Parallax by Ankur Kalra

"A failure to finish is a failure to start"

In this week's latest podcast episode, host, Ankur Kalra, MD, meets guest Prof Madhav Swaminathan (Duke University Health System, NC, US) to discuss how he has orchestrated a major humanitarian effort, in association with Duke University Health and The American Society of Echocardiography, to supply ventilation equipment and PPE to hospitals and NGOs during the current COVID-19 crisis in New Delhi, India.

Hear them discuss the challenges and learnings associated with the supply chain, inventory, logistics and cost to deliver this humanitarian effort; which most recently resulted in $140,000 of life-changing equipment being delivered to four key hospitals in New Delhi. A most inspirational episode.

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @mswami001, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Over the past two years, Parallax listeners have gotten to know Dr Ankur Kalra through his conversations with our guests. In this episode, we turned the tables and invited CardioNerds co-founder Dr Amit Goyal to reintroduce Dr Ankur Kalra interventional cardiologist, researcher, writer, and the host of this podcast.

In this candid and spiritual conversation Amit and Ankur take a journey through former episodes of Parallax and Ankur’s writings to explore what it takes to strive for a deeper knowledge of ourselves; or, as Ankur puts it, dharma, the inherent order of reality. Amit asks Ankur’s advice for foreign graduates who are aspiring to make a career in the US. They discuss mentorship as one of the inspirations for Parallax and Ankur’s personal experiences. Ankur examines what it means to be spiritual as a clinician: putting focus on our actions can help us recognize the value of everyday interactions and place the patient in the center of care.

What makes Ankur tick? How do Ankur and Amit think about the competitiveness of cardiology? How can we lead an examined life? And finally: What is Ankur's message to our listeners?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @AnkurKalraMD, hosted by @AmitGoyalMD from @CardioNerds. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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According to Dr Eric Adler, at the core of all impactful research is a powerful narrative that makes us reflect on the human condition. In 2006, when the ground-breaking discovery was made that specialized cells can be turned into stem cells, Dr Eric Adler was thinking about how he could create a synergy between his passion for clinical work and his determination to ask compelling questions in research.

Dr Adler embarked on this question when a patient died unexpectedly and Dr Stacey Clegg, a fellow working with Dr Adler, grew the cells and discovered that the patient suffered from a devastating multisystemic disorder called Danon disease. Today the new gene therapy that his team developed is on clinical trial.

Parallax’s guest this week is Dr Eric David Adler, Medical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support at UC San Diego Health. In this in-depth episode, Ankur and Eric reflect on the decisions that had to be made in the early stages of their career. Eric shares the lessons he took away from the mentorship of Dr Joseph Loscalzo, Dr Valentin Fuster and many others. Eric talks about his research, clinical work and the future of gene therapy.

What are the pivotal moments of the journey of Eric Adler? What keeps him motivated? How can he balance between patient care and research? What is his message to our listeners at the beginning of their career?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @EricAdler17, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Two and a half weeks before her urgent orthotopic transplantation, Alin led the life of a busy emergency medicine resident. The warning signs of her dilated cardiomyopathy were drowned out by the demands of a 24-hour shift at her critical care unit. She recalls being confused while she was transferred to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was signed up for the organ transplant list.

After the heart transplant, while coming to terms with her condition, she decided not to let this “inconvenient life event” bring her down and take over her thoughts, and wrote the first post on her blog “a change of heart”. The blog is a space for raising awareness of organ donation, research and charities.

Dr Ankur Kalra’s guest is Dr Alin Gragossian, a critical care fellow, heart transplant recipient and advocate. In this episode, Alin talks about her journey as a patient, the psychological aspects of her recovery and her advocacy work. Ankur asks Alin about the mindset behind her sense of purpose and her dedication to help raise awareness of organ donation and young heart failure patients.

How did Dr Gragossian receive her diagnosis? How does she feel about her new reality? What drives her? What is her message to our listeners?

Read more about Dr Alin Gragossian's journey here: https://www.achangeofhe.art/blog

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @AG_EM33, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Dr Heval Kelli will never forget when during his third year as a medical student, a man kept coming to the clinic complaining about being hungry. The team was checking for underlying health issues, when one of Dr Kelli’s attendings took his history and realised that this patient was not able to get access to food. Dr Kelli came away from this episode with a lesson that still shapes him as a doctor: “If you treat everyone as you want your family to be treated, you will do well.”

Ankur Kalra’s guest is Dr Heval Mohammed Kelli, cardiologist at Northside Hospital Cardiovascular Institute, and a member of the ACC Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. In this inspirational and emotional interview, Dr Kelli talks about his journey, facing and overcoming obstacles, and the power of compassion.

Just after 9/11, Heval, the 18-year-old Syrian Kurdish refugee found a job as a dishwasher. At this point, he was the sole provider of his family. The pressure that comes from being poor did not leave him for many years. Today, he is firm believer in giving back to underserved communities by spreading awareness within the medical community. As he says, well-meaning people of privilege are sometimes afraid to act. What we need is more people to bridge the gap and find ways to help each other.

How can we use our power and privilege to serve? How did his experiences shape Dr Kelli to become an ambassador for his community? What is his message to our listeners?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @hevalkellimd, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Dr Sodhi remembers the first time she stepped into a Cath lab and found her passion. Years later she was preparing to do a complex TAVR procedure with her colleagues when suddenly they all recognised the significance of four women coming together in the lab. The photo of the four of them was shared widely on social media. For Dr Sodhi it became a symbol of what great mentorship can achieve, and for many others it is a beacon of hope.

Dr Ankur Kalra’s guest is Dr Nishtha Sodhi structural and interventional cardiologist at UVA Health, one of only 2% of women in her field in the US. In this in-depth interview Nishtha talks about her progression from the beginning of her career to professional fulfillment with highlights such as performing live cases for TCT as a junior faculty. She shares practical advice on networking and recalls her positive experiences with mentors like Joe Bavaria, Samir Kapadia, Alan Zajarias and many others. Ankur asks Nishtha about the role of technology in patient care and for her predictions in the field of interventional and structural cardiology for the next few years.

What drives Dr Nishtha Sodhi? What were the formative moments of Dr Sodhi’s career? What are the new frontiers of cardiology?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @NishthaSodhi, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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In one of her many posts on Instagram, we can see Dr Hafiza Khan holding a table summarising her reactogenicity after her second COVID shot. In the frame next to her is her son listing his own reactions.

Ankur’s guest is Dr Hafiza Khan, Cardiac Electrophysiologist at Baylor Scott & White Arrhythmia Management in Dallas. One of only 9 women in her field in Texas, she started to think about her legacy and the ways she can increase her impact and give back to her colleagues and patients as well as future medical students. 18 months ago, she started a microblog with the aim of drawing more women to her specialty and procedure-based medicine. Today she has more than 50.000 followers, many of them aspiring clinicians themselves. Her expertise and personal touch not only make her feed a great educational tool, but also a binge-worthy source at a time when building bridges between the scientific community and the public is key.

In this episode, Ankur asks Hafiza to talk about Instagram and reaching millennial and gen Z audiences, as well as the importance of developing and maintaining trust between different communities at a time of information overload.

Follow her on Instagram @heart.beat.doctor.

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @HafizaKMD, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Mallory was not prepared when she underwent her first heart surgery in seventh grade: She was hoping to regain her stamina, instead she experienced what she describes as a loss of self. Mallory was born with a rare heart disease called a Ebstein’s anomaly.

In this powerful episode, Mallory Abbott recounts how she learnt to draw strength from her condition: She talks candidly about the realities of going into heart failure at age 25 and the moment when she decided to embrace herself. Ankur asks Mallory about her treatment path and her everyday experiences. They discuss the importance of having a routine and putting self-care first. Mallory shares her thoughts on social media as an asset for patient empowerment.

What does a day look like in Mallory Abbott’s life? How did she reframe her approach to her condition? What is the importance of routine? What is Mallory’s message for anyone living with a health condition?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @MazzyMystical, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.

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Dr Mehra does not frame his experiences as failures or successes; he looks at all events with one question in mind: What can I learn from this?

In this week’s episode Ankur’s guest is Dr Mandeep R Mehra, Medical Director of Brigham Heart and Vascular Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr Mehra’s professional journey started in the Sevagaram Ashram in India where medicine and the Gandhian way of life were both instilled in him. His career in the US was prompted by a question posed by a neuroscientist, Sister Elizabeth Burns: “Have you ever thought about the scalability of your impact?” In this reflective and personal conversation Mandeep talks about the choices he made during his career and the people who shaped him. Ankur asks Mandeep about his editorship at the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and Mandeep shares his thoughts on selecting priorities, and the importance of living in the present moment.

How does Dr Mehra think about building opportunities? What were his formative experiences? How does he think about the role of mentorship in medicine? What is Dr Mehra’s message to our listeners?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @MRMehraMD, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO. Brought to you by Edwards: www.edwardstavr.com

In the first Parallax episode of 2021, Ankur welcomed back Sukh Nijjer from Imperial College London to review the most impactful events and advances in cardiology from 2020.

In the first part of the episode, Ankur and Sukh focus on the mechanism of the coronavirus and its effects on the heart including clotting abnormality and troponin elevation. They discuss their clinical experiences and observations within the UK and US settings in light of the latest data. Sukh offers practical tips on how to approach patient management during this pandemic.

Following this, Ankur and Sukh analyse the controversial STRENGHT study in light of the results from REDUCE-IT. They discuss the different attitudes toward early cryoablation therapy in the context of STOP AF and EARLY-AF studies. Sukh reviews the findings of the RHAPSODY Phase 3 trial and the revolution of SGLT2 inhibitors in the treatment of heart failure.

Which COVID19 patients require risk stratification with a stress test? What are the take-home messages for physicians taking care of patients diagnosed with COVID19? What were the key trials of 2020? What can we learn from the negative results of the STRENGHT study? How have studies like STOP-AF influenced clinical practice?

Questions and comments can be sent to “[email protected]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @SukhNijjer, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO.