With National Prescription Drug Takeback Day set for April 27. “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast host Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, chancellor of UNMC, speaks with Ally Dering-Anderson, PharmD, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice and science in the UNMC College of Pharmacy, in the latest episode of the podcast, which now is streaming.

Dr. Dering-Anderson and Dr. Gold’s wide-ranging discussion include a discussion of how Dr. Dering-Anderson decided to become a pharmacist, which involved a student teaching experience. Dr. Dering-Anderson also explains why no-longer-in-use prescription drugs from the home is important, how pharmacists can help people who may have questions about their medication, and how in Nebraska, every day is drug takeback day.

“Several years ago, the Nebraska Pharmacists Association created Nebraska Meds, which took the help of the unicameral, and the governor and the Department of Health,” she said. “Together, pharmacies in Nebraska accept the return -- we don't resell them, we make sure that they're destroyed correctly -- of drugs that you don't want in your home any longer. And we do that all the time.”

UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Mellissa Helligso, manager and the technical lead of the Human DNA Identification Lab at UNMC.

Helligso, who shares that she became interested in DNA and laboratory work as a new mother watching “CSI; Las Vegas” reruns, also speaks to Dr. Gold about her work and the recent accreditation the lab received to perform forensic investigative genetic genealogy as part of its work with law enforcement.

She also spoke with the chancellor about testifying at criminal trials.

“At first it was very intimidating, and it made me very nervous,” she said. “But I would say over time, it's become kind of one of the more challenging aspects, and it's enjoyable just because you have to stay on your toes.”

In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, PhD, professor, and the Tim Hawk's Chair in Cancer Prevention and Population Science at the UNMC College of Public Health, as well as the associate director of community engagement for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

As Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month ends, Drs. Gold and Watanbe-Galloway discuss the importance of screening, the impact of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the impact of UNMC’s new Rural Health Education Complex at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in terms of statewide cancer care.

Dr. Watanabe-Galloway discussed the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center’s role as a National Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Centers.

“NCI decided several years ago that each cancer center needed to decide on its catchment area,” she said. “The entire state of Nebraska is our catchment area, which means we cover central and western parts of Nebraska, which are primarily rural, and then there are many other important, underrepresented populations included.”

Dr. Gold praised the work of the cancer center, “not just, of course, in this month where we're talking about colorectal cancer awareness, but all the time in looking out for rural and urban communities and trying to reduce the instance of cancer in our state.”

In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Sydney Norton, a speech language pathologist at the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s RiteCare Clinic in Hastings, Nebraska.

As Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month continues, Norton and Dr. Gold discuss the role of a speech language pathologist and the effect therapies can have on her young patients and their families.

“We always say we have the best job in the world, because we get to play all day,” Norton said. “And if we're doing our job really well, that's what it looks like -- and the kids really don't know any different. We get the joy of meeting kids where they're at and going through the journey with parents, of getting a diagnosis and getting intervention.

“It is a really exciting job. It's a really joyful job.”

In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Joann Sweasy, PhD, director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases here UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.

Dr. Sweasy speaks about the origin of her desire to fight cancer, her goals for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the Eppley Institute and what convinced her that Omaha was a place where she could make a difference in the battle against the disease.

“The first thing I noticed was the energy, and everyone is all in,” Dr. Sweasy said. “There's commitment at every single level from the scientists, the clinicians, the institution. This is one of the few institutions where cancer is actually in the strategic plan. The science is impactful, cutting-edge clinical research. It's just an incredible place. Community support and state support for cancer research. I don't think there's a better place in the United States, maybe the world, to do cancer research.”

They also discuss the importance of screening as a cancer prevention tool.

“It is very important to keep up with cancer screening, to be screened, to have your annual mammography, to be screened for colonoscopies, to visit your primary care physician and make sure that all of your cancer screenings are up-to-date and your vaccinations are up to date,” she says. “We can treat cancer. And the good news is, there are so many cancer survivors now.”

“Health Care Heart to Heart” posts new podcasts every other week, as Dr. Gold speaks to national, regional and local health care leaders on issues of importance. On each new episode, Dr. Gold and his guests will share information, explore health care challenges and opportunities and leave listeners thinking about how they, too, can make a difference.

In latest episode of the “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Windy Alonso, PhD, assistant professor in the UNMC College of Nursing, heart failure nurse scientist and rural health advocate.

Dr. Alonso speaks with Dr. Gold about the start of her research science career and how she has blended two things that she’s passionate about — science and caring for people.

“I loved science — so ultimately, I got that bachelor’s degree in biology, not really thinking about what will I do with this degree whenever I graduate,” she said. “And so, I ended up working as a nursing assistant, coincidentally, on a step-down unit where we cared for a lot of adults with heart failure.”

They also discuss Dr. Alonso’s research in helping patients with heart failure overcome their fear of exercise and her collaboration with different rural communities across the state of Nebraska to test exercise interventions.

In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks Joseph Khoury, MD. Dr. Khoury is the chair of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.

In the discussion, Dr. Khoury speaks about his journey into medicine.

“I still remember going into college not knowing what I wanted to do in life, and I knew I was attracted to the biological sciences, so I picked biology as a major, but it took two years of taking pre-med courses, but really not being sure I wanted to do medicine as a career, before I had this kind of ‘moment,’” he tells Dr. Gold. “What a great career that would be, where one can really help others in something as fundamental as their health. And somehow that thought never left my mind.”

He also discusses his new work with the World Health Organization.

In the first second-season episode of the podcast “Health Care Heart to Heart,” which now is streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, returns to discuss health topics of the day. His first guest of 2024 is Marley Doyle, MD, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska.

In the discussion, Drs. Gold and Doyle discuss BHECN’s efforts to address the shortage of behavioral health professionals across the state of Nebraska.

In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD, director of the Child Health Research Institute, a collaboration by UNMC and Children’s Nebraska.

Dr. Anderson Berry speaks with Dr. Gold about her mentor, Dr. Joan Smith Sonneborn, who nurtured her passion for research, and how her commitment to caring for infants and expecting mothers – “I sort of teetered between women's health, obstetrics and neonatology, but I always followed the baby” – drew her into a career combining research and clinical care.

They also discuss the important work at CHRI, including new efforts to understand necrotizing enterocolitis, an incredibly serious and often lethal condition, as well as Dr. Anderson Berry’s vision for the future of CHRI.

“We're going to impact outcomes for child health through innovation, discovery and training future scientists,” Dr. Anderson Berry tells Dr. Gold.

In the second of two discussions posted during Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Hingorani speaks about a new era in pancreatic cancer care, the interdisciplinary approach to care at the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence and the difficulties of making a diagnosis.