Raise the Line

Fifty years ago, rural Americans were less likely to die of cancer than people living in cities, but a study released earlier this year by the American Cancer Society showed that pattern has flipped, and limited access to care is a big reason why. That is not news to our guest today, Dr. Robert Hoyer, who has gained national attention as “The Traveling Oncologist” for his devotion to providing care to patients in a large section of Colorado where no cancer specialists are based.

As you’ll learn on this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, the problem goes far beyond a lack of specialists. "These rural hospitals will have an MRI machine or a mammogram machine, but they don't have a tech to operate it," says Dr. Hoyer, who specializes in gastrointestinal and lung cancers.

 Join host Lindsey Smith as she explores solutions to this troubling trend, and Dr. Hoyer’s efforts to combat cancer upstream by developing an app for patients that helps them identify and manage personal cancer risk factors.

Tune in to this informative conversation to also hear Dr. Hoyer discuss:

• The policy change he believes Congress could make tomorrow to improve rural access;
• Why circadian disruption may be an underappreciated cancer risk;
• How Star Trek connects to his prediction of a cure for most cancers in the next fifteen years.

Mentioned in this episode:
UCHealth Hematology and Oncology
PreVital Health App

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"We know in public health that if you're not counting, there's no way to develop prevention programs or policies.” That understanding explains why forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell is working to change how the United States tracks people who die while in the custody of police, jails and prisons. "There is no single federal database that identifies who is dying and how they are dying at the hands of the criminal justice system," says Dr. Mitchell, co-author of the book Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do About It, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

In this Raise the Line conversation with host Michael Carrese, Dr. Mitchell draws on what he’s learned in his varied career path – which includes being one of the first Black scientists in the FBI's laboratories, chief medical examiner of Washington, D.C., president of Howard University Hospital and president of the National Medical Association – to offer solutions to this data gap and also weigh in on:

·       Why communities exposed to violence may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder;

·       The risk to safety net hospitals from recent Medicaid cuts; 

·       The history and mission of the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization representing the interests of Black physicians and their patients.

Mentioned in this episode:

National Medical Association
Death In Custody book

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

On today’s episode, we kick-off a series of conversations with winners of the 2026 Raise the Line Faculty Awards from Elsevier Health, who were selected from more than 1,000 nominations submitted by students and colleagues at over 300 institutions worldwide.

 First up is Professor David Tanner, Director of Nursing Programs at Guildford Technical Community College in North Carolina, winner of the Registered Nurse and Nurse Practitioner category.  “I don't have your traditional university students that are 19 or 20 years old. I have older students who are working jobs, have families, and are more serious in their studies.” As someone who started his own nursing career at 35, Professor Tanner can relate to the challenges they face, which spurs him to make sure they are getting the best possible learning experience from the precious time they are spending in the program.

In his conversation with Raise the Line from Elsevier host Lindsey Smith, Professor Tanner also reflects on the mentors who shaped him and makes the case for why more nurses should consider teaching, even though they may have to take a pay cut to do so. “I find it just as rewarding as when I worked on the floor.”

In this on-the-ground look at nursing education, you’ll also hear about:

• The looming nursing shortage in North Carolina, and the unexpected upside it's creating for new graduates;
• A low-risk way to test the waters of teaching;
• Why he believes pediatrics is where the fight against adult chronic disease should start.

Mentioned in this episode:
Guilford Technical Community College Nursing Programs
2026 Raise the Line Faculty Awards

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

"Throw a dinner party. It's the best wellness thing you can do." That surprising prescription comes from Dr. Zeke Emanuel, whose book, Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules For a Long and Healthy Life, offers a refreshing counterpoint to the elaborate fitness regimens and proliferation of products pushed by wellness influencers in their quest for longevity.

An oncologist, prominent bioethicist, and one of the key figures behind the Affordable Care Act, Dr. Emanuel was motivated to write the book by a need to respond to a bestselling longevity guide that all but ignored what he considers the most important factor in a long, healthy life: social interaction. “Not having friends is about the equivalent of smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, but when you ask doctors to rate the most important wellness and longevity intervention, social interaction is very close to the bottom of the list.”

In this special 600th episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, Dr. Emanuel also makes the case that the race to add years misses the point. "A meaningful life isn't just about living a long time. It's about what you do with your life.”

This lively and provocative conversation with host Lindsey Smith also offers insights on:

• Why AI may soon outperform physicians in key tasks;
• A vaccine whose benefits reach well beyond what it was designed to prevent;
• What his oncology patients taught him about the hidden toll of uncertainty.

Mentioned in this episode:

"Eat Your Ice Cream" book

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

As we've noted on Raise the Line from Elsevier before, the system Americans rely on to keep vaccine recommendations grounded in science has changed in ways that many in the medical community find alarming. Our guest today, Dr. Jason Goldman, has watched this shift unfold from a closer vantage point than most in his role as liaison from the American College of Physicians (ACP) to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

“The vaccine guidelines must be based on science and evidence and that doesn't change because of someone's political beliefs. We have to keep politics out of healthcare,” says Dr. Goldman, who has been a prominent voice responding to the risks resulting from these changes as well as other public health issues.

This candid conversation with host Lindsey Smith also explores:

• Why Dr. Goldman calls himself a "dinosaur";
• The Medicare quirk that pits doctors against each other;
• His advice to students when choosing a specialty.

Mentioned in this episode:
American College of Physicians

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

As many of our listeners know from news reports, emergency departments have been under enormous strain in recent years trying to manage overcrowding, the opioid addiction crisis, the consequences of an under-resourced mental health system, and rising rates of violence against staff, among many other challenges. But our guest today guest thinks there’s something else that should top that list. "I think hands down the most important issue is the reimbursement model," says Dr. Ryan Stanton, president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians.  

Dr. Stanton’s uniquely-informed view is built on his work leading a physician-owned group staffing two Kentucky emergency departments, serving as EMS medical director for Lexington-Fayette County, and overseeing on-track medical response crews for auto racing series such as NASCAR. 

In this candid conversation with Raise the Line from Elsevier host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Stanton traces how underpayment from insurers is squeezing physicians and warping the incentives of emergency care, and why he believes the profession's ability to advocate collectively, not individually, is what will move the needle. 

This informative episode also explores: 

• Why he thinks physician autonomy is the antidote to burnout; 
• His approach to communicating medical information as a TV commentator; 
• What it’s like providing care at a NASCAR race when the “car is still smoking.” 

 
Mentioned in this episode: 

American College of Emergency Physicians 

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

Limiting the side effects of cancer treatments has been an animating force in the field of oncology for many years, and there’s been progress to report on that front, but what if you could target cancer tumors without using radiation or chemotherapy and instead generate heat from inside the tumor to kill cells? 

That’s the quest of our guest today, Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green, whose promising research using lasers and nanoparticles to eliminate tumors received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA earlier this year. “The laser beam that we're using is low power like a laser pointer, and without activation by the laser, the nanoparticles are harmless. Both are targeted just at the site of the tumor so because we don’t use systemic delivery, we avoid all of the systemic side effects,” she explains.

Dr. Green is also the founder and president of the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation, named for an aunt who raised her and who died of cancer without pursuing curative treatment because of her fear of the side effects.  Shortly after, her aunt’s husband also died of cancer, opting for treatments that took a heavy toll on his body.  “At 22 years old, I saw the horrors of cancer and the horrors of cancer treatment and just felt in my heart that there has to be something better than this,” she tells host Michael Carrese.

On this fascinating episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, we'll explore the science behind Dr. Green's approach, the challenges of raising the millions of dollars needed for human clinical trials, and rethinking the current funding landscape for cancer treatments.

Mentioned in this episode:
Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

"It's really hard to justify a test that has any complications if there isn't any reasonable expectation of benefit," says Dr. Rita Redberg, who has spent her career trying to help fellow clinicians consider the actual value of routine screenings and diagnostic testing in asymptomatic patients. Dr. Redberg -- a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco for more than three decades -- is one of the leading voices advocating for a “high-value care” approach, an uphill fight in a healthcare system that tends to reward action over restraint. Her highest profile effort was launching the instructive “Less is More” series in JAMA Internal Medicine when she served as its editor-in-chief for 14 years.

 On a related track, her research on the assessment of the safety and effectiveness of medical technology, specifically high-risk cardiovascular devices, has yielded a troubling picture. "We found only 1% of devices enter the market through the FDA's most rigorous approval process. The high-quality evidence to support benefit for these devices that I had assumed was present, wasn't actually there.”

 Join Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith for an eye-opening exploration of what Dr. Redberg considers to be the overlooked risks and false reassurance of common tests and procedures, and her efforts to put the “do no harm” principle of medicine at the forefront of everyday practice.

Mentioned in this episode:

UCSF School of Medicine

JAMA Internal Medicine's Less is More Series

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

For millions of young women and girls, often the first place they turn with questions about their bodies isn't a doctor's office, it's social media which can lead to encountering many misconceptions and outright misinformation. Or, if the right voices show up, it can mean something else entirely.

Our guest today, Dr. Charis Chambers, is one of those voices. She’s a board-certified OB/GYN with specialty certification in Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology, and Chief Medical Officer at Clue, a leading period and cycle-tracking app. She's also the founder of The Period Doctor, a platform she launched in 2019 to provide medically accurate reproductive health information and to place more minority physicians in the spaces where patients are already looking for answers.

 As she tells Raise the Line from Elsevier host Lindsey Smith, Dr. Chambers embraces the role of being a bridge between generations: "I can serve as a medical mediator where I advocate for the child and then educate the parent so that the child’s concerns are met."

Stay tuned to this important conversation to also learn about:

Mentioned in this episode:

Clue

The Period Doctor

The Period and Puberty Parenting Revolution

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

"I'd already finished my cardiovascular unit. I'd finished my pulmonary unit. I had never heard about this in any of my classes." That was Dr. Joel Bervell's reaction to discovering that a device used every day in hospitals -- the pulse oximeter -- reads less accurately on darker skin tones. He posted a 30-second video about this consequential discrepancy that, to his utter surprise, gained over 500,000 views by the next morning.

That video launched Dr. Bervell into orbit as a social media presence and created his identity as The Medical Mythbuster. In just a few years, he’s built a following of two million people, earned a Peabody Award and was named to the inaugural Time 100 Creators list, all while finishing his residency. 

On this episode of Raise the Line, host Lindsey Smith welcomes Dr. Bervell to explore the roots of this kind of bias and the real world impact of drawing attention to it. “The most impactful biases in medicine exist because no one stops to ask who was included in the original data and who was left out,” Dr. Bervell explains.

Stay tuned to also learn about:

Mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Bervell on Instagram
TikTok Channel
Facebook
"The Doctor Is In" Show

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast