Raise the Line

Telehealth has emerged as one of the biggest “winners” of the pandemic if you measure that in terms of a huge jump in awareness and amount of use. People most often associate it with video conversations, but telehealth also includes phone calls, remote monitoring, emails and sharing of images. Our guest on this episode of Raise the Line thinks there are real advantages to patients in actually foregoing video in favor of an asynchronous exchange of information. Varsha Rao is CEO of Nurx, a rapidly growing health tech company which has its roots in the prescribing and at-home delivery of contraception. “There's a lot of people who still don't feel that comfortable talking about contraception with their provider. One thing we've tried to do is create modalities that reduce friction, whether it's stigma or logistics, because those can be barriers to care.” Rao says patients feel more comfortable asking sensitive questions in writing, and benefit from the deep experience Nurx providers have on the limited health concerns they treat. “We've really focused in a number of areas and gone deep in them. That’s why we get thousands of comments from patients saying they learned more from our providers than they ever got from their in-person doctors.” Check out this episode to learn more about a different take on telehealth. If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You

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Communicating accurate, vital healthcare information to the public has seldom been more important than during the COVID 19 pandemic. As we’ve all seen, the challenges of doing that well have been a major factor in the spread of the disease and participation in vaccination campaigns. Watching all of this carefully is cardiologist, researcher and public health expert Dr. Garth Graham, who was chosen earlier this year to lead a new health partnerships team at Google/YouTube to create high-quality health content for viewers around the world. Graham will work with an impressive coalition of organizations including the Mayo Clinic, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health (and Osmosis!) to extend evidence-based clinical information beyond the exam room in a way that meets the evolving digital health needs of consumers. “The challenge that we're taking on is how to deliver public health information to empower communities across the world to live their healthiest lives. We’re using the power and reach of YouTube to engage people directly with health information in a way that they’re used to receiving other information in their daily lives.” Check out this lively conversation with host Dr. Rishi Desai to learn about the importance of providers seeing life through the eyes of the patient and community, and why the healthcare system sometimes resembles a stampeding elephant. If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You

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With just 30 minutes of physical activity every day, says Dr. Bernadette Melnyk, or “Bern,” as she's known, 80% of chronic disease could be totally prevented. Unfortunately, though, most people will not make changes in their behavior unless they are in a crisis or have raised emotions. Join Dr. Melnyk on this episode of Raise the Line as she speaks with Dr. Rishi Desai about her work at Ohio State - and worldwide through the Fuld Institute for Evidence-based Practice - finding and implementing evidence-based solutions to wellness, including decreasing the high percentage of burnout, depression and suicide in clinicians. Tune in to hear why self-care is not selfish, and how focusing on kids and pets can help people better care for themselves. Plus, discover Bern's “magic formula” to get people to change.

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“I'm a huge fan of progress, not perfection. Small steps lead to transformation more often than large steps.” David Kopp has not only experienced this personally as an effective approach to positive behavior change, but as former CEO of Healthline Media, he knows the scientific literature supports it as well. Kopp refers to the key factors in achieving wellness as MENDS: mindfulness, exercise, nature, diet, and sleep. “If you can create new routines around those things, it will really make a difference.” Because diet is such an important driver in many chronic conditions, Kopp says it deserves much more attention from the healthcare system, but knows that’s an uphill battle. “You have to spend a lot of time to understand a patient's diet and nutrition, and our whole system is based on ‘you've got 11 minutes to spend with patients.’ Check out this episode of Raise the Line as Kopp joins host Rishi Desai to discusses other structural impediments to better health, the evolving acceptance of plant-based diets, and the role passion and purpose can play in creating resilience to get challenging work done. If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You

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Andrew Grauer was just trying to solve his own problems with finding study help as a student at Cornell University, but it turns out his initial solutions, and those that followed, have also worked for millions of students. The company Grauer co-founded, Course Hero, provides an online learning platform where students access millions of course-specific study resources contributed by a community of students and 65,000 educators. The popular site also offers 24/7 tutoring. “We were helping students to anytime, anywhere, go connect to the knowledge directly that came from others. Getting more accessible, on-demand quality help to learn was the problem and the opportunity.” As for faculty – who were not uniformly positive about the service when it started catching on – Grauer and his team realized that they needed support as well to find the best instructional materials. “We also believe in amplifying great teachers and great teaching resources.” Check out this episode to learn more about how today’s students learn and the long-range implications of the pandemic-driven pivot to online instruction. Also hear what personal quality Grauer thinks, in addition to passion, is “super important” to building a successful business.

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“Everybody deserves access to care, and it's up to us to find a way to provide that,” says Dr. Jean Sumner. She and her team at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia take their mission of serving rural and underserved populations very seriously. “Almost,” says Dr. Sumner, “as a sacred trust to serve our state.” That could entail bringing diabetes and hypertension training to church on Sunday, taking phone calls at night, advocating for primary care patients in emergency rooms, or partnering with rural-county pharmacists and physical therapists. She believes being responsive to the community is key to gaining trust and providing good care. In this episode of Raise the Line, learn about Dr. Sumner's inspiring career dedicated to bringing attention to the issues of rural health, and how the pandemic has drawn attention to the lack of primary care in rural communities. Discover why observation over time is such an important and overlooked tool, how having a broad range of skills can save lives, and how telehealth can best be used as a tool to expand access to those in need. If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You

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If you have a sense of dread about what impact AI will have on healthcare providers and quality of care, you should listen to today’s episode of Raise the Line. Dr. Marc Triola, who spends a lot of time contemplating how data analytics is going to impact medicine as director of The Institute for Innovations in Medical Education at NYU Langone Health, likens AI to a valuable new member of the healthcare team that will give physicians superpowers. “Many physicians think they have those superpowers now -- such as the ability to see patterns, to know what to ignore and know what to look at, and to be able to make the right decision for the right patient -- but limitations on our ability to manage data, cognitive biases and other factors get in the way.” Adding to his excitement about the possibilities for AI is that patients will have access to many of the same tools. Tune in to gain insights from Triola on the welcome waning of ‘one-size fits-all’ medical education, the positive disruption of shifting to online learning, and to learn about a project with Osmosis and NYU Langone to serve up content to medical learners based on diagnoses they are making. If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You

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“There is a lot of distrust for the medical profession, and certainly, for, I think, science in general,“ observes Dr. Michael Whitt. How to rebuild that trust? Dr. Whitt believes the answer is teaching. Join him in this episode of Raise the Line as he speaks with host Dr. Rishi Desai about vaccine development and his team's role in COVID vaccine testing, as well as best approaches and practices to fighting misinformation. Find out about the amazing developments that have been made over the past five years in vaccine technology, and the important part Dr. Whitt believes physicians should play in combatting fear and social weariness and rebuilding trust in science. Plus, learn about what it means for COVID to be with us for the long haul, and the challenge of messaging—here and across international borders—to get everyone working effectively toward the same goal. 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

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