In 2010, our guest, Rob Long, was on the cusp of an NFL career after being a star punter at Syracuse University. But that bright future was sidelined when Rob was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain tumor just five days after his final college game. Fortunately, emergency surgery and treatment gave him a second chance. As you’ll learn in this fascinating episode of Raise the Line, a new purpose took the place of his NFL dreams and today he's the executive director of Uplifting Athletes, a nonprofit using sports to raise awareness and resources for rare diseases. One signature program developed under his leadership is the Young Investigator Draft held annually since 2018 at the home stadium of the Philadelphia Eagles. “Our program is modeled after the NFL draft, but instead of drafting the top athletes in the country, we draft and fund the next generation of rare disease researchers,” Long tells host Lindsey Smith. So far, Uplifting Athletes has provided fifty researchers with over one million dollars in grants through this approach. Tune in to learn about other innovative work that has connected hundreds of rare disease patients with professional athletes and provided opportunities for researchers to attend patient & family conferences as our Year of the Zebra focus on rare disorders continues. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Uplifting Athletes

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Given Osmosis from Elsevier’s mission to educate the next generation of healthcare providers, it’s fitting that our 500th episode of the Raise the Line podcast features a conversation with Parsa Mohri, a medical student at Acibadem University in Turkey.    As you’ll learn in this thoughtful interview with host Hillary Acer, Parsa applied a “Monday morning” test in choosing medicine as a career: what kind of job would he feel motivated to go to at the start of every work week for decades. “I picked medicine because I could find meaning and value in the work as well as enjoying it at the same time,” he explains. Parsa has also sought out meaningful roles on campus, including serving as a member of a committee that gathers feedback from students on the effectiveness of the education they are receiving and shares it with faculty. “This gives faculty a chance to offer any form of alternatives so when the next students come by, they will have a smoother and a more efficient education.” That drive to improve medical education also explains Parsa’s involvement in the Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative where he is guiding and mentoring fellow medical students and helping to foster a supportive and inclusive learning community. Parsa is a great example of the many compassionate and creative medical learners we have featured throughout the 500 episodes of Raise the Line, and we hope to introduce you to many more inspiring future clinicians as the podcast continues. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Acibadem University

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“When I make a diagnosis of cancer, that's changing the landscape of that patient's life forever. Their trajectory is being set by the words I write down on my report. So, that’s why I say pathologists are the most important doctors you’ll never meet,” explains Dr. Jennifer Hunt, interim dean at the  University of Florida College of Medicine. As she tells host Michael Carrese, it was the intervention of mentors that facilitated her exploration of pathology, sparking a passion in her for the importance of mentorship and sponsorship. Her career as a practitioner, educator and leader at some of the most prestigious health systems in the country has provided Dr. Hunt with many opportunities to pay that assistance forward and has led to an interest in coaching as an additional modality for career and personal development.  “In medicine, coaching has been underutilized but as a dean, I'm seeing more requests for recruitment packages that include coaching, and I think that shows it's becoming a more mainstream tool.”  This Raise the Line episode also covers how the college is preparing students to practice medicine in a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence, and the advantage of being able to offer them a wide range of clinical settings from urban to rural, and academic to community-based. “We have educational venues that cover all of the practice of medicine and that also opens up possibilities for doing community-based research and clinical trials enrollment across lots of different settings.” 

Mentioned in this episode: University of Florida College of Medicine

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“Nurses have a lot of answers. We're problem solvers. We're innovators,” says Dr. Sarah Szanton, who is a case in point for using her experience doing home visits as a nurse practitioner to help pioneer an innovative model of elder care called CAPABLE. It’s a four-month long program in which a nurse, occupational therapist and handy worker address difficulties an older adult may have in daily living as well as the safety issues in their home so they are able to age in place while achieving the best possible health status and quality of life. So far, it has served 10,000 people in twenty-three states, and efforts are underway to scale the model as broadly as possible to meet the needs of the country’s burgeoning senior population. “If the CAPABLE program were a drug, it would be a blockbuster. It cuts disability in half and saves seven times what it costs,” she explains. As you’ll learn in this informative conversation with our new Raise the Line host Caleb Furnas, Dr. Szanton is in a position to shape healthcare delivery far beyond elder care in her role as dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Tune in to learn about a community healthcare model being developed based on work in Costa Rica, and how the school deploys simulation technologies to hone difficult skills and develop empathy for both patients and fellow providers.

Mentioned in this episode: 

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

CAPABLE

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You might think training for and completing ultramarathons while managing the long hours and other demands of a medical residency would be too much to handle, but in the case of Dr. Estello Hill, athletics have fueled his success on the job. “It's really taught me what I'm capable of, how I can push myself and when I should dial back. I think it's given me an intense sense of balance with everything,” he explains. Dr. Hill just wrapped up his internal medicine residency at the University of British Columbia and has begun a fellowship there in gastroenterology where he can pursue his special interest in the gut microbiome. “It's an exciting space that I think is going to open up some new understanding for a lot of disease processes that we don't actively understand now, and also potentially open up new treatment pathways.” In this inspiring installment in our NextGen Journeys series, Hill and host Hillary Acer also discuss how he sees AI being integrated into medical care, and his interest in longevity medicine, complete with book recommendations on nutrition and other keys to a healthy lifestyle. 

Mentioned in this episode:  The University of British Columbia

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For our NextGen Journeys series, host Hillary Acer sat down with Dr. Brian Le at a major moment of transition as he was just finishing up his residency in family medicine at Adventist Health in Glendale, California. As he embarks on his next chapter, Dr. Le reflects on the highlights of his medical education journey and takes stock of the key lessons he will bring forward with him. “I think the biggest thing that I've learned so far is you really don't know what you don't know, which goes to one of the reasons why I wanted to pursue medicine... there's always an endless pursuit of knowledge and of improving yourself,” he shares. There’s also an endless amount of knowledge coming at today’s clinicians which, he says, requires a good dose of humility. “Those who don't remain humble, in my opinion, can't really thrive in this environment just because there's always something new to learn.” Dr. Le’s learning journey included earning a DO from A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Arizona -- one of Osmosis’ key learning partners -- a master's degree in medical health sciences from Touro University in California, and serving as an Osmosis Medical Education Fellow and curriculum consultant.  Considering that wealth of education and experience, it’s no wonder you’re in for a wisdom drop on learning, medicine, and the future of healthcare from one of the newest members of the next generation of caregivers.

Mentioned in this episode: A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine

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In this installment of in our Next Gen Journeys series featuring conversations with learners and early career practitioners in medical professions around the globe, we introduce you to Dr. Bradley Max Segal, a physician in the Department of Health, South Africa with a self-described passion for technology and innovation. Although he’s only a few years out of medical school, Dr. Segal has worked extensively at the intersection of healthcare and data science to develop solutions to the challenges found in low resource health systems, often serving as a bridge between technical and clinical teams. “Oftentimes you have groups that are speaking a completely different language so the approach I take is about being aligned in terms of what the problem is, aligning the language and aligning the solution,” he tells Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith. Of course one of the biggest questions in healthcare regarding the use of technology is the role of AI.  On the plus side, Dr. Segal sees great potential for AI chatbots to be used as an extension of very limited clinical staff in under resourced areas leading to improved patient engagement and understanding of their health. He cautions, though, that providers need to develop the ability to discern the quality of the many AI tools that are coming their way at a fast pace. “I think the main skillset that's going to become increasingly relevant is the ability to understand how these systems are evaluated and where they can go wrong. Understanding how not to use them is oftentimes more important than when to use them.” Join us for an insightful conversation on the realities of deploying technology in healthcare especially in low-resource areas.

Department of Health South Africa

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Today on Raise the Line, we make a stop in Northern Europe on our ongoing tour of medical education around the globe and bring  you the perspective of Dr. Povilas Ignatavicius, a hepato-pancreato-biliary and liver transplant surgeon and vice dean at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, which is the largest institution of higher education for biomedical sciences in that country. In particular, Dr. Ignatavicius shares his insights on medical simulation and student evaluations, which are among his areas of responsibility.  As he describes to host Michael Carrese, his school takes an approach to simulation that values a continual presence of instructors and distributes resources so that individual programs such as surgery and nursing can offer access to what he describes as improved simulation technology. “Our students are exposed to medical simulation starting in year one. Our plan for the next year is that they will spend about 30% of the time with medical simulation at different levels,” he explains. This enlightening conversation also touches on the growth of international students at the university, how AI is impacting education, and a key quality that he thinks sets his school apart from others in Europe. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

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Last year’s declaration by the U.S Surgeon General that loneliness and isolation are a public health crisis was based on research showing that they have a negative impact on mental health, blood pressure, cognitive performance and, most relevant to our discussion today on Raise the Line, immune system function. That’s why it’s important for people dealing with chronic illnesses to stay socially connected at whatever level they are capable of, says our guest Dr. Rose Perry, a neuroscientist and executive director of an applied research non-profit called Social Creatures. “When your symptoms aren't good, being isolated can be like throwing gasoline on the fire. I don't think lack of social connection is a cause of chronic illness, it's really about setting conditions that make healing maximally possible,” she says. At Social Creatures, Dr. Perry and her team create programs designed to help populations at risk for social isolation feel like they are connected and supported.  As she explains to host Raven Baxter of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses at Mount Sinai, providers should be aware of programs like hers and affinity groups (e.g. knitting clubs) in their locality and engage in “social prescribing” as part of a treatment plan. “A lot of doctors will develop a resource list so they can pull it up and then kind of matchmake their patient with an organization.” Don’t miss this final episode in our special series on Post-Acute Infection Syndromes where you’ll hear about practical strategies providers can use to help address an often overlooked factor in someone’s ability to be as healthy as possible. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Mount Sinai Health System 

Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation 

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Medical school and residency are daunting enough without dealing with a chronic illness on top of it, but that has been the reality for our guest today, Dr. Kyle Dymanus. In this candid interview with Raise the Line host Hillary Acer, Dymanus shares a wealth of wisdom about balancing studies, work and wellbeing gained during her years as a med student at Medical College of Georgia and her current residency in urology at Rush University Medical Center.  A key for her was having a network of supporters outside of her professional circle to help her manage ulcerative colitis, a condition she was hesitant to disclose to colleagues and supervisors. “My friends and family were literally the ones on the ground calling my doctors to schedule appointments and following up when they didn't send medications to my pharmacy. I honestly could not have done it without them,” she shares. On a promising note, Dymanus believes more support is being made available within residency programs as recognition grows about the mental and physical health impacts that can result from the demanding, high stakes work involved. “The traditional thinking with residents and doctors is you need to be strong, you need to kind of suffer through this, but I think a lot of programs are now being more proactive, and they’re providing  supportive resources for residents ahead of time.” Hillary and Dr. Dymanus also touch on her interests in medical device development, outcomes research, quality improvement, and global health inequities. You won’t want to miss this inspiring episode in our Next Gen Journeys series featuring fresh perspectives on education, medicine, and the future of healthcare.

Mentioned in this episode:

Rush University Medical Center

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