Raise the Line

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/ 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 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/ 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 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/ 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

“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 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’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/ 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

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/ 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

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. 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

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 Line to 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/ 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

“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/ 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

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/ 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

“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/ 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

“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 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 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/ 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 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/ 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

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 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 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/ 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

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 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

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.orghttps://www.9lessons.org 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 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 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

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/ 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

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.htmlhttps://www.ebresearch.org/our-mission.htmlhttps://www.ebresearch.org/venture-into-cures.htmlMikey's World video 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

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 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

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. 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 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 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

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/ 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

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 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 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. 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 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/ 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

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 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

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 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

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/ 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

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. 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

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. 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 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 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 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 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

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/ 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

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/ 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 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. 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

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!’” 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

“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 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

“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/ 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 a strange odyssey being a rare disease parent. It sort of forces you to question everything about life,” says Philippe 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. 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

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/ 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

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/ 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

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.orgKalobeyei Refugee Settlement Video: https://youtu.be/1y-FM5o1xdUPersonal Website: decherney.org 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

“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/ 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 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. 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 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 a 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/ 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 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/ 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

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. 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