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Telehealth Policy Gaps: Challenges with Remote Prescribing

On May 11th, the Public Health Emergency (PHE) and some of the provisions that supported the explosive growth of telehealth, will expire, leaving telehealth providers scrambling to address some of the challenges of proving remote care.

My special guest in this episode is Dori Martini, Vice President of Operations and Regulatory Affairs for Circle Medical, a large, multi-state, contemporary, personalized primary care practice that offers high quality care, both in person, and via telemedicine. They are an affiliate of the University of California at San Francisco.

Dori has an impressive understanding of the gaps – especially policy gaps - becoming evident in the day-to-day use of telehealth. In this episode, she shares some unique “best practices” in working around a few of the gaps and some practical ideas for managing your remote patients.

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Circling the Wagons… to Solve Real Problems in Neurology

It is estimated that globally, one in six people are affected by a health issue that includes some form of a neurological disorder. Within the United States, as many as 100 million people are having some kind of an issue related to a neurological disorder. Add to that the explosion of breakthrough new therapies for challenging neurologic diseases and disorders, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and ALS. The field of neurology is growing rapidly and the demand for services from this specialty is way outpacing capacity. It’s an exciting, yet challenging, moment in the treatment of neurological disorders!

Our special guests today are the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer from DENT Neurologic Institute and NeuroNet Pro, Joe Fritz and Christine Mann. They are the leading experts in the business side of neurology, and we are going to dig into this unique specialty in today's episode.

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"Period Poverty"... a Taboo Topic?

Unfortunately, there are some issues in healthcare that seem to get ignored, or simply don’t get discussed appropriately, and today’s topic is one of these challenging issues.   In many circles, menstruation is a topic that is difficult to discuss openly, which complicates the challenges of period poverty. Today we explore the challenges of period poverty and how that may contribute to the significant global problem of Iron deficiency in reproductive age women.

Our special guests today are Mindy Olivarez, Vice President of Innovation at The Kinetix Group, and Michela Bedard, the Executive Director at PERIOD, a nonprofit that aims to support individuals affected by challenging menstrual cycle issues.
For mor information on PERIOD, visit their website at Peroid.org.

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NCCN Policy & Advocacy Priorities

Supporting high quality cancer care through the NCCN Guidelines is a strategic pillar for the NCCN. Alyssa Schatz is the Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. She shares the current strategic priorities for her team in this week’s episode.

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Musical Chairs... Improving Infusion Therapy

“Musical Chairs”… how are we managing infusion center operations amid the financial and staffing woes of a healthcare system exhausted from nearly 3 years of a roller coaster ride due to the pandemic? Our guests for this episode are Christine Mann, Chief Operating Officer and Director of the DENT Infusion Center, DENT Neurologic Institute, and Andre’ Diamant, Chief Executive Officer of Gray Oncology Solutions. Both are experts in infusion therapy operations.

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Who trains surgeons what medications to prescribe?

We don't often think about surgeons as being significant prescribers of medications, but they actually prescribe a lot of medications and help patients manage their medications, as they prepare for and recover from a surgical procedure.  And in today's world of team based care, the surgeon is actively engaged in patient care planning. So how does a surgeon learn what medications to prescribe?  

Our special guest on this episode is Dr. Andrew Smedley, a PGY2 general surgery resident at the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Impact of Operating Room Shut Downs Due to Staffing Shortages

A recent article in the Boston Globe raised a red alert on hospital operating rooms being temporarily closed due to staffing shortages and other pandemic related challenges. In the article, Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health, reported that, “… closing ORs is a near daily event.” He stated that UMass Memorial has nearly 2,000 staff vacancies, including 500 openings for nurses, making it hard to keep the ORs functioning at normal capacity. In the article, Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey, and Lowell General all reported similar challenges in keeping their operating rooms open.

Our special guest on this episode is Richard Palarea, CEO of Kermit PPI, a Baltimore-based healthcare cost reduction and spend management company focused on maximizing operating room efficiencies and profitability. Rich is an expert in hospital OR operations and has seen the good and bad side of healthcare systems from a business and management perspective.

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Advancing Health Equity: Individual Point of Care Solutions

Health equity is a complex issue, with a broad range of governmental, social service, and health care stakeholders who are wrestling with these issues. My guests today are The Kinetix Group’s four summer interns. They’ve been researching the  challenges of improving health equity and how each of us can make a positive contribution to achieving the Quadruple of Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the work life of health care providers and staff. In this episode, we explore how some innovative point of care solutions to help advance health equity.

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Advancing Health Equity: Using Data and Technology to Improve Outcomes.

Health equity is a complex issue, with a broad range of governmental, social service, and health care stakeholders who are wrestling with these issues. My guests today are The Kinetix Group’s four summer interns. They’ve been researching the  challenges of improving health equity and how each of us can make a positive contribution to achieving the Quadruple of Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the work life of health care providers and staff. In this episode, we explore how stakeholders can come together to collaboratively work on advancing health equity.

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Advancing Health Equity: How are we doing?

Health equity is a complex issue, with a broad range of governmental, social service, and health care stakeholders who are wrestling with these issues. My guests today are The Kinetix Group’s four summer interns. They’ve been researching the  challenges of improving health equity and how each of us can make a positive contribution to achieving the Quadruple of Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the work life of health care providers and staff.