Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Claire Smith, a regional medical officer at SCP Health and a practicing hospitalist in Missouri, highlights how virtual hospitalists are transforming healthcare by providing 24/7 physician collaboration to support onsite teams, particularly in rural hospitals and during patient surges. Implementing telehospitalists can play a critical role in reducing clinician burnout, improving access to physician expertise, and enhancing emergency department efficiency. Integrating telehospitalists into a care model shows potential to reshape workforce demographics and improve the ability to meet unpredictable demands.

Claire explains, "So a hospitalist is typically an internal medicine or family medicine-trained physician who focuses the entirety of their career on hospital medicine. So, taking care of hospitalized patients. They are focused on the end-to-end experience of a patient who is hospitalized. So they are integral in the admission from the emergency department, from the time it is determined the patient needs care within the hospital to the time that they are discharged to their next site of care, whether that be home, a skilled nursing facility, etc. So hospitalists do not focus on outpatient medicine. They collaborate with primary care physicians and care for hospitalized patients."

"And what we are seeing is that we are now integrating virtual hospitalists or telehospitalists into workflows to support teams in a variety of situations, including resource shortages or temporary surges in the patient population, so that we can best support the onsite teams and patients."

"What we see is that telehospitalists are being utilized when demands exceed onsite capacities, as well as in those rural situations where resources are more scarce. So a telehospitalist changes the dynamic from really an occasional ad hoc contact with advanced practitioners who may be supporting rural practice hospital medicine to reliable collaboration."

#SCPHealth #Telehospitalist #RuralHealth #HospitalMedicine #Telemedicine #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicianWellbeing #VirtualCare #24x7Coverage #PatientCare

scphealth.com

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Dr. Claire Smith, a regional medical officer at SCP Health and a practicing hospitalist in Missouri, highlights how virtual hospitalists are transforming healthcare by providing 24/7 physician collaboration to support onsite teams, particularly in rural hospitals and during patient surges. Implementing telehospitalists can play a critical role in reducing clinician burnout, improving access to physician expertise, and enhancing emergency department efficiency. Integrating telehospitalists into a care model shows potential to reshape workforce demographics and improve the ability to meet unpredictable demands.

Claire explains, "So a hospitalist is typically an internal medicine or family medicine-trained physician who focuses the entirety of their career on hospital medicine. So, taking care of hospitalized patients. They are focused on the end-to-end experience of a patient who is hospitalized. So they are integral in the admission from the emergency department, from the time it is determined the patient needs care within the hospital to the time that they are discharged to their next site of care, whether that be home, a skilled nursing facility, etc. So hospitalists do not focus on outpatient medicine. They collaborate with primary care physicians and care for hospitalized patients."

"And what we are seeing is that we are now integrating virtual hospitalists or telehospitalists into workflows to support teams in a variety of situations, including resource shortages or temporary surges in the patient population, so that we can best support the onsite teams and patients."

"What we see is that telehospitalists are being utilized when demands exceed onsite capacities, as well as in those rural situations where resources are more scarce. So a telehospitalist changes the dynamic from really an occasional ad hoc contact with advanced practitioners who may be supporting rural practice hospital medicine to reliable collaboration."

#SCPHealth #Telehospitalist #RuralHealth #HospitalMedicine #Telemedicine #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicianWellbeing #VirtualCare #24x7Coverage #PatientCare

scphealth.com

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Dr. Mark George is the principal psychiatric investigator of Abbott's TRANSCEND study and also a professor of psychiatry at MUSC Health Institute of Psychiatry. The TRANSCEND study represents a paradigm shift in depression treatment by investigating deep brain stimulation as a potential solution for treatment-resistant depression. This research involves surgically implanting a device that delivers targeted electrical stimulation to specific brain circuits. By reframing depression as a brain disorder rather than a chemical imbalance, this study emphasizes the biological nature of depression, offering an alternative to a condition with limited options.

Mark explains, "There are a lot of people, unfortunately, maybe a quarter of the people with depression who lead lives of misery where the medications and talking just don't get them back on their game. And so that's what we call treatment-resistant depression. And that's where I've spent my career trying to come up with new treatments."

"Well, so if the medications aren't working, you can try even more medicines, but the odds go way down. So there's a whole class of things where we actually stimulate the brain to try to, non-invasively and not using a pill, get in and change circuits in the brain. And those have started to really transform the care of treatment-resistant depression. There are several of them that are both non-invasive, and then others that are invasive."

"But the real holy grail would be for us to find the circuit or the spot in the brain and be able to put something there and then fix it. And then there you go, you live your life, and it would not be a pill that you have to take every day. And it would not have systemic side effects like medications. It wouldn't cause weight gain, sexual side effects, those kinds of things. So the real interest in the deep brain stimulation study that Abbott TRANSCEND is: "Could we stick a wire in the area of the brain that's not working right and pass very, very small amounts of electricity and really wake somebody up and get them out of their depression?"

#Abbott #DBS #TRANSCENDstudy #TRD #TreatmentReistantDepression

TRANSCEND

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Dr. Mark George is the principal psychiatric investigator of Abbott's TRANSCEND study and also a professor of psychiatry at MUSC Health Institute of Psychiatry. The TRANSCEND study represents a paradigm shift in depression treatment by investigating deep brain stimulation as a potential solution for treatment-resistant depression. This research involves surgically implanting a device that delivers targeted electrical stimulation to specific brain circuits. By reframing depression as a brain disorder rather than a chemical imbalance, this study emphasizes the biological nature of depression, offering an alternative to a condition with limited options.

Mark explains, "There are a lot of people, unfortunately, maybe a quarter of the people with depression who lead lives of misery where the medications and talking just don't get them back on their game. And so that's what we call treatment-resistant depression. And that's where I've spent my career trying to come up with new treatments."

"Well, so if the medications aren't working, you can try even more medicines, but the odds go way down. So there's a whole class of things where we actually stimulate the brain to try to, non-invasively and not using a pill, get in and change circuits in the brain. And those have started to really transform the care of treatment-resistant depression. There are several of them that are both non-invasive, and then others that are invasive."

"But the real holy grail would be for us to find the circuit or the spot in the brain and be able to put something there and then fix it. And then there you go, you live your life, and it would not be a pill that you have to take every day. And it would not have systemic side effects like medications. It wouldn't cause weight gain, sexual side effects, those kinds of things. So the real interest in the deep brain stimulation study that Abbott TRANSCEND is: "Could we stick a wire in the area of the brain that's not working right and pass very, very small amounts of electricity and really wake somebody up and get them out of their depression?"

#Abbott #DBS #TRANSCENDstudy #TRD #TreatmentReistantDepression

TRANSCEND

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Dr. Manish Arora, CEO at LinusBio, has developed an innovative approach to precision medicine through the Traced test, which measures exposure to trace elements and environmental toxins using hair biomarkers. The technology analyzes a small hair sample and can measure chemicals that enter the bloodstream and deposit in the hair as it grows. This exposome-based test identifies exposure patterns through longitudinal monitoring and provides a precise method to measure environmental impacts, unlike genomic biomarkers, and offers actionable guidance for reducing toxic exposure.

Manish explains, "So we like using hair for many reasons. One is we can collect it very easily at home. All you need is a pair of household scissors, a quick snip, and we only ask you for about three to five strands. We don't need a whole lot. What is amazing about hair is that it can actually give you a daily readout over the past month. And let me share with you how this happens. If you've ever seen a tree that's been cut down and you've seen growth rings in it, we think of them as yearly growth rings."

"And here there's a growth ring forming almost every hour. So in fact, if you were able to take a strand of hair one centimeter, you would get a whole month of readout at an hourly resolution. That's like 800 to a thousand sequential blood tests. And that's what we have figured out. So unlike many other tests that just give you one number, we give you your monthly profile. Again, all from just one centimeter of hair."

"The Traced test, as its first offering, is looking at essential elements like zinc and copper, but also the toxic metals that so many of us have heard of and are concerned about, like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. So what it does is it measures 15 different trace elements, the good and the bad, gives you an overall score, but gives you a daily profile over the last month. And there are such interesting patterns that we find. We find people who have high exposures every five to six days. And very often, when we speak to them, they're doing something very different on the weekend, which is a source of exposure. So we keep finding these patterns and instead of just saying, "Hey, you are high or low," we can work with them, look at these patterns, and then give them exposure guidance. Simple steps: how to improve your environment, how to reduce your toxic exposures."

#LinusBio #TracedTest #PrecisionMedicine #Exposome #DigitalBiomarkers #EnvironmentalHealth #PreventiveCare #HealthcareInnovation #Diagnostics #Toxins #Wellness #HealthTech #Environment

linusbio.com

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Dr. Manish Arora, CEO at LinusBio, has developed an innovative approach to precision medicine through the Traced test, which measures exposure to trace elements and environmental toxins using hair biomarkers. The technology analyzes a small hair sample and can measure chemicals that enter the bloodstream and deposit in the hair as it grows. This exposome-based test identifies exposure patterns through longitudinal monitoring and provides a precise method to measure environmental impacts, unlike genomic biomarkers, and offers actionable guidance for reducing toxic exposure.

Manish explains, "So we like using hair for many reasons. One is we can collect it very easily at home. All you need is a pair of household scissors, a quick snip, and we only ask you for about three to five strands. We don't need a whole lot. What is amazing about hair is that it can actually give you a daily readout over the past month. And let me share with you how this happens. If you've ever seen a tree that's been cut down and you've seen growth rings in it, we think of them as yearly growth rings."

"And here there's a growth ring forming almost every hour. So in fact, if you were able to take a strand of hair one centimeter, you would get a whole month of readout at an hourly resolution. That's like 800 to a thousand sequential blood tests. And that's what we have figured out. So unlike many other tests that just give you one number, we give you your monthly profile. Again, all from just one centimeter of hair."

"The Traced test, as its first offering, is looking at essential elements like zinc and copper, but also the toxic metals that so many of us have heard of and are concerned about, like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. So what it does is it measures 15 different trace elements, the good and the bad, gives you an overall score, but gives you a daily profile over the last month. And there are such interesting patterns that we find. We find people who have high exposures every five to six days. And very often, when we speak to them, they're doing something very different on the weekend, which is a source of exposure. So we keep finding these patterns and instead of just saying, "Hey, you are high or low," we can work with them, look at these patterns, and then give them exposure guidance. Simple steps: how to improve your environment, how to reduce your toxic exposures."

#LinusBio #TracedTest #PrecisionMedicine #Exposome #DigitalBiomarkers #EnvironmentalHealth #PreventiveCare #HealthcareInnovation #Diagnostics #Toxins #Wellness #HealthTech #Environment

linusbio.com

Download the transcript here

Xiaoxi Wei, CEO and Co-Founder of X-Therma, is revolutionizing organ transplantation by extending the preservation time of donor organs through advanced biopreservation technology. This approach addresses the gap in organ transplantation that exists because of limitations of cold storage, which constrains the hours of viability of an organ and results in over 50% of donated organs going unused. By enabling longer preservation times, X-Therma increases organ availability and organ quality, expands geographic access to organs, and enhances donor-recipient matching.

Xiaoxi explains, "X-Therma is trying to make time available for all the patients who are waiting for lifesaving living medicines, such as organs for transplantation, cell and gene therapy for curing cancer, and tissue engineering products for rejuvenating your body parts. So all of those so-called living medicines with the current technology, they do not have a way to be put off the shelf, but we are changing that. At X-Therma, we firmly believe biological time is no longer fixed. So by advancing safe biopreservation, we make them last for an unprecedented amount of time. So those lifesaving organs can be off the shelf. For example, at the organ site, we do about 27,000 kidney transplants per year, and roughly 100,000 patients are waiting on the official waiting list."

"But actually, the real reason we have such a gap is not that we don't have enough organs - 60% of us are willing to donate organs to save others' lives. The biggest issue here is that we cannot keep those organs alive for more than 24 hours at a time. So, long story short, we're changing this time from less than a day to days for lifesaving organs. So you will have time, and then we can increase the organ volume for transplants and save more patients from waiting."

#XTherma #TransplantInnovation #OrganPreservation #KidneyTransplant #HealthcareInnovation #Surgery #Nephrology #Biotech #PatientOutcomes

x-therma.com

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Xiaoxi Wei, CEO and Co-Founder of X-Therma, is revolutionizing organ transplantation by extending the preservation time of donor organs through advanced biopreservation technology. This approach addresses the gap in organ transplantation that exists because of limitations of cold storage, which constrains the hours of viability of an organ and results in over 50% of donated organs going unused. By enabling longer preservation times, X-Therma increases organ availability and organ quality, expands geographic access to organs, and enhances donor-recipient matching.

Xiaoxi explains, "X-Therma is trying to make time available for all the patients who are waiting for lifesaving living medicines, such as organs for transplantation, cell and gene therapy for curing cancer, and tissue engineering products for rejuvenating your body parts. So all of those so-called living medicines with the current technology, they do not have a way to be put off the shelf, but we are changing that. At X-Therma, we firmly believe biological time is no longer fixed. So by advancing safe biopreservation, we make them last for an unprecedented amount of time. So those lifesaving organs can be off the shelf. For example, at the organ site, we do about 27,000 kidney transplants per year, and roughly 100,000 patients are waiting on the official waiting list."

"But actually, the real reason we have such a gap is not that we don't have enough organs - 60% of us are willing to donate organs to save others' lives. The biggest issue here is that we cannot keep those organs alive for more than 24 hours at a time. So, long story short, we're changing this time from less than a day to days for lifesaving organs. So you will have time, and then we can increase the organ volume for transplants and save more patients from waiting."

#XTherma #TransplantInnovation #OrganPreservation #KidneyTransplant #HealthcareInnovation #Surgery #Nephrology #Biotech #PatientOutcomes

x-therma.com

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Dr. Rachel Artsma, lead audiologist at hear.com offers comprehensive hearing care services and she emphasizes how dramatically hearing aids have evolved from earlier generations. Bluetooth connectivity, rechargeable batteries, and real-time environmental adjustments are now being driven by smart chips in the devices, which also allow direct streaming of phone calls, music, and driving directions. Untreated hearing loss can lead to auditory deprivation, in which the brain does not receive clear auditory input, resulting in increased cognitive strain and a decline in cognitive function.

Rachel explains, "Hearing loss can happen really gradually, and so oftentimes it can go unnoticed. What we do is we like to educate people on the early signs of hearing loss, such as asking others to repeat themselves, turning the television up, or family members noticing it before them. And then when it comes to the actual hearing test, we do a full comprehensive audiological evaluation. In that audiological evaluation, we sometimes see signs of other health issues. We do make referrals to other specialists such as ear, nose, and throat physicians if we're seeing that something else might be happening in the health of that person."

"I honestly feel like one of the most exciting developments in hearing healthcare is our growing understanding of the hearing-brain connection. We really don't hear with our ears. We really hear with our brain. Our ears are collecting the sound, but our brain is really giving that sound meaning. So what can happen if we don't treat hearing loss and it goes untreated is something called auditory deprivation, which essentially just means we're depriving the brain of the sound that it's looking for. And what happens is the brain then has to work a little harder and devote extra resources to decoding that speech and sound. And that extra effort is what can lead to some strain on other cognitive functions such as memory. So we see that that strain, because we hear with our brain, can lead to some of those other cognitive functions declining."

#HearingCom #HearingHealth #Teleaudiology #Audiology #HearingAids #DigitalHealth #CognitiveHealth #PatientCare #HearingCareInnovation #HearingWellness

hear.com

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Dr. Rachel Artsma, lead audiologist at hear.com offers comprehensive hearing care services and she emphasizes how dramatically hearing aids have evolved from earlier generations. Bluetooth connectivity, rechargeable batteries, and real-time environmental adjustments are now being driven by smart chips in the devices, which also allow direct streaming of phone calls, music, and driving directions. Untreated hearing loss can lead to auditory deprivation, in which the brain does not receive clear auditory input, resulting in increased cognitive strain and a decline in cognitive function.

Rachel explains, "Hearing loss can happen really gradually, and so oftentimes it can go unnoticed. What we do is we like to educate people on the early signs of hearing loss, such as asking others to repeat themselves, turning the television up, or family members noticing it before them. And then when it comes to the actual hearing test, we do a full comprehensive audiological evaluation. In that audiological evaluation, we sometimes see signs of other health issues. We do make referrals to other specialists such as ear, nose, and throat physicians if we're seeing that something else might be happening in the health of that person."

"I honestly feel like one of the most exciting developments in hearing healthcare is our growing understanding of the hearing-brain connection. We really don't hear with our ears. We really hear with our brain. Our ears are collecting the sound, but our brain is really giving that sound meaning. So what can happen if we don't treat hearing loss and it goes untreated is something called auditory deprivation, which essentially just means we're depriving the brain of the sound that it's looking for. And what happens is the brain then has to work a little harder and devote extra resources to decoding that speech and sound. And that extra effort is what can lead to some strain on other cognitive functions such as memory. So we see that that strain, because we hear with our brain, can lead to some of those other cognitive functions declining."

#HearingCom #HearingHealth #Teleaudiology #Audiology #HearingAids #DigitalHealth #CognitiveHealth #PatientCare #HearingCareInnovation #HearingWellness

hear.com

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