Inspired To Heal

Public health advice only works if people trust it. In this episode, the chief scientist of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Dr. Piotr Kramarz, describes how the ECDC meets these challenges, protecting its independence, transparency, and coordinating guidance across roughly 30 countries. He shares lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, and describes why good evidence alone no longer changes behavior, making social and behavioral science essential to public health communication. He also discusses his early career in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, where he studied vaccine safety, including rotavirus and influenza studies.

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 Wanda Montalvo didn’t set out to work in healthcare, but she took a job as a clinic secretary in Brooklyn to avoid a Manhattan commute. That front-desk experience taught her more about health system gaps than any textbook, and it set her on a path to nursing school, a PhD, and executive leadership at the Leonard Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She describes intuitively applying Dr. Ed Wagner’s chronic care model at a federally qualified health center—after hearing him describe the pillars for success, they added information processing and evaluation components. Home visits were essential to uncovering triggers for pediatric asthma. She now views herself as a “super-connector” across academia, government, and philanthropy. She speaks candidly about nurse burnout, a potential nursing workforce crisis, & the impending tsunami of Medicaid coverage losses that keeps her up at night. 

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After graduating from Wake Forest Medical School, pediatrician Jennie McLaurin spent her career serving migrant farmworker families, Native Hawaiian communities on Molokai, and the Lummi Nation in Washington State. In this conversation with host William Trick, she discusses the hidden dangers facing child farmworkers, why "talk story" builds trust, the importance of family care in these communities, how she navigated vaccine hesitancy without judgment, and the ideas behind her book Designed to Heal, which draws a parallel between the biology of wound healing and healing societal traumas. A tender look at what it means to practice medicine as a companion to patients and their families, and the professional and personal rewards of policy advocacy to impact populations.

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Dan Hawkins, former Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Research at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), to trace the 60-year history of the community health center movement. Hawkins shares firsthand stories from the program's 1965 War on Poverty origins in Boston and Mound Bayou, Mississippi, through the rise of migrant health centers, rural health clinics, and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Listeners will learn how community-governed, patient-majority boards became the hallmark of the health center model and how the Affordable Care Act expanded teaching health centers and physician training. Essential listening for medical and public health students, safety-net providers, and healthcare policy professionals interested in the history of health equity in America. 

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Cook County Hospital's former Institutional Review Board (IRB) leaders discuss the principles and structures that protect participants during research. How does a major public safety-net institution protect marginalized populations from unethical research? Audrey French and Mildred Williamson share vital insights into the everyday application of the core ethical pillars from the Belmont Report that underpin modern research: Beneficence, Justice, and Respect for Persons. Discover how a frontline public hospital balances scientific advancement with the absolute duty to protect marginalized populations.

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What literal or figurative tool is essential for a long, fulfilling career in medicine? In this episode, healthcare veterans from Chicago’s legendary Cook County Hospital—including doctors, nurses, social workers, legal counsel, and a communications executive—reveal the items you should carry with you in your medical bag to survive and thrive.

Together, these frontline experts distill hundreds of years of collective healthcare experience into advice for working in mission-oriented health systems. Whether you are looking for medical career longevity tips or seeking inspiration to fuel your passion for patient care, this episode delivers the blueprint for a deeply rewarding medical career.

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In this episode, veteran disease detective Dr. Udo Buchholz from Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) unpacks five outbreak investigations spanning Los Angeles to Germany. 

Dr. Buchholz reveals the twists of tracking intentional poisoning cases in the workplace—including toxic dynamics of both boss and employee malfeasance. Discover how intentional food poisoning in a restaurant led to a unique methodology for tracking foodborne illnesses. An approach that helped health officials solve a massive international E. coli outbreak linked to contaminated fenugreek sprouts. 

Finally, we go inside the science of airborne transmission. Dr. Buchholz breaks down his detailed epidemiological study on how SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread rapidly among members of the famous Berlin Cathedral Choir (Berliner Domkantorei). 

Listen in to hear how solving complex health crises requires a massive network of experts—ranging from Berlin engineers, CDC scientists, to a health official in Thailand.

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How do lessons from combating Ebola and MERS stop opioid overdoses? Former Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner and CDC official, Dr. Allison Arwady, reveals how applied public health methods can defeat the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history. 

The illicit drug trade changed forever with the increased introduction of synthetic opioids. Opioid overdoses quickly became the leading cause of death among young adults, eventually claiming over 100,000 American lives per year. Discover how Dr. Arwady responded to the opioid overdose crisis like a lethal infectious disease outbreak, using frontline epidemiology and data-driven pandemic response tactics to save lives.

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How do global public health leaders stop the spread of bloodborne viruses? In this episode of the Inspired To Heal podcast, host Dr. William Trick sits down with Dr. Yvan Hutin from the World Health Organization (WHO) to expose how unsafe injection practices—like reusing syringes and sharing contaminated medication vials—drive global Hepatitis B and C transmission. Discover how a strategic public health campaign to improve injection safety developed through insights from the WHO and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) improved the safety of healthcare, preventing transmission of hepatitis and HIV, and hear about Dr. Hutin's impact evaluation of hepatitis B immunization to prevent cirrhosis and cancer for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in China.

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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Pauline "Polly" Thomas, who began her career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in New York City in 1981—the exact year the HIV/AIDS crisis first surfaced in public health reports. 

As one of the world's first medical field investigators, Dr. Thomas worked on the front lines to identify how the virus spread. Her evaluations were instrumental in proving that HIV was transmitted via blood and body fluids rather than casual contact.  She was in the field for critical early investigations identifying transmission by intravenous (IV) drug use, heterosexual contact, mother-to-infant transmission, and blood transfusions. She also evaluated a possible link to alkyl nitrites ("poppers") and the controversial classification of Haitian nationality as a risk factor. 

Most importantly, Dr. Thomas's persistent research proved that HIV could not be transmitted through casual contact, a discovery that fundamentally protected human rights and combated global stigma. 

While the world has seen tremendous progress in HIV prevention and treatment, these life-saving advancements now face threats, from underutilized pre-exposure prophylaxis to the withdrawal from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the program launched by President George W. Bush in 2003 that has saved millions of lives worldwide.

Additional guest information & links to podcast platforms are available at www.inspiredtoheal.net.  Please like and follow us on your favorite platform.

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