Raise the Line

“I feel like academic medicine has had one of its finest hours and people understand its importance in a way they had not before,” says Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for Health Affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and dean of its medical school. Wearing those hats, she has a ground-level perspective on how the pandemic played out in academic medical centers as well as a national view of how academic medicine and medical education fared generally due to her leadership roles with the Association of American Medical Colleges. As she tells host Shiv Gaglani, she saw an unprecedented level of collaboration and sharing of research and other information that helped advance the quality of care provided to COVID patients. “To see all the organizations in academic medicine come together around that multifaceted but singular focus was thrilling, honestly, and just amazing.” In addition to COVID response, Dr. Woodward has her hands full expanding educational and clinical offerings in a state which struggles in many areas that affect health status, and is ranked last in the country for the number of practicing physicians per capita. “We're working hard to provide all the programs we need for the education of our students, but also to answer the unmet needs for the citizens in Mississippi.” 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

“Students sometimes look to us for the only way to master something. We really try to guide them to their unique way of learning,” says Dr. Rivka Stone of Med School Tutors. As chief medical officer, she leads a team of over 150 tutors who provide one-on-one support to clients, and believes understanding that different people learn differently is key to exam success. In this episode of Raise the Line, she shares with Dr. Rishi Desai how MST selects its tutors, what she thinks of recent major changes to medical school testing and offers her take on medical student morale in face of COVID. Plus, hear her valuable advice on seeking out one-to-one connection and the importance of self-care. 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

Tedx Talk mentioned in this episode: https://youtu.be/g_492mhwMew  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

Can having a rockstar teacher make all the difference? Matt Riley thinks so. He built his company, Blueprint Test Preparation, on hiring and creating rockstar LSAT and MCAT instructors across the country. In contrast to the opinion that standardized tests are just meaningless hurdles, Riley believes that these tests serve an important function and that going through the process of preparing for and taking them “actually gets you ready for success.” Join Riley as he speaks with host Shiv Gaglani in this episode of Raise the Line to discover Blueprint's unique approach to test prep, including its recent acquisition of Cram Fighter, a service that helps students manage the resources they are using to study. Plus, learn about the Fauci and RBG effects that COVID has had on medical and law school admissions, and hear Riley's valuable advice for students preparing for exams and looking toward their future careers. 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

Many people involved in improving healthcare quality are looking to artificial intelligence and innovative delivery models as answers. But Dr. Richard Park, one of the country's leading healthcare entrepreneurs, sees it differently. “Before AI and all these fancy things are layered on top, we need to focus on fundamentals. It’s not sexy, but it has to be done,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. The fundamentals Park is talking about center on standardizing processes, clinical protocols, computer programs, workflows and metrics to reduce variation. Decreasing variation and aligning doctors to work consistently and predictably is something Park learned building CityMD, a provider of urgent and primary care in New York and New Jersey. Park and his team grew the company from a single location in 2010 to nearly 150 sites today where more than 4 million patients receive treatment. He's also CEO of Rendr Care Physicians, a multi-specialty group catering to 100,000 underserved patients, primarily of Asian descent, in 30 locations in New York City. Tune-in to this fascinating conversation about changing physician behavior, his cultural roots in entrepreneurship and why every doctor who wants to improve the quality of care should study McDonald's restaurants. 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 think today’s young doctors will lead the digital health revolution. They've grown up with the technology and they understand the power of connectivity and social media and being on all the time, but in a good way,” says Jeff Arnold, a digital information pioneer with decades of success creating and leading companies that leverage technology to provide easy access to knowledge, including WebMD and HowStuffWorks. Since 2010, he's been Chairman and CEO of Sharecare, a leading health and wellness engagement platform that provides people with personalized information, programs, and resources to improve their health -- whether they download the Sharecare app themselves or access its platform through a self-insured employer health plan or, coming soon, health system. This week, the company will begin trading on the NASDAQ exchange. In this revealing conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Arnold describes the company’s goal to be a one-stop-shopping platform to connect people to their doctor, health plan, employer, and help them navigate their well-being. You won’t want to miss this chance to learn about where digital health is going in the next decade. 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 his book, Rich & Dying: An Insider Calls Bullsh*t on America's Healthcare Economy, Sutter Health|Aetna CEO Jeb Dunkelberger uses his unique position as head of a company whose clients are some of the largest employers in the world to reveal what is going on behind the scenes in healthcare. Find out in this episode hosted by Shiv Gaglani why Dunkelberger believes neither free-market economics nor “Medicare For All” is a workable solution to our nation's healthcare crisis, and why it's so important for providers to understand the flow of funds in the insurance sector. Plus, learn about aligned incentives, why the post-COVID environment might be a good time for people to accept new ideas, and why the future may not be as telemedicine-dependent as some predict. 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

“Information that you don't use regularly, you will quickly forget,” says Dr. Jason Ryan, “no matter what it is.” Accepting that reality, he argues, is a good way to form an effective study plan. Tune in to this episode of Raise the Line to hear more of Dr. Ryan's valuable advice and learn how he came to start Boards and Beyond, a platform that helps medical students prepare for board exams. Listen in as he and host Dr. Rishi Desai discuss Continuing Medical Education (CME), the pros and cons of recertification exams, and strategies to address the problem of burnout. Plus, discover Dr. Ryan's arguments for open-book testing and learn why becoming a “cookbook practitioner” in the medical field is definitely something to avoid. 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

Telehealth has emerged as one of the biggest “winners” of the pandemic if you measure that in terms of a huge jump in awareness and amount of use. People most often associate it with video conversations, but telehealth also includes phone calls, remote monitoring, emails and sharing of images. Our guest on this episode of Raise the Line thinks there are real advantages to patients in actually foregoing video in favor of an asynchronous exchange of information. Varsha Rao is CEO of Nurx, a rapidly growing health tech company which has its roots in the prescribing and at-home delivery of contraception. “There's a lot of people who still don't feel that comfortable talking about contraception with their provider. One thing we've tried to do is create modalities that reduce friction, whether it's stigma or logistics, because those can be barriers to care.” Rao says patients feel more comfortable asking sensitive questions in writing, and benefit from the deep experience Nurx providers have on the limited health concerns they treat. “We've really focused in a number of areas and gone deep in them. That’s why we get thousands of comments from patients saying they learned more from our providers than they ever got from their in-person doctors.” Check out this episode to learn more about a different take on telehealth. 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

Communicating accurate, vital healthcare information to the public has seldom been more important than during the COVID 19 pandemic. As we’ve all seen, the challenges of doing that well have been a major factor in the spread of the disease and participation in vaccination campaigns. Watching all of this carefully is cardiologist, researcher and public health expert Dr. Garth Graham, who was chosen earlier this year to lead a new health partnerships team at Google/YouTube to create high-quality health content for viewers around the world. Graham will work with an impressive coalition of organizations including the Mayo Clinic, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health (and Osmosis!) to extend evidence-based clinical information beyond the exam room in a way that meets the evolving digital health needs of consumers. “The challenge that we're taking on is how to deliver public health information to empower communities across the world to live their healthiest lives. We’re using the power and reach of YouTube to engage people directly with health information in a way that they’re used to receiving other information in their daily lives.” Check out this lively conversation with host Dr. Rishi Desai to learn about the importance of providers seeing life through the eyes of the patient and community, and why the healthcare system sometimes resembles a stampeding elephant. 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