February marks a major transition for Dr. Steven Halm as he moves on from leading one of the nation’s oldest schools of osteopathic medicine, at Des Moines University, to launching of one of its newest, at Xavier University, which is set to welcome its first class in 2027. Launch is actually a fitting word to use due to his background in aviation as a licensed pilot and former Senior Aviation Medical Examiner for the FAA. In fact, Halm believes medicine has a lot to learn from commercial aviation in the use of simulation to achieve the highest standards of safety. “One of my goals for the first week of the new medical school at Xavier is to have students in a simulation lab, working with task trainers and interacting with standardized patients in real scenarios of taking care of patients.” Other plans include an emphasis on newer teaching approaches such as small group and active learning paired with what he considers to be the fundamentals. “Student success depends on a combination of great faculty and great resources.” Join host Hillary Acer for a birds-eye view of osteopathic medical education and stay tuned to learn about Halm’s leadership education program for medical students and residents.Mentioned in this episode:Xavier University College of Osteopathic MedicineWhy Hospitals Should Fly by John Nance

“I think philanthropy’s role oftentimes is to come in and be the innovator,” says Dr. Bennett Nemser who is in a good position to do that as chief program officer at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation managing its health portfolios. Perhaps the best example of this is its involvement in psychedelic research where the Foundation is one of the largest private funders in the country including being a major backer of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine. While he is excited about the progress being made in that space, Nemser says the Foundation is intent on ensuring equitable access to any new therapies that emerge, one of the organization’s chief overall aims. “We need to get the price point down so that we can make sure we have access to a lot more people that can benefit from this.” As Nemser tells Raise the Line host Shiv Gaglani, the Foundation is seeking to have similar impact in other critical areas. “We’ve provided over a billion dollars in charitable support to underserved communities, children's health and education, the arts, Lyme and tick-borne disease, psychedelics, veterans services and sustainability.” Don’t miss this expansive look at philanthropy’s change-making potential.Mentioned in this episode: https://www.steveandalex.org/

All health organizations aim to be ‘patient-centered’ but not many actually give patients decision making power. That’s not the case with the 1,400 Community Health Centers (CHC) across the US which require 51% of board members to be patients. “That does so many things that I think changes the dynamics of healthcare and how it's delivered,” says Dr. Kyu Rhee, president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers. Impacts include co-locating oral and mental healthcare with primary care and ensuring culturally appropriate delivery of care. Although CHCs already comprise the largest primary care system in the country -- serving 31.5 million Americans (1 in 11 people) regardless of ability to pay -- Rhee envisions eventually serving 30% of Americans. As he explains to host Michael Carrese, getting there will require a deepening of existing partnerships with local communities and more funding from state and federal governments. “An investment in Community Health Centers actually saves lives and saves money.” This is a great chance to learn about an innovative model of healthcare that looks beyond the exam room to address all factors in a patient’s life that may be barriers to better health, focuses on addressing health disparities and supports the resiliency of impoverished and underserved communities.  Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nachc.org/

“Patient engagement is shockingly bad across the system. Doctors just don't have the time or mechanisms to educate their patients,” says former Amazon product manager David Neyhart. It’s something he learned firsthand during a scary health odyssey that included many rushed appointments where there was no chance to ask questions, and at best he’d be handed subpar educational materials. He’s filling this information gap through a company he co-founded called Encap Health which provides physicians with a seamless and customized way to give their patients the information they need to manage and improve their health. “We integrate with their EHR, so based on what the doctor's already entering - billing codes, prescriptions or visit notes -- we extract that and send related content to that patient automatically.” It comes in the form of an email from the doctor’s office with a list of health information and links where they can learn more. A patient with osteoporosis, for example, would get information on options for exercise and nutritional guidance specific to that condition. Importantly, neither party has to learn how to navigate a new app or web portal. Tune in as Neyhart fills in host Michael Carrese on how this process builds trust between patients and providers, and how he is eyeing a future in which Encap provides more personalized, proactive content journeys to guide patients on a path to improved health.Mentioned in this episode: https://encaphealth.com/

For the two million Americans diagnosed with cancer each year, the emotional toll of absorbing the news is often exacerbated by uncertainty about the variety of treatments, and confusion trying to navigate a fragmented healthcare system. Accompanying patients on that journey and smoothing the way for them is where Thyme Care enters the picture, a company that supports and supplements the care provided by oncology practices at no cost to patients. “We do the types of things that everybody in the oncology space knows should be done, but it’s often hard to operationalize them at scale,” says Dr. Brad Diephuis, the company’s chief business officer and a cancer survivor himself. Those things include tracking patient reported outcomes and providing proactive symptom monitoring throughout cancer treatment in order to catch problems early and prevent unnecessary interventions and hospitalizations. Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in 2022 indicates Thyme Care is delivering on its value proposition for insurance plans and other payers: reducing costs and increasing patient satisfaction. Join host Michael Carrese in learning why Diephuis thinks its shared savings model is succeeding, how its “care pod” model works, and what the company’s plans are for growth.Mentioned in this episode: https://www.thymecare.com/

“I did not see myself as a leader, to be honest. I had my mind made up on doing something else, but it has been an amazing journey,” says Dr. Tiffany Morris, director of Nursing at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.  That journey includes being the inaugural department chair in the nursing program at Elon University School of Health Sciences and serving as an interim dean in North Carolina A&T’s School of Nursing. She returned to North Carolina A&T earlier this year partly because of the larger impact she can have due to the school being the largest Historically Black College and University in the nation. “The opportunity to serve students who are normally underrepresented and be able to produce healthcare providers that look like the people that they're serving is an amazing opportunity,” she tells host Michael Carrese. Highlights of the curriculum include an accelerated nursing program which allows those with bachelor’s degrees to earn an RN in twelve months, advanced simulation training -- including access to new 3D technology that allows for virtual dissection -- and an emphasis on providing culturally appropriate care, which Morris stresses goes well beyond race to include culturally-based food preferences and spiritual practices and beliefs.  Morris has a research interest in the latter where she focuses on why African-Americans have a lower rate of hospice enrollment. Find out about one key factor in turning that around, why the university is pursuing R1 research status and new degree offerings coming soon.Mentioned in this episode: North Carolina A&T School of Nursing

Sacramento, California has long been one of America’s most racially diverse cities, so it stands to reason that reducing disparities in healthcare delivery is a focus of Dr. David Lubarsky, the CEO for UC Davis Health in Sacramento. “We've realized that health equity can really only be achieved if you actually have the time and resources to get what's needed to make yourself well or keep yourself well,” he tells host Michael Carrese.  With that tight correlation between economics and equity in mind, UC Davis Health leaned into its role as an employer and launched an effort to hire more people from the communities it serves. “We've managed in two years' time to go from having 6% to 20% of our unlicensed workforce from the ten most underserved zip codes in the city.” Lubarsky is also focused on the diversity of learners in the UC Davis School of Medicine, which he also oversees, because it’s been well established that patients from historically marginalized groups have better outcomes when their providers look like them. Tune in to learn about the strategies he’s pursuing to that end, where he sees AI fitting into healthcare delivery and what’s included in the system’s historic $7 billion capital building campaign.Mentioned in this episode: UC Davis Health

Having a waiting list of 20,000 people to take your training is a pretty good sign you’re onto something important. That’s the mixed blessing Dr. Richard Schwartz faces as interest in Internal Family Systems -- an innovative therapeutic approach to trauma and other mental disorders he developed -- continues to grow. The “family” in this case are the multiple parts of a person’s psyche that, in Schwartz’s view, need to listen to each other in order for people to overcome traumas and function well. “This is an alternative paradigm for understanding all kinds of what are seen as mental illnesses. Part of my goal is to bring this different perspective to all of these things that have been so medicalized,” he explains to host Shiv Gaglani.  A welcome discovery of IFS is that among the parts, there is a core Self that can't be damaged and knows how to heal. As Schwartz explains it, IFS therapy works by opening enough space for the Self to pop out and start relating to, and leading, the other parts that may be critical, protective or play other roles. Don’t miss this fascinating look at an evidence-based therapeutic approach that challenges conventional thinking and offers hope to patients with a long history of struggle. "There are many heavily diagnosed people who feel hugely relieved to know they're not sick."Mentioned in this episode: https://ifs-institute.com/

Lessons From A Healthcare Entrepreneur’s Journey - Ari Blum, CEO and Founder of Clover LearningToday’s guest, Ari Blum, enjoyed working as a hospital-based radiologic technologist and became a successful edtech entrepreneur, but he’s not one to sugarcoat either experience. That’s why this in-depth conversation with host Shiv Gaglani is a great learning opportunity for those interested in a healthcare career, or entrepreneurship, or both as Ari describes his remarkable journey creating and running Clover Learning, which helps medical imaging students prepare for certification exams and empowers working professionals to efficiently earn their continuing education credits. A longstanding entrepreneurial mindset spurred Ari to convert what was a side hustle creating short continuing education videos into an ed-tech platform that has been used by more than 50,000 learners. And while he loves what he does and the impact he has, he cautions that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. “If you take the time -- and in many cases, people's money -- and you're convincing people to leave a job and come work for you and spend their money on your product or service, there's a stewardship with that and there's a weight and there's a sacrifice.” But for those motivated to manage those challenges, Ari says this is a better time than ever to get projects off the ground. Tune in to find out why he thinks that’s the case, where he thinks AI is going in healthcare and what plans he has for expanding the reach of Clover Learning into other medical fields and beyond. Mentioned in this episode:Clover Learning"This" - Song by Darius Rucker

Group dental practices are common now, but that was not the case thirty years ago when solo practitioners dominated the space. On this special episode of Raise the Line produced in collaboration with Areo Dental, we’re going to hear from two leading figures in changing that paradigm, Dr. Rick Workman, the founder and executive chairman of Heartland Dental and Pat Bauer, the company’s CEO. As you’ll learn in this fascinating conversation led by Areo Dental’s co-CEOs -- Dr. Anushka Gaglani and Dr. Abhishek Nagaraj -- Workman and Bauer grew Heartland from a handful of practices into the largest dental support organization in the US with more than 1,700 locations. Workman attributes that success to thinking of their members as customers, and making sure to create value for them and respect for dentistry. “We have to understand they have to have clinical autonomy and our job is to do everything we can to make their lives better and easier and to always honor the patient.” Heartland does that by providing everything from operational support to benchmarking for quality assurance to vetting technology, among many other services. From a business perspective, Bauer thinks an additional factor in Heartland’s growth has been being in synch with the needs and goals of the practices. “It's about alignment with our doctors, alignment with the owners, alignment with all the teams, and that led us to be able to continue to grow because more and more people become successful.” Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn about the evolution of dental practices in the US, what it means for patients, and what lies ahead for the field. Mentioned in this episode:https://www.areodental.com/https://heartland.com/