for West Coast University College of Nursing, Kay is able to impact learning for thousands of students in the largest states in the country where the pandemic has left demand for nurses at an all-time high. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Kay touches on ways the nursing field can reduce burnout, and gives her opinion on how to successfully implement new technology in the healthcare system. She also speaks about ways the pandemic caused a shift in student expectations around education,the need for faculty to center themselves to best serve students and why hospitals should view nursing as an operational expense versus a billable service. Don’t miss this chance to learn about current and future challenges and opportunities in nursing education.
Mentioned in this episode: https://westcoastuniversity.edu
The increasing integration of oral healthcare with medical care could lead to a reconsideration of roles and responsibilities on care teams in both fields. That’s just one of the emerging trends in oral healthcare we explore on this episode of Raise the Line with guests Laura Skarnulis, CEO of the Dental Assisting National Board and the DALE Foundation, and Ann Battrell, CEO of the American Dental Hygienists Association. Both agree this trend, among others, is making oral healthcare an increasingly dynamic field of employment. “There are so many opportunities, pathways, jobs, and environments in which to work,” says Skarnulis. “People can make all different kinds of choices today that never had been there before,” Battrell adds. There is also an ongoing need for both dental assistants and dental hygienists, with the supply in both roles declining during the pandemic due to retirements and other factors. In their informative conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, these industry experts also dive into issues surrounding scope of practice, the benefits of having diversified experiences throughout one’s career and why it’s important to “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” to maximize professional and personal growth.
It was on a Friday the 13th in late winter 1997 when John Crowley’s life changed forever. John and his wife Aileen had been noticing concerning symptoms in their infant daughter Megan for several months, and after a few rounds of testing she was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as Pompe disease. Doctors told the Crowleys their daughter likely only had a few years to live, an outlook that ultimately sparked John’s remarkable efforts to find treatments for Megan as well as her younger brother Patrick, who was also struck with Pompe. His family’s amazing journey was the inspiration for the movie Extraordinary Measures starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford. Join host Shiv Gaglani in this captivating and inspiring conversation with Crowley, now the Executive Chairman at Amicus Therapeutics, to learn about how he and his team are shedding light on some of the rarest diseases in the world, the promise of new technology in genetics, and the need for an Operation Warp Speed to develop rare disease treatments. As Crowley puts it, “We can beat nature, we think, in the years and decades ahead. We just oftentimes have to beat time.”
Mentioned in this episode: https://amicusrx.com/
Direct-to-consumer healthcare and how technology can empower people to be active participants in achieving and maintaining their own good health is a favorite topic on Raise the Line. Today we’re going to take a closer look at how one consumer health device that’s growing sharply in popularity, continuous glucose monitors, can be used to drive healthier decisions. Millions of Americans wear the devices to see the impact of what they eat on their bodies, but it can be difficult for people to use that information. That’s where Levels enters the picture, a health tech company helping people discover how diet and lifestyle choices impact their metabolic functioning. “We're enabling people to better understand what health decisions they should be making,” says Dr. Taylor Sittler, the company’s Head of Research and Development. Levels does that through an app that presents data from the monitors in a way that people can understand. For example, you can see a chart showing your glucose levels over the course of the day. Next up for Levels is supporting people as they act on the information, and providing data on exercise and sleep. Join host Michael Carrese as he explores this growing area of medical technology with Dr. Sittler, and how measuring and monitoring resilience can also play an important role in improving health.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.levelshealth.com
Unlike many young children who are fearful of visits to the doctor, Dr. David Canes was fascinated by his. This early interest set the foundation for a career in medicine, leading him to become a skilled urologist and robotic surgeon. But he started to feel unsatisfied with the repetition of information he needed to deliver during patient appointments. “I think there's a lot of other doctors like me who really love making a connection with another human being who needs your help, but if you are repetitively explaining things, you enter an autopilot type of mindset and it really bothered me a lot.” Ultimately, the patient-centered solution he developed grew into the company Wellprept, which empowers doctors to curate educational content that can easily be shared with patients before appointments via a single link. Happily, it’s working well for both the physicians who are using the system and their patients. “The "ah-ha" moment seems to be that the patient comes back in and says, ‘thank you so much for sending me that,’ and then the provider notices that the visit is better.” Check out this wide-ranging conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, in which Dr. Canes shares his insights on other ways to reduce physician burnout, thoughts on improving the doctor-patient relationship, and tips on planning for a long-term career in medicine.
Mentioned in this episode: https://wellprept.com
There’s good news in the world of organ donation and transplant. For the first time last year, more than 40,000 transplants were performed in the U.S. and donations from deceased donors increased for the eleventh year in a row. And as we’ll learn from today’s guest Leslie McMahon, newer technologies are making it possible to evaluate organs for viability that previously might have been rejected due to concerns about trauma-inflicted damage or other factors. “They can put the heart in a box and watch its function outside of the body before implanting it. They have the same devices for liver, kidneys and lungs as well.” McMahonis Organ Recovery Manager at Donor Alliance, an organ, eye and tissue procurement organization serving Colorado and parts of Wyoming, one of 57 OPOs in the United States dedicated to helping the 106,000 Americans in need of transplants. “Our vision is to maximize all donation opportunities. We are really focused on performance improvement to be able to meet that vision.” Don’t miss this informative conversation with host Shiv Gaglani in which McMahon shares her insights on the challenges of procuring organs for donation, the special connection developed with donor families, and why having a positive attitude is essential in growing a career in the healthcare field.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.donoralliance.org/
https://www.donatelife.net/
Inspired by her own challenges with fertility a few years ago, serial entrepreneur Halle Tecco saw a tremendous opportunity to rebuild the fertility and pregnancy experience for families from the ground up. She wanted to bring a human-centered approach to physical products that were largely designed and sold by male-owned incumbents in the space. She came home one day after interviewing a few potential CEOs and told her husband, "I'm so sorry. I know I said I wouldn't start a company, but I think that I have to do this, I'm just so passionate about it." With those words, Halle founded Natalist to offer fertility and pregnancy essentials for women and men who wanted a better solution, just like her. The company was acquired in October of 2021 by Everly Health where Halle now serves as vice president, focusing on developing and supporting women’s health strategy across the organization. Check out this episode of Raise the Line as host Shiv Gaglani sits down with Halle to hear all about her journey as an entrepreneur in the healthcare space, and discuss the many obstacles and challenges women still face navigating the healthcare system today.
Victoria Repa has known from her earliest days growing up in Ukraine how difficult it can be to lose weight. “In my family, everyone is overweight. It's our family problem and we can't overcome it.” Breaking that cycle provided Repa with the motivation to start her own journey toward better health, but she wanted to help others find their own motivation as well, and sustain it. Armed with business degrees from Kyiv University and Stanford, she launched the tech company BetterMe five years ago whose apps have already been downloaded 110 million times. Keeping that level of success going would be a challenge in any circumstances, but especially during the War in Ukraine which has required some staff to flee the country while others stayed to fight. Join host Michael Carrese for this inspirational conversation with a tenacious leader who is fighting for her country, her employees and the health of her customers all at once.
Mentioned in this episode: https://u24.gov.ua/ to support the people of Ukraine.
It was a decade after NY Giants great and Super Bowl champion Leonard Marshall retired when he first started to notice cognitive issues and a concerning change in attitude. Five years, many doctor visits and countless hours of research later, the two-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman received a diagnosis of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that’s common in former NFL players. He estimates taking over 30,000 blows to the head in his entire college and pro football career, which included 12 years in the NFL. “I knew what I signed up for when I started to play pro football. I knew there was a very strong chance I could end up getting a knee injury, back injury, neck injury, maybe a concussion or two. But nowhere in that fine print did it say you could end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and no one ever talked about it.” Today, Marshall is using his high profile to support CaringKind, New York City's leading expert on Alzheimer's and dementia caregiving with a forty-year history of working with community partners to help affected patients and families. Join host Shiv Gaglani for this touching opportunity to hear a patient’s perspective on a disease that is constantly in the headlines, and learn what Leonard Marshall is doing to support people facing the same reality.
Mentioned in this episode: www.caringkindnyc.org
“I knew I wasn't going to survive unless I found a drug that could save my life,” says Dr. David Fajgenbaum, who has almost died five times from the rare disorder idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, which he developed while in medical school. Now a physician and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Fajgenbaum has led research efforts into a cure for Castleman, discovering a drug that has kept him disease-free for eight years and is helping other patients. As he continues pursuing new therapies for Castleman, Fajgenbaum is also spearheading an effort to create a system for identifying alternate uses for existing drugs, something which could benefit millions in the rare disease community and beyond. “One of my favorite examples is tocilizumab, which was made for Castleman in the 1990’s and is now the first drug you'll receive if you're admitted to the ICU with COVID,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani.
The non-profit effort is being announced this month at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting. Don’t miss this deeply inspiring conversation with many lessons on the importance of collaboration, laughter and hope, and the perspective gained from feeling like you are living on borrowed time.
Mentioned in this episode: www.chasingmycure.com
On this special episode of Raise the Line, we get an eyewitness account of how medical needs are being met in the midst of the war in Ukraine from Ukrainian-American anesthesiologist Dr. Oleg Turkot, who has been coordinating resources and treating patients since the war started. As he tells host Shiv Gaglani, one important focus for him has been working with the Butterfly Network to distribute hand-held ultrasound devices. “If you have an ultrasound that weighs sixty pounds, lugging that as you're fleeing from a rocket attack ends up not really being your best priority versus something that you have on your belt.” Dr. Turkot is not new to improving medical care in under-resourced countries. For years, he’s been working with Kybele, an organization that creates healthcare partnerships across borders to improve childbirth safety. Tune in to this fascinating and important conversation to hear more about that work, how Twitter can be a powerful resource in crowdsourcing medical devices, and about some of the unique differences between the healthcare systems in the United States and Ukraine. “I think the most important thing is to continue to support organizations that are doing the work on the ground because this is going to have to continue for years.”
Mentioned in this episode:
https://kybeleworldwide.org/
https://www.butterflynetwork.com/
When Akiva Zablocki found out his infant son Idan had a one-in-a-million immune disorder, he and his wife Amanda were terribly worried, as all parents would be. But unlike most parents of children with rare diseases, Akiva could draw on the expertise in navigating the healthcare system he gathered when successfully overcoming his own rare and scary ordeal with a brain stem tumor. Thanks to that know-how, his wife’s background in healthcare law, some amazing clinicians, the couple’s tenacity, and Idan’s spirit, he is now a healthy ten-year-old enjoying summer camp. On this episode of Raise the Line, Akiva shares the remarkable details of his family’s journey with host Shiv Gaglani, and tells the story of how the Hyper IgM Foundation, which the Zablockis launched, is helping patients all over the world. Be sure to stay tuned for some heartfelt advice for current and future providers as they encounter patients and families with rare diseases.
Mentioned in this episode: https://hyperigm.org/
In this super insightful conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Dr. Karim Lakhani breaks down the difference between “strong” and “weak” artificial intelligence, and how the healthcare world can not only adapt to it, but harness its full potential. But, he stresses, the system has some important groundwork to do before that can happen. “Process change is the biggest work that has to happen in healthcare, from discovery to the clinic and beyond. Otherwise, we're basically pouring digital and artificial intelligence asphalt over old cow-paths." As professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, founding director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, and the Principal Investigator of the NASA Tournament Lab at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Lakhani is a powerful intellectual force in understanding AI, open-source software and crowdsourcing. He’s also the author of the book Competing in the Age of AI. If you’re curious about how artificial intelligence might transform the healthcare system, this is a can’t miss opportunity to hear from a leading expert in the field.
As a young girl, Dr. Maria Guevara was inspired by her parent’s volunteer medical missions in the Philippines where they helped repair cleft lips and palates. The deep impression that work created led her on a path to medicine and eventually to her role today as International Medical Secretary at Médecins Sans Frontières (aka Doctors Without Borders). In her eighteen years with the agency, Dr. Guevara has traveled the world tending to the needs of people who have been victimized by armed conflicts, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks such as Ebola. Founded in 1971 in the wake of the Biafra war in Nigeria, Médecins Sans Frontières now operates as an independent medical organization in over seventy countries with more than forty-six thousand members. Join host Shiv Gaglani for this riveting conversation with Dr. Guevara in which she shares her experiences in the field, provides her thoughts on global health as a discipline, and shares lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic with an eye on the looming challenge of climate change. “We’re getting dress rehearsals on a regular basis to see how we can fix ourselves. It's like Mother Earth is saying, ‘We’re going to teach you. Learn!’”
“From the beginning, my approach was that we need to challenge the system,” says Dr. Ronald Harden, General Secretary of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). In the 1970’s as a young medical professor in Scotland, this mindset led Harden to create the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, or OSCE, which dramatically improved the way medical students are evaluated. Many years and contributions later, he continues to push the field through AMEE, which is holding its popular annual conference starting August 27 in Lyon, France. As he tells host Shiv Gaglani, his latest focus is on the evolving role of the student, which will be described in a book being published by Elsevier next year. “The student has a changing role as a partner in the learning program. They're not just there as a client or consumer, but as a partner.” This partnership could extend to the area of helping to assess peers on resilience and problem-solving -- qualities newly recognized as important due to COVID -- and ones that students might be in a better position to observe than professors. Check out this inspiring wisdom drop from a veteran educator who has not lost even a wee bit of enthusiasm for his work. “I think we have an exciting future ahead in medical education. There are so many things still to be done.”
For more information on the AMEE conference, visit https://amee.org/Conferences/AMEE-2022
“So much of healthcare actually does have parallels to the business world, insofar as much of our job is to help align people to the next steps that are in their best interest,” Dr. Robert Lord tells host Shiv Gaglani. Dr. Lord, who recently completed his medical degree at Johns Hopkins, understands the parallels between the business world and the healthcare world better than most. As a Partner at early-stage digital health venture capital firm LionBird Ventures, Dr. Lord works with all sorts of exciting companies focusing on elements of healthcare that can range from the back office of compliance, to front-end clinical devices. Prior to LionBird, Dr. Lord co-founded Protenus, which provides healthcare organizations with risk reduction solutions. Robert’s insights have been featured in Forbes, The Baltimore Sun, and many national conferences, and he has briefed the U.S. Senate on cybersecurity threats to our nation's healthcare systems. Tune in to this insightful conversation to get an inside-look into some of the exciting new start-ups Dr. Lord and his team at LionBird are working with, as well as many take-aways for aspiring medical professionals and entrepreneurs alike. (Dr. Lord’s comments reflect his personal views and do not represent those of the organizations with which he is affiliated.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.lionbird.com/
“It's a strange odyssey being a rare disease parent. It sort of forces you to question everything about life,” says Phillipe Pakter, whose daughter Lysiane was born with Pierre Robin Sequence, a condition that impedes normal breathing and feeding. In this compelling interview with Shiv Gaglani, he shares the wrenching details of his family’s daunting emotional, medical and legal journey. “It's tough, but you just have to keep going and from the hardship can potentially come very beautiful things.” Among the brighter spots of their story are finding a non-surgical treatment that helped with part of Lysiane’s condition, and connecting with a network of dedicated clinicians focused on improving treatments for Pierre Robin Sequence. (Pakter recently interviewed one of those doctors, Stanford’s HyeRan Choo, about non-surgical approaches. Listen here.) Don’t miss this opportunity to hear hard won wisdom about ways clinicians can approach their work to be mindful of rare diseases and how they can be a resource for patients and families who are often desperate for answers. Pakter is a great example of how well-informed rare disease family members are, and why clinicians should listen closely to what they have to say.
Ryan McQuaid was facing chronic back and joint pain so intense he could barely stand up in the morning. Without a primary care doctor to reach out to about his symptoms -- and little experience navigating the healthcare system -- he turned to a friend, James Wantuck, who happened to be a Stanford-trained physician. Through this relationship, which was largely conducted via text messages and FaceTime calls, Ryan’s condition was diagnosed and he received effective treatment. It was out of this experience that PlushCare was born. “We said let's take that experience, this human-centric personalized care done digitally, and democratize it and give it to every American.” Today, the company provides nearly instant access to primary care from a desktop or smartphone, making it easy for patients to get the care they need without ever having to leave their home. The company has grown considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now has provided primary care and behavioral health care to hundreds of thousands of people in all fifty states. Tune in to this conversation with host Michael Carrese to hear where the future of virtual care is headed, and how PlushCare’s team is tackling a major problem in the U.S. in an innovative way.
Mentioned in this episode: https://plushcare.com/
With its mission to bring the benefits of modern medicine to places that have been impacted by poverty and injustice, Partners In Health has been at the forefront of the battle for global health equity since it began in 1987. Founded by a group of like-minded physicians and philanthropists, including the late Dr. Paul Farmer, it has focused on strengthening health systems in the communities that need them most. “Paul really saw that the link between academia and clinical and the community had to be a deliberate and authentic one," says Dr. Sheila Davis, CEO of Partners In Health. Dr. Davis began her work as a nurse fighting the HIV pandemic in the 1980s and has since built an amazing career in healthcare and philanthropy, holding multiple leadership roles at Partners In Health over the past decade. In this informative conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, she gives us an inside look at the organization's current work, provides insights on what it takes to strengthen healthcare systems, and stresses the importance of taking a community-grounded approach.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.pih.org/
Like many academics, Dr. Peter Decherney wears many hats, but in his case you can also add a virtual reality headset. That’s because in addition to being a professor of Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he’s also a filmmaker working in both the traditional “flatty” format and virtual reality, with subjects ranging from artists in Puerto Rico to a Jewish community in Ethiopia. Choosing which medium to use to tell which story is a newer part of the process he enjoys. “Filmmaking is often about this kind of obsessive control. It's a challenge to be able to give up some control and create lots of different opportunities and learning experiences for audiences,” he tells host Michael Carrese in this episode of Raise the Line. Using technology to create learning experiences is also a big part of his job as the Faculty Director of UPenn’s Online Learning Initiative, a role that put him at the center of perhaps the largest, quickest, and most significant change in higher education in modern times when the pandemic forced the universal use of remote learning. “The pandemic was a moment of reflection and it was kind of amazing to see people across campus just think about education and pedagogy in a really deep and new way.” Check out this wide-ranging conversation to find out what that new thinking is leading to, what he likes about online instruction himself and one of the most important things universities learned about themselves during the pandemic.
Mentioned in this episode:
Information on Film About Ethiopia: https://www.dreamingofjerusalem.org
Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement Video: https://youtu.be/1y-FM5o1xdU
Personal Website: decherney.org
“Curriculum is at the heart of everything a university does, so it only makes sense to architect the solution we provide based on the core offering of the universities,” says Greg Vanclief, President & CEO of Elentra. The tech industry veteran and his team are on a mission to transform the delivery of higher education and nurture life-long learners through an end-to-end platform featuring a wide range of tools to support everything from scheduling to curriculum mapping to testing and accreditation management. The global reach of Elentra’s advanced education management system is growing in part because it allows universities to consolidate multiple existing software tools into one. Join host Michael Carrese as Vanclief provides a peek into the tech support underpinning successful student journeys, and shares his passion for entrepreneurship and transforming higher education.
Mentioned in this episode: https://elentra.com/
In the last decade, a projected physician shortage drove the establishment of new medical schools across the country. Among these was the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, where Dean Dr. Paula Termuhlen is working to forge an identity for the young institution. She says they’ve settled on “health equity” -- a vision that emphasizes teaching and practicing among the undeserved in the local community. This, she tells host Michael Carrese, doesn’t just mean more people get care, but it also shores up public trust in doctors, and brings new potential populations into the medical education pipeline. “We've come to recognize that you really have to reach down into elementary school to inspire young people to continue their education,” she says. Tune in to hear about what it means to build a medical school from scratch, why communicating clearly with the public is among the great medical challenges of our time, and how the pandemic has opened up new possibilities for emerging health care professionals to shape the field for the better.
In medical school, when taught about differential diagnoses, students are often taught, "if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras” says Rebecca Aune, the Director of Education Programs at National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).NORD, she says, represents twenty-five million American zebras living with rare diseases every day, many of whom undergo a deeply frustrating and isolating odyssey as they seek an accurate diagnosis. The reasons for this are numerous, Dr. Edward Neilan, the organization’s Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, tells host Michael Carrese. But NORD is working to address many of these problems at once, at the level of the patient, the doctor, the research, and the medical system as a whole. Tune in to hear how at 1980s law dramatically increased research into rare disorders, how the human genome project has revolutionized their treatment, and what a future of better diagnostics could look like.
Mentioned in this episode: https://rarediseases.org/
The Student National Medical Association has been fighting for equity and diversity in the medical field for almost 60 years. Unfortunately, it’s a need as pressing today as it was when the association began, with Black doctors making up only 5% of the physician workforce in the nation. And beyond making sure Black Americans are aware of the path to, and through, medical school, SNMA Executive Director Bridgette Hudson also works closely with her team to make sure medical students have the opportunity to be great leaders as well. “We have an amazing pipeline of learners who are going to be primed to be physician leaders to make sure positions and influences are diversified not just on the floors of the hospital systems, but also in those decision-making suites and in our accreditation spaces.” On this episode of Raise the Line, Hudson joins host Michael Carrese to discuss the importance of maintaining support for the record number of first-year medical students who are Black to ensure they graduate, how SNMA supports diversity in medical research and the role of medical educators in breaking down stereotypes about race and health.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://snma.org/
One of the things that convinced Dr. Steve Riley to remain in Wales after leaving his native England as a youth to attend Cardiff University is what he calls its sense of citizenship and social accountability. It was a good fit with his own values, and when given the opportunity to help shape the curriculum at the University’s School of Medicine, he wanted it to reflect those sensibilities. “For me, it’s about trying to structure a course that recognizes the needs of the local population and seeing how a school of medicine can contribute back to make things better for the population,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Among the ways to achieve that are having students teach health literacy in local schools and aligning the School of Medicine’s research strengths to positively impact local communities. Tune into this thoughtful look at medical education in the UK to find out why medical students were an asset, not a liability, to doctors in Wales during the COVID crisis, how to how to help students navigate the ever-increasing amount of evidence and data at their fingertips, and why Riley thinks being a doctor should be fundamentally enjoyable.
The current interest in using psychedelics for mental health treatment is a ‘back to the future’ moment for Dr. Jim Fadiman, a pioneer in psychedelic research known as the father of microdosing. “The method that's been developed for administering high doses in a supervised environment is replicating exactly what we developed in the 1960s,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. At that time, the federal government approved his research, but when the Nixon administration criminalized this class of drugs for political reasons, all research stopped, creating a wide belief that they are unsafe when actually, he says, they’re among the pharmacologically safest drugs. In the absence of government-sanctioned research, what Fadiman calls “citizen science” has been thriving. Hundreds of thousands of people have self-reported through social media and other means that the drugs improve their functioning and have no serious side effects. Other countries are sponsoring research yielding the same results. In the context of a deepening mental health crisis, Fadiman believes it makes sense to integrate psychedelics into treatment, especially when the pharmaceuticals in use are only modestly effective for a minority of patients. Make sure to listen through to the end of the episode to learn about his new book, Symphony of Selves on harmonizing different aspects of our personalities to reduce stress and increase empathy for others. This is a deeply-informed, revealing and fun conversation you won’t want to miss.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.jamesfadiman.com/
As a child, Dr. David Perlmutter developed an uncommon familiarity with the human brain. Exploring the surgical ward -- and eventually, the operating room -- with his neurosurgeon dad, he observed the possibilities of modern brain medicine, but also its limits. After becoming a neurologist himself, he grew dissatisfied with the medical status quo which he says tended to react to brain diseases like Alzheimer’s after they took effect. The numerous bestselling books he has since written draw on the latest science to explain how the brain interacts with the rest of the body and give readers the tools to adapt accordingly. The latest example is Drop Acid: The Surprising New Science of Uric Acid - The Key to Losing Weight, Controlling Blood Sugar and Achieving Extraordinary Health.Dr. Perlmutter’s work reflects a commitment to questioning the scientific status-quo. “I'm not saying to be iconoclastic day in and day out,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. But he wants to “look at long-held tenants and recognize that nothing is sacrosanct. There's nothing there that can't be overturned.” Tune in to learn about a powerful new tool in everyone’s toolkit for keeping our brains healthy, and how doctors can get patients to actually follow through on their lifestyle recommendations.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
For decades, science fairs have kindled young peoples’ imaginations as they face down the conundrums of their time. Countless such fairs have been put on by the Society for Science, a century-old organization known for its science research competitions, its award-winning publication, Science News, and its outreach and equity programs that seek to help the young would-be-Einsteins living in “science deserts” to realize their potential. “We want to make sure every young person in this country can grow up to be a scientist or engineer if that's what they want to be,” Society for Science President and CEO Maya Ajmera tells host Shiv Gaglani. Ajmera sees effective science journalism and early scientific education as key strategies in the effort to combat rampant disinformation and scientific illiteracy. And she envisions new strategies for making sure more people have the chance to pursue a career in the sciences. Tune in to hear about Ajmera’s work as a children’s book author, how science fairs have launched so many successful careers, and why every medical professional should prioritize becoming a better communicator. Quote: “We want to make sure every young person in this country can grow up to be a scientist or engineer if that's what they want.”
“Our goal is to make things much more human,” says Dr. Vishal Punwani when speaking about the mission of SoWork, the company he co-founded to create virtual office environments that enhance the remote working experience. Recognizing that members of distributed teams experience a loss of self, SoWork allows people to customize their avatar and workspace in its virtual office environments. “When you have the ability to represent yourself authentically in terms of how your avatar looks and dresses and interacts with other avatars, you get to have some of your own representation back,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. If virtual office environments improve employee satisfaction with remote work, Punwani predicts major improvements in quality of life – because people will be able to live wherever they want – and possibly a major contribution to fighting climate change due to reduced commuting, office construction, business travel and the like. “It sounds totally grand, and maybe a bit unbelievable, but there's a path to get there, and that's the one we're walking.” You won’t want to miss this warm and fascinating conversation between these longtime friends and colleagues as they explore the pandemic’s lasting changes on healthcare, education and work, and share advice about following an entrepreneurial path in healthcare.
Responding to the crisis of medical burnout, Punit Singh Soni, a former product manager at Google, launched the company Suki with a specific goal: leverage the burgeoning field of voice technology to lessen the growing administrative burden on clinicians. Soni says enterprise contexts, and healthcare in particular, are well-suited for the next generation of assistive voice-activated software. “Whatever you’re going to do in medicine is going to be interwoven with technology in the near future,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. But as the rickety state of so much current healthcare administrative technology suggests, the prevailing cultures in the tech and medical worlds do not easily mix. Rather than trying to reshape how doctors do their job, Soni seeks to meet doctors where they already are, seamlessly integrating a voice system into the fabric of their work so they can spend more time caring for patients. Tune in to hear about why “the biggest technology company ever built is going to be in healthcare,” and how a user-centric mindset can help you not just build a company, but craft a career.
More than twenty-five million people in the U.S. experience bladder leakage every day and while the problem is more common in women, millions of men also confront this challenge. Unfortunately, says Vanita Gaglani, support for men dealing with this issue is lacking, especially after prostate surgery. “Men have been ignored and they have an equal problem. They don't know who to go to. There is no structure. There are no guidelines for them to follow.” Gaglani recognized this gap not long after starting her physical therapy practice in Melbourne, Florida thirty years ago, and now 90% of her patients are men. In that time, she’s treated thousands of people with a multipronged approach that resolves incontinence issues in a matter of weeks. “Kegels are not the end-all, be-all treatment. We have to have a complete approach,” she says, which includes nutrition, understanding body mechanics and lifestyle changes. Gaglani has detailed her protocol in a new book: Life After Prostate Cancer and Other Urological Surgeries: A Step-by-Step Guide to Stop Urinary Leakage in Ten Weeks,which is a follow-up to an earlier book that was geared more to an older population. Don’t miss this deeply informative conversation about the special characteristics of the bladder, insights on how men approach medical treatments, and advice about helping patients overcome reluctance to speaking about embarrassing issues. And, make sure to listen to the end to discover Vanita’s special connection to Raise the Line!
Mentioned in this episode: http://vanitasrehab.com/
After more than a decade studying resuscitation science in the ICU, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak felt himself burning out. He was skeptical of “escapist” options, like more vacations. “I thought something had to fundamentally change at the point of care,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Inspired by empirical studies linking human connections with increased resilience, he decided to lean into relationships with those around him and focus on service towardothers. Through his books, research, and his work as Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Dr. Trzeciak has dedicated himself ever since to spreading the word about the often-overlooked importance of human connection. Amid a worker shortage in the healthcare professions, Dr. Trzeciak hopes a renewed emphasis on the bonds that connect us all will make the system, and the people who constitute it, stronger. Tune in to hear about his new book Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways that Serving Others is the Best Medicine for Yourself,** how people are increasingly opting for self-care strategies that isolate them further, and why medical conversations often stay with patients and their families for the rest of their lives.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.wonderdrugbook.com/
David Blake -- rattled in the wake of a tough standardized exam – was doing some independent research in his high school library when it dawned on him that while he was a top-notch student, he was a terrible learner. From then on, he committed to changing a system that had encouraged him to merely “jump through hoops.” Through his companies Degreed, and more recently, BookClub, Blake has sought to change how individuals and corporations alike perceive education and learning. Rather than helping employees become their best selves, he tells host Shiv Gaglani, companies historically saw education in terms of regulatory compliance, of “checking a box.” But Blake sees this as wholly inadequate in a world where people get more and more of their education outside of formal institutions, and where new technology develops at dizzying speed. Ultimately, Blake sees a paradox: “If you're willing to skill someone up in a way that actually makes it easier for them to leave, they're actually more likely to stay.” Tune in to hear why Blake thinks our current way of talking about education is absurd, the enduring role of the book in today’s learning culture, and how a shot-in-the-dark email to Mark Cuban saved his company.
On this episode of Raise the Line, we're going to learn about a company that sits at the intersection of three huge trends in U.S. healthcare: the unending growth in the number of people with chronic conditions, the advent of new virtual healthcare technologies, and moving more care into the home. And that’s just where the founder and CEO of Cadence, Chris Altchek, wants to be. “I’m very interested in how we can bring data from devices, wearables, and other sensors in the home and use it to help providers and health systems deliver world-class care outside the four walls of the hospital,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Coming from a family of physicians, and being married to one, he’s sensitive to making sure the company’s remote care management platform does not add to the heavy load clinicians are already carrying. “What we've tried to design is a model where Cadence can manage patients according to guidelines and protocols the physician approves and only escalate things that really require their attention. The routine day-to-day stuff can be handled by us.” Don’t miss this informative look at new ways of harnessing health tech to create what could be the future standard of care for chronic conditions.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.cadence.care/
One night, Suzanne Peek was awoken by her son who thought he was having a heart attack. That began a drawn-out ordeal of misdiagnoses and ER visits until he was properly diagnosed with Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome, a rare disorder which results from a constriction of blood flow to organs in the upper abdomen. Fortunately, Peeks had an easier time than most navigating our complicated medical system due to many years practicing as a certified massage therapist. As she worked diligently to get her son the appropriate treatment, she formed relationships with others in the MALS community. “Some of these people have had the condition for five years, ten years or longer because it was misdiagnosed,” she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. She now leads the National MALS Foundation, which seeks to spread awareness among medical professionals about rare disorders. Tune in to hear how patient advocacy groups organize, what COVID has meant for people with rare disorders, and how to mitigate the forces that can hinder an accurate diagnosis.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.malsfoundation.org/
One of the most urgent issues Dr. Sanjay Desai sees in medical education is how to bring historically minoritized people into the physician workforce. “We need to have a physician workforce that resembles the patients that we care for,” he urges. In Dr. Desai's former role as program director of the prestigious Osler Medical Residency at Johns Hopkins University, he and his team more than doubled the number of minority recruits into their program. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani to learn about the data and research- based approach they took to achieve that aim, as well as improving student and resident well-being. Find out about Dr. Desai's route to medicine via consulting, and hear what he has seen change for the better in his time as a medical education leader. Plus, hear about the opportunity the current moment offers to use technology to personalize education, learn more about the American Medical Association's mission and impact, and discover why Dr. Desai thinks medical education needs to become more continuous.
The good news is researchers have established a tremendous amount about how human memory is acquired, organized, and deployed. The bad news, according to Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, is this information has pretty much stayed in technical journals and textbooks and not been applied in classrooms. Adding to the problem is that popular misconceptions about learning abound, so most of us are not learning nearly as effectively or efficiently as we could. Kosslyn, one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of learning, has long been concerned by the inadequacies of our education systems. Through public-facing books, and institutions he helped create like Minerva University and Foundry College, he has dedicated much of his life to bringing what researchers understand about learning into real world practice. Tune in to this fascinating conversation with host Dr. Rishi Desai to hear how our education systems could be improved by applying active learning and by teaching critical thinking skills, among other changes.
“It's impossible to be a physician and not be able to speak the language of medicine, which really is anatomy,” says Dr. Marios Loukas, who, in addition to his current role as a medical school dean, has written several books on anatomy and is former president of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. In this episode with host Dr. Rishi Desai, find out how Dr. Loukas became interested in the subject, and how the goal of making a bigger impact ultimately led to pursuing a career in administration. Learn about St. George’s University School of Medicine -- the largest source of doctors in the United States healthcare system -- and what sets it apart, including its island setting, its investment in teaching ultrasound, and its vision to be an international hub for the development of primary care providers. Tune in to discover what Dr. Loukas thinks students get wrong about studying, and hear about best practices for learning, including what makes visualization so powerful. Plus, hear why Dr. Loukas thinks students should be exposed to medicine before they start medical school.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.sgu.edu/academic-programs/school-of-medicine/
Listening to veteran healthcare entrepreneur and investor Carly Stockdale, the Co-Founder and CEO of BestLife Holdings, you get the feeling she is living her best professional life. With BestLife -- a platform of age management organizations, including the Foundation for Healthy Aging and Cenegenics -- Stockdale has created a perch from which she can blend her interests in healthy aging, women’s health and hormone therapy, and have a national impact to boot. “Our north star metric is improving people's biological age through the education of other health care providers and through membership in our programs such as Cenegenics, and other programs that we're looking to start,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. Cenegenics is a peak performance and longevity membership program with a 25-year history of developing personalized heath programs through deep analysis of biomarkers and other data it collects from members on a quarterly basis. The company plans to publish data later this year examining trend lines of improvement based on 3,500 patients who have gone through the program. Tune in to this informative conversation to learn about the unique path Stockdale has carved in healthcare, positive trends she’s seeing in women’s health, and addressing the persistent information asymmetry between doctors and patients.
Mentioned in this episode: https://cenegenics.com
“You don't have to change yourself culturally to be brilliant,” asserts Dr. Russell Ledet, a Black U.S. Navy veteran who has earned an MD-MBA as well as a PhD in Molecular Oncology and Tumor Immunologyand now works to remove barriers for those who want to follow in his footsteps. In this fascinating interview with host Dr. Rishi Desai, learn how Dr. Ledet went from being a security guard in a hospital, to a medical student at that same hospital, to starting The 15 White Coats, an effort sparked by an unforgettable photo taken at a former slave plantation. The group, which provides funding and other support to aspiring Black physicians, has grown rapidly and garnered international attention in its short life. Tune in to learn how Ledet’s 9-year-old daughter provided the spark for the project, marvel at his remarkable personal journey, and learn why having more Black physicians will improve health outcomes.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.the15whitecoats.org
Dr. Tom O’Callaghan thinks he’s already seen the future of medicine in this tech-heavy age, and it looks a lot like the personal, trusted healthcare he saw his father providing in the small community in Ireland in which he was raised. As he tells host Rishi Desai, if you have a good family doctor “you're far more likely to have a better healthcare outcome to every illness you have in your life.” It’s not that O’Callaghan is anti-technology. For one thing, he thinks wearables and remote monitoring will actually facilitate a needed transition from hospital-based to community-based care. But perhaps a greater proof point is he leads a specialty online medical education company called iHeed that leverages the latest technology, tools and educational approaches to make post graduate education for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in 65 countries across Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa more accessible and affordable. The company, part of the Cambridge Education Group, also develops national scale residency programs in countries including Malaysia and Saudi Arabia to spur the evolution of primary care in underserved communities. Tune into this revealing conversation for a global take on medical education, to hear why developing more nurses is key to tackling the gaping healthcare worker shortage, and for some wisdom he’s drawn on in his own career as a family practitioner that he discovered on a slip of paper in the bottom of the doctor’s bag his father carried for decades.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.iheed.org/
How can digital health benefit an ordinary patient? Today's guest, Tobias Silberzahn, enjoys taking a citizen perspective in his work in digital health—a field that, as he emphasizes, is far from a monolith, comprising over 25 categories from digital therapeutics to patient remote monitoring, to disease management. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line with host Dr. Rishi Desai to learn how Silberzahn became interested in biochemistry and immunology and landed where he is today. Find out about the biohacking he did to uncover his own micro habits, learn what he's discovered about people's attitudes towards their personal data being used, and hear where he sees Europe and Asia in terms of digital health and well-being. Learn, too, about the phrase “digital health ecosystem” and what that model means for patients. Plus, discover how the city of Amsterdam created a multi-stakeholder alliance to achieve ambitious health and well-being goals, learn about the discussion that is currently being held in Germany about the public electronic patient record, and hear why Silberzahn is excited about digital health's future disease-prediction and interception possibilities.
Telehealth has become ubiquitous, but Andy Flanagan thinks the word telehealth will soon disappear. “It’s just care,” said the CEO of the remote psychiatry service, Iris Telehealth. Flanagan anticipates that, just as concepts like “online banking” are now indistinguishable from what it simply means to use a bank, telehealth will soon be baked into the healthcare system. “The very best of it will be integrated, and the rest will be discarded,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. In the process, he hopes to help revolutionize how medical systems are structured, how patients with the most challenging mental health conditions receive care, and help doctors establish a work-life balance that is all too rare today. Tune in to hear about how telehealth services can seamlessly augment a patient’s medical team, and how Iris Telehealth works to empower its employees to take more personal initiative, and be less scared of failure.
With new medical products constantly entering the market, it can be difficult for doctors to keep up. Interventional radiologist Dr. Aaron Fritts has experienced this first hand in his career, and often found himself calling friends and former colleagues with questions about how to use new devices he encountered. Realizing doctors everywhere are in the same boat he launched BackTable, a podcast platform in which doctors from various specialties discuss the latest procedures, technologies, and conditions in their field of practice. As he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, listenership shot up during the pandemic because for many physicians, podcasts supplanted the role of conferences where such matters are typically discussed. The still-expanding podcast network aims to connect different, sometimes-isolated aspects of the medical community and provide a new way for doctors to learn. Tune in to also hear about the power of interventional radiology, what it would mean for physicians to communicate in an open and responsible way with industry, and how to become a better communicator.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.backtable.com/
“The role we play in healthcare is so much bigger than I could have imagined, and it's just exciting to be a part of it,” says Kevonne Holloway, Managing Director for Global Content Partners at Elsevier, when reflecting on the work of her large team. GCP is responsible for 2,500 publications and other content that health educators around the world rely on to provide the foundation for medical education across multiple professional roles, and that clinicians and researchers reference in their everyday work. “In the end, we're not only meeting the needs of our customers, but we're meeting the needs of society. It seems like such a grandiose mission, but when you boil it down it's really about community and taking care of each other in the best way possible.” Part of that best way includes making sure diversity, equity and inclusion are a part of the mainstream of Elsevier’s products. “DEI is not a fad. It's not a trend. It is the solution to better healthcare,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. Tune in to learn how Holloway’s servant leader approach to management facilitates trust and engagement, about Elsevier’s role in combating the “infodemic” of healthcare misinformation, and much more.
There is approximately $266 billion in administrative waste in the U.S. healthcare system each year, and much of it is tied to the complexity of insurance. Our guest today, Syam Palakurthy, co-founded SamaCare to help solve this seemingly intractable problem. SamaCare builds software to make the often-burdensome process of prior authorization as quick and easy as a credit card swipe, improving outcomes for patients and reducing a major administrative burden for providers. Tune in to this interview with host Michael Carrese to learn how Palakurthy approaches the challenge of threading together disparate incentives in the healthcare system to produce change. Plus, find out why he believes technology can be both a cause of fragility and a source of resilience, and learn how the type of “defragmentation” SamaCare strives for can be applied to the rest of the healthcare system.
“I think I've learned as much by watching and observing and being mentored by people as I have from any formal classes I could ever take,” says Dr. Dele Davies. Dr. Davies credits his incredible role models for teaching him that handling people well is key to a harmonious and successful work life. In this episode of Raise the Line, learn how Dr. Davies, who was born in Nigeria, became interested in medicine, and specifically, pediatric infectious diseases. Find out about the extraordinary community that supports the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and other things that set UNMC apart and have helped them navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including being home to a leading healing arts program, a campus symphony, and the Global Center for Health Security's National Quarantine Unit. Tune in to discover why Dr. Davies believes it's so important to think not globally, not locally, but glocally, and to consider health a security issue. Plus, learn about the impact a master's in healthcare management had on his career, and hear why it's so important to find balance and never stop learning.
When a young Patrick McKeown had an important exam decades ago, he prepared as society had coached him: With big, deep breaths. He entered the testing room lightheaded and scatterbrained. “It was,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani, “the worst thing possible that I could have done. In fact, I should have done the opposite.” Long after his asthma and stress inflected youth, McKeown immersed himself in the ancient—but routinely overlooked—art of low, slow, nose breathing. That technique combined with others can achieve calm, better performance, and a simultaneous state of relaxation and alertness. In his writing and classes, McKeown draws on biochemistry, physiology, and other interconnected disciplines to demonstrate how healthy, day-to-day breathing can ground us in difficult moments.“There's not a day that I don't connect with my breathing, and it has given me a softer life.” Tune in to hear how to easily measure the quality of your own breathing, why proper breathing is the key to good sleep, and how breath canhelp you prepare for a big presentation or, yes, a looming exam.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://oxygenadvantage.com/
https://myotape.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Oxyathlete
“The biggest things I’ve learned about improving health equity are the importance of data and relationships,” says Dr. Aditi Mallick, who, in her role at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services counts that goal as a top priority. That knowledge was largely gained last year while she was director of North Carolina’s COVID-19 Response Command Center. Data on testing and vaccination rates by race and ethnicity allowed Mallick and her team to pinpoint where outreach efforts should be targeted. Then it was a matter of communicating effectively with community organizations to drive turnout to free clinics. Those public-private partnerships are also vital to achieving progress on other priorities Dr. Mallick has related to advancing whole-person health. As she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, when clinics are closely connected with community social service agencies, a “closed-referral loop” can develop so all stakeholders know that patient needs are being addressed. “The more we can do to encourage that model will serve us well in meeting health-related social needs.” Check out this informative conversation to learn how the nation’s largest insurance programs work and interconnect, why Dr. Mallick identifies with a “doctor plus” approach to her work, and what can help physicians get through the inevitable hard days in their profession.
Mentioned in this episode: Link to Request for Information on Medicaid Access
https://cmsmedicaidaccessrfi.gov1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6EYj9eLS9b74Npk
On today's episode, we spotlight nursing education because trends in the profession and healthcare at large are making it more important than ever. "The job of nursing has become far more complex, and first-year nurses are being asked to make very complex decisions right away," says Brent Gordon, President of Nursing and Health Education at Elsevier. That underscores the urgency of developing clinical reasoning skills, and nursing educators have to evolve their programs in response. They are also preparing students for the updated NCLEX national licensing exam, which has been revised to assess clinical judgment skills. As Gordon tells host Shiv Gaglani, Elsevier is supporting institutions, faculty and students with these changes. Examples include newer offerings focused on skills assessment, and digital simulations solutions to augment clinical rotations. Always top of mind is the persistent shortage of nurses, with pandemic-induced burnout making the situation worse by the day. "I would argue it's a crisis, and we need governments and higher education institutions to really be innovative around how they can increase their enrollment," adds Gordon. Don't miss this deep dive into the evolution of nursing and Elsevier's partnership with the nursing education community in addressing the many challenges facing the field.
We've been fortunate to speak to many medical educators in the United States over the past two years on Raise the Line about the state of medical education and how learning has been impacted by the COVID pandemic. On today’s episode, we happily broaden our scope on these topics to Central Asia with the help of two officials from Samarkand State Medical University in Uzbekistan. Mahzuna Nasretdinova, a deputy in the Vice-Rector's Office for Science and Innovation and Dr. Muzaffar Annaev, Leading Specialist of the Department of Scientific Research and Innovations, join host Shiv Gaglani to describe an exciting period of change and growth at the institution. From just recently achieving independent status, to a renewed focus on research and international collaboration, to greater government support for educators, hospitals, and healthcare providers, Annaev and Nasretdinova have much news to share. Looking forward, they are hoping to build on existing collaborations with external partners such as Elsevier, whose ClinicalKey Student offering has been easy to integrate into SSMU’s learning system. Tune in for an interesting look at the challenges and opportunities of medical education in a critical part of the world.
“I want to be the home for the clinician in digital health,” says SteadyMD CEO and lover of complex business problems Guy Friedman. Taking care of clinicians by thinking about their needs and respecting their autonomy is key to the approach of Friedman's company, which he co-founded in 2016 as a way to improve primary care delivery. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line with host Dr. Rishi Desai to learn how Friedman became a serial entrepreneur and what drew him into the telehealth sphere. Discover how SteadyMD acts as agent and partner to connect clinicians with digital health employment opportunities, using a technology that allows them to work for multiple companies. Learn how this approach differs from a traditional work model, hear Friedman's outlook on telehealth regulations in the U.S., and find out why he's bullish on the digital health industry in general. Plus, catch his valuable advice for digital health entrepreneurs.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.steadymd.com/
Hurricane Sandy struck New York City when now-Dr. Jason Reminick was in town, interviewing for residency programs to which he’d applied. The whole process, which would shape the coming years of his life, was a huge mess. Interviews were canceled. Anxiety ran high. He remembers a fellow applicant whose car was lost in the storm. Desperate, the applicant took a cab to one interview, at a cost of $600. Reminick sought a better way, and the result was Thalamus. The platform organizes applicant information for residency programs, while facilitating the scheduling so applicants can arrange their interviews in as straightforward a matter as possible, mitigating stress and travel expenses alike. This, he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, is just the beginning of Thalamus’s vision for making the residency application process better for applicants, programs, and the medical profession as a whole. Tune in to hear about common misconceptions about a fast-changing residency recruitment process, how programs adapted to Covid, and why doctors should not be afraid to become entrepreneurs.
Mentioned in this episode: https://thalamusgme.com
“One of the pieces of advice I like to give young people is to collect knowledge, interests and a network of people you want to know. You don't know yet how you are going to use it all, but later it will become obvious which pieces fit with which,” says Youngsuk ‘YS’ Chi, Chairman of Elsevier. If you want a great example of how this approach works, you can look at Chi’s own remarkable career which took him from banking, to helping enable Amazon’s early growth, to being president of Random House to his current role at Elsevier and its parent company RELX, where he is Director of Corporate Affairs and Asia Strategy. Chi reveals to host Shiv Gaglani that what connects those disparate experiences are two people he “collected” at the start of his own career with whom he stayed connected in a mutually beneficial partnership. Seeing relationships as core to success explains why Chi makes time to be a mentor to dozens of people in a wide range of professions. Although wanting to help them on their career journeys is the prime motivator, Chi is quick to point out his mentees are a network he can tap for expertise as part of his commitment to continuous learning. The wisdom drop continues as they discuss how to help employees connect purpose to their work and how a post-COVID analysis needs to include “a humanistic re-questioning of what we do and why we do it.”
“I'm in a part of my life where I like to have an impact that disrupts an industry,” says famed entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and his new online pharmacy CostPlus Drugs is already showing signs of creating a major disruption, indeed. Here’s just one example of what his no-frills operation is making possible: a 30-day supply of the cancer-fighting drug Gleevec is usually $2,500, but on CostPlusDrugs.com the same medication is $17.10 for a month’s supply. You probably have the same question as host Shiv Gaglani: how is this possible? Cuban says CostPlus Drugs sidesteps insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers to deal directly with manufacturers. There’s a standard 15% markup to cover operational costs, a $3 pharmacy fee and a $5 shipping fee. “That's it, period, end of the story.” Word of mouth over the last two months has pushed sales to levels not expected for two years. Cuban is quick to credit co-founder Alex Oshmyansky and his team, but obviously the business acumen he’s displayed for years on the TV show Shark Tank plays a big role, as does his motivation to do something about a bedeviling problem. “The fact that people are having to choose between rent, food, or medication in this country is wrong in every which way.” Check out this fascinating analysis of the healthcare industry spiced with valuable advice for budding healthcare entrepreneurs, and find out what Cuban thinks the healthcare industry can learn from the NBA.
Mentioned in this episode: https://costplusdrugs.com/
We’ve talked a lot on Raise the Line about the upsides of the telehealth boom, but our guest today, Dr. Mike Hoaglin, brings a new silver lining to light: it’s one way to help with the physician burnout crisis. “I've certainly been in the trenches of burnout in the past, and having the flexibility to be able to see patients when I'm at my best and when I'm able to be at home with my family is just a great setup for me to be successful, and my patients benefit.” In fact, “Dr. Mike” was an early adopter of telehealth and other medical technologies as well. Best proof point? He and host Shiv Gaglani worked together a decade ago to develop the Smartphone Physical. Add that experience to his work in federal health policy, various start-ups and a stint as the clinical director on the Dr. Oz Show, and you can understand why “Dr. Mike” is full of revelations on many subjects including on a special focus of his, the microbiome. For instance, did you know your body has more foreign cells (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, etc) than human? As Dr. Mike shares with Shiv, intensifying interest in these trillions of microorganisms in recent years has led to a deeper understanding of the wide range of impact gut health has on overall health, from diabetes to mood disorders. Check out this lively excursion through a fascinating career, and be sure to listen all the way through for Dr. Mike’s advice on the one thing you should eat more of for good gut health.
On today’s Raise the Lineepisode, you’ll have a unique opportunity to hear the collective voice of healthcare providers all over the world who shared their needs, hopes and concerns with Elsevier in its first-ever Clinician of the Future Global Report. Elsevier and its partner, Ipsos, engaged nearly 3,000 clinicians from 111 countries to reveal current pain points, predictions for the future, and how the industry can build a roadmap to future-proof healthcare. Join host Shiv Gaglani as he explores the fascinating findings with his Elsevier colleagues Dr. Tate Erlinger and Dr. Ian Chuang. “One of the key pieces of feedback from participants was, ‘I see the potential, I just need support. I need better training and education and skills development to align where healthcare is going,’” said Dr. Chuang, Chief Medical Officer of Global Health. “I would look at this report as a call to action,” said Dr. Erlinger, Vice-President of Clinical Analytics. There are some alarming numbers in here, but healthcare has always responded. We just need to be diligent and look for and test solutions across a broad range of concerns.” What will healthcare look like in ten years and how can we prepare clinicians for that future? Tune into this revealing conversation to learn the answers drawn from a landmark report that will shift the current conversation about global healthcare from problems to solutions.
See the report here: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/clinician-of-the-future
What should oral healthcare look like in 2022? Dr. Jeremy Krell and Dr. Ro Parikh are working to figure this out and bring a new, consumer-centric dental industry into being. Through oral healthcare venture capital firms like Revere Partners, and consumer-facing companies like Quip and dntl bar, these dentists hope to forge an industry that better reflects the culture and consumer habits of the post-COVID era. “We as providers need to be able to look up from our clinical workflow and understand that we’re running a business in 2022, and that we need to meet consumer demands,” Dr. Jeremy Krell tells host Shiv Gaglani. Tune in to hear about the connection between oral health and overall health, how dentists can connect with patients reluctant to come into the office, and six major trends impacting the dental industry today.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.reverepartnersvc.com/
https://www.dntlbar.com/
“I think you should listen to your heart as quickly as possible,” says today's guest, Dr. Luke Murray, when asked for advice for students and early career professionals. He calls this skill ‘listening to your heart faster’ and it’s a principle that’s guided him on a zigzagging career path, from an interest in neurosurgery, to working in global health, to starting a tech incubator. As COVID was getting underway, he unexpectedly found himself building what became a very large COVID testing effort at Wild Health, a precision medicine company based in Kentucky. Now as COVID appears to be winding down, Dr. Murray is listening to his testing customers to determine next steps. Listen in as Dr. Murray tells host Shiv Gaglani about both the successes and failures in his entrepreneurial journey -- including sleeping in a garage and showering at the YMCA -- to then “drowning” in opportunity and conducting over a million COVID tests and 150,000 vaccinations. Plus, hear his valuable advice for future entrepreneurs.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.wildhealth.com
https://www.awesomeinc.org
You might not think flossing one tooth a day would be worthy of celebration, but today’s Raise the Line guest says that’s actually the best way to become someone who regularly flosses all of their teeth, and he has decades of research to back it up. Dr. BJ Fogg, a Stanford University researcher perhaps best known for his bestselling book Tiny Habits, says his approach is based in part on the recognition that motivation fluctuates, so setting big goals can set people up for failure. “What you need to do in the tiny habits method is set the bar low, keep it low, overachieve whenever you feel like it, but don't raise the bar.” Creating a positive emotion around accomplishing tiny goals helps wire the brain to make the behavior automatic, which in turn helps create a new identity. “Those identity shifts then lead to a cascade of other changes in your life.” Check out this truly fascinating and fun discussion with host Shiv Gaglani about how to apply these principles in your own life and guide others to do so as well. Plus, you’ll hear how the “tiny habits” model has impacted Shiv personally and been integrated into what Osmosis offers its learners. Maybe you should make listening to this one podcast your tiny goal for today. If you do, don’t forget to celebrate yourself when you get to the end!
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.bjfogg.com
When people hear about James Nestor’s bestselling book on breathing, he says the first question they ask is “Why the heck would I need to relearn how to breathe? I'm breathing all day long.” But as the award-winning science journalist details in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, proper breathing is quite uncommon, which causes major health problems given its essential value to the body. Nestor laments that everyday breathing is rarely a concern of most pulmonologists and other doctors, who are generally focused on acute breathing issues. “But prevention is always so much better than treatment,” Nestor tells host Shiv Gaglani. “For the same reasons you would tell your patients to eat a balanced diet, you should bring awareness of their breathing.” Tune in to hear about how healthy breathing can help your physical endurance, sleep quality and mental health, and some easy tricks that can help you establish better breathing practices.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.mrjamesnestor.com/order-now
“We don't need physicians physically in the middle of every step that we take,” argues today's guest, former Buddhist monk and Harvard professor Dr. Michael Mina. “One of my goals has been to break down this massive wall that often exists, where physicians are the gatekeepers of people knowing about themselves in terms of their biology.” In this fascinating discussion with host Shiv Gaglani, hear how a tsunami tore Dr. Mina away from being a monk and led him to fusing together immunology and epidemiology, a skillset that proved especially valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic during which he created a large testing program that served much of the Eastern Seaboard. Tune in to discover how the eMed platform is empowering people to participate in their own healthcare by creating equitable access to actionable testing, and hear where Dr. Mina believes eMed can go from here, including involvement in clinical studies. Plus, hear his perspective on the difference between a career as an MD vs. a PhD, learn why holistic thinking is so important, and get his expert opinion on where the virus is heading.
Scott Carney trained as an anthropologist, thinking the academic life would facilitate new adventures. He soon found journalism to be a better fit, moved to India, and discovered an organ tracking scandal in a village right next door. His reporting on that helped launch a career fueled by frantic curiosity that frequently centers around habit formation and how the human body integrates with the dizzying world around us, his books The Wedge and What Doesn't Kill Us being prime examples. With a new book on climate change coming out -- and many more books in development -- Carney’s writing testifies to the blurry line between objectivity and subjectivity in journalism and medicine alike. Tune in to hear about the time he partook in a clinical trial for erectile dysfunction, the thing that new research into psychedelics misses, and how Carney set off to debunk Wim Hof’s methods, only to find the real story was far more complicated.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.scottcarney.com/the-wedge
https://www.scottcarney.com/what-doesnt-kill-us
https://www.foxtopus.ink
The critical and analytical thinking required by research become habits of mind that change your approach to life, explains Dr. Bill Cullinan, dean of the College of Health Sciences at Marquette University. They force you to challenge your own biases, and ask for evidence rather than taking things for granted. That’s one reason Cullinan is pleased to offer students meaningful roles at Marquette's Integrative Neuroscience Research Center, which brings specialists from different domains into collaboration. It’s also why Marquette faculty push students beyond memorization to get them to think critically about clinical scenarios very early in their undergraduate careers. In this instructive episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani, you’ll also learn how Marquette helps students understand inequities in healthcare delivery to prepare them for making a positive impact as physicians. The lessons must resonate, because about 40% of graduates choose positions or jobs serving underserved populations. You’ll also hear Dr. Cullinan’s advice for students, and be sure to stay tuned for a fascinating explanation of ganglia that highlights the neurological miracle of everyday actions.
A new generation of medical technology has produced endless new rivers of biometric data, and attuned regular people to their own health in new and complicated ways. On today’s episode of Raise the Line, we turn to a pioneer in connected medical devices, Dr. David Albert, to understand more about these influential trends. He founded AliveCor, whose smartphone-enabled heart monitors anticipated the remote monitoring technology that helped the medical system run during the pandemic. Dr. Albert believes the technology -- and the population-scale data it produces -- opens up new possibilities for preventative medicine and, as he tells host Shiv Gaglani, allows patients to be increasingly fluent in the dynamics of their personal health and empowered to take control of their medical future. Check out this lively discussion to hear about a “mobile-first” medical future, Dr. Albert’s early forays into inventing medical technology, and how college wrestling prepared him for healthy aging.
“In life, I feel like you always know what the right thing to do is, it's just hard,” says Dr. Omar Lateef, who runs Rush University Medical Center in the Near West Side of Chicago. Lateef has embraced the challenging path necessitated by Rush’s community-based mission which involves providing services like tutoring, food subsidies and jobs programs in addition to acute care. In this episode of Raise the Line, you’ll find out how this mission shaped RUMC’s COVID response which involved overcoming bureaucratic hurdles to take in hundreds of transfers. Learn how Dr. Lateef went from studying theology, to specializing in pulmonary and critical care medicine, to his current role as a hospital leader. Plus, learn about the importance of having reliable, open-source data on healthcare quality, and hear Dr. Lateef's advice on both addressing the public health crisis of racism, and keeping up motivation when the adrenaline and sense of community support present earlier in the pandemic has diminished.
Despite being a self-described “data geek” Josh Schoeller is well aware of the challenges in making sense of the ever-expanding amount of healthcare-related data. As he puts it, “More data doesn't necessarily mean more knowledge.” As president of Global Clinical Solutions at Elsevier and CEO of Healthcare for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Schoeller is in a unique position to see how all of this data can be leveraged in better ways to support learners, practitioners, patients and the healthcare system at large. “On the LexisNexis side, we have a mission to create healthier communities and on the Elsevier side, it's to improve every patient outcome. So, they're very much aligned and are both mission-driven organizations built around people that are very committed to using data and analytics and content to help improve healthcare in the U.S. and throughout the world.” Check out this penetrating discussion with host Shiv Gaglani as he draws out valuable insights from Schoeller on the current and future role of data in clinical decision-making, patient privacy, health equity, the efficiency of healthcare delivery, and much more.
“Software can keep in its mind a million more things than a doctor can,” explains Dr. Tom Kelly, who started a company in Australia called Oscer that aims to eliminate misdiagnosis. It all started with Dr. Kelly's desire to improve the lives of others, after he saw first-hand the impact that mistakes in diagnosis were having in rural Australia. In this fascinating talk with host Michael Carrese, learn more about Dr. Kelly's path and the important work of his company, whose education platform is now used to teach clinical reasoning by more than 150 universities across 35 countries and counting. Listen in for a glimpse of the technology behind the scenes at Oscer, including their gigantic maps called knowledge graphs, their virtual patients, and their clinical products that Dr. Kelly says will eventually be able to consider all the symptoms a patient has ever reported and hopefully provide “a superhuman level of diagnostic support.” Plus, hear Dr. Kelly's philosophy on what humans are meant to do, and what makes this moment in time especially significant.
“We're in the business of empowering students,” explains Dr. Joshua Courtney, who joins host Shiv Gaglani on this episode of Raise the Line. Dr. Courtney's company, TrueLearn, served 60 million practice questions last year, and over 90% of osteopathic medical students use his flagship product COMBANK. If learning is a contact sport, as he likes to say, then Dr. Courtney himself has made possible some serious winning streaks. His initial draw to medicine? His own childhood struggle with leukemia. Tune in to hear Dr. Courtney's fascinating story and find out what makes TrueLearn's data-driven approach to medical exam prep unique. Listen to his take on how COVID has revealed the fragmentation of knowledge as a mass vulnerability, and find out why he thinks physicians should better understand the brain disease of addiction. Plus, hear his advice to students to seize the moment and not go it alone.
“I'm a tinkerer by nature,” says today's guest, Dr. Harsh Vathsangam. “Left to my own devices, I'll start opening up remotes and breaking apart bicycles.” That curiosity in how things work, combined with a knack for technology and drive to make a positive impact in people’s lives, led Vathsangam to focus his efforts on cardiac rehabilitation, a greatly underutilized treatment even though its effectiveness has been well-established for decades. In this engaging interview, find out how Movn -- the virtual cardiac rehabilitation solution created by his company, Moving Analytics -- creates an at-home experience geared toward making lifestyle changes that impact the whole individual. Tune in to hear how the company has overcome challenges of innovating within the healthcare space, and why he thinks there's potential to extend this model to high-risk patients. Plus, discover his advice for anyone looking to work in healthcare, including how empathy and knowing the business side of things can make you a better clinician.
Even though women are the backbone of the healthcare system in the U.S., comprising 77% of the patient-facing workforce, studies have shown they're not paid or promoted equitably and this gender equity problem extends to medical education as well. On today’s episode of Raise the Line, you’ll hear from someone who is focused on turning this around. Dr. Nancy Spector is executive director of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program at Drexel University College of Medicine, which has been making an impact in this area for many years. In fact, approximately half of all female deans at U.S. medical schools are graduates of ELAM. But Spector says there is much more to do. “We know that more diverse teams have better outcomes, so our main mission is to create equity at every level of leadership in academic medicine.” Tune in to learn about the challenges women face once they do make it into the leadership ranks, what can be done about the burnout crisis among women in the healthcare workforce, and how leaders are managing a state of unending crisis during COVID-19.
“The nursing workforce is truly the backbone of the healthcare delivery system,” observes today's guest, Dr. Michelle Cummings, who has straddled clinical nursing and the nursing academic world for the past 20 years. “Many people don't realize that there are four times as many nurses as there are doctors, and by 2030, we will need more than 1.3 million new nurses to address the current shortage. We really need to find some solutions.” One key approach is to make education, training and upskilling more affordable and accessible for working nurses, something she pursues in her role at Academic Partnerships which supports the online offerings of not-for-profit universities. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani to discover what Dr. Cummings believes is the biggest current concern facing the healthcare industry, and hear her advice to nurses on managing their careers in this dynamic and challenging COVID environment. Plus, find out what Dr. Cummings means when she encourages a “Pac-Man approach” to career advancement.
Early on in his psychiatry career, Dr. David Mou found to his surprise that most mental health professionals didn’t prioritize using data to measure outcomes. Today, he attributes much of the early success of Cerebral -- the new and fast-growing mental telehealth company he helps lead -- to its data-driven approach to supporting quality of care. “This is the first step towards precision psychiatry,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Mou notes that on the basis of relatively little user data, companies like Facebook and Netflix successfully predict users’ future behavior for commercial gain. “We should just use that principle for good instead of using it to market to people,” he says. For instance, analyzing behavior patterns to predict suicide. He argues that a data-oriented psychiatric model not only opens up new research possibilities and makes for happy doctors, but also enables the treatment of the most serious mental health disorders via telemedicine, which is not currently a common practice. Tune in to hear about Olympic gymnast Simone Biles’ new role at Cerebral, why even doctors often don’t get the psychiatric care they need, and why Dr. Mou is “bullish” on the clinical future of psychedelics.
Dr. Isaac Eliaz begins his work from a place of contemplation. “Nothing is solid. Nothing stays the same,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. He has focused in part on Galectin-3, which he calls the survivor protein, for its role shielding cells that decide “I’m not going to die”—cancerous cells. Yet, whether he’s operating at the level of one of the 50 trillion cells in a human body, or at the level of the human those cells constitute, Dr. Eliaz understands himself as basically treating an inability to accept change. He calls it the “survival paradox.” The idea has been central to a career devoted to the integration of the scientific and the holistic—a career in which Dr. Eliaz has incorporated Buddhist practice into his pioneering research, oncology, and more. Tune in to hear what makes the heart fundamentally different from other organs, why some doctors get worse over time, and why healing means more than simply getting rid of a disease.
“It's astonishing how many health-related questions are asked on Google every day,” observes Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge. “What we set out to do at HealthTap was create a place where people could get trusted answers.” On this episode of Raise the Line, learn about Dr. Rutledge's longstanding interest in the potential of technology to assist in healthcare delivery. Hear how Dr. Rutledge and his team saw early on the opportunity to deliver healthcare through mobile and electronic devices, and followed through to create a pioneering firm in the virtual healthcare space. Tune in to discover HealthTap's unique question-and-answer interface that features physician crowdsourcing and a peer review process, and hear about their virtual primary care clinic, where patients can have a long-term relationship with a doctor of their choice. Plus, learn why Dr. Rutledge believes technology can enable the interactions that are fundamental to the doctor-patient relationship, and why he envisions a huge role for a consistent virtual care platform in the field.
“It's interesting that it's called coaching,” says expert leadership coach Simmi Singh. “I think of it more as learning to be a better student of myself, and learning to be the mirror that others can use to learn about themselves.” Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line for a fascinating discussion with Singh and host Dr. Rishi Desai on how we can all become more effective leaders and humans, and raise more confident and secure children. Discover why Singh believes parenting should be about listening, and why she thinks curious people should pursue “nonlinear and disorderly” careers. Hear about the importance of banishing our inner naysayers, embracing experimentation and failure, and paying attention to our guts. Plus, find out why, in the socially-distanced era of COVID, Singh makes a point of taking her phone or laptop to the fridge during Zoom calls, and why she advises people to keep their kids and pets in, rather than out, of virtual meetings.
According to a recent Kaiser Health News study, nearly 80% of Americans believe at least some of the COVID-19 misinformation that has flooded news and social media channels since the start of the pandemic. For today’s Raise the Line guests, this troubling report confirmed the urgency with which their boss, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, has tackled this challenge.
Adam Beckman and Kyla Fullenwider, both senior-level advisors to Dr. Murthy, join host Shiv Gaglani to detail the “whole society” approach the Office of Surgeon General is taking which involves calling on major stakeholders in social media, education and journalism to do their part, but also providing help to local communities and individual Americans who Dr. Murthy sees as key players in this struggle. “The evidence tells us one of the best ways for addressing health misinformation is through individual, smaller-scale, intimate connections,” says Beckman. To that end, the Office of Surgeon General created a Community Toolkit to provide detailed guidance on how to have difficult conversations with friends or family about misinformation including listening without judgement, steering people to credible sources whenever possible, and avoiding shaming. Don’t miss this fascinating and vitally important conversation about what one of the most visible health figures in the nation is doing about one of the greatest challenges of our time.
For More Information on the U.S. Surgeon General's Community Toolkit visit surgeongeneral.gov/healthmisinformation
Two early experiences shaped Dr. Karen Rigamonti’s career in healthcare. First, she realized she had a gift for listening when assigned to a patient on a psych floor who wouldn’t communicate with anyone else, but eventually opened up to her. The other formative experience was the premature birth of her son, which took place after an obstetrician failed to listen to her concerns. “The experience of not being heard remains vivid with me,” she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. In the time since, she has consulted with healthcare institutions around the world to help foster more welcoming and sustainable social dynamics, sometimes overcoming major cultural gaps in the process. On this episode of Raise the Line, learn how Dr. Rigamonti forged an impromptu new life in Saudi Arabia, what producing a healthy institutional culture means in practice, and how to actually get stubborn groups of people to change their ways (hint: we are all secretly teenagers at heart).
As the exciting new relationship between Osmosis and global medical education leader Elsevier begins, Co-founder & CEO Shiv Gaglani and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rishi Desai sat down with Jan Herzhoff, President of Health Markets, and Elizabeth Munn, Managing Director of Global Medical Education at Elsevier to discuss how the partnership will benefit students, healthcare providers, and their patients.
When contemplating a potential partnership, Munn says Osmosis’ brilliance at boiling down complex topics was a key factor. “People – including us -- write whole chapters on a topic, but Osmosis can get it covered in five minutes. So, look, that's magic! That's actual magic. So, we just think it's the best thing since sliced bread to now have you within the team.”
For Jan Herzhoff, bringing together the capabilities of innovative companies like Osmosis and the capabilities and assets from Elsevier to improve the lives of learners and healthcare professionals is an important focus for Elsevier. “Together with Osmosis and our other offerings, we’re here to support you through the educational journey, and through your professional journey. We're also looking forward to your ideas and your suggestions on how we can make your life easier and better.”
Check out this lively conversation about navigating a turbulent time in medical education, confronting mistrust in science, and the power of innovation to enhance learning. Plus find out how Elsevier can help Osmosis meet its “big, hairy, audacious goal” of educating one billion people by 2025.
Mentioned in this episode: https://www.elsevier.com
For more than two decades, the Commonwealth Fund has produced a report comparing the performance of the U.S. health system to that of 10 other high-income countries. The U.S reliably comes in last, and the margin of difference is growing such that it might be more appropriate to compare it with a different peer group altogether, says Commonwealth Fund President Dr. David Blumenthal. “Very smart people, including a lot of policymakers, will still tell you with great conviction that we have the best healthcare system in the world,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. “And what they really mean by that is that they have the best healthcare in the world.” Achieving greater public understanding of this reality, and other truths about our healthcare system, and spurring better policy is the ongoing task of the Commonwealth Fund. How do we wrap our minds around the multi-trillion-dollar domestic healthcare industry? What would it mean to leverage its resources more effectively and equitably? Tune in to benefit from a deeply informed perspective on how to achieve a better and more equitable system.
Regina Herzlinger has been called “the godmother of consumer-driven healthcare” because of her groundbreaking scholarly articles and books on the subject. As a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School for nearly 50 years, her focus has supported the explosion of wearables, telehealth, freestanding urgent care facilities, and health savings accounts, among many other innovations. She's a successful medical technology entrepreneur herself, a bestselling author, and an influential voice in shaping public policy. While healthcare technology has advanced rapidly, she tells host Rishi Desai, innovation in the delivery of care and the insurance sector has fallen drastically behind. Don’t miss this unique knowledge drop on how to make innovation in healthcare happen, and how to avoid frustration and become a successful innovator yourself.
Dr. Masha Gouzman-Allouche likes to see student’s eyes, to be there with them for those “aha moments” when a difficult problem is solved. Zoom-based teaching was not without its advantages -- it ushered in a new suite of innovations that will benefit students and teachers alike, she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai -- but it undermined those human connections that for her are so essential to both high quality education and medicine. Now, she’s working with other faculty members at Tel Aviv University to harness the lessons of the COVID era, and in the process further transform her educational role from the classic didactic “sage on the stage” to something more like a “guide on the side”-- being present for students as they learn the human aspects of medicine that she believes will only become more important in the years to come. Tune in to hear about the limits of student feedback, what artificial intelligence will mean for doctors, and, how teaching helped her father avoid working with the KGB.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.prepaclinic.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-the-white-coats-come-off/id1568900250
https://prepaclinic.com/?product=book-secrets-tips-tactics-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-accepted-into-pa-school
Early in Dr. Rahul Rajkumar’s career, he wondered how he could help improve health outcomes at a population level. An interest in public policy led him to the realization that, at least in the U.S., the financing mechanisms of the health care industry are “the main lever” that we have to this end. The question of how these mechanisms should (or could) be reengineered has guided Dr. Rajkumar through a career that has taken him from the clinic to the health insurance industry to government, where as deputy director at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, he experimented with different approaches to organizing and paying for health care systems. The problem is “really, really hard,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. Every single case “is a puzzle with a human being at the center of it.” Rajkumar believes more attention should be paid to what he calls ‘the black hole of American Medicine’ – the period after a patient is discharged from the hospital when coordinating care becomes more difficult. “Is there an accountable provider, or a quarterback outside of the hospital? Someone who, beyond their professional ethic, actually cares about what happens to this patient? That's the nut of the issue.” Tune in to hear about novel payment systems emerging in the wake of the Affordable Care Act, the true social meaning of health insurance, and what other nations try to emulate about the famously dysfunctional U.S. health care system.
Dr. Donna Lamb wanted to be a surgeon growing up, but coming from a poor family in which no one had been to college, she was routed into becoming a nurse instead. Today, she leads the National Resident Matching Program which oversees The Match, a high-stakes step in the educational journey of physicians. On this episode of Raise the Line with host Dr. Rishi Desai, you’ll learn about the history of The Match, how it works today, and benefit from some myth busting about this crucial moment when doctors learn where they will do their specialty training. Dr. Lamb also addresses the key issue of student debt, the solutions to which need to transcend race and generation. “It's so much larger than just money at this point,” she says. “It has to be a larger moral justice issue that we need to grapple with as a society.” Check out this fascinating episode to find out why the NRMP is starting to collect demographic data to try to understand diversity patterns, and hear Dr. Lamb's response to what happens when applicants don't “match.” Plus, benefit from her advice to current medical students who may be approaching The Match.
Nearly half of U.S. adults work as unpaid caregivers, but the essential contribution they make is undervalued, and even often unacknowledged, by employers and healthcare professionals. Alexandra Drane could not abide this, so she co-founded ARCHANGELS, an organization dedicated to supporting and honoring the unpaid caregivers among us. As she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai in this episode of Raise the Line: “I myself have been a caregiver, am a caregiver, have needed a caregiver, and will most certainly be a caregiver multiple times over again.” Against the backdrop of a pandemic that has injected unprecedented stress and instability into the lives of millions of people in the U.S., Drane wants the swelling ranks of unpaid caregivers to understand they are not alone, and that help is available. Tune in to learn why society sees childcare in a different light than elder care, what some states are doing to help unpaid caregivers, and what Drane tells the pregnant strangers she approaches on the street.
Before he died, Saeju Jeong's father, an esteemed doctor in South Korea, passed down a question for his son to consider: "Why is healthcare overly-optimized for sick care management?" “My father encouraged me to think about how I can do something great for the community,” explains Jeong. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear how Jeong's company, Noom, uses science to help end-users unlock their potential and become better versions of themselves through improved diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management. Of prime importance, says Jeong, is actually believing in Noom’s end-users, and encouraging them to leave any previous “stigmatized experience” with weight loss behind. Listen in as Jeong and host Shiv Gaglani discuss the increasing emphasis on “direct-to-consumer” healthcare as technological innovation decreases the gap between patients and service providers, and hear why Noom chose a consumer-first approach in building their company. Plus, learn the backstory on their new product, Noom Mood, and discover what Jeong believes to be the silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As it trains technicians and medical professionals, many of whom go into healthcare, California’s San Joaquin Valley College focuses on the practical skills necessary to forge a successful career. But in the dramatically new context of the pandemic, the school’s leadership -- including President Nick Gomez and Provost Sumer Avila -- had to reimagine how to deliver that education. Something surprising happened as a side effect of ensuring that students and faculty had what they needed to be able to learn and teach from afar: The school developed a new competency altogether. “Now,” Gomez tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, “we can better meet students where they are, which is the key thing that we love to do.” Tune in to hear how the school triangulates the visions of students, faculty, and employers, how medical education has been transformed by new technology, and the importance of understanding how your use of technology influences how you learn.
“There's health equity concerns in everything,” observes Geoffrey Roche, from organ donation, to clinical care, to access of care, to quality of care. “I think everyone within healthcare needs to pay attention and be mindful of what they can do to fix that.” Join host Dr. Rishi Desai on this episode of Raise the Line as he speaks with Roche about what drew him to healthcare, his role at Dignity Health Global Education developing programs “for healthcare, by healthcare,” and his service on the National Health Equity Task Force. Hear Roche's thoughts on how COVID has caused healthcare to be further politicized, and why we need to return to the “core of service” -- the field's essential helping nature. Learn about Dignity Health's life-changing Equity Impact Scholarship, and how simulation can be an effective tool in communication training. Plus, find out why Roche believes middle schoolers should learn about the pathways of a healthcare career, and why he advises everyone to consider having a personal board of advisors.
To train flexible nurses, Dr. Lisa Urban has found, you need to be a flexible educator. As Associate Chief Nursing Administrator at Southern New Hampshire University, Dr. Urban has helped reorient the curriculum and structure of the school’s nursing programs to accommodate students and the forever-changed world of healthcare they will soon be entering. “People think of acute care for nurses, but nurses work in lots of different organizations, across lots of different types of health care,” she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. That’s why SNHU nursing programs focus on more generalized concepts and competencies that are transferable across multiple organizations. The idea is to cross train students in a broad array of disciplines so they can thrive in healthcare systems of the future and help hospitals to be better-prepared for the crises to come. Tune in to learn what it means to earn a patient’s trust, why nursing is inextricably linked with teaching, and why, as you envision your goals, you should always write them down.
“My superpower is asking questions, and that's pretty good training for just about anything,” says Raise the Line guest Esther Dyson. She has decades of experience as an advisor to and investor in companies in a wide range of sectors -- from education, to healthcare, to information technology. Her current focus is Welville, an organization she founded that’s running a 10 year project aimed at developing models to improve health in small communities. “We're basically a coaching organization. We're not giving them fish and we're not teaching them how to fish. We're helping them build their own fishing schools.” Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear Dyson speak with Osmosis Co-Founder Shiv Gaglani about her fascinating career witnessing the birth of the high-tech era and her nonprofit's current proposal to improve the health literacy of underprivileged children in Muskegon, Michigan by getting them involved in measuring their own glucose. Their ultimate goal? To help communities become healthier and more equitable places, and inspire other communities to do the same. Listen in to find out why Dyson believes the inability to think long-term has caused so many of our problems, and why the “human infrastructure” investments being contemplated n Washington are so important.
“What makes me successful? My simple answer is, 'I tried.'” Today's guest, first-generation entrepreneur Ashwin Damera, seems to embody the humility he advises to others. His personal motto? “Life is to give.” Damera's startup online education company Eruditus/Emeritus partners with top-tier universities such as MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, and Columbia, bringing accessible and affordable education to executives and schoolchildren alike, with the aim to impact one million students by 2025. Tune in to this engaging episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani to learn about Damera's road to edtech entrepreneurship, and find out why he believes up-skilling and re-skilling may be the largest social problem of our generation. Hear about the COVID-accelerated “fundamental shift” in the way learning happens, and how the Eruditus/Emeritus SPOC model (small, private, online courses) serves the serious learner. Plus, uncover Damera's valuable tips for budding entrepreneurs on the best form of fundraising and what most influences the success of a startup.
Growing up in the Philippines, Dr. Emerson Ea’s dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed by the high cost of education. He studied nursing instead, and realized the work was more than just a science—it was an art. “That was quite a revelation,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, and now he can’t imagine another path. Beyond decades of clinical work, Dr. Ea earned a Ph.D, a DNP, and became a professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where he’s now a dean. The Covid-19 pandemic upended not just his educational universe, but his advocacy and research -- often focused on health outcomes in the Filipino American community -- which the pandemic hit with devastating force. But as he envisions the road to healthcare equity, Dr. Ea focuses on the power of education to enable the next cadre of nurses to create better healthcare systems. Tune in to hear how Meyers College of Nursing made the best of online learning, the essential role of Filipino American healthcare workers, and why a nursing education opens literally hundreds of career paths.
Ten years after taking his first opiate-based painkiller after dental surgery, today's guest, Dr. Richard Morgan, was arrested for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and ultimately spent nine years in prison. “You start to do things that you can't believe you're capable of,” Dr. Morgan says, recalling the progression of his substance use disorder. Now, he is a full-time clinical instructor on track to regain his license, and was just named the coordinator of NYITCOM's Doctor-Patient Relationship (DPR) 1 course. In this fascinating and candid conversation, host Shiv Gaglani explores the moments that led Dr. Morgan down the criminal path, his time in prison, and the inspiring story of how he was able to rise from the depths of addiction to serve as a resource and motivator to others. Tune in to learn about the sometimes subtle signs and symptoms of opiate addiction, and why Dr. Morgan thinks that in order to fight the opioid pandemic, it's essential to share an opiate medicine curriculum with students early on. “I really feel this can make a difference.”
A fascination with data drew Dr. Brian Caveney to Labcorp, a lab testing and research company which has processed more than 50 million COVID-19 tests and runs more than half a billion medical tests per year around the world. For Caveney, all of that data provides opportunities for insights into how the healthcare industry can improve. As Chief Medical Officer at Labcorp and president of Labcorp Diagnostics, Caveney considers how labs can better analyze their findings, and how to best frame and communicate these findings to healthcare workers and the public. That’s a particularly urgent task in light of the COVID-19 crises, and an attendant crisis of public confidence in the medical profession. “The lab is often in the shadows of medicine, and may go back in that regard after COVID is over,” Caveney tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. But he hopes healthcare providers retain a deeper appreciation for how, if used intentionally, lab tests can bolster patient understanding and trust. Tune in to hear why political meddling at the CDC was so dangerous, the difference between law school and medical school, and how Labcorp managed huge demand for tests amid a fractured global supply chain.
In the ongoing effort to increase diversity in the healthcare workforce, Dr. David Lenihan believes one key factor is being overlooked: medical school admission policies that prevent a broad enough pool of applicants from being considered. That’s why, when he was Dean of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York, “we pivoted hard.” Mindful that less privileged students often lack the benefits of a robust childhood education, they stopped considering freshman year GPA as just one of many changes. More recently, as he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai, Lenihan has applied the philosophy at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico. In a nation where large swaths of people lack access to quality health care, Lenihan’s long-term strategy rests on a simple theory: “If we want graduates to go back and practice in rural America or urban core America,” he says, “quite simply you have to select students from those areas.” Tune in to hear about Lenihan’s plan for a medical school in St. Louis, his run for state senate, and what the MCAT’s verbal section overlooks.
Helping to lead one of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools is a challenge at any time, but Dr. Vineet Arora is stepping into that role when the fight against COVID is far from over. Although her work as Dean for Medical Education at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is new, she is no stranger to Pritzker having served as a clinician, researcher and educator there for the past 16 years. One focus for her will be student and provider burnout and self-care, issues she is steeped in due to a research interest in sleep and her past role overseeing the clinical learning environment. “Friends don't let friends drive drowsy. Even some sleep is always better than no sleep,” she tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. Arora says one upside of COVID is that it has helped healthcare workers get in the habit of questioning their own fitness for duty. “The whole idea of a symptom check-in and not coming to work when you're sick is a sea change for medicine.” Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear about her personal journey into hospital medicine, what physicians can learn from pilots, the importance of reverse mentoring and why she believes the post-COVID environment holds great opportunity for those joining the field.
To his father’s occasional befuddlement, Dr. Zeke Emanuel’s prolific, eclectic, and high-profile career in medicine, academia, and government has been driven less by strategy than basic curiosity: “I do what interests me at the moment,” he tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. The impulse has at times put him at odds with the conventional wisdom, whether it was espoused by a Harvard Medical School dean or the World Health Organization. But he says his contrarian tendencies have also helped him anticipate dramatic turns in the world of healthcare from emerging bioethical quandaries around end-of-life care, to best-practices for allocating scarce medical resources on a global scale. “Trying to anticipate our problems and trying to solve them: That's been an approach I like to say has fueled my career,” he says. Tune in to learn from one of the country’s leading authorities on healthcare reform how we can simplify the U.S. healthcare system, distribute vaccines more ethically, and why Benjamin Franklin is “the most brilliant person ever born on the North American continent, bar none.”
“If you want to reach marginalized populations in general, but in healthcare as well, you've got to build a bridge based on trust,” says Dr. David Carlisle whose mission, as leader of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, is to train people from underserved communities to return home to provide healthcare. From Carlisle’s perspective, the pandemic has highlighted the longstanding and devastating disparities in health status tied to race and ethnicity, which has added urgency to efforts to reach and improve care for these populations. As he has witnessed with testing and vaccination programs held at CDU, affinity is a key ingredient in building trust. “When the surrounding community became aware that there were people on campus who spoke the same languages, shopped at the same shopping centers and attended the same churches, our numbers skyrocketed.” Listen in to learn what how the Delta variant is impacting education this semester, and for a riveting, impassioned plea to the unvaccinated to protect themselves and their communities as well as the frontline healthcare workers who are risking their lives to treat COVID patients.
“The issue of prevention needs to be pushed harder,” Dr. Johannes Vieweg asserts, drawing from his experience growing up in Europe. Smart growth and smart leadership are two of Dr. Vieweg's favorite topics, and ones that he knows a thing or two about through his work founding a new medical school and training the next generation of healthcare leaders. In this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani, discover how Dr. Vieweg and his team took advantage of starting from scratch to build a unique and up-to-date active-learning-based curriculum that connects business and medicine and underscores community connection. Tune in to learn about the “threshold for innovation” and why Dr. Vieweg believes we have a way to go yet in the implementation of value-based medicine. Plus, hear his inspiring message about healthcare being a human right, not a privilege, and his advice to students on being nimble and pursuing their goals.
Discovering your ancestry through a DNA saliva test is commonplace and very popular today, but when 23andMe started offering the service to consumers in 2007, it was breaking new ground. “We started 23andMe with this mentality of being an activist brand. I want to empower people with their own genome. Then I want to empower people to essentially come together and be the world's largest community that's driving research forward,” says Anne Wojcicki, Co-founder and CEO of the company. In the past 14 years, she’s largely achieved that founding vision with 11.6 million people using the product and 80% of those consenting to have their information used in research. And, as Wojcicki tells host Shiv Gaglani, a trove of research papers and a constant stream of new genetic information is allowing 23andMe to move into developing therapeutics. The ultimate goal? “I want people to be able to use their genetic information to change their behavior and live to be 100 without any chronically-managed disease,” she says. Don’t miss this revealing discussion from a pioneer in direct-to-consumer healthcare about the impact of digital health, eliminating hierarchy in healthcare and the role providers can play in battling the swamp of medical misinformation. Spoiler: it might involve them learning to dance.
"Please don't ever forget why you are becoming a nurse," urges Bonnie Barnes of the DAISY Foundation. "Hold that in your heart always." Barnes has experienced firsthand the tremendous impact that a nurse's skillful and compassionate care can have on patients and families. In this episode of Raise the Line, join host Jannah Amiel, RN to discover how a family tragedy became the impetus for Barnes and her husband to start a foundation dedicated to recognizing and honoring the outstanding work of nurses—an organization that now partners with over 4,000 healthcare facilities in 29 countries. Tune in to learn about the strategic value of recognition, hear about Barnes' new book, Shining the Light on All the Right: Celebrating the Art of Nursing Around the World, and find out why Barnes thinks public support is essential in creating funding for nurse education. Plus, hear why Barnes believes the public ought to be listening more to nurses.
Dr. Iman Abuzeid and Rome Portlock co-founded Incredible Health after observing a disconnect: The doctors Abuzeid knew complained about understaffing at their hospitals, and yet the nurses Portlock knew complained that it could take months to get a job. “We're like, ‘Okay, this doesn't make any sense,’" Abuzeid tells host Dr. Rishi Desai. While a shortage of nurses is clearly a factor, their research determined the U.S. healthcare industry’s antiquated staffing tools were a big part of the problem. “We just figured there has to be a better way—a faster, more efficient, more scalable way to hire, and that's how Incredible Health started.” That better way involves a blend of automated screening, custom matching, focusing on ‘customer delight’ and turning the tables by having employers apply to the talent. The result is a hiring process that drops from 80 days to no more than 20. Stay tuned to find out why Abuzeid pivoted to business after earning her medical degree, the three things she thinks you can optimize for in your career, and why she considers values to be the ‘operating system’ of her company.
“I'm really proud of the global response from nurses to this pandemic. They really have stepped into a situation that is high risk, but they continue to care in the most difficult situations,” says Elizabeth Iro, a lifetime nurse and midwife who was appointed Chief Nursing Officer of the World Health Organization in 2017. Her arrival marked a new focus on nursing and midwifery at the WHO that was captured in several comprehensive reports on the challenges they face and the greater role they could play in improving global health. Based on that data, the World Health Assembly recently adopted a resolution on strengthening nursing and midwifery, something that Iro says will help guide a post-COVID future for nursing. “We have some real solid policy options that we can take in the next five years to support countries and make a difference,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. Iro sees a future of greater connection between nurses and midwives internationally to advance their impact and also serve as a source of psychosocial support. “The pandemic tested all of us – as a profession, as a community, as family members, and as individuals.” Take advantage of a rare opportunity to hear from one of the world’s leading health officials on critical issues such as vaccine hesitancy, vaccine equity and the importance of having nurses fully involved in setting COVID response policy.
“I don't want doctors to get ripped off. They are wonderful people dedicated to healing the sick and injured, and they're getting taken advantage of way too often,” says emergency physician James Dahle. His own series of bad experiences with financial advice prompted a flurry of self-education, and he decided to make a business out of sharing what he learned called the The White Coat Investor. One surprising thing he learned, which motivates his work to this day, is that even though the average physician earns $8 million over the course of a 30-year career, 25% end up with a net worth under $1 million. Why? “Doctors are busy people and we’ve got a lot on our mental plates and this is something else we feel like we have to do, so it sits in the background.” He says people also don’t realize the power of getting their finances under control. At mid-career, Dahle has achieved financial freedom and has the flexibility he thinks many doctors want and need to have at that stage of their lives. “The combination of financial literacy and financial discipline is so rare, it’s like having a superpower,” he adds. Check out this valuable conversation with host Rishi Desai for tips on managing student debt, common mistakes to avoid, and the critical importance of having a plan especially as health care careers are growing more unpredictable.
“It is the nature of our profession to be flexible, because our roles can change,” explains longtime PA and educator Dr. Kevin Lohenry. Physician assistants have had the chance to showcase that flexibility during the pandemic, quickly adjusting and moving into COVID-related roles like ICU support and vaccine efforts. In this episode of Raise the Line, learn about Dr. Lohenry's career path from the military to medicine to education, and why he thinks being a PA is such a great career in terms of impact on others and work-life balance. Listen in as Dr. Lohenry and host Dr. Rishi Desai discuss teamwork, how the approach to teaching critical thinking skills has changed over the years, and how COVID has served as a wake-up call on the need to address systemic racism. “If we don't invest heavily in a different kind of educational process to allow for equity among all peoples, I think we're hurting ourselves.” Tune in to find out more about his perspective on this, and why he advises students to stick initially with a single interest or organization.
“I don't see a scientific way of saying that one fine day COVID-19 will vanish. We'll have to learn to manage life alongside infectious diseases, whether it's COVID-19 or something else,” says Varun Khanna. As a leader of one of Indonesia’s largest hospital systems, Khanna is currently engulfed with managing the present surge there, but he’s giving a lot of thought to how things will look when the acute stage of the pandemic has passed. Among other impacts, he believes COVID has prompted significant changes in lifestyle, behavioral health needs, and how people want to interact with the healthcare system. “It’s going to be a paradigm shift in our lives.” Check out this incisive discussion for an on the ground look at the current COVID battle, the challenges of trying to care for 270 million people over widely dispersed territory and the multinational future of healthcare.
After being thrust into a caregiving role for her elderly grandmother after college, Bianca Padilla was shocked to discover how little support there was for family caregivers -- especially since relatives with no medical experience make up 90% of all senior care. She and her now-husband, Jonathan Magolnick, conceptualized Carewell on their first date with the vision of it being a one-stop shop for products and services that allow customers and caregivers to age in place safely and comfortably. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line hosted by Shiv Gaglani to learn about the model behind Carewell's success and hear Padilla's response to caregiving initiatives promoted by the Biden administration. Plus, discover COVID's silver lining for family caregivers and hear why Padilla believes that as we enter the “age of the silver tsunami,” paying attention to the caregiver is as essential as paying attention to the care recipient.
“We have the ability within our profession to quickly pivot in our educational programs because of their short-term nature. We can set the competency and quickly change curriculum,” says Christina Robohm, Regional Dean at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. And that’s just what is happening during COVID as administrators and students adjust to online learning and the integration of telemedicine into daily practice. Robohm believes that shorter educational timeline of 27 to 36 months can also help address critical access issues in West Texas and other rural areas. Listen in as Robohm gives host Shiv Gaglani the details on a major expansion of Texas Tech’s PA program and describes how one of the nation’s fastest growing professions is adapting to and leading change.
“Question everything,” advises Dr. Hanadi Hamadi to future healthcare professionals, but “always remember your lines and your boundaries, your mental health.” In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Hamadi joins her colleague at Brooks College of Health Dr. Shyam Paryani and Osmosis' Shiv Gaglani to discuss current trends and recent happenings in healthcare reform and health policy. Tune in to discover what Dr. Hamadi and Dr. Paryani see as the most essential tools for future healthcare leaders. Plus, learn about Brooks College of Health's unique online Executive Master of Health Administration program directed at working professionals, the challenge for hospitals to provide population health and not just acute care as a result of the Affordable Care Act, Dr. Hamadi's research on evaluating the recent emphasis on social determinants of health, and the lasting changes that Dr. Hamadi and Dr. Paryani believe COVID will bring to the healthcare system.
“Leadership is a science, just like medicine, and there are theories and facts and best practices in leadership that we know work. If you understand them, then you can become a better leader,” says Dr. John Tomkowiak, who has had many opportunities to lead in his long career in medical education. Among the best practices he brought to his current role as founding dean of Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, is focusing on creating a culture that supports change, and then implementing changes in the right sequence. “For me, those two things generally lead to great results.” He also believes in making sure employees know that they need to take care of themselves and loved ones first, and only then prioritize their work. Join host Rishi Desai for a conversation full of lessons on leadership and continuous improvement, and insights on the state of medical education.
As California’s crisis of people experiencing homelessness continues to deepen, a major player in the state’s healthcare system is stepping up with a new approach to providing them with the healthcare services they need. “Homeless patients so often have distrust of the healthcare system,” observes Dr. Michael Hochman, who is leading SCAN’s Homeless Medical Group Initiative. “You've got to re-establish that trust to really be able to help them.” Dr. Hochman has long found himself drawn to caring for the underserved, and loves the feeling of watching his patients' lives get back on track. To provide effective care, he argues, doctors need to meet patients where they are, which in some cases may be a street corner or under a bridge. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear him talk with host Dr. Rishi Desai about what’s behind SCAN’s approach and the challenges of providing mental health and substance use services on the street. Learn why Dr. Hochman believes in loosening drug regulations, greater flexibility in the use of healthcare dollars for health-related social services, and higher reimbursement rates for groups caring for high-risk patients. Plus, hear his advice for students and his view on the need to radically rethink how we deliver care.
“There was doubt that online education could work in preparation for competitive exams. That has been washed away by our pandemic experience,” says Aakash Chaudhry who helps lead Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), a leading player in India’s high stakes test prep industry. In fact, when students were studying completely online last year, AESL had its best test outcomes in 30 years. The result is that COVID revealed a hybrid sweet spot for the company. “Students and their parents learned you don't have to go to the classroom five days or six days a week. You can study four days a week at home and you can spend a day or two with the teacher just to touch upon the problems that you are not able to understand.” Chaudhry believes if online learning is leveraged well it will empower teachers to do far more than they used to, especially in healthcare education where there is a need for expansion. Currently, a limited number of medical school slots is perpetuating a huge shortage of providers which was highlighted by India’s recent agonizing struggle with a COVID surge. Listen as Chaudhry fills in host Shiv Gaglani on a new educational model that might help alleviate the shortage, and discusses whether a merger with edtech giant BYJU might extend AESL’s reach beyond India.
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“If you can help alleviate fear and guide people in decision-making, that's what public health people should be doing during a pandemic,” says Dr. Ashish Jha, who has become one of the leading medical figures in the nation sharing evidence-based information and insights in a clear and helpful way through hundreds of interviews with TV, print, and radio journalists. Dr. Jha, who became dean of the Brown University School of Public Health as the pandemic was getting underway, is troubled by the surge of COVID in areas with low vaccination rates and believes more must be done by social media platforms to curtail disinformation campaigns. But, he believes individuals have a role to play as well. “We have to find ways of reaching out to people who live outside our information ecosystem and engaging them. I think combatting misinformation is the biggest challenge of our time.” Check out this important episode with host Shiv Gaglani for a valuable wisdom drop on the challenges and opportunities the pandemic is presenting for patients, providers, and health systems in the U.S. and globally.
“I feel like academic medicine has had one of its finest hours and people understand its importance in a way they had not before,” says Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for Health Affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and dean of its medical school. Wearing those hats, she has a ground-level perspective on how the pandemic played out in academic medical centers as well as a national view of how academic medicine and medical education fared generally due to her leadership roles with the Association of American Medical Colleges. As she tells host Shiv Gaglani, she saw an unprecedented level of collaboration and sharing of research and other information that helped advance the quality of care provided to COVID patients. “To see all the organizations in academic medicine come together around that multifaceted but singular focus was thrilling, honestly, and just amazing.” In addition to COVID response, Dr. Woodward has her hands full expanding educational and clinical offerings in a state which struggles in many areas that affect health status, and is ranked last in the country for the number of practicing physicians per capita. “We're working hard to provide all the programs we need for the education of our students, but also to answer the unmet needs for the citizens in Mississippi.”
“Students sometimes look to us for the only way to master something. We really try to guide them to their unique way of learning,” says Dr. Rivka Stone of Med School Tutors. As chief medical officer, she leads a team of over 150 tutors who provide one-on-one support to clients, and believes understanding that different people learn differently is key to exam success. In this episode of Raise the Line, she shares with Dr. Rishi Desai how MST selects its tutors, what she thinks of recent major changes to medical school testing and offers her take on medical student morale in face of COVID. Plus, hear her valuable advice on seeking out one-to-one connection and the importance of self-care.
Can having a rockstar teacher make all the difference? Matt Riley thinks so. He built his company, Blueprint Test Preparation, on hiring and creating rockstar LSAT and MCAT instructors across the country. In contrast to the opinion that standardized tests are just meaningless hurdles, Riley believes that these tests serve an important function and that going through the process of preparing for and taking them “actually gets you ready for success.” Join Riley as he speaks with host Shiv Gaglani in this episode of Raise the Line to discover Blueprint's unique approach to test prep, including its recent acquisition of Cram Fighter, a service that helps students manage the resources they are using to study. Plus, learn about the Fauci and RBG effects that COVID has had on medical and law school admissions, and hear Riley's valuable advice for students preparing for exams and looking toward their future careers.
Many people involved in improving healthcare quality are looking to artificial intelligence and innovative delivery models as answers. But Dr. Richard Park, one of the country's leading healthcare entrepreneurs, sees it differently. “Before AI and all these fancy things are layered on top, we need to focus on fundamentals. It’s not sexy, but it has to be done,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. The fundamentals Park is talking about center on standardizing processes, clinical protocols, computer programs, workflows and metrics to reduce variation. Decreasing variation and aligning doctors to work consistently and predictably is something Park learned building CityMD, a provider of urgent and primary care in New York and New Jersey. Park and his team grew the company from a single location in 2010 to nearly 150 sites today where more than 4 million patients receive treatment. He's also CEO of Rendr Care Physicians, a multi-specialty group catering to 100,000 underserved patients, primarily of Asian descent, in 30 locations in New York City. Tune-in to this fascinating conversation about changing physician behavior, his cultural roots in entrepreneurship and why every doctor who wants to improve the quality of care should study McDonald's restaurants.
“I think today’s young doctors will lead the digital health revolution. They've grown up with the technology and they understand the power of connectivity and social media and being on all the time, but in a good way,” says Jeff Arnold, a digital information pioneer with decades of success creating and leading companies that leverage technology to provide easy access to knowledge, including WebMD and HowStuffWorks. Since 2010, he's been Chairman and CEO of Sharecare, a leading health and wellness engagement platform that provides people with personalized information, programs, and resources to improve their health -- whether they download the Sharecare app themselves or access its platform through a self-insured employer health plan or, coming soon, health system. This week, the company will begin trading on the NASDAQ exchange. In this revealing conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Arnold describes the company’s goal to be a one-stop-shopping platform to connect people to their doctor, health plan, employer, and help them navigate their well-being. You won’t want to miss this chance to learn about where digital health is going in the next decade.
In his book, Rich & Dying: An Insider Calls Bullsh*t on America's Healthcare Economy, Sutter Health|Aetna CEO Jeb Dunkelberger uses his unique position as head of a company whose clients are some of the largest employers in the world to reveal what is going on behind the scenes in healthcare. Find out in this episode hosted by Shiv Gaglani why Dunkelberger believes neither free-market economics nor “Medicare For All” is a workable solution to our nation's healthcare crisis, and why it's so important for providers to understand the flow of funds in the insurance sector. Plus, learn about aligned incentives, why the post-COVID environment might be a good time for people to accept new ideas, and why the future may not be as telemedicine-dependent as some predict.
“Information that you don't use regularly, you will quickly forget,” says Dr. Jason Ryan, “no matter what it is.” Accepting that reality, he argues, is a good way to form an effective study plan. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear more of Dr. Ryan's valuable advice and learn how he came to start Boards and Beyond, a platform that helps medical students prepare for board exams. Listen in as he and host Dr. Rishi Desai discuss Continuing Medical Education (CME), the pros and cons of recertification exams, and strategies to address the problem of burnout. Plus, discover Dr. Ryan's arguments for open-book testing and learn why becoming a “cookbook practitioner” in the medical field is definitely something to avoid.
Telehealth has emerged as one of the biggest “winners” of the pandemic if you measure that in terms of a huge jump in awareness and amount of use. People most often associate it with video conversations, but telehealth also includes phone calls, remote monitoring, emails and sharing of images. Our guest on this episode of Raise the Line thinks there are real advantages to patients in actually foregoing video in favor of an asynchronous exchange of information. Varsha Rao is CEO of Nurx, a rapidly growing health tech company which has its roots in the prescribing and at-home delivery of contraception. “There's a lot of people who still don't feel that comfortable talking about contraception with their provider. One thing we've tried to do is create modalities that reduce friction, whether it's stigma or logistics, because those can be barriers to care.” Rao says patients feel more comfortable asking sensitive questions in writing, and benefit from the deep experience Nurx providers have on the limited health concerns they treat. “We've really focused in a number of areas and gone deep in them. That’s why we get thousands of comments from patients saying they learned more from our providers than they ever got from their in-person doctors.” Check out this episode to learn more about a different take on telehealth.
Communicating accurate, vital healthcare information to the public has seldom been more important than during the COVID 19 pandemic. As we’ve all seen, the challenges of doing that well have been a major factor in the spread of the disease and participation in vaccination campaigns. Watching all of this carefully is cardiologist, researcher and public health expert Dr. Garth Graham, who was chosen earlier this year to lead a new health partnerships team at Google/YouTube to create high-quality health content for viewers around the world. Graham will work with an impressive coalition of organizations including the Mayo Clinic, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health (and Osmosis!) to extend evidence-based clinical information beyond the exam room in a way that meets the evolving digital health needs of consumers. “The challenge that we're taking on is how to deliver public health information to empower communities across the world to live their healthiest lives. We’re using the power and reach of YouTube to engage people directly with health information in a way that they’re used to receiving other information in their daily lives.” Check out this lively conversation with host Dr. Rishi Desai to learn about the importance of providers seeing life through the eyes of the patient and community, and why the healthcare system sometimes resembles a stampeding elephant.
With just 30 minutes of physical activity every day, says Dr. Bernadette Melnyk, or “Bern,” as she's known, 80% of chronic disease could be totally prevented. Unfortunately, though, most people will not make changes in their behavior unless they are in a crisis or have raised emotions. Join Dr. Melnyk on this episode of Raise the Line as she speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about her work at Ohio State - and worldwide through the Fuld Institute for Evidence-based Practice - finding and implementing evidence-based solutions to wellness, including decreasing the high percentage of burnout, depression and suicide in clinicians. Tune in to hear why self-care is not selfish, and how focusing on kids and pets can help people better care for themselves. Plus, discover Bern's “magic formula” to get people to change.
“I'm a huge fan of progress, not perfection. Small steps lead to transformation more often than large steps.” David Kopp has not only experienced this personally as an effective approach to positive behavior change, but as former CEO of Healthline Media, he knows the scientific literature supports it as well. Kopp refers to the key factors in achieving wellness as MENDS: mindfulness, exercise, nature, diet, and sleep. “If you can create new routines around those things, it will really make a difference.” Because diet is such an important driver in many chronic conditions, Kopp says it deserves much more attention from the healthcare system, but knows that’s an uphill battle. “You have to spend a lot of time to understand a patient's diet and nutrition, and our whole system is based on ‘you've got 11 minutes to spend with patients.’ Check out this episode of Raise the Line as Kopp joins host Rishi Desai to discusses other structural impediments to better health, the evolving acceptance of plant-based diets, and the role passion and purpose can play in creating resilience to get challenging work done.
Andrew Grauer was just trying to solve his own problems with finding study help as a student at Cornell University, but it turns out his initial solutions, and those that followed, have also worked for millions of students. The company Grauer co-founded, Course Hero, provides an online learning platform where students access millions of course-specific study resources contributed by a community of students and 65,000 educators. The popular site also offers 24/7 tutoring. “We were helping students to anytime, anywhere, go connect to the knowledge directly that came from others. Getting more accessible, on-demand quality help to learn was the problem and the opportunity.” As for faculty – who were not uniformly positive about the service when it started catching on – Grauer and his team realized that they needed support as well to find the best instructional materials. “We also believe in amplifying great teachers and great teaching resources.” Check out this episode to learn more about how today’s students learn and the long-range implications of the pandemic-driven pivot to online instruction. Also hear what personal quality Grauer thinks, in addition to passion, is “super important” to building a successful business.
“Everybody deserves access to care, and it's up to us to find a way to provide that,” says Dr. Jean Sumner. She and her team at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia take their mission of serving rural and underserved populations very seriously. “Almost,” says Dr. Sumner, “as a sacred trust to serve our state.” That could entail bringing diabetes and hypertension training to church on Sunday, taking phone calls at night, advocating for primary care patients in emergency rooms, or partnering with rural-county pharmacists and physical therapists. She believes being responsive to the community is key to gaining trust and providing good care. In this episode of Raise the Line, learn about Dr. Sumner's inspiring career dedicated to bringing attention to the issues of rural health, and how the pandemic has drawn attention to the lack of primary care in rural communities. Discover why observation over time is such an important and overlooked tool, how having a broad range of skills can save lives, and how telehealth can best be used as a tool to expand access to those in need.
If you have a sense of dread about what impact AI will have on healthcare providers and quality of care, you should listen to today’s episode of Raise the Line. Dr. Marc Triola, who spends a lot of time contemplating how data analytics is going to impact medicine as director of The Institute for Innovations in Medical Education at NYU Langone Health, likens AI to a valuable new member of the healthcare team that will give physicians superpowers. “Many physicians think they have those superpowers now -- such as the ability to see patterns, to know what to ignore and know what to look at, and to be able to make the right decision for the right patient -- but limitations on our ability to manage data, cognitive biases and other factors get in the way.” Adding to his excitement about the possibilities for AI is that patients will have access to many of the same tools. Tune in to gain insights from Triola on the welcome waning of ‘one-size fits-all’ medical education, the positive disruption of shifting to online learning, and to learn about a project with Osmosis and NYU Langone to serve up content to medical learners based on diagnoses they are making.
“There is a lot of distrust for the medical profession, and certainly, for, I think, science in general,“ observes Dr. Michael Whitt. How to rebuild that trust? Dr. Whitt believes the answer is teaching. Join him in this episode of Raise the Line as he speaks with host Dr. Rishi Desai about vaccine development and his team's role in COVID vaccine testing, as well as best approaches and practices to fighting misinformation. Find out about the amazing developments that have been made over the past five years in vaccine technology, and the important part Dr. Whitt believes physicians should play in combatting fear and social weariness and rebuilding trust in science. Plus, learn about what it means for COVID to be with us for the long haul, and the challenge of messaging—here and across international borders—to get everyone working effectively toward the same goal.
Mentioned in this episode:
Takeda: https://www.takeda.com/
PackHealth: https://packhealth.com/
Lundbeck: https://www.lundbeck.com/global
Osmosis: https://www.osmosis.org
NAMI: https://www.nami.org
When Dr. Abdul El-Sayed realized that he could travel 15 hours to visit family in Egypt or drive 15 minutes away in Detroit and traverse the same 10-year life expectancy gap, the deeply political aspects of medicine and public health really hit home for him. In a broadly-spanning career with roles in medicine, activism, education, and politics, Dr. El-Sayed has endeavored to fix the problems in the U.S. healthcare system that contribute to this gap. In this important interview, Dr. El-Sayed speaks with host Dr. Rishi Desai about the power of storytelling, the immoral foundation of our healthcare system, and the need to step beyond institutional measurements to decide what matters. Tune in to discover the powerful influence his grandmother has had on his life's work, why Dr. El-Sayed believes that Medicare for all is not only the ethical way to go, but also “extremely technically possible,” and what he sees as the next step toward removing corporate dominance from our healthcare system.
You might say Osmosis and SketchyMedical share some DNA. Both learning platforms were started by medical students seeking a better way to manage the avalanche of information they had to memorize; both companies use animated videos with an approachable style; and both root their content in learning science. Sketchy’s key approach borrows from a method developed by the ancient Greeks that relies on visual-spatial memory to acquire and retain knowledge. They also keep fun front and center. “That fun aspect is harder to be objective about and to judge,” says co-founder Andrew Berg, “but we found that the more fun we're having when we're creating content, that translates into more fun the students are having and very likely makes it more effective as a learning tool.” Check out this fascinating (and fun!) discussion about the power of visual lessons to increase speed of learning and retention, the myth of learning preferences, and plans to apply the approach to non-medical subject areas.
Suzanne Miyamoto's appreciation for healing and personal connection started while volunteering at a hospital in high school, and has been central to her life ever since. She has spent most of her career working in policy, and now leads the American Academy of Nursing, which endeavors to improve health equity by impacting policy through nursing leadership, innovation, and science. Join Miyamoto and host Jannah Amiel in this episode of Raise the Line to learn how nurses can be—and in Miyamoto's view, should be—front and center in the struggle to improve health equity. Tune in to soak up Miyamoto's valuable advice on forming partnerships, using good evidence, and seeking out opportunities outside of healthcare. Plus, learn about the need for better representation at the decision-making tables and the importance of educators encouraging and nurturing student ideas early and often.
“It has always really been about making things better for people,” says Dr. Valerie Weber of the various roles she has held in her distinguished career. “As somebody who is fortunate, you must use your role to help others and to make the system better.” In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Weber joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss current challenges and new models in medical education, the impact of COVID, and pandemic silver linings. Tune in to discover how Dr. Weber's mother's passion for caring for community elders inspired her daughter's journey to leadership in healthcare, a field that Dr. Weber considers “the best career in the world.” Learn why Dr. Weber is a staunch advocate of community-based medicine and believes it is essential for medical schools to lead the way in championing health equity. Plus, find out what she thinks may prove to be the “discovery of the century.”
"Healthcare needs to become distributed, digitally enabled, and decentralized.” That’s the core message in the new book Care After Covid: What the Pandemic Revealed Is Broken in Healthcare and How to Reinvent It, by Dr. Shantanu Nundy. Between his work as a primary care physician, lecturer in health policy at George Washington University Milken Institute for Public Health, advisor to the World Bank on digital health and innovation and role as chief medical officer at Accolade, Nundy brings a lot to the national conversation about improving healthcare. Although plenty needs to be done by regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders, Nundy is also looking to his fellow providers to drive change. Taking the trajectory of telemedicine as an example he says, “we could have moved to virtual care sooner. Part of it was regulation, but part of it was us. We could have been giving our patients' blood pressure cuffs to take home with them. Part of it was regulation, but part of it was us. I think the pandemic has shown that you don't have to wait for someone in DC to solve a problem for you. There's so much that we all know because we're in exam rooms every day and there are things we can do to make care better.” Tune in for a trenchant discussion with host Rishi Desai on removing barriers to change, patient empowerment, changing medical education, training doctors to be mass communicators and much more.
At the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, you can find Dr. Mary Brennan working tirelessly alongside her colleagues and students to ensure the future of healthcare lands in capable hands. Her dramatic efforts as the Director of the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP Program (AGACNP) in New York have earned her the Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Award for 2020. As she shares with host Lindsey Smith, her life experiences have taught her to push those around her to be the best they can be, but supporting enough to give them the opportunity to rise to those expectations. Dr. Brennan also has an interest in using innovative technologies to enhance students’ experiences around the world.
“We can conduct research, perform lab procedures, order and interpret tests, assist in surgery, and even own our own medical practices in some states,” says Brianna Cardenas, director of Clinical Education of the Physician Assistant Program at Keck Graduate Institute. Sonia Otte, founding program director for the MS Program in PA Studies at KGI says that range is a big draw for prospective students once they are introduced to it. “I think just knowing that the PA profession is as versatile as you want it to be is what is the most exciting thing about it,” she says. Both see building awareness of the many dimensions of PA practice, especially among younger people and those from diverse communities, as a key part of their mission. Another is teaching cultural competence and the kind of listening skills that allow providers to see the whole lives of their patients. “We teach our students to learn from their patients’ stories and experiences. Oftentimes, you can find the thing you’re looking for in these types of conversations because they reveal their circumstances and abilities.” Join host Rishi Desai for this illuminating conversation about an occupation that, as Cardenas happily points out, ranks #1 on the U.S. News & World Report “Best Jobs List.”
Dr. Zsa-Zsa Booker received many nominations for the Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Awards, and the overarching theme was how much passion and light she brought with her to Wayne State University every day. There, she serves as a Learning Skills Specialist for the Office of Learning and Teaching where she does as much as possible to give back to the industry that has given her so much. Recognizing the generosity of others is what gets us through these tough times, Dr. Booker tells host Lindsey Smith that she hopes to instill that sentiment in her students so countless future generations can benefit and flourish from her example.
Dr. Mark Slivkoff is an Associate Professor of Physiology at the Idaho College of Medicine, where he teaches his students not only how to be valuable contributors to society, but also the importance of staying humble in their career and spreading positivity whenever and wherever they can. Many of his peers and students recognized his efforts at ICOM and flooded Osmosis with nominations for the new Raise the Line Faculty Award. Listen in as he tells host Lindsey Smith about the mission of the Biomedical Sciences Department at ICOM, and of osteopathic medicine.
AT Still University (ATSU) Physician Assistant Program Professor Dr. Raymond Pavlick, is one of Osmosis’ Raise the Line Faculty Award winners for 2020! Dr. Pavlick hopes his students see his teaching efforts as his way of paying it forward. “The way that I work with them and the way that I treat them, that's what I want the students to do with the patients in their future career,” he tells host Lindsey Smith. While teaching for ATSU, Dr. Pavlick also trains paramedics at the nearby Mesa Community College.
“Most of the time, things that make sense are probably going to find their way to the top, and value-based care just makes so much sense,” says Dr. Tobias Barker, chief medical officer of Everside Health (formerly Paladina Health). Barker has been exposed to many approaches to delivering care in a career that has taken him from under-resourced areas around the globe to VA hospitals to the retail giant CVS. What makes so much sense to him about value-based care, which pays providers an upfront fee every month for the patients they treat and rewards quality of care, is it allows them to do what will help patients be as healthy as possible without worrying if it fits a billing code. Everside uses this approach providing primary care to the employees of self-insured employers, and it has proven to reduce the total cost of care. It has also proven to be a resilient business model during the pandemic. Providers still in the traditional “fee for service” system were hit hard when patients stopped showing up because there were fewer services to bill for, while those in the value-based system could rely on the steady upfront payments. In this episode of Raise the Line, Barker is full of interesting examples and anecdotes as he recounts to host Shiv Gaglani his circuitous educational and career path, experiences at CVS Health and working early in his career with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Sharon Goldfarb, Former Dean of Health Sciences at College of Marin in Kentfield, CA, very much considers herself a lifelong learner; one of the many qualities that earned her the first ever Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Award! From humble beginnings, she has found purpose in helping spread the joy of being a contributing part of the medical industry. On top of her current role at College of Marin, she is also the President of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing which supports many nursing schools in the state. As she shares in this interview with Lindsey Smith, Dr. Goldfarb hopes people of all ages that are looking for great careers find their calling in the vast, booming field of medicine.
The enormous disruptions in healthcare caused by the pandemic have given Eric Larsen plenty of occasions to recall some wisdom he once heard from a pastor: “In times of volatility and upheaval, learning has to be greater than or equal to the rate of change.” So that’s one reason why as president of the Advisory Board, Larsen spends about 25 hours per week studying changes in the healthcare system. Its incredible complexity is one reason the Advisory Board has long been valued by healthcare leaders as a disseminator of deeply-researched best practices. An alliance with Optum forged in 2017 is providing opportunities to be more involved in actually enabling change, something which Larsen says has been energizing. One of his roles is to regularly advise CEO’s of the 100 largest systems in the country who control a huge swath of the $1.3 trillion sector. “We try to be at the epicenter of all of this dynamic energy in healthcare to understand where the innovation is happening, where the disruptions are emerging and how do we understand them and harness them,” he says. Check out this penetrating discussion with host Rishi Desai to get a view into what structural shifts are underway, and what kind of support providers need to become more efficient and patient-centered.
“It’s not going to be Big Tech solving some of these intractable healthcare problems,” says investor Deena Shakir. In her experiences at Google Ventures and elsewhere, she’s seen how much more impactful and efficient small teams of start-ups can be in moving innovation forward. Now at Lux Capital, she’s seeking out and supporting entrepreneurs tackling a wide range of issues from home diagnostics to women’s health to making clinical trials more accessible and equitable. It’s perhaps not a surprise that she’s drawn to people with diverse backgrounds and believes in the power of intersectionality in healthcare. Her own non-traditional path to VC included experiences as a journalist, diplomat, aid worker and technologist, including a post at the State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Check out this fascinating conversation with host Shiv Gaglani for a peek into the promising work being done at the intersection of business, investment, technology and healthcare to improve lives and livelihoods.
Finding herself overwhelmed and confused while navigating the health system during a long recovery from a bad car accident, Geri Baumblatt quickly recognized the lack of communication and understanding there was for patients simply trying to get better. She works to help deliver effective education to patients both before and after visits through her work with the free, social good Docola platform (www.doco.la). And as care increasingly falls to family members, the majority of whom are also trying to hold down a job, Baumblatt is tackling that problem through an organization she co-founded called The Difference Collaborative (https://differencecollaborative.com) which supports people as they try to manage the steep challenges of working and providing care. In this episode, she also shares with host Shiv Gaglani why she believes that by normalizing the questions most patients have, you will gain a better understanding of what their goals of care might be and be able to provide them with the care they’re searching for. “I think what we learn from patients is often really simple, but really surprising at the same time.”
Put down the stethoscope and look patients in the eye, urges Dr. Toyin Ajayi. To really improve health outcomes, you've got to seek a fuller understanding than just organ systems and diseases. Dr. Ajayi grew up in Kenya, where she learned early the large role that income plays in health and social outcomes. The social justice and service ideals rooted in her childhood accompanied her through and post-medical school, when, working as a physician and hospitalist, she felt a calling to try to fix what she experienced as a broken system. Three years ago, she co-founded Cityblock Health, a New-York-based health and social services company that serves low-income Medicaid populations. In this fascinating interview, Dr. Ajayi shares Cityblock's innovative trust-based, value-based care model, which features full integration of behavioral health, an actively anti-racist company culture, technology tools that seek out the full 360-degree view of a patient and their risk factors, and omnichannel access that meets people where they are, be that in their homes, a cafe, or elsewhere in their community.
Early in his career as an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John Fulkerson was attracted to focusing on a small part of the knee called the patellofemoral joint because he felt it was overlooked and little understood. Decades later, there is still much to be learned and he’s leading a new program at Yale to advance the understanding of anterior knee pain and how to treat it. It’s actually a common problem in the general population and is responsible for more than 30% of complaints at sports medicine clinics. Despite this, many people never get relief. Check out today’s episode to learn more about this issue, the role of technology in orthopedic surgery, and the importance of perseverance, integrity and honesty in medicine.
There's a reason why nursing is typically the most trusted profession in the world, says Dr. John Smith-Coppes, Vice President and Executive Director of Nursing at Rasmussen University It has to do with a genuine desire to serve others. Smith-Coppes and his colleague Dr. Joan Rich, Vice President of Nursing, are doing everything they can to sustain that trust. The goal of their nursing program at Rasmussen University is to turn out the very best, most competent nurses, no matter what the circumstances. In this episode of Raise the Line, Rich and Smith-Coppes share how they embrace innovation and find solutions in face of the challenges posed by COVID-19. Tune in to learn more about the broad range of programs that Rasmussen offers, with paths of all kinds for people with different needs and seeking different degrees and certifications, from LPN through DNP. Jannah Amiel, RN, facilitates as Rich provides a public health perspective and Smith-Coppes an operations perspective on the state of the healthcare system today, a unique time when there is at once a nursing shortage as well as renewed interest in the field.
To create behavior change, like getting people to wear masks, it's not enough just to give people information, you also need to communicate that information effectively. Facebook's Kang-Xing Jin -- who espouses an interdisciplinary approach across public health, communication, behavioral science, and technology -- believes that Facebook is uniquely positioned to have positive social impact, including in the sphere of public health. In this episode of Raise the Line, he speaks with Shiv Gaglani about his work and career, including how Facebook Health has helped spur blood and organ donations, and how his team has shifted priorities in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Tune in to learn about the data tools such as large-scale surveys that Facebook has been providing to health experts, policymakers, and researchers to help them understand symptom trends and make better decisions. Jin also shares his belief that the crisis has brought about more cross-sector collaboration and sharing of perspectives, something he hopes will continue after the COVID threat has subsided.
“For anyone with a uterus out there, we're about to blow your mind.” With that, Dr. Sophia Yen set the stage for an interview as fascinating and lively as any of the 100+ we’ve done. For instance, Yen asks why women should endure 350-400 menstruations in their lifetime when, on average, they only have two babies. Ever thought of that? Yen, a Stanford professor and pediatrician, believes “periods should be optional” as a way to reduce health risks and what can be a significant disadvantage for women in their personal and professional lives. “I want my daughters to be on equal playing ground with everyone next to them. I don't want them randomly hit with menstruation 1 week out of 4 for 20 years.” While #PeriodsOptional is a passion, the main business of the company she co-founded is making it easier for women to get birth control prescriptions.
Pandia Health (www.pandiahealth.com) customers can order online and have it delivered, eliminating the need for a medical appointment or trip to the drug store. Yen says COVID has made that model very attractive. Tune in to learn more about those business tailwinds, her cautions about telemedicine and much more in this memorable episode with host Shiv Gaglani.
“I always think about careers as some mixture of careful career planning and then leaving tremendous amounts of space for serendipity,” says Dr. Peter Buckley, whose career as a researcher, a physician, academic leader, and health system leader includes membership on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges. In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Buckley shares with Shiv Gaglani how he became drawn to psychiatry, academic leadership, and the issue of schizophrenia, specifically, and discusses the increased importance of mental healthcare now as a result of COVID. What are the changes that VCU School of Medicine has had to make due to the pandemic, and which of those are here to stay? What is behind the increase in medical school enrollments and med school philanthropic giving? Tune in to discover answers to these questions, Dr. Buckley's advice to students, and his optimistic take on the ongoing transformation of the healthcare industry in America.
How can a barbershop be an access point to care? It's a question that Taylor Justice and his company, Unite Us, are figuring out on the ground in certain communities in North Carolina, and a model they are looking to expand, collaborating with various kinds of community organizations to build infrastructure by meeting patients where they're comfortable. Recognizing that so much of a person's overall wellbeing happens in their home community, Justice founded the technology platform Unite Us in 2013 to extend the traditional clinical care coordination network by connecting health, human, and social service organizations to securely exchange data around a shared patient. Initially focused on the veteran and military population, Unite Us now serves all citizens and is active in over 42 states across the country. In Justice's estimation, COVID has highlighted the lack of appropriately collaborative public health infrastructure. “I think that's one of the big learnings that we've seen from the pandemic,” he says. “No one can do this alone.” Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to learn why Justice believes some of our nation's massive healthcare spending should be reallocated to human and social services, and why he predicts that these services will become bigger parts of the healthcare ecosystem going forward.
Dr. Mark Schuster has asked students in the entering class at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine to write a letter to themselves about their passions and goals that will be returned to them at graduation. After an extremely competitive, yet holistic admissions process to a program that has waived students' tuition with no strings attached, the admitted applicants “are the kinds of students who want to save the world,” Dr. Schuster boasts. He doesn't want the med school journey to burn out any of their spark. In addition to his role as Founding Dean and CEO of the Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Dr. Schuster is recognized as an international leader in research on child, adolescent and family health and is also a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine. In this episode of Raise the Line, he speaks with Shiv Gaglani about his journey into pediatrics and leadership roles, how Kaiser Permanente has met the challenge of opening a medical school during a pandemic, and how COVID-19 has been an opportunity to teach about health disparities. Tune in for an inside glimpse of the school's unique admissions process and hear Dr. Schuster's advice on serving patients by viewing them as whole people in the full context of their lives.
“Why can't we get better health when we're spending two to three times as much money as any other high-income nation?” asks Dr. Vivian Lee, as so many other Americans have asked for so many years. But not many have developed answers as compelling as hers, making Lee one of the leading voices on healthcare reform in the country. Lee’s perspective, shaped by a rich set of experiences as a clinician, leader and academic, is strengthening a movement to make healthcare more centred on helping patients be as healthy as possible instead of being geared to just treat them when they are sick. Her influential book “The Long Fix” lays out an action plan to create a less costly system and a healthier population. As she explains to host Shiv Gaglani, positive change will depend in part on clinicians knowing as much as possible about the business of healthcare, and also about what other providers do. “You need to understand what every person's role is on the care team. Until you can make the most of every person, how can you drive value?” After running a highly-respected academic health system, Lee is now making an impact in the private sector at Verily Life Sciences, part of the Google family of companies. Listen in to learn how Verily is using digital health and data analytics to support schools, employers and patients during COVID, and the impact it is hoping to make long-term.
Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.clintonfoundation.org
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/our-work/too-small-fail
Fred Singer has a message for those in higher ed grappling with the imperative to deliver education online: offering “Zoom University” isn’t enough. “Simply repurposing a classroom doesn't make any more sense going forward than it did in the 1990’s for the newspapers to dump content online and assume the world's going to change. It didn't work that way.” And Singer knows what he’s talking about because he was there when the Washington Post first went online. He’s built a fascinating career “chasing interesting, disruptive movements” as an internet pioneer and entrepreneur. As CEO of Echo360, he now sits at the intersection of innovation and education. His company, which is the first video platform designed to foster active, engaged, and personalized video-based learning, has been boosted by COVID as schools of all types have been forced to offer and improve distance learning. In this episode with host Shiv Gaglani, Singer highlights the parallels he sees between the relatively slow adoption of learning technologies in both education and healthcare, and predicts that major change is going to happen faster than people might realize. “All the technology and tools exist to deliver much cheaper education, much more convenient education. I think there will be huge opportunities for people that know how to embrace the change and not try to block it.”
@pfrishauf linkedin.com/in/peterfrishauf
Mentioned in this episode:
Medscape - First Five Years:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/504736
Medscape - 25th Anniversary:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/930939
Trial of the Chicago 7:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVb6EdKDBfU
Risk management is a critically important part of providing healthcare and, you might be surprised to learn, goes far beyond dealing with medical errors. In fact, modern risk management encompasses most aspects of healthcare operations, including HR and finances. When Marlene Icenhower, who has degrees in nursing and law, first got into risk management decades ago, it was largely reactive in nature. “It had to do with the process that occurred after a medical mishap, and it was pretty much confined to just the clinical arena and the legal mop-up that took place after that event.” Over the past several decades, however, it's evolved into a function that's more proactive. “The idea now is to look for trends, issues, or lapses and then implement measures to fix them before they result in injury to a patient.” Icenhower is a senior risk specialist at Coverys, one of the largest medical malpractice insurance companies in the country, and spends a good deal of her time answering questions and brainstorming with providers around the country about everything from telehealth regulations to what should be done when a patient leaves against medical advice. In this conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Icenhower talks about finding the “why” behind education, how COVID is changing healthcare, and what she wishes medical and nursing schools would spend more time teaching.
After a negative experience at a chaotic pharmacy while battling a sinus infection, Eric Kinariwala identified the need for an easier way to get prescription medications. That was the spark for creating Capsule, a New York based digital pharmacy startup that has expanded to Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis. “We built the entire experience around the idea that if your mom was a pharmacist and you were the only customer in the world, what would that experience look like?” Capsule is considered a leading disruptor in the pharmacy industry by offering fast delivery and having pharmacists on call 24/7 to help customers among other benefits, but Kinariwala thinks the reasons for the company’s success goes beyond that. “What we've learned is that it's really not about the speed of the delivery. It's about all of the other things around the experience that the technology platform enables that makes it really, really frictionless and easy to do something that has historically been really complicated.” Check out this episode of Raise the Line to learn how the patient-pharmacy relationship is changing, how Capsule is meeting the needs of physicians, health systems, payers and other stakeholders, and how COVID has fueled the company’s growth.
A strong, sustained sense of purpose is the bedrock of a successful company, with everything else flowing from that. So says Omar Ishrak, one of the most influential figures in medical technology and healthcare in the U.S. and globally. He earned that role in part by being Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, the world's leading medical technology company, from 2011 to 2020, but he was also president and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems earlier in his career. When it comes to having a durable purpose, Medtronic is hard to beat. Founded in the late 1940’s, the company has kept the same mission for more than 60 years – to apply biomedical engineering to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life. Ishrak considers a major part of his legacy at Medtronic to be successfully stewarding that mission and making it possible for his successors to carry it forward for decades to come. Of course, there were other accomplishments in his tenure including the acquisition of Covidien, a $10 billion global manufacturer of surgical products and supplies, marking the largest medical technology acquisition in the history of the industry. In this thoughtful discussion with host Shiv Gaglani, Ishrak talks about drawing encouragement from how quickly different parts of the healthcare industry came together in response to COVID, and what he hopes the lasting improvements will be from this crisis. He also makes the case for shifting the focus of healthcare at both the industry and individual worker level to successful patient outcomes. “No matter what you do in healthcare, having a line of sight to improving outcomes is important. Tie your work to how people's lives get better.”
“While the switch to distance learning was traumatic at first, I think we're going to end up in a much better place when it's all said and done,” says Scott Shaw, president and CEO of Lincoln Tech which has always taken a hands-on learning approach. That’s because the blended in-person and online learning model emerging from COVID gives the school’s adult students more flexibility to manage their jobs and childcare now that they don’t always have to be on campus to take classes. Lincoln Tech started 75 years ago to educate WWII veterans in auto mechanics and HVAC. Now, it has 22 campuses and nearly two dozen programs, including nine in the health professions. In fact, they produce 50% of the LPNs in New Jersey and are hoping to start offering an RN program in the Garden State as well, which has one of the biggest shortages of nurses in the country. In this episode with host Shiv Gaglani, Shaw also discusses the increased interest in health professions due to the pandemic, student debt, and the key traits today’s employers are looking for in their staff.
If you are thinking about applying to medical school, or are already in the process, this episode of Raise the Line is a must-listen. Host Shiv Gaglani is joined by Dr. Sahil Mehta, widely regarded as one of the top experts in the country on medical school admissions. As the founder of MedSchoolCoach, he’s guided thousands of successful medical school applicants. It’s a business that started with the simple realization that most people are not good at selling themselves. Helping some friends improve their applications led to a “basement” business that has grown over the years to become a major player in the field. Listen in as Mehta shares his insights on what you can do to increase your appeal to medical schools and the importance of being certain it is the profession you want to pursue.
“In less than a month we went from zero COVID patients to 285, and we’re only a 300-bed hospital,” says Dr. Brian Radbill, recalling the early weeks in March and April when coronavirus stormed New York City. As chief medical officer, Radbill oversaw the Manhattan hospital’s transformation into a COVID care facility, which required a lot of on-the-fly innovation. “It was a real team effort. I have to say, every single person stepped up in the hospital and we met every challenge.” For example, they had to get creative to maintain line of sight to critically-ill patients in spaces that were not built for it -- which initially included the use of baby monitors and iPads – and also had to figure out ways to create more negative pressure space, all while reacting to daily changes in their understanding of the disease. Listen as Radbill brings host Shiv Gaglani inside the early days of the COVID struggle and reflects on what lasting impact he thinks this experience will have on his hospital and the healthcare system at large. He also discusses ongoing work to improve the quality of care and patient flow and shares his perspective on the role of hospitals in the changing healthcare landscape.
“Often, the real answer is at the bedside,” says Dr. Thomas Rebbecchi, who has worked as an ER doctor at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey for 23 years. “If you ask the right questions to people, they're going to tell you directly or indirectly what's going on with them.” Dr. Rebbecchi's educational mission is to teach students to focus less exclusively on technology and take the extra time for compassionate interaction with patients. In addition to his role on the National Board of Medical Examiners, Dr. Rebbecchi is also a scientific advisory board member at the Glut1 Deficiency Foundation. In this episode of Raise the Line, he speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about his family's journey to discover their son’s diagnosis through genetic testing, improved COVID outcomes, and the need for better mental healthcare, especially as a result of the mounting psychological effects of pandemic life.
COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on dentistry, says Eve Cuny, who has worked in the area of dental infection prevention and patient safety for the past 30 years. Many dental procedures create fine mists and sprays, including respiratory secretions, that can travel long distances, so dental professionals have had to go to great lengths to adapt. Throughout the pandemic, Cuny has been a guiding voice in dentistry, counseling a number of professional organizations, including the American Dental Association. In this episode of Raise the Line, she speaks with Jannah Amiel about the airborne precautions dentists have had to adopt, and the permanent changes to dentistry that she envisions with regard to ventilation, PPE, and sick worker protocol. Tune in to hear Cuny's take on the pandemic-driven renewal of interest in the crossover between medicine and dentistry, as dentists are increasingly performing oral diagnostics and even administering vaccines. Plus, learn what drew Cuny to dentistry and hear her advice to those new to the field.
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who just received a smart speaker as a holiday gift, you’re joining an enormous group. Earlier this year it was estimated that 90 million people in the U.S. own one, and that number is growing fast. They offer an easy way to get news, weather, listen to music and control functions in your home, but there are many other uses for these devices and health care is one area where they may play a major role, according to our Raise the Line guest Rachel Jiang who is Head of Alexa Health & Wellness at Amazon. COVID has only underscored this potential. “More than ever it's really important to help people remotely manage their health care needs, and we think Alexa is in a great position to do that,” she says. In fact, Jiang and her team have been working closely with health care providers to develop “skills” (the equivalent of an app on your smartphone) to facilitate safe care both in clinical settings and at home. As Jiang shares with host Jannah Amiel, RN, the video capability of the Echo Show adds power to the instructional value of these interactive devices. For instance, imagine videos showing post-op patients how to change a dressing or do physical therapy while at home. Check out this fascinating discussion to learn more about how this technology might help both patients and providers, how privacy concerns are being addressed and the role software developers will play in tapping what Jiang sees as the endless possibilities ahead.
Sara Miller’s advice for those in training to be healthcare professionals is fairly simple. “This is your opportunity to learn to be nimble and develop a spirit of innovation.” Miller believes taking this approach early leads to embracing lifelong learning, the benefits of which can be implemented in a provider’s job everyday. As Senior Director of the Quality Improvement Institute at Med-IQ, a leading healthcare improvement company, Miller's work centers around helping healthcare systems identify areas for improvement and to develop and evaluate programs addressing those needs. She has obviously had her hands full helping providers rapidly adjust to the challenges of COVID-19, and believes healthcare professionals and consumers should demand that things not return to business as usual after the pandemic. COVID has revealed too many inadequacies in the old “normal” with regard to emergency preparedness, structural racism, senior care services, and approaches to mental health and substance abuse, she says. In this episode of Raise the Line, Miller also tells host Shiv Gaglani about her work and career, including programs that helped organizations shift Hepatitis C care from specialized settings to primary care, and a popular question/answer series that Med-IQ ran in response to COVID.
Although the dental industry is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think of tech entrepreneurs, this is precisely where Alex Frommeyer has found himself. Frommeyer is the CEO and co-founder of Beam Dental, one of the country’s fastest-growing dental benefit providers offering employers a unique approach to coverage by incorporating dental hygiene behavior into policy pricing. This behavior is determined using artificial intelligence to interpret data gathered from the smart toothbrushes used by members. In this episode, Frommeyer describes to host Shiv Gaglani how Beam is trying to make dental hygiene more enjoyable, how their business has adjusted to the pandemic, and why you should aspire to be a disruptor in your field.
Battling stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a teenager exposed Dr. Omar Dawood to many flaws in the healthcare system and sparked a desire to find ways to improve them. Although his early experience in medicine was in the public health realm, he eventually saw how he could blend his clinical expertise and strategic mindset to make an impact in the business world, thereby expanding the positive difference he could make in people’s lives. He had opportunities to do just that in leadership positions at Ginger IO and AliveCor -- two of the leading companies in digital health – and has brought that experience plus decades of work as a clinician and researcher to his post as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Sales at Calm. It’s not exactly surprising that this hugely popular app has seen usage grow due to pandemic-related stress. In this episode, he joins host Shiv Gaglani to talk about Calm’s commitment to addressing clinician burnout, its growing work with employers to offer Calm to employees, the launch of Calm Coaching and the wisdom in building mental fitness and resiliency to handle whatever life throws at you.
Dr. Benjamin Young knows what it’s like to confront a pandemic early in one’s medical career but in his case, we’re talking about AIDS, not COVID-19. Trained as an enzymologist, Young was studying drug resistance in cancer cells, but he quickly pivoted to become an HIV specialist when AIDS surfaced in the U.S. “You would have to have a heart made of a lump of coal not to understand the human spectrum and burden of what it meant to live and die of AIDS,” says Young, who is now the Head of Global Medical Directors for ViiV Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company focused on advancements in research and development of new medicines for people living with HIV. After decades of work in science, medicine, policy development and human rights, Young sees all of these fields as being very closely connected. “The distance between discovery in the basic science lab, what happens in the clinic, what happens in therapeutics, what happens at the governmental level and what happens in a social, racial, or judicial justice environment is very short.” Join Young and host Jannah Amiel to learn about the current state of the global AIDS fight, and lessons from the long HIV journey that can apply to today’s struggle with COVID and pandemic battles yet to come.
Have you wondered what it was like for the doctors who treated the very first COVID-19 patients when so little was known about the disease? Well, you can find out directly from the source in this episode of Raise the Line. The initial cases were in Seattle where Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips works as the chief clinical officer at Providence Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems. In that role, she was deeply involved in quickly creating protocols to triage, test and treat the COVID patients who started to flow in. She was also involved in making masks for providers in the basement of the hospital as the crisis took hold. The COVID experience has deepened her commitment to make great healthcare available and affordable for everyone in the U.S., and in this insightful conversation with Shiv Gaglani, she shares many examples of the innovations Providence is employing to reach that goal.
If you’re curious about the impact “big box” retailers are going to have on healthcare delivery in the U.S., this episode of Raise the Line has some answers. Host Shiv Gaglani welcomes Marcus Osborne, a senior leader at Walmart Health, who is helping to build a new approach that could shake-up the whole industry. “If we can create a model that is actually compelling for consumers, and consumers are willing to pay for it, then we don't really care what the payers do about us,” says Osborne, who has plenty of other candid insights to share. For instance, he believes the challenge the U.S. is facing is a “vast underconsumption” of healthcare, not overconsumption as many healthcare policy experts contend. His point is that too many people simply don’t get the care they need due to the cost and complexity of the current system, and that delay inevitably drives costs up over time. He’s hoping to change that with in-store clinics that will offer a variety of medical and dental services under one roof at an affordable price. Check out this fascinating discussion as Osborne speculates that worsening shortages of healthcare workers will make it necessary to find new ways to leverage new technology and types of providers, and that much greater accountability for the quality of care delivered will be a reality sooner rather than later. This is a great opportunity to get a peek at the future of healthcare.
Two out of three doctors did not vote over the past decade, laments Dr. Atul Nakhasi, a Los-Angeles-based physician and policy advisor who the Wall Street Journal once dubbed “Campus Kingmaker” for his role as head of the Iowa College Democrats. This represents a lower voter turnout rate than that of the general population, and in Dr. Nakhasi's estimation, it's got to change. Dr. Nakhasi believes the role of the physician should expand outside the exam room into Congress and City Hall. In this episode, he shares personal stories of patients dealing with poverty, talks about why national leadership matters, and calls for “brilliant” people to enter the healthcare profession. Tune in to learn more about this winter’s potential “twindemic,” some potential challenges of a COVID vaccine, the need for better public communication to combat misinformation, and the ripple effect of the pandemic on underserved populations.
One of the most dramatic changes to the field of telemedicine since COVID began is the shift from it being a facility-based to a primarily home-based service, and that’s been good for patients, says Samir Malik. It’s unknown if the emergency repeal of longstanding federal rules that previously limited the use of telemedicine will stay in effect in a post-COVID world, but Malik is hoping so because “patient-centeredness” is key to the work of his company, Genoa Telepsychiatry, which serves patients in all 50 states. In this episode of Raise the Line, Malik speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about the increase in anxiety, depression, and loneliness brought on by COVID, the disproportionate impact that mental health is having on underserved populations, and the destigmatization of mental health in countries like India, Brazil, and China. Tune in to this informative episode in which you’ll also learn about the passion for patient service at a community mental health agency on Long Island, and discover resources for further information on psychiatry and wellness.
While serving in the army decades ago, Dr. Larry Benz noticed the importance of bedside manner and other nonclinical factors in determining clinical success. Keeping that top of mind has served him well over his 30 years as a physical therapist. In fact, he argues that these so-called “soft skills” can be even more important in affecting outcomes than clinical skills. Benz is the author of the newly released book Called to Care, about putting the humanity back in healthcare. His curriculum by the same name has been adopted by many PT schools around the country and even some medical schools. In this interview with Shiv Gaglani, Benz talks about the need to be intentional about empathy and compassion -- to exercise the “caring muscle” as you would any other muscle. Tune in to learn about how Confluent Health measures compassion, the impact of COVID on the field of physical therapy, the difference between dehumanization and burnout, and why Benz considers patient loyalty to be the key data point in an organization's success.
As a pediatrician, Dr. Ryan Padrez was frustrated by the challenges of navigating education and health systems to get his patients the services they needed – whether it was speech therapy, mental health counseling or other important care. That’s why he’s gratified to be involved in building a model for early education, developed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, that integrates learning with health care and family support services. Padrez is medical director of The Primary School which is currently serving two lower income communities near San Francisco, but has ambitions to develop best practices that will be adopted nationally. The emphasis is on supporting all of a child’s needs from very early in their life and working closely with parents to build child and family well-being at the same time. COVID has increased the challenge because many of the school’s parents have lost jobs and health coverage, and levels of stress are on the rise. Padrez, who is also an assistant clinical professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University, says COVID has shined a light on just how much schools do to support the health needs of children and families, and the connection between the two systems needs to be strengthened going forward if kids are going to thrive. Padrez and host Dr. Rishi Desai also touch on trauma-informed care, the trust schools need to build with families, and what the evidence says about the safety of opening schools in the midst of COVID.
Dr. Chuck Cairns enjoyed practicing emergency medicine early in his career, but he soon realized he could have a bigger impact by focusing on how clinical care, education and medical research is organized, and how advancements in all three can be applied to benefit patients, especially those from underserved populations. That started him on a leadership path that wound its way around the country at several prestigious institutions culminating in his current role at Drexel University College of Medicine. It’s a good fit because Drexel has a longstanding commitment to serving populations in need, and Dr. Cairns finds working among students and researchers who share that mission to be very rewarding. He and his team are devoted to proactive approaches to healthcare that address social determinants of health. In fact, Drexel recently purchased a bankrupt hospital in North Philadelphia and partnered with the City to provide COVID-19 testing to that economically challenged community. In this conversation with Dr. Rishi Desai, Dr. Cairns reflects on his work partnering with local governments to bring the best of academic medicine into communities, how his school is addressing the challenge of staying connected across multiple locations, and shares his three key pieces of advice for medical students.
As a young professional in Chicago in the early 1990’s, Tim Barry happened upon a poster in a store one day that simply stated, “You just can’t fake love, man”— and it was at that moment he realized he would focus only on things he was passionate about moving forward. After trying his hand as a tech entrepreneur, a friend convinced him to take a job in healthcare insurance, and he got hooked on the opportunity to impact the lives of others. Fast forward to seven years ago when he helped found VillageMD, which now provides thousands of primary care physicians with technology, staffing, and other support to help them provide better patient care. Village MD has also developed primary care clinics of its own, and announced this summer Walgreens is investing over $1 billion to build hundreds of clinics next to its pharmacies over the coming years. In this revealing episode, Tim is joined by host Shiv Gaglani to discuss his vision for transforming primary care and what the Walgreens partnership signals about how healthcare delivery in the U.S. is changing. Tim also shares his advice for anyone considering a career in healthcare, including the importance of diving into the data you have at your fingertips.
Dr. Jerry Balentine thinks a lot about the qualities successful medical students and physicians need. “I think all medical schools wish there was a way of testing who's going to be a great physician, but there's just no such test, so we use markers such as the MCATs to make sure that they're successful academically.”
But he knows those markers don’t capture aspects of a person’s competence, character or experience that would make them a good fit for the profession. Qualities such as empathy, passion and grit are high on his list. In fact, he believes empathy is so important to practicing medicine that it’s both a research interest and something he builds into the learning experience at New York Institute of Technology’s College of Osteopathic Medicine from “day one.” Join Balentine and host Shiv Gaglani as they explore the growth of DO programs, the challenges of COVID, and NYIT’s success in building provider capacity in rural Arkansas.
“Science transcends politics,” says Dr. George Daley. “My hope is that physicians and scientists will, in fact, be a force for global harmony, and that will be a silver lining to come out of the pandemic.” In this important conversation with Shiv Gaglani, Dr. Daley, who is an internationally recognized leader in stem cell science and cancer biology, describes his collaboration with recent Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna and others to call for restraint in experimentation with stem cell technology, and decries the current tension between the U.S. government and the scientific community. He also shares how, in response to COVID-19, he and his team were able to connect and mobilize disparate research communities -- including Chinese and European colleagues -- to develop the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness. Tune in to hear more about these critical topics and discover Dr. Daley's circuitous path to medicine and his perspective on COVID as a defining experience for this generation.
Kids without regular access to healthcare are obviously at higher risk for developing health issues, but it also makes them more likely to face long-term consequences such as dropping out of school, having trouble finding work and ending up in jail. What’s the connection? Poor health access can lead to chronic school absenteeism, which can start a downward spiral. That’s where Hazel Health fits in, a medtech start-up which uses telehealth to connect kids on demand to providers during the school day. The company currently serves 60 districts nationwide with 1.5 million students, focusing on the underinsured and those from disadvantaged communities, many of whom have no steady arrangements for primary care. Students can also access Hazel Health while at home, extending the reach of school health services. Like many companies in the telehealth space, Hazel Health has experienced turbocharged growth due to COVID. In this episode of Raise the Line, CEO Josh Golomb and Jeannie Chen, the Head of Clinical Operations and People, describe to host Shiv Gaglani what it’s been like to scale at that pace, the importance of building trust with schools and families, and the special combination of qualities and experience they seek in their providers.
“I think it's an enormous gift to pursue medicine and particularly academic medicine,” says former philosophy major Dr. Steven Scheinman, a distinguished researcher in the genetics of inherited kidney disease and dean of the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. The school in its current form is only a few years old, having not had a clinical system partner prior to 2017 when it aligned with the highly-ranked Geisinger Health System. Scheinman is thrilled with the learning opportunities the partnership is providing due to the health system’s emphasis on prevention and primary care. Forward-thinking programs in home care, geriatrics, whole genome screening and pharmacy innovation provide a rich grounding in population health for learners, and a generous scholarship program aimed at boosting primary care underscores the school’s commitment to a health management approach. But, as Scheinman enthusiastically says to host Shiv Gaglani, “Wait, there’s more!” Their expansive conversation also includes an overview of COVID’s impact on learning -- including a new “e-ICU” program and how med students will make better use of their 4th year. Speaking of which, Scheinman also shares valuable insights from his perch as Board Chair of the National Residency Match Program.
If you’re wondering why the U.S. has had such a hard time during the pandemic keeping frontline health workers supplied with the protective equipment they need, or what is being done to improve the situation, Mike Alkire has some answers for you. He is president of Premier, Inc. which helps more than 4,000 hospitals and health systems improve efficiency and clinical outcomes through supply chain management and other strategies. He’s intimately familiar with the global medical supply chain and where the breakdowns and problems are that need to be addressed. Perhaps the most important change needed, he says, is manufacturing more of these critical items in the U.S.
In this episode, Alkire and host Shiv Gaglani also discuss the use of AI in the health system, standardization of care to improve quality and safety, and the potential to share best practices across industries. Discover, too, why the key words for Alkire are humility, courage, and humanity.
The mouth is a window to the body, says Dr. Abhishek Nagaraj of TruBlu Dentistry. Seeing the dentist can be an important component of preventative care, as oral health has links to heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, cancers, and even COVID. Nagaraj and his partner, Dr. Anushka Gaglani, are co-founders of TruBlu Dentistry, which has multiple locations in Illinois. In this episode of Raise the Line, they speak with Dr. Rishi Desai about the distinction between general and cosmetic dentistry, their experience operating their own practice during COVID, and the lessons they've learned in their careers. “Thinking with our heart is a huge thing for us,” says Gaglani. In addition to brains, she and Nagaraj emphasize, dentists and doctors need a patient-first philosophy and a willingness to put their lives on the frontline.
Healthcare needs to do a much better job of marketing truth, argues Dr. Keith Smith. Drawn to working with adult learners in the online world, Smith now oversees about 7,000 students across twenty programs, including medical assisting, health and wellness, public health, a military-only associate’s degree, and a master's in health informatics -- a field that Smith sees as key to helping citizens understand and respond to statistics they hear about during public health threats. In face of the COVID pandemic, Purdue was fortunate to already be an online institution, yet it still had to pivot in some ways to enable students to continue their studies. In August, they launched a telehealth micro-credential in recognition of that technology’s growing importance. Purdue allows credentials like that one to “stack-up” with other courses all the way up to earning master's degrees. In this episode with host Shiv Gaglani, learn why Smith calls COVID a “phenomenal wake-up call” to traditional higher education, why teaching online requires new -- not just transferred – instructional methods, and why folks entering the healthcare field should commit to lifelong learning.
“I think our educational model, our mission and our tradition are ideally suited for this moment of crisis,” says Dr. Mark Schweitzer. “The Wayne State graduate is always a doctor who rolls up his or her sleeves and gets things done regardless of the environment.” With a diverse student population that Schweitzer describes as coming from “the 99 percent”, the medical school he leads is intent on adding can-do leaders to the corps of can-do providers it sends out into the world. “I think ‘the 99 Percent’ should be the leaders in healthcare. So we've started an organized curriculum to train students on all the skills they need to be leaders in medicine that are separate from the science of medicine.” From his point of view, the best part about being a leader in academic medicine is the ability to create an environment where high level clinical care, teaching and research can touch the lives of so many. In this incisive discussion with host Shiv Gaglani, Schweitzer also provides his take on what the lasting impacts of COVID might be, his core educational objective, and what good can come when you combine mission and ambition.
Dr. Sachin Jain has always been drawn to taking "big swings" at tough problems, and the disconnect between care delivery and care administration is one of them. As a leader in various capacities in government and the healthcare system, he's tackled this and other complex issues at a high level, but he has also has maintained his clinical practice in order to stay grounded. In this engrossing interview, Dr. Jain speaks with host Shiv Gaglani about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have included an exacerbation of the loneliness epidemic, as well as renewed confidence in both the American biotech sector and the ability of the healthcare system at large to change. Tune in to this episode to hear Dr. Jain's arguments for more investment in prevention and primary care, the benefits of giving doctors an upfront budget with spending caps rather than paying on a fee-for-service basis, and why he’s worried about “big box” retailers getting into healthcare.
Described as “Bill Gates' favorite teacher” in Fortune Magazine, Salman Khan started his now-famous Khan Academy by tutoring his cousins long-distance in 2004. Since then, Khan's non-profit educational organization has evolved from experimental YouTube videos recorded in a bedroom closet to a standalone platform that has educated tens of millions of people. In this episode of Raise the Line, Khan speaks with Shiv Gaglani about the near-viral growth of Khan Academy and the recent impact of COVID-19 in accelerating that development. Listen-in to learn about the benefits of competency-based pathways and transcripts, the digital divide as the “dark cloud” of COVID, the growth of opportunities at the intersection between health and education, and the importance of having the right mindset for the medical profession.
Starting a traditional degree program can be a “risky proposition,” says Burck Smith, founder and CEO of the student success and college readiness company StraighterLine. For many, it makes sense to have low-cost, low-risk entry points where they can test the waters and prove themselves before diving in. Smith has a background in public policy, where he first became concerned about the burden caused by the rising price of college, and before StraighterLine, in 2009, he co-founded SMARTHINKING, the largest online tutoring provider for schools and colleges. In this episode of Raise the Line, he speaks with host Shiv Gaglani about stackable credentials, the disintegrating barrier between skills and a degree, and how COVID may affect consumer pricing expectations for online delivery. Tune in to learn why Smith believes the balance of power has shifted away from schools to students, and hear his counsel to students to consider options other than straight enrollment.
“It seems counterintuitive, but I believe we can use technology to enhance the humanity in medicine and get back to the deep connection with patients we used to have,” says Dr. Eric Topol, one of the most cited researchers and influential thinkers in the field. In a series of bestselling books on the future of medicine, Topol laid out that digitization of health information would lead to democratization of data and patient empowerment, and that applying machine learning and other technologies in the right ways could actually create room to enhance the level of humanity in medicine – something he feels has been lost over the years. “The reason we went into medicine was to care for patients, and if you feel you can't provide care because of all of the demands modern medicine places on clinicians, that's when you get depressed, and you get disenchanted, and you lose your sense of your mission.” In this fascinating dialogue with host Shiv Gaglani, Topol talks about the potential of Artificial Intelligence and deep neural networks to “get us out of the mess we’re in and usher in the most exciting time in medicine.” They also touch on COVID and highlights of his career including starting a medical school, being editor in chief of Medscape, and his research work in genomics.
Dr. Kathy Winston's passion is to help the next generation be successful in the delivery of care. The key to nursing education, she says, is balancing the old with the new. As we embrace technological advances in the field, we need to also keep the basic tenets of safety and compassion at the forefront. Dr. Winston started her 30-plus year career at age 19 as a critical care nurse, and then, interested in the prevention of illness, moved to the public health arena before shifting to nursing education. In her view, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused educational institutions to become more agile, but has also revealed the need for greater focus on community and public health. In this conversation with Dr. Rishi Desai, she asks us to reach back over 200 years ago to Florence Nightingale for advice that is still applicable to the crises we face today.
“Nothing crosses borders in our polarized world like a willingness to care for critically ill children,” says Dr. Jeffrey Burns, a former medical liaison for the US State Department. In addition to leading critical care at Boston Children's Hospital and teaching at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Burns is also the founder and co-program director at OPENPediatrics, an innovative, open-access online community where healthcare professionals from around the world share resources and best practices. Join us for a treat as Dr. Burns talks with Osmosis Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rishi Desai, a former student of his, about the OPENPediatrics platform's international COVID-19 discussion group and how this collaboration brought about the discovery of the potentially fatal MIS-C inflammatory syndrome. In this episode, Dr. Burns not only shares critical information about MIS-C, but also reflects on his career and work with the CDC, addresses public mistrust of vaccines, and encourages others to join the healthcare field.
“If a patient feels like their doctor knows them as a person, they're eight to nine times more likely to follow through with their treatment instructions,” says Dr. Ken Johnson. Creating that kind of connection is more challenging in a virtual visit, he worries, not to mention the reduced opportunity to take the actual “hands-on” approach to care that osteopathic physicians practice. But schools of medicine like the one he runs at Ohio University are finding ways to teach telehealth skills, and Johnson has confidence the students will make it work. “Students have great ideas about how to evolve things, and I challenge every single class that comes in to give us feedback to improve the process for them,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Embracing the sudden ascendence of telehealth is just one of the major adjustments today’s medical students are having to make in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and Johnson sees building their resilience to manage the stressful and unpredictable nature of a career in medicine as a key objective, which he says can be accomplished if you create an “environment of support.” Catch this conversation with host Shiv Gaglani as Johnson discusses how that can be done, strategies for serving rural communities and why so many schools of osteopathic medicine are located in relatively small towns.
The “morass of healthcare misinformation” surrounding COVID-19 created the need for a clear, definitive voice to help fill the knowledge gap, says Dr. John Danaher. His company, Elsevier, stepped up. In response to the pandemic, Elsevier launched three COVID resource sites providing free information and research tools that were used by healthcare providers all over the world to help treat and manage the disease. Elsevier, an information and analytics company with roots in publishing, produces a quarter of the world's healthcare information. With this scope of impact, and a career that spans all sides of the healthcare delivery continuum, Dr. Danaher has some valuable perspective to share. Listen as he speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about his own background, providing curated clinical guidance at the point of need, meeting the demand for clinical training opportunities, and the need for frontline providers to take care of their mental health.
It's time to change the narrative on menopause, says Jannine Versi. Women in their 40s, 50s and 60s aren't fading from relevance, they're discovering greater freedom and creativity, and looking to the future. Versi's company, Elektra Health, is facilitating this shift, offering a platform for women navigating hormonal health that features education-focused, highly individualized care. In this episode of Raise the Line, Versi speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about the multifaceted nature of menopause and how underemphasized it generally is in physician education and patient care. Tune in to learn more about Versi's career, Elektra's approach, and the connection of menopause to long-term health outcomes.
Mental illness was on the rise in the U.S. even before COVID-19 hit, and studies show a majority of Americans say their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. In the absence of definitive blood or genetic tests for mental health disorders, and given the acknowledged limitations of self-reporting and questionnaires, there is certainly room for new screening and diagnostic tools. Work is underway to test the effectiveness of brain scans, mobile device data and other modern technologies for diagnosis, but turning to one of the oldest forms of communication might also yield valid clinical results: analyzing speech. That's the focus of Mainul Mondal, CEO and Founder of start-up Ellipsis Health, which is aiming to create a new vital sign for behavioral health by using AI to analyze just a few minutes of speech. "We want to be able to measure depression and anxiety objectively in a scalable, engaging way so you can quantify it and manage it," Mondal tells host Shiv Gaglani in a thoughtful discussion that also touches on the "trust factor" with AI, patient privacy, improving access to care and other potential applications for this approach.
You can make purchases, travel plans and dinner reservations in a few clicks, but being able to pay your hospital bill with similar ease is a rarity. That's where Cedar comes in, a "fintech" start-up bringing personalization and transparency to the notoriously cumbersome world of healthcare, especially when it comes to billing and payment. Among the improvements Cedar enables are personalized reminders and payment plans, bill tracking, a customer service chat bot, and translation of indecipherable billing codes into understandable language. CEO Florian Otto, who holds an M.D., D.D.S. and PhD, started his business career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company and is a former executive at Zocdoc. Check out this episode of Raise the Line with host Shiv Gaglani to hear more about his fascinating career, his predictions for the post-COVID healthcare landscape, and how Cedar assisted healthcare systems communicate with patients during the COVID crisis.
Community colleges are often described as the gateway to higher education because they are often the most affordable option. But they’re also the gateway to careers because of the many internship, certificate and shadowing programs that are typically arranged with local organizations. The Maricopa Community Colleges District, which serves 200,000 students on ten campuses in Arizona, is a poster child for this kind of community-based access and career training. Two leaders in the Maricopa system join Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani to share how the system rallied to retain students thrown off-course by COVID, describe new partnerships spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, and talk about the innovations in their nearly 50 healthcare programs to keep learning on track despite a reduction in clinical training opportunities.
"If we do things right, this will be your last job." That's the message Dr. Bradley Younggren has for physicians applying to join his company 98point6, which offers a text-based, AI-powered mobile app for delivering primary care. For Younggren, getting it right involves making doctors full-time employees with equity in the company, and encouraging them to innovate. "Providers know what the problems in healthcare are," says Younggren. "The key is creating a physician workforce that's allowed to impact change." His own impact includes service as a decorated Army combat physician and being at the center of handling one of the first major outbreaks of COVID in the U.S. as medical director of emergency preparedness, trauma and urgent care at EvergreenHealth in Seattle. Check out this interview with Shiv Gaglani packed with insights on how telehealth can be leveraged to increase patient and provider satisfaction, and be utilized to achieve the goal of making primary care universally accessible.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Thomas Mohr has helped start three medical schools and over 25 different residency programs, so he's in a good position to help launch the first medical school in Idaho, a state with a very low number of physicians per capita. In this fascinating talk, Dr. Mohr shares his take on the difference between osteopathic and allopathic medicine – a distinction that has become less obvious over time, he notes, as more MDs embrace a holistic approach to treating patients. The division is perhaps most clear on the training level: whereas most MDs train in large academic medical centers, osteopathic medical schools like ICOM are smaller and feature a “distributed model” of medical education in which third and fourth year students train in community-based hospitals and smaller rural posts – placements that strongly influence where students will later practice as professionals. Tune in to hear how COVID is impacting the teaching of osteopathic principles and practices, the importance of high-touch techniques in treating COVID patients and the opportunities to make a difference through medicine.
Despite being integrally involved in making diagnoses and treatment plans, pathologists remain fairly invisible to most patients. According to pathologist Greg Osmond, some of his colleagues don't mind staying behind the scenes, but out of concern that the profession in undervalued and at risk for automation, he's sees an opening for greater relevance in having pathologists provide a coherent picture to the wider care team of the many diagnostic and prognostic test results any given patient may have. In addition to considering that new role, the profession is also facing a deluge of digital tools and techniques that are coming online. Osmond, despite co-founding a digital pathology company, shares with host Dr. Rishi Desai that doctors really need to understand the limits of AI and other emerging modalities that are sure to change the practice of pathology in the coming decade.
People with Atrial Fibrillation, or AFib, just have to learn to live with it, right? Wrong, says Dr. Aseem Desai. While AFib, which he calls "the electrical epidemic”, can be a challenging condition to treat, there is much that can be done to tame symptoms and improve quality of life even for those with "permanent" AFib. In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Desai talks with host Dr. Rishi Desai about the origins of his interest in cardiology, his new book, Restart Your Heart: The Playbook for Thriving with AFib, and the fascinating brain-heart relationship. He also shares how meditation has been a game changer for him personally, and offers valuable advice for those entering the healthcare field.
We've all heard the U.S. population is aging, but even so, this is a pretty eye-popping statistic: 50% of people born in the U.S. in 2007 will live to be 100. Perhaps more surprising is the lack of products, services and experiences designed for older adults to help them live their "best lives." Filling that gap is the new focus for two veteran entrepreneurs and business leaders, Alan Patricof and Abby Levy, who joined forces this year to launch the investment firm Primetime Partners. As they explain to host Shiv Gaglani, they are finding plenty of founders who have ideas to serve the needs of this population -- from telehealth to support for caregivers to addressing financial issues -- who also want to serve a purpose. As Abby Levy puts it, "if we don't have a positive social impact, then we won't have succeeded either on the investing side or on the mission." Check out this episode for a fascinating glimpse into the future of senior living and what caregivers -- professional and otherwise -- should keep in mind as they interact with "the ageless generation."
Dr. Lawrence Chin loves telehealth and sees it as a positive byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, for providers and patients alike. Still, he admits, “You can't learn to be a doctor virtually...it is a social job.” In steering 500 faculty members and over 700 students through the COVID crisis, Dr. Chin and his team have had to re-evaluate what is truly essential to delivering a high quality medical education. Join him as he speaks with host Shiv Gaglani about the shift to online learning, the lasting changes COVID is making to the medical curriculum, providers as role models of compassion, and why he believes now is one of the best times to enter the medical field.
No matter what position they hold, from floor nurse to administrator, all nurses are leaders, and all health care professionals have a responsibility to use their knowledge to impact change. Those are core beliefs of AACN president Dr. Deborah Trautman and ones she has lived out in her impactful career. From ER nurse to policy leader Dr. Trautman, who was a Robert Wood Johnson fellow in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during the development of the Affordable Care Act, has also seen firsthand the importance of sharing clinical expertise with policymakers. In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Trautman speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about the shift toward competency-based curriculum, the impact of COVID, the importance of mentorship, and why you can't divorce policy from politics.
A healthcare venture capitalist's take on COVID? The pandemic has basically been an accelerator. It's prompted a “digital, virtual revolution” that can be seen in the boom in telehealth and technologies like remote patient monitoring. Change that would have happened over several years or more, has happened in mere months. Join Cyril Philip of Providence Ventures, the venture capital arm of Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH), one of the largest health systems and integrated delivery networks in the country, as he talks with Shiv Gaglani about these changes and what is currently driving his company's investment strategy. On his horizon as growth areas: Medicaid solutions, hospital supply chains, and workforce optimization. Plus, hear Philip explain why allowing providers to practice at the top of their licenses would not only create greater caregiver satisfaction, but also increase efficiency and lower cost.
Practicing what he preached in inner city Detroit led Methodist minister Mel Hall to pursue a PhD in statistics. Not your typical path, perhaps, but Hall had a vision to use data to describe the conditions he observed and seek improvements. When he then connected with Press Ganey, the South Bend, Indiana-based health care company known for developing and distributing patient satisfaction surveys, the community he served expanded considerably. In this episode of Raise the Line, Hall speaks with Shiv Gaglani about the secrets behind Press Ganey's rapid growth and success, including his company's culture of accountability, its focus on science, and its “maniacal” customer service. Tune in to catch Hall's take on making improvements by seeking out and using data in continual feedback loops, the importance of personal touches, and his argument for having the voice of the patient drive the process of healthcare.
If there's one thing people in healthcare seem to agree on these days, it is that the use of telemedicine has never been higher. But after the crisis subsides, will the rules and regulations that severely limited its use for decades be re-established? "Cementing the gains" made by the technology during COVID is Dr. Joseph Kvedar's current focus, as well as developing national guidelines for medical education in telehealth. As Kvedar tells host Shiv Gaglani, now that everyone realizes telemedicine should be in the mix, the question is what are the most appropriate uses for it? Check out this episode of Raise the Line to find out how that is being sorted out, and the implications for current and future providers and patients.
Growing up, Dr. NiCole Keith's father used to tell her that her Barbie dolls could be professors, doctors, or lawyers, not just Ken's girlfriend. Both her parents also modeled a love for learning, all of which led Keith to earn four post graduate degrees, become a professor and clinical researcher and get elected President of the American College of Sports Medicine. As a black woman with a leadership role in a traditionally white, male field, Keith has lessons to share for those coming up behind her, and passion to share for helping people live a healthy lifestyle even if they may be lacking in education or resources. In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Keith connects with Dr. Rishi Desai on the need for more public green spaces, describes ACSM's "Exercise is Medicine" and Leadership & Diversity Training Program initiatives, and touches on the importance of healthier habits for physicians themselves. In addition, she reveals how COVID-19 has underscored that Americans have, unfortunately, a stubborn aversion to prevention in many forms.
In any given year, more physicians in the U.S. healthcare system graduate from schools affiliated with Adtalem Global Education than any other medical schools in the world. Even before COVID hit, educating providers at that scale was a pretty complicated undertaking, and the pandemic obviously made it more so. But the ability of Adtalem's schools to quickly learn from each other as adjustments were made, and system resiliency built while recovering from a devastating hurricane several years ago, allowed for continuation of programs and even making lasting improvements. In this episode of Raise the Line, Kathy Boden Holland speaks with Shiv Gaglani about the growing role of online learning, serving the educational needs of people passionate about providing care, and a potential surge of interest in healthcare professions in the wake of COVID-19.
It was when he lost yet another colleague to suicide in his young career that Dr. Adam Hill decided he had to speak up. Hill - who was then successfully in recovery from an alcohol addiction - had come close to suicide himself, but due to the shame imposed by the medical profession on providers who struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues, he had not yet shared his story. His subsequent book "Long Walk Out of the Woods" details his journey, and he now takes every opportunity to share his lessons of recovery and hope. A free webinar on September 17 sponsored by Coverys and Med-IQ will feature Dr. Hill offering examples of how people can be proactive about their own mental health and also challenge the status quo to open doors for other people. As he tells host Rishi Desai int this heartfelt conversation, the medical community needs to stop the shaming and "carve out spaces for compassion, empathy and understanding." (See webinar registration information in the transcript below.)
How does COVID-19 transform a hospital? UMass Memorial Medical Center's impressive response to the pandemic has included a 21-step surge plan, seeking out lessons from institutions in the U.S. and abroad, and working with community partners to serve vulnerable populations. In this episode, Dr. Michael Gustafson -- one of the first surgeons to receive an MBA from Harvard - also shares what his hospital has done to empower and care for its caregivers during this difficult time, and how they are reimagining the role of the hospital as a “driver” of improvements in public health and racial inequality. Turns out there just may be some silver linings to the COVID-19 crisis.
Bravado, stresses Dr. David Skorton, is not an asset. Knowing how to ask for help is. Through a long career spanning clinical medicine, two university presidencies, and heading the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Skorton has a lot of experience to draw on when giving advice. In conversation with Dr. Rishi Desai, he traces his fascinating background and describes how two clinical skills in particular — making decisions under uncertainty, and listening before acting — have been essential assets for him in becoming an effective leader. Tune in to the latest episode of Raise the Line to find out why Dr. Skorton believes he and his generation “have failed” (think systemic inequities), and learn about the AAMC's proposed roadmap to resetting the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They share one initial in their credentials, meet the same professional standards and have the same passion to care for people, but there are also differences between MDs and DOs in their education and approach to medicine. On this episode of Raise the Line with Dr. Robert Cain, we'll learn about the philosophy behind osteopathic medicine and explore what educators and students in the osteopathic community are doing in response to the short-term and long-term challenges posed by the COVID crisis, including issues of racial disparity and inequity. One interesting initiative involves building an "army" of health professions students to help address pressing public health needs.
Even though Bunny Ellerin has built a career around bringing people and organizations together -- in fact she's known as "the most connected person in healthcare" -- she still gets apprehensive walking into a room full of business leaders she may not know. While acknowledging that networking is scary for many people, and seen as too transactional for others, she wants her students at Columbia Business School and people in healthcare professions to understand that it's not just about handing out business cards at events. Reaching out with an article recommendation or proactively connecting people who you think would benefit from knowing each other is also "networking". Check out this episode of Raise the Line to find out how, as co-founder and CEO of New York City Health Business Leaders, Ellerin has used this approach to spur innovation in healthcare and help build a thriving digital health scene in New York.
It’s a question that has troubled providers for years – how do you keep patients on track with behavior change between appointments? Longtime physician assistant and educator Ken Korber hit upon a novel idea: use story books to educate the patient’s young children about healthy behaviors, and turn them into “little health ambassadors” in the home. Korber, who is also president of the Association of Family Practice PAs and NPs and a Clinical Instructor at Mount St. Joseph University, says the books allow him to bridge his clinical experience with his passion for writing and education, and will hopefully improve the health of adults and kids alike. It’s also in keeping with the focus many PAs and NPs have on primary care and prevention. His latest book "Grace Fights COVID-19" is the first resource of its kind in the U.S. for parents and kids. He also has advice for newly minted PAs and NPs about their role on the healthcare team, so there’s lots to check out in this episode with host Dr. Rishi Desai.
The work of the Jonas Philanthropies spans some broad areas - veterans health, children's health, and nursing education among others - but the unifying theme is improving public health. Vice President Lendri Purcell and Althea Hicks, Grants and Programs Manager for Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare at Columbia University School of Nursing, say to do that effectively, caregivers must understand the particular needs of the people they are serving and have the skillsets to meet those needs. As you'll hear in this episode, helping providers to do that is challenging in this time of great change in healthcare and society.
Colleges and universities were struggling well before COVID knocked them for a loop because of declining birth rates and soaring tuition costs, among other factors. Now the on-campus model is in question, at least in the near-term. Taking all of those headwinds into account, Paul Freedman of Guild Education believes the institutions that shift their focus to serving working adults will be in a much stronger position to thrive in the future. As he explains to host Shiv Gaglani, it's a good time to be a working adult learner because more and more companies are offering to pay tuition costs as a standard benefit. Tune in to find out why and how it may impact you.
The gap is staggering. Just in California alone, 500,000 allied health workers are needed by 2024. Realizing it was time for new approaches to developing this workforce, a unique partnership formed this year with Kaiser Permanente and SEIU United Healthcare Workers to fund and facilitate the educational journey required. Leading the effort is veteran educator Van Ton-Quinlivan, who has her eye on all of the associated issues of student debt, diversity and inclusion, shifting skillsets due to COVID, and other factors. Check out this fascinating discussion with Shiv Gaglani on the innovative thinking and partnerships that are driving workforce development.
How does a dermatologist wind up co-founding a successful electronic medical record (EMR) company? As Michael Sherling, MD, MBA tells host Shiv Gaglani, he tackled a problem he encountered in his own practice with "one-size-fits-all" EMRs, and designed a system that made things easier and faster for specialists. When new obstacles emerge for providers or patients, that problem-solving reflex kicks in and he and his team develop solutions. Take a listen to find out how Modernizing Medicine is navigating the COVID obstacle course and what Dr. Sherling thinks lies ahead for physician practices.
Wouldn't it be great if you could instantly learn from your mistakes? While that might be difficult for humans to do, it's the foundation of DreamBox Learning's adaptive learning software which analyzes student errors in real time and instantly offers up opportunities to learn and succeed. But CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is quick to point out the system is intended to be a complement to live instruction, not a substitute for it. As her company learned over the last several months, it can also be a big help to parents who suddenly find themselves teaching their quarantined kids. Now the challenge is to make sure all kids have internet access as it becomes clear many schools will remain closed indefinitely.
Going from a "9-5" company to "24/7" in just a few months has been challenging for Fulgent Genetics, but employees are happy to be contributing to the much needed supply of COVID-19 tests. Fulgent's at-home test kit was recently authorized by the FDA, and antibody testing is also now being offered. What role will testing play going forward, especially as companies try to figure out how to get employees back to the office? Take a listen to find out as chief commercial officer Brandon Perthuis explains it all to host Rishi Desai.
Witnessing the "ceaseless wave of humanity that crashes upon the safety net hospitals" spurred Dr. Brad Spellberg, who is chief medical officer at the largest public hospital in America's largest county, to write a book describing the depth of the problem and offering solutions. The COVID-19 crisis has, unfortunately, highlighted the system's weaknesses and made his new book "Broken, Bankrupt and Dying" all the more relevant. As he explains to Dr. Rishi Desai in this compelling interview, other countries offer models we can follow to fix a system that spends far more than anywhere else and produces worse health outcomes.
The COVID economy is prompting millions of unemployed Americans to learn new skills to help their chances of getting a job. That's obviously good news for companies like Penn Foster, which has been offering distance learning since 1890. To meet the strong demand for healthcare workers, make training more doable, and speed the transition back to work, Penn Foster has launched short form courses that break job skills into smaller bundles. It's just one of the ways COVID is forcing all of us to think in new ways, as Dara Warn explains to Shiv Gaglani in this episode of Raise the Line.
Dr. Vu Tran thinks doctors make the best salespeople, and he's in a good position to judge as both a general practitioner and growth leader at a booming workplace learning start-up. In fact, Tran believes the skills you develop as a physician to communicate complex information effectively and build trust with patients are valuable in almost any profession. As he explains to host Shiv Gaglani, grabbing every opportunity to add to your "non-medical" skillset maximizes your career opportunities and boosts your potential to make a difference.
It's understandable for people to have second thoughts about becoming a healthcare provider at any time, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. But despite the many challenges that come with nursing and other clinical roles, Dan Weberg thinks better training, new technology and opportunities for leadership make it a good time to take the leap. As a nurse with a Masters and PhD in healthcare innovation, a faculty member at the Ohio State University College of Nursing and a leader at an inventive nurse staffing start-up, Weberg has a fascinating perspective on where things are headed in healthcare, and the changes needed in clinical education.
This is a dicey moment for colleges and universities. The sudden and massive shift to online learning made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the traditional on-campus model. There is further danger for institutions that merely put lectures on the web and don't offer a compelling online learning experience. That's where 2U comes in. For the past 12 years it's helped some of the world's top schools enter the digital age, and CEO Chip Paucek sees plenty of opportunities to go into subject areas where many think online education can't work. Check out this interview for a peek into the future of online education.
As 3-D technology started taking off in the early part of this century, Frank Sculli saw the potential it had to help people learn human anatomy, something that had been taught the same way for the previous five. His company, BioDigital, was the first to develop what's been called "the Google Map of the human body" -- interactive visualization software now used by millions of people worldwide. And it came in very handy in the COVID crisis, as he explains to host Shiv Gaglani in this episode of Raise the Line.
Providers who have treated hundreds of patients with the same problem can develop a "gut sense" of how to proceed. But a new disease like COVID-19 does not allow for such hunches. Dr. Joe Habboushe knows that first hand, having worked on the frontlines in New York City ERs during the worst of the crisis. That's where "decision-support" tools like MDCalc come into play, providing all of the credible available guidance at the fingertips of clinicians. MDCalc, which Habboushe co-founded and leads, is also an instant reference for established diseases and conditions, and the majority of U.S. physicians have come to rely on it to make the best possible decisions and reduce unnecessary care. Check out this episode to find out how that happened, what we can learn from other countries about handling pandemics and how medical training should be changed from this 7th-generation physician.
The stethoscope has been around since 1816 and its basic design hasn't changed substantially in decades. But this tried and true tool has been launched into the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence in recent years largely thanks to the work of Jason Bellet and his co-founders at Eko. Today, over 50,000 clinicians in thousands of health systems across the globe are using Eko’s digital stethoscopes and echocardiograms to diagnose and monitor heart problems, and there's more change to come, as he explains to host Shiv Gaglani in this episode of Raise the Line.
It's well known that COVID-19 has negative effects on the heart, but it was unknown until recently that one of those impacts, strain in the lower right chamber, seems to be the best predictor of death in patients with severe infections. Dr. Bijoy Khandheria, director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at Aurora Saint Luke Medical Center in Wisconsin, is one of the doctors who zeroed in on this phenomenon, and in this episode of Raise the Line, he tells host Shiv Gaglani what other connections he's discovering between the heart and COVID.
Here's another casualty of the coronavirus: strategic planning. But even though anticipating what medical education and health careers will look like going forward might be unusually difficult at the moment, Dr. Ted Wendel, Senior VP for University Planning and Strategic Initiatives at A.T. Still University, is starting to see where career opportunities might emerge in COVID's wake. Check out this episode with host Shiv Gaglani to hear the details, and some great advice about how to navigate through uncertain times.
As the longest serving Secretary of Health and Human Services in American history, U.S. Representative Donna Shalala of Miami is well aware of the serious deficiencies in our healthcare system. That's why it might surprise you to know she thinks we could be heading for "the golden age of healthcare." Check out this interview with Dr. Rishi Desai to learn why, and for her take on the George Floyd protests, the COVID-19 pandemic and what it takes to be a great healthcare provider.
It isn't what you'd call a great start to a career. Dan Rosensweig, who went on to be a key leader at Yahoo and Guitar Hero, was laid off on the first day of his first job out of college. It set the pattern for a career full of unexpected setbacks and opportunities that led to driving a remarkable turnaround at the popular digital learning platform Chegg.com. In this engaging conversation with Shiv Gaglani, he's full of insight on handling career challenges, how to deal with the student debt crisis and what to expect next in a world utterly disrupted by COVID-19.
It's now possible to do your own test for COVID-19 at home. It involves doing a simple nasal swab and mailing it to a pre-approved lab. Results are available in just a few days. These FDA authorized tests have the potential to make a big impact on detection and tracking of the disease, and Julia Cheek of Everlywell, one of just a few companies providing them, tells Shiv Gaglani the COVID crisis has sped up adoption of at-home testing for all sorts of conditions in lasting ways.
In the race to find an effective treatment for COVID-19, Artificial Intelligence may end up playing a big role because of its ability to quickly test drug combinations -- as in testing up to a trillion different combinations in a matter of weeks. Dr. Dean Ho, Director of the Institute for Digital Medicine at National University of Singapore, explains the fascinating capabilities of AI to to test and rank drug cocktails while taking safety and underlying patient conditions into account in this interview with Dr. Rishi Desai.
Maybe you can't pick-up your prescriptions because you can't afford to fix your car. Or maybe getting outside to exercise is a worry because your neighborhood isn't safe. Dhiren Patel and his colleagues at Pack Health, a digital health coaching company, realize there are many barriers to better health that go beyond what doctors have traditionally addressed, and that insight is built into their efforts to help people manage chronic conditions such as diabetes. As he discusses with host Shiv Gaglani, this work is more important than ever due to the greater threat COVID-19 poses to people with underlying conditions.
If the U.S. healthcare system was a patient right now, you'd probably put it in the ICU. In the view of Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and host of the "Public Health On Call" podcast, the COVID crisis has exposed weaknesses in the way we finance healthcare and it could either derail existing efforts to reform the system, or it might spur change. In a wide-ranging discussion with host Shiv Gaglani, this influential national voice provides insight on contact tracing, the need for a public health service corps and the impact COVID-19 is having on the opioid epidemic.
We ask all of our guests what they think the COVID-19 crisis has revealed about the U.S. healthcare system. Dr. Lois Nora is the first to assert that "we do not have a healthcare system." As you'll hear in her conversation with Shiv Gaglani, Dr. Nora's background as a clinician, lawyer, and longtime academic leader grounds her unique perspective on what needs to be done to strengthen healthcare delivery and medical education.
“Science is the only thing that can get us out of it.” That’s the conclusion of Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who says finding a way to balance the needs of public health and economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19 must be guided by facts. After a long, admirable career tackling public health issues in the U.S. and abroad, including knotty problems like gun safety, Rosenberg says solving complex issues requires agreeing that the truth comes first, and a willingness to find common ground. In this meaningful “wisdom drop” with host Rishi Desai, Rosenberg touches on the importance of humility and “consequential compassion” in medicine, and the profound impact mentors can have on your life and career. Seriously, go find a mentor.
Turns out there's nothing new about having a shortage of primary care physicians. In the late 1960's, the need to fill that gap led to the creation of physician assistants who have since expanded into nearly every medical speciality. As Mary Jo Bondy explains to host Shiv Gaglani, the broad-based training PAs receive makes them valuable players in meeting changing patient and workforce needs, as we're seeing in the COVID-19 crisis.
It's not just K-12 and college students moving to online education these days. edX and other learning platforms have seen huge increases in enrollment over the past two months as millions of adults seek to learn new skills in a battered economy. As edX CEO Anant Agarwal explains to host Shiv Gaglani, part of edX's role now is teaching people how to learn, and teachers how to teach, using a format that will remain a key source of education long after the COVID-19 crisis has ended.
Arianna Huffington learned about burnout the hard way. Two years after starting the Huffington Post, she collapsed from overwork. She turned that moment of personal crisis into a movement to help people learn how to develop a healthier work-life balance and effectively manage stress. In this episode of Raise the Line, host Shiv Gaglani explores with Arianna how her company, Thrive Global, works with employers around the world to realize the benefits of employee wellness, the special effort she's made during the coronavirus crisis to support frontline workers through First Responders First, and some simple microsteps we can all take every day to avoid burnout.
After seeing Italy confront the grim reality of ventilator rationing, emergency medicine specialist Dr. Sarah Farris wanted to spare physicians and patients in the U.S. the same agonizing choices. Creating a splitting device that would allow one ventilator to serve two patients seemed like a good solution, and in a remarkable sequence of events, thousands of those devices were manufactured and ready for use just a few weeks after she first mentioned the idea. Sarah and her colleagues at Prisma Health, Dr. Marjorie Jenkins and Dr. Peter Tilkemeier, join host Rishi Desai to describe the powerful partnership of medicine, government and industry that made it possible.
Pediatric nurse, global force in fighting AIDS, professor of nursing, academic leader -- Adele Webb has played many roles in her career by following her passion. As she reveals to host Rishi Desai in this episode of Raise the Line, allowing yourself the opportunity to follow that passion, and having the courage to do so, can be the key to a meaningful career.
Half of all nurses in the U.S. are graduates of two-year programs when they first start practicing, and while a national push is on to encourage RN's to get bachelor's degrees, an associate's degree remains a critical path into the profession. Donna Meyer, who runs the only organization that advocates for these two-year programs, joins host Shiv Gaglani to explore the realities facing early-career nurses and discuss the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the nursing workforce.
Why are young patients with COVID 19 having strokes? Why are ventilators not as effective as expected? Why do some patients have the symptoms of altitude sickness? One explanation for these mysteries is the disease keeps adapting and changing. But the other is that our understanding of it is catching up to what might be the truth: COVID 19 is not primarily a lung disease but rather a disease of the cells that line the inside of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. Pulmonologist Roger Seheult, one of the drivers behind the popular Medcram video series, talks about the evolving understanding of COVID 19 and his approach to explaining complex medical subjects to a general audience.
Quick, accurate testing for COVID-19 is critically important as states begin to loosen up social distancing. Enter Biomeme, a Pennsylvania-based biotech firm, with a system that allows sophisticated DNA testing to be done in virtually any location using a smartphone and a piece of lab equipment small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Non-professionals can be quickly trained to use it, and results come within an hour, instead of a day. Company co-founder Jesse vanWestrienen explains how it all works to Dr. Rishi Desai.
Imagine this: college students back on campus, but older professors teaching from home. That's one of the scenarios Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda says might play out this fall as higher education regroups in response to COVID-19. What he knows for certain is his online education company, which already had 46 million learners and 200 university partners, has seen explosive growth in the past few months. Listen in as he and host Shiv Gaglani explore what's new, and what's coming, in online education.
Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud of the World Health Organization was among the first to see reports out of China last December about a mysterious pneumonia-like illness that we all now know as COVID-19. He tells host Dr. Rishi Desai that preparedness, widespread testing, and aggressive action to deal with those infected explains why many countries in Asia have fared better than parts of Europe and the U.S.
"Your calling is sacred." That's the message Dr. Conrad Fischer has for people entering health professions, especially in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. He took a few moments out from treating COVID-19 patients, twenty of whom had died in his Brooklyn hospital the previous day, to describe the fear, frustration, dedication and humanity of his colleagues who are doing their best in unprecedented circumstances. It's a gripping eyewitness account from the eye of the storm.
The Coronavirus crisis has presented unprecedented challenges for physicians. Retired doctors are back in their white coats helping on the frontlines while medical students are being allowed to practice before graduation, and community physicians are struggling to hold on to their practices as people avoid getting routine care. Keeping a sharp eye on all of it is Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association. As you'll hear in this conversation with Dr. Rishi Desai, Harris is a forceful advocate for protecting the safety of her members, basing policy decisions on evidence and making sure we fully understand the disparate impact COVID-19 is having based on race. And as a child psychiatrist, she also drops some wisdom for parents on how to talk to their kids about these unsettling times.
Only a handful of people have as much responsibility for overseeing U.S. response to COVID-19 as Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director at U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and few can match her three decades at the CDC fighting infectious diseases, from AIDS, to Swine Flu, to Ebola. In this insightful interview with Dr. Rishi Desai, she cautions about the accuracy of antibody tests, supports a regional approach to easing social distancing, previews the use of census takers as contact tracers, and encourages young people to join the fight against the coronavirus and pursue a career in public health.
Combining the perspectives of physician, New York City hospital leader, and high ranking government official, Dr. David Shulkin shares unique insights with host Dr. Rishi Desai on how the coronavirus crisis will impact how we provide healthcare for generations to come. One of the most significant changes could be permanently altering how frequently telemedicine is used.
Imagine being a pregnant ER doctor in New York City in the middle of the coronavirus crisis and then finding out you are COVID positive. That’s the compelling story Dr. Poonam Desai shares with our chief medical officer (and her cousin!) Dr. Rishi Desai as she recounts what it's like to be on the front lines, the precautions she's taking to protect her family, and her determination to be there for her patients.
Dr. Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control joins host Dr. Rishi Desai to discuss U.S. response to the coronavirus crisis, the need for expanded access to testing, and examples of effective responses by governments in Asia.