Raise the Line

Having a waiting list of 20,000 people to take your training is a pretty good sign you’re onto something important. That’s the mixed blessing Dr. Richard Schwartz faces as interest in Internal Family Systems -- an innovative therapeutic approach to trauma and other mental disorders he developed -- continues to grow. The “family” in this case are the multiple parts of a person’s psyche that, in Schwartz’s view, need to listen to each other in order for people to overcome traumas and function well. “This is an alternative paradigm for understanding all kinds of what are seen as mental illnesses. Part of my goal is to bring this different perspective to all of these things that have been so medicalized,” he explains to host Shiv Gaglani.  A welcome discovery of IFS is that among the parts, there is a core Self that can't be damaged and knows how to heal. As Schwartz explains it, IFS therapy works by opening enough space for the Self to pop out and start relating to, and leading, the other parts that may be critical, protective or play other roles. Don’t miss this fascinating look at an evidence-based therapeutic approach that challenges conventional thinking and offers hope to patients with a long history of struggle. "There are many heavily diagnosed people who feel hugely relieved to know they're not sick."

Mentioned in this episode: https://ifs-institute.com/

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Lessons From A Healthcare Entrepreneur’s Journey - Ari Blum, CEO and Founder of Clover Learning

Today’s guest, Ari Blum, enjoyed working as a hospital-based radiologic technologist and became a successful edtech entrepreneur, but he’s not one to sugarcoat either experience. That’s why this in-depth conversation with host Shiv Gaglani is a great learning opportunity for those interested in a healthcare career, or entrepreneurship, or both as Ari describes his remarkable journey creating and running Clover Learning, which helps medical imaging students prepare for certification exams and empowers working professionals to efficiently earn their continuing education credits. A longstanding entrepreneurial mindset spurred Ari to convert what was a side hustle creating short continuing education videos into an ed-tech platform that has been used by more than 50,000 learners. And while he loves what he does and the impact he has, he cautions that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. “If you take the time -- and in many cases, people's money -- and you're convincing people to leave a job and come work for you and spend their money on your product or service, there's a stewardship with that and there's a weight and there's a sacrifice.” But for those motivated to manage those challenges, Ari says this is a better time than ever to get projects off the ground. Tune in to find out why he thinks that’s the case, where he thinks AI is going in healthcare and what plans he has for expanding the reach of Clover Learning into other medical fields and beyond. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Clover Learning

"This" - Song by Darius Rucker

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Group dental practices are common now, but that was not the case thirty years ago when solo practitioners dominated the space. On this special episode of Raise the Line produced in collaboration with Areo Dental, we’re going to hear from two leading figures in changing that paradigm, Dr. Rick Workman, the founder and executive chairman of Heartland Dental and Pat Bauer, the company’s CEO. As you’ll learn in this fascinating conversation led by Areo Dental’s co-CEOs -- Dr. Anushka Gaglani and Dr. Abhishek Nagaraj -- Workman and Bauer grew Heartland from a handful of practices into the largest dental support organization in the US with more than 1,700 locations. Workman attributes that success to thinking of their members as customers, and making sure to create value for them and respect for dentistry. “We have to understand they have to have clinical autonomy and our job is to do everything we can to make their lives better and easier and to always honor the patient.” Heartland does that by providing everything from operational support to benchmarking for quality assurance to vetting technology, among many other services. From a business perspective, Bauer thinks an additional factor in Heartland’s growth has been being in synch with the needs and goals of the practices. “It's about alignment with our doctors, alignment with the owners, alignment with all the teams, and that led us to be able to continue to grow because more and more people become successful.” Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn about the evolution of dental practices in the US, what it means for patients, and what lies ahead for the field. 

Mentioned in this episode:

https://www.areodental.com/

https://heartland.com/

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It's safe to say the majority of people reading this post have used Uber as a ride service, and many have also tapped Uber Eats for food delivery. What you might be less familiar with is the Uber Health platform that enables healthcare organizations to arrange rides and services on behalf of patients including deliveries of prescriptions, groceries, and over-the-counter items to their homes. Patients don’t need to have an Uber account, credit card or even a smartphone because everything is handled for them by a care coordinator. According to our guest Dr. Mike Cantor, the company’s chief medical officer, the aim is to make the healthcare system more efficient and effective by improving access to the services people need to stay healthy. “In the value-based care system where you can save money by being preventive and keeping people away from hospitals, Uber is potentially a really good set of solutions for the healthcare system and ultimately for the patients as well,” he says. Cantor is well-placed to help guide Uber’s potential impact on healthcare because of his rich background as a clinician and executive working on quality improvement and care management programs for healthcare providers and health plans. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion with host Derek Apanovitch about how healthcare delivery is being impacted by one of today’s most disruptive and innovative companies, and learn what partnerships Uber is forming to grow its healthcare role including support for caregivers.  

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uberhealth.com/

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

Today's guest fits into one of Raise the Line’s favorite categories of people: physician entrepreneur. We've talked before on the podcast about the overlapping qualities of drive, curiosity, and desire for impact that both share, and that last trait is the core interest of Dr. Navin Goyal. A great example is OFFOR Health, a mobile healthcare company he co-founded that expedites care for children in the US who face long waits for procedures. “If you’re a four-year-old with dental disease and you're on Medicaid, you have an average nine-to-twelve month wait to get into an operating room.  We can enable that procedure within one month,” says Goyal. His experience with OFFOR led to the formation of LOUD Capital, which allows Goyal and his partners to seek out other business opportunities that have a social impact. Since launching in 2015, LOUD has partnered with over seventy portfolio companies in healthcare and beyond. But despite his success, Goyal has embraced the concept of being an underdog, hence the title of the book about his journey, Physician Underdog, and his weekly newsletter Underdog for Good. Check out this episode with host Shiv Gaglani to find out why he likes the term, what qualities a potential investment needs to have to get him excited and what he sees as a key upside to having physicians working in a variety of industries. 

Mentioned in this episode:

https://www.loud.vc/
Underdog for Good Newsletter
Physician Underdog Book
Beyond Physician

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

One silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is a jump in enrollments in public health degree programs and that’s welcome news to Dr. Jan Carney, director of the Master of Public Health program at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, who believes the field needs a massive injection of personnel. “We need probably an 80% increase in people working in state and local health departments to have the essentials of public health.” As Vermont’s former Commissioner of Health, Carney knows the challenges public health officials face and brings those insights to Larner’s online-only MPH program, which covers the broad domains of the field from epidemiology to biostatistics to environmental health and also exposes students to the particular health challenges in rural communities. The program also prepares students for perhaps the biggest challenge facing the field: communication of health information in an era of misinformation.  To that end, Carney is urging more ascertainment of how different groups of people prefer to receive information and is suggesting a major change in approach. “Maybe we can start to think of public health communication more as a conversation than a one-way information flow.” Join host Michael Carrese for insights from a national force in public health into how education is evolving to prepare public health practitioners for their vital work in challenging times for the profession.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.uvm.edu/publichealth/

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

Raise the Line’s in-depth look at the potential use of psychedelic compounds in mental health treatment continues today with a focus on the role they may play in helping people overcome substance use disorders. Our guest is Dr. Jeeshan Chowdhury, whose own mental health journey led him to found Journey Colab, a company combating addiction through psychedelic care while employing a unique stakeholder model that includes indigenous communities in ownership. “We have put 10% of the founding equity of the company into an irrevocable purpose trust so that the land, the traditions and the people that our medicines and our work are inspired from can benefit from it,” explains Chowdhury. He tells host Shiv Gaglani that indigenous traditions also inform how the company approaches psychedelic therapy itself. “When we look at their use, it is always done in the context of an expert healer, often called a shaman, and it's done as part of a very well-honed protocol and in the context of a larger community.” Check out this thoughtful discussion to find out why Chowdhury thinks of the therapeutic use of psychedelics as akin to surgery, and how Journey Colab is working with rehab center partners to integrate psychedelic care through clinical trials with the goal of creating an integrated treatment program.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.journeycolab.com

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

Today’s episode touches on some regular themes we explore on Raise the Line such as equal access to quality healthcare, provider burnout and the impact of AI on medicine, but on this episode, we have the welcome opportunity to take a look at these key issues from the perspective of a doctor-turned-entrepreneur in Brazil. Today, Dr. Bruno Lagoeiro is an executive at Afya, one of the largest medical education groups in Brazil, but he started out as a med student who was interested in solving problems he and his classmates were encountering. After years of experimentation, and guidance from a business mentor, the solution they developed was Whitebook, a mobile app for clinical decision-support that’s used in tens of millions of patient encounters every year in Brazil. Join host Shiv Gaglani as he draws out the details of Dr. Lagoeiro’s amazing journey to improve healthcare in a huge and diverse country that faces delivery challenges in poor and remote communities and a provider workforce being drained by bureaucracy. Despite these hurdles, Dr. Lagoeiro has an optimistic message to share about the power of providers to change healthcare and the promise of AI to allow them to focus more on the human aspects of medicine. 

Mentioned in this episode: Afya

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

Among the key qualities everyone wants in their healthcare providers is a love of learning and desire to serve others. That’s why we at Osmosis are confident Dr. Lewis Nasr will be a great physician and why we chose him to be the first guest in a new series of interviews on Raise the Line we’re calling “Next Gen Journeys.” The series will highlight fresh perspectives on medical education and the future of healthcare offered by students and recent graduates from around the globe. Starting with Dr. Nasr is a natural choice because of the many contributions he's made to Osmosis over the last several years including service in the Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship program and being a key contributor to our Year of the Zebra initiative. In this engaging conversation with host Hillary Acer, Lewis brings the perspective of medical students trying to learn in very challenging circumstances in which their personal safety and access to basic needs can be at risk. “It's another layer of obstacles that you have to get through. This gives international students a resilience and adaptability that they can bring to clinical practice.” Lewis also discusses his interest in hematology-oncology and reflects on entering the field at a time of remarkable clinical and technical advancements. “It's exciting to see cancer go from what is perceived as a death sentence to something manageable. I really hope to be part of the scientific wave of making cancer history.” We have no doubt that he will be, and neither will you after hearing from this thoughtful, compassionate young physician. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

https://www.osmosis.org/world

https://www.osmosis.org/zebra

https://www.mdanderson.org/

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

Today’s Raise the Line guest, Dr. Megan Meyer, has a pretty simple message for proponents of  psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) who are concerned that demand for therapists will outstrip supply in the coming years: don’t overlook the largest group of mental health providers in the nation. “Social workers provide more mental health services than psychologists, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses combined and we’re embedded everywhere. I don't think the psychedelic renaissance can actually achieve its aims without us,” says Meyer, who is an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Meyers adds that social workers also happened to be well-equipped for PAT because they’re trained to act as guides in helping clients find their own voice and not impose their own perspectives or biases.  Getting large numbers trained will require collaboration across disciplines, universities and training institutes such as the project she’s working on with colleagues at the university’s Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing to survey social workers and nurses regarding their current knowledge and training needs related to psychedelics. Join host Michael Carrese for an expansive conversation about the role social workers can play in minimizing the risks and realizing the potential of psychedelics including issues of bias and diversity, community-based models of post-therapy integration and learning from the practices of indigenous societies.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.ssw.umaryland.edu/

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