health professions

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/

In this episode, we explore the groundbreaking collaboration between Cleveland Clinic and IBM by speaking with Brandon Musarra, Project Manager and Strategy & Operations Lead for the Discovery Accelerator. Brandon describes the transformative potential of the Discovery Accelerator program to revolutionize healthcare through cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

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/

Join Dr. Michael Nelson, Medical Director for the Center for Youth and College Education at Cleveland Clinic, as he discusses Connected Career Rounds, a free virtual program that introduces middle and high school students from across the country to healthcare careers. In this episode, Dr. Nelson talks about the program's structure and outreach, while outlining future plans to expand the audience and develop a health professions career video library. Educators are invited to tune into Connected Career Rounds, generally held every other Tuesday at 1 p.m. Learn more and register for free.

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/

In this episode we talk to Dr. Ann Dunbar, alumni of the physical therapy program and founder of the 'Honoring Our Mentors Physical Therapy Scholarship'. Dr. Dunbar shares her experience with the College of Health Professions and what motivated her to establish this fund to support the students of today while remembering the contributions of those helping students reach their professional goals. 

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/

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/

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

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/

As researchers continue to explore therapeutic applications of existing psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, there's been a parallel effort to create new compounds that produce the same beneficial effects, but that come without the lengthy protocols and regulatory obstacles attached to those currently criminalized substances. "If you could develop new molecules that were more targeted and shorter acting, you may actually be able to create medicines as potent as the existing ones, but administratively and medically more efficient so we can reach more people," says Ronan Levy, a serial entrepreneur in the space. After a foray into creating a business model for ketamine-assisted therapy, Levy is now looking to support the community of millions of people who are already using psychedelics in various capacities through his Non-Ordinary Therapy Company instead of providing the therapeutic experience directly. “Wherever you're having your psychedelic experiences, that's wonderful. We're there to help you get the maximum impact from your sessions.” Join host Shiv Gaglani for this fascinating conversation about responsibly pushing regulatory boundaries, whether hallucinatory effects are essential to therapeutic benefit, and the rapid pace of change in a field that holds the potential to, as Levy puts it, “displace most forms of mental health care currently provided.” 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Non-Ordinary Therapy Company

The Ketamine Breakthrough (book)

Distance learning continues to grow in popularity with most college students in the U.S. now taking at least some classes online offered by hundreds of brick-and-mortar and exclusively online institutions. We’re going to learn about one of the highest ranked programs in the space today with Geordie Hyland, president and CEO of the American College of Education. One way ACE sets itself apart in a crowded field is that 85% of its students graduate with no debt, which Hyland says is reflective of the school’s mission. “ACE was founded with a key consideration about return on the students' time and financial investment so we have some of the lowest tuition in the nation, but we also provide a fully online, high-quality experience.” Check out this informative conversation with host Derek Apanovitch to learn about ACE’s programs that are tailored to address pressing staffing shortages in healthcare, its data-driven approach to student support, and the collaborative interactions it facilitates among its 10,000 students. "It's fascinating to see students from very different geographic regions be able to share ideas and collaborate," says Hyland.

Mentioned in this episode: https://ace.edu/