cedars-sinai

Can AI be a benefit in the medical profession?  Tech start-up K Health thinks so, and so do their heavyweight investors from the medical field.  We investigate. 

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Heitham Hassoun, MD, Vice President & Medical Director, Cedars-Sinai International

Dr. Heitham Hassoun is the Vice President & Medical Director for Cedars-Sinai International in Los Angeles, California. He previously served as Global Medical Director for Johns Hopkins Medicine and was an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Hassoun has a wealth of experience in international patient services, global collaborations and health system development. He was instrumental in the creation of Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Johns Hopkins Medicine, as well as a number of other institutional management and affiliation agreements throughout the Middle East and Asia. Currently, he aims to expand the global footprint of Cedars-Sinai.

Dr. Hassoun maintains a clinical practice in vascular & endovascular surgery and he continues to educate and research in a variety of topics related to global collaborative healthcare and academic medicine. He completed his fellowship training in vascular and endovascular surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago and earned his medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

John Marchica, CEO, Darwin Research Group

John Marchica is a veteran health care strategist and CEO of Darwin Research Group. He is leading ongoing, in-depth research initiatives on integrated health systems, accountable care organizations, and value-based care models. He is a faculty associate in the W.P. Carey School of Business and the graduate College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University.

John did his undergraduate work in economics at Knox College, has an MBA and M.A. in public policy from the University of Chicago, and completed his Ph.D. coursework at The Dartmouth Institute. He is an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is pursuing certification as a Fellow.

About Darwin Research Group

Darwin Research Group Inc. provides advanced market intelligence and in-depth customer insights to health care executives, with a strategic focus on health care delivery systems and the global shift toward value-based care. Darwin’s client list includes forward-thinking biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, as well as health care providers, private equity, and venture capital firms. The company was founded in 2010 as Darwin Advisory Partners, LLC and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a satellite office in Princeton, N.J.

In the third installment for our Cedars-Sinai series, hosts Dr. Steven Taback and Bill Curtis are joined by Geriatrician Dr. Sonja Rosen, where they discuss the in’s and out’s Geriatric Medicine and at home care for the elderly. The group also discusses the organization (or lack there of) of the countries medical records in regard to polypharmacy, how to handle the difficult conversations that revolve around elderly care, and some tips for both you and your loved ones to live a long and quality life.

In this dedicated series, we're showcasing the medical breakthroughs & innovations from one of the world's most preeminent hospitals: Cedars-Sinai. Cedars-Sinai is dedicated to improving the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research, and clinical care.

Episode Timestamps:

2:09 What is unique about treating geriatrics vs normal internal medicine?

3:10 Is diagnosis harder for older people?

3:47 Should you give up your normal internist for a geriatrician? Can you?

5:49 Do geriatricians usually get brought in as specialists?

7:00 What can the average person do to improve their lifespan and quality of life?

8:38 Do memory supplements work? Does Dr. Rosen recommend any specific ones?

10:00 How much and what kind of exercise do we really need?

11:04 Tips on convincing patients to exercise?

14:00 How to approach your elderly ones in moving towards finding a geriatrician?

15:40 Are electronic records well organized for the case of poly pharmacy?

20:00 Fixing the chaos of poly pharmacy?

23:00 Managing insurance companies and getting the best medications in your patients hands

24:22 How to handle the difficult situation of ‘independence’ with your elderly loved ones.

27:30 How important is teeth care?

28:25 How important is ‘hearing’ as an elderly person?

29:13 Swallowing issues as an elderly person

29:50 Does our sleep decline the older we get? Why?

31:08 High blood pressure treatment as an elderly person

31:54 What are the ‘4 Ms’ of optimally caring for older patients?

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Learn More: Medicine, We’re Still Practicing

Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Hosted by: Dr. Steven Taback & Bill Curtis

Produced and Edited by: AJ Moseley

Sound Engineering by: Steve Reickeberg

Theme Music by: Celleste and Eric Dick

A CurtCo Media Production

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second installment for our Cedars-Sinai series, hosts Dr. Steven Taback and Bill Curtis are joined by pulmonary and Critical Care Director Dr. Victor Tapson, where they discuss all things pulmonary embolism and hypertension related. Pulmonary hypertension is known as the silent killer because more often than not, you’re only diagnosed after it’s too late. The panel discuses some of the causes for pulmonary embolism, how COVID has played a role in the disease, as well as signs and symptoms for both patients and physicians to look out for when treating the pulmonary embolism and hypertension.

In this dedicated series, we're showcasing the medical breakthroughs & innovations from one of the world's most preeminent hospitals: Cedars-Sinai. Cedars-Sinai is dedicated to improving the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research, and clinical care.

Episode Timestamps:

2:30 How has COVID played a role in blood clots? 

3:53 Dealing with the social devastation of COVID as a physician.

5:36 Are blood clots in COVID patients different than those who get clots without COVID?

8:30 Does anti-inflammatory agents or immunotherapy have any effect on blood clots?

9:49 What got Dr. Tapson originally interested in studying Pulmonary Embolism? 

10:58 Why do DBT and PE consistently get missed on diagnosis?

12:00 What are the best tests to diagnosis PE?

13:53 Young physicians and the conundrum of minimizing the amount of testing with a disease that’s diagnosis relies mostly on “suspicion.” 

16:00 Minimizing CT scans because of the dye/contrast’s effects on kidneys.

17:53 How do blood thinners work?

22:07 Pulmonary hypertension vs. high blood pressure.

23:15 What are the 5 classes of pulmonary hypertension?

25:45 How do you test for PH?

26:57 What predisposes one to pulmonary hypertension?

28:18 Has PH risen with COVID “long-haulers?”

29:20 The balancing act of 'best-treatment’ for a disease and kidney/liver function.

30:47 Dr. Tapson shares the biggest breakthroughs and exceptions in his field.

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Learn More: Medicine, We’re Still Practicing

Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Hosted by: Dr. Steven Taback & Bill Curtis

Produced and Edited by: AJ Moseley

Sound Engineering by: Steve Reickeberg

Theme Music by: Celleste and Eric Dick

A CurtCo Media Production

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listening. It's a basic building block to effective customer experience and, ultimately satisfaction. It is also a consistent message we are hearing on this show. Ironically, in the one industry where listening is the most impactful aspect of customer experience,  health care, it may be happening the least. Alan Dubovsky, Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, has embraced this ethos of listening.  Alan shares insights on redefining the meaning of listening to patients, why executives making rounds in the field impacts patient experience, the importance of adding unstructured feedback, and how intentionally designing a future patience experience, instead of simply reacting what has happened in the past, is a winning strategy.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cedars-Sinai is a nonprofit academic healthcare organization that serves the diverse Los Angeles community through more than 40 locations, 4,500 physicians and nurses, and 1,500 research projects in motion. Darren Dworkin has been Chief Information Officer at Cedars-Sinai since 2006, where he also founded the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator and serves as managing partner of Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures.

In this episode of Healthcare is Hard, Darren talks to Keith Figlioli about the impact of COVID-19 through a technical lens, offers advice to innovators and entrepreneurs selling to health systems during this difficult time, and shares broad views into the digital transformation of healthcare. Some of the topics they discuss include:

• Enabling Remote Work Through COVID. Many healthcare workers have been bravely carrying out their roles within the hospital setting during the pandemic. But the fact that a large portion of healthcare workers have been asked to work remotely – just like in other industries – hasn’t gotten much attention. Darren points out that in only four days, Cedars-Sinai shifted from having 400 people working remotely to having well over 4,000. He talks about how the health system’s technical infrastructure scaled to handle the demand.
• Lasting Impacts. One of the silver linings Darren sees emerging from the pandemic is how it will advance strategies around helping patients interact with technology in the right ways. While Cedars-Sinai had already been relying on technology for urgent care and primary care visits, he uses the example of post-surgical follow-up as one area where telehealth has, and will likely continue to be very beneficial. As he points out, surgeons prefer to operate, so if they can minimize the time they spend on follow-ups, it’s a win all around.
• Pulling Versus Pushing Technology. Darren recognizes that his role as CIO is to “help engage end users in the tech that we have.” In other words, push technology on the enterprise. But part of the reason he finds the work of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator so rewarding is that it’s exactly the opposite. Clinical and operational leaders get to choose which companies should be in the accelerator based on their needs and the solutions that will solve their biggest challenges. As an academic medical center, Darren sees innovation and discovery as core to the overall mission at Cedars-Sinai, and its accelerator is a big part of that.
• Advice for Entrepreneurs. Darren’s biggest advice for digital health entrepreneurs is to focus on real savings. Just as we’re approaching a day of reckoning for tech IPOs where companies planned to layer on growth without profitability, the environment for digital health startups is similar: adding improvement without adding bottom line ROI may no longer be sufficient. For example, as companies think about expanding their product, Darren suggests thinking about how to broaden into an adjacent space – versus simply of adding more “bells and whistles” – in order to help health systems eliminate vendors and streamline costs and administration.

To hear Darren and Keith talk about these topics and more, listen to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders.

This is our 100th episode and we’re delighted to celebrate the milestone with a remarkable man. Zab Mosenifar, MD, recently completed his 100th marathon at the age of 70 and he personifies the art of living a long, healthy and fulfilling life. Dr. Mosenifar, professor and executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is addicted to running. Next week he heads to California’s Death Valley, to run in grueling heat that would see most of us wilt in a second.  It is the kind of “insane” challenge that motivates the doctor, who still works full-time and says he relishes living a modest life, focussed on his job and running.  In this interview we discuss Dr. Mosenifar’s 50 miles-per-week regimen, his love of red wine, orchids and a busy life.  We also find out why he is a stickler for punctuality; prefers driving in the middle lane; and why he gets a “special pleasure from monotony.”

In this interview we cover:

• Dr. Mosenifar’s 50 miles-per-week running regime.
• Running the Santa Monica mountain trails early in the morning, seven days a week.
• The runner’s high. 
• Entering a zen-like state and enjoying the euphoria of running. 
• Living a meat-free lifestyle. 
• Getting a “special pleasure from monotony” and enjoying a frugal lifestyle. 
• Are we really designed to run long distances? 
• The “hidden factor” that allows some people to keep on running. 
• Sharing a bottle of wonderful red wine.
• Eating the same meals every day. 
• Why associating with all generations helps promote longevity. 
• Appreciating that life is precious and why there should be no bad days. 
• Balancing a busy work schedule with an active life and family activities.  
• Career longevity at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
• The “heart-wrenching” period treating patients with AIDS during the early days of the disease.
• Studying the complexities of smoking.
• Understanding aging through marathon running.
• The plus side of an obsessive, compulsive personality.
• Thinking about longevity, how to approach the ne

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Time-line

Mitopure (a highly pure form of Urolithin A) boosts the health of our mitochondria – the battery packs of our cells – and improves muscle strength. Time-line is offering LLAMA listeners a 10% discount on its range of products – Mitopure powders, softgels & skin creams.  Use the code LLAMA at checkout
-

FlexBeam red light therapy

Recharge Health is offering LLAMA listeners a discount on the purchase of FlexBeam, the wearable red light therapy device which targets key parts of the body to improve sleep, treat injuries and sooth aches and pains associated with aging. Discounts vary - see details of the current offer here

The Live Long and Master Aging (LLAMA) podcast, a HealthSpan Media LLC production, shares ideas but does not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind, or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should consult your doctor.

This is our 100th episode and we’re delighted to celebrate the milestone with a remarkable man. Zab Mosenifar, MD, recently completed his 100th marathon at the age of 70 and he personifies the art of living a long, healthy and fulfilling life. Dr. Mosenifar, professor and executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is addicted to running. Next week he heads to California’s Death Valley, to run in grueling heat that would see most of us wilt in a second.  It is the kind of “insane” challenge that motivates the doctor, who still works full-time and says he relishes living a modest life, focussed on his job and running.  In this interview we discuss Dr. Mosenifar’s 50 miles-per-week regimen, his love of red wine, orchids and a busy life.  We also find out why he is a stickler for punctuality; prefers driving in the middle lane; and why he gets a “special pleasure from monotony.”

In this interview we cover:

• Dr. Mosenifar’s 50 miles-per-week running regime.
• Running the Santa Monica mountain trails early in the morning, seven days a week.
• The runner’s high. 
• Entering a zen-like state and enjoying the euphoria of running. 
• Living a meat-free lifestyle. 
• Getting a “special pleasure from monotony” and enjoying a frugal lifestyle. 
• Are we really designed to run long distances? 
• The “hidden factor” that allows some people to keep on running. 
• Sharing a bottle of wonderful red wine.
• Eating the same meals every day. 
• Why associating with all generations helps promote longevity. 
• Appreciating that life is precious and why there should be no bad days. 
• Balancing a busy work schedule with an active life and family activities.  
• Career longevity at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
• The “heart-wrenching” period treating patients with AIDS during the early days of the disease.
• Studying the complexities of smoking.
• Understanding aging through marathon running.
• The plus side of an obsessive, compulsive personality.
• Thinking about longevity, how to approach the ne

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Time-line

Mitopure (a highly pure form of Urolithin A) boosts the health of our mitochondria – the battery packs of our cells – and improves muscle strength. Time-line is offering LLAMA listeners a 10% discount on its range of products – Mitopure powders, softgels & skin creams.  Use the code LLAMA at checkout
-

FlexBeam red light therapy

Recharge Health is offering LLAMA listeners a discount on the purchase of FlexBeam, the wearable red light therapy device which targets key parts of the body to improve sleep, treat injuries and sooth aches and pains associated with aging. Discounts vary - see details of the current offer here

The Live Long and Master Aging (LLAMA) podcast, a HealthSpan Media LLC production, shares ideas but does not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind, or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should consult your doctor.

Why are integrated health systems and academic medical centers increasing their focus on international medicine? What lessons can we learn from our colleagues abroad? Find out this week as John sits down with Dr. Heitham Hassoun, vice president and medical director for Cedars-Sinai International Health and Telemedicine.

Speaker Bios
Heitham Hassoun, MD, a leading international health expert, is vice president and medical director of Cedars-Sinai's Center for International Health and Telemedicine. Dr. Hassoun was previously medical director for Global Healthcare at Johns Hopkins Medicine International and an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Prior to his work at Johns Hopkins, Hassoun served as medical director for Methodist International in Houston and was an associate professor of cardiovascular surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College In New York. He completed his fellowship training in vascular surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago and earned his medical degree at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

John Marchica is a veteran health care strategist and CEO of Darwin Research Group, a health care market intelligence firm specializing in health care delivery systems. He’s a two-time health care entrepreneur, and his first company, FaxWatch, was listed twice on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing American companies. John is the author of The Accountable Organization and has advised senior management on strategy and organizational change for more than a decade. John did his undergraduate work in economics at Knox College, has an MBA and M.A. in public policy from the University of Chicago, and completed his Ph.D. coursework at The Dartmouth Institute. He is a faculty associate in the W.P. Carey School of Business and the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, and is an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

About Darwin Research Group
Darwin Research Group Inc. provides advanced market intelligence and in-depth customer insights to health care executives, with a strategic focus on health care delivery systems and the global shift toward value-based care. Darwin’s client list includes forward-thinking biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, as well as health care providers, private equity, and venture capital firms. The company was founded in 2010 as Darwin Advisory Partners, LLC and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a satellite office in Princeton, N.J.