Dr. Kimberly Butler Willis and her partners at Goodstock Consulting are working to create health equity by taking a strategic approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion that starts with humanity and common ground. 

Dr. Willis is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Goodstock Consulting, which she was inspired to create after losing a family member in Charleston’s Emanuel Nine shooting in 2015. 

In this conversation, Dr. Willis tells us:

• About meeting clients where they are and learning where they want to go

Goodstock Consulting, an organization that is helping create systemic changes within the companies they work with, in order to create equitable, long-term health impacts for the communities they serve.

Learn more about Goodstock Consulting: https://www.goodstockconsulting.com 

Connect with Dr. Kim Butler Willis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-b-willis-phd-ches-cdp-312b755b/ 

Topical time codes:

00:32 - About Goodstock Consulting

2:22 - Meeting clients where they are

3:36 - 3 theories that guide the work

7:13 - Starting points for change

9:01 - Red, yellow, green lights

10:27 - Encountering red lights

12:16 - Reconnecting with humanity

15:14 - Advice to patients seeking care

16:37 - 3 tiers of connection

18:04 - Practice makes permanent

20:41 - Quintuple Aim & importance of a framework

23:22 - Wellness over profit

Dr. Connie Guille, Professor and Director of Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health Division at the Medical University of South Carolina, is supporting women with perinatal psychiatry. 

From an upcoming program that will allow patients to call and speak with a provider within 30 minutes, to a text messaging system designed to detect women struggling with substance abuse and domestic violence, Dr. Guille has launched many innovative programs to help women through a very critical time - pregnancy and the post-natal period. 

About 1 in 5 women experience a perinatal mood, anxiety, or substance abuse issue during pregnancy, and the cost of untreated postpartum depression alone is $32,000 per mom/baby. 

Through the pandemic, the number of women struggling increased significantly. 

Check out this interview with Dr Guille to learn more about how she’s helping women get the help they need in a fast and efficient way.

Learn more about the Medical Univ. of South Carolina: https://muschealth.org 

Learn more about the MUSC Children’s Hospital: https://musckids.org 

Topical time codes:

00:00 - Video begins

00:58 - About perinatal mood and anxiety disorders

3:20 - Prevalence of the issues, growth of the field of perinatal psychiatry

5:20 - Text messaging system for better detection

7:22 - Great results lead to increased women seeking treatment

11:25 - Quick access to care

13:53 - Expanding group of providers 

15:06 - Activities that can help

17:03 - Passion for the field 

18:56 - Ability to address issues during pregnancy

20:56 - New identity and pressure on moms 

22:17 - Advice for moms 

Kyle Kiser, CEO of RxRevu is passionate about giving providers real-time data so they can prescribe the most cost-effective prescription to patients. 

Sometimes changing the quantity of pills or looking at different formularies means hundreds of dollars in savings to the patient. 

By finding the most economical option, that’s one less barrier to medication compliance. 

The mission-driven team at RxRevu is working every day to ensure that providers have all the information they need to best help patients. 

Check out this interview with Kyle to hear more about the company and how they’re working to make positive change. 

Connect with Kyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-kiser-68ba218/  

Learn more about RxRevu: https://rxrevu.com 

Topical time codes:

00:00 - Video starts

00:25 - RxRevu's "why"

2:12 - #1 piece of requested information/65-million call backs to re-work prescriptions 

3:57 - How the RxRevu process works

5:48 - Simple changes can equal big impact

8:57 - Patient is the greatest beneficiary

10:41 - CMS requirement

12:36 - RxRevu was incubated within health systems and closely aligned with providers

15:19 - Success at scale 

16:43  - Behavior change

18:43 - Surprising findings in data

Dr. Mary O’Connor is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Vori Health, and she’s working to transform delivery of musculoskeletal care using a holistic, integrated approach.

Dr. O’Connor says according to The WHO, musculoskeletal conditions are the number one global cause of disability. That also obviously has a huge impact on the workforce. 

The Vori team sees a huge opportunity for their virtual clinic to help patients get the care they need, and in many cases may help avoid unnecessary surgery… she tells us between 20-40% of spine surgeries and 23% of hip/knee replacements are deemed unnecessary. 

In cases where a patient does need surgery, the Vori Health team can help prepare that person for surgery, which leads to better outcomes. 

During their first visit, Vori Health patients will see a health coach, a member of the physician team, and then a member of the physical therapy team. 

Check out this interview with Dr. O’Connor to hear more and to learn how mental health, physical health, and behavioral habits (like sleep, nutrition and more) all play a role in musculoskeletal care.

Connect with Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryoconnormd/ 

Learn more about Vori Health: https://www.vorihealth.com 

00:00 - video begins

2;25 - Avoiding unnecessary surgery

4:49 - Transforming the care delivery model

11:04 - Caring for patients virtually in an integrated way

18:05 - Non-compliance considerations

19:11 - Musculoskeletal conditions are number one global cause of disability 

21:08 - Making a positive impact

23:12 - Patients feel supported, leveraging tech to create communities 

Dr. Jennifer Potter, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavior Science, and VP for Research at UT Health San Antonio is working to overhaul the treatment approach and culture around substance use. 

She’s on a mission to provide compassionate, evidence-based treatment using a rational and scientific approach to reduce morbidity and mortality, while increasing access and equity.

With funding from a large grant, she’s using a 3-pillared approach to make massive change and serve as an exoskeleton to existing treatment programs. 

The three pillars include:

• Tech to create a provider network

Dr. Potter also talks about how the pandemic has shaped substance use, how substance use is intertwined with mental health, and the culture of substance use in the US, and so much more! 

This is another can’t-miss interview!

Connect with Dr. Potter:

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifersharpepotter/

Learn more about Recovery Texas:

https://recoverytexas.org 

Learn more about UT Health San Antonio: 

https://www.uthscsa.edu 

Topical time codes:

00:43 - Federal funds for mental health and substance abuse

4:19 - Becoming the exoskeleton for existing treatment programs

5:53 - Getting treatment into practice 

8:24 - Capacity

9:27 - Prevention and substance use culture 

12:12 - Mental health issues as a risk factor for substance-use disorders

15:40 - Perception of substance use and impact on treatment 

18:40 - Role of compassion and science

20:55 - Stigma of substance use

25:25 - Role of substance use, normalizing healthy use

27:31 - Personal passion and connection

Dr. Besim Ogretmen of the Medical University of South Carolina recently discovered a Covid Biomarker through lipid research. 

Dr. Ogretmen and his team typically focuses on cancer research, but they pivoted their efforts during the pandemic. 

They discovered that a person’s level of lipid biomarker sphingosine had more than a 90% accuracy rate of determining if the person would have an asymptomatic or symptomatic case of covid-19. 

He says the studies might also be useful to predict people who would still get covid-19 symptoms after vaccination with antibody and lipidomics detections.

In this interview Dr. Ogretmen shares information about his research, the discovery, as well as incredibly fascinating information about the field of Lipidomics - and how increased focus on the field could help transform medicine. He also says MUSC is a world-class Lipidomics center.

Dr. Besim Ogretmen is the Prof. Of Biochemistry,

Assoc. Dir. For Basic Sciences at the Hollings Cancer Center, and Assoc. Dean For Research at the College Of Medicine the Medical University of South Carolina.

Learn more about the Medical Univ. of South Carolina: https://muschealth.org 

Learn more about the MUSC Children’s Hospital: https://musckids.org 

Topical time codes:

00:00 - Interview starts

1:05 - Research findings

2:30 - Helping identify those most vulnerable to covid-19

4:12 - Determining how lipid biomarkers can help 

6:43 - How Lipidomics could work together with genomics & help early disease detection

8:33 - About the sphingosine lipid 

10:27 - Those with sphingosine levels above the normal range had better outcomes dealing with covid

11:49 - Ability of lipids to help with cardiovascular and other conditions, as well as medications 

13:39 - Lipid research has many applications and is gaining attention

15:43 - Passion for research

19:04 - Desire to help during the pandemic

22:03 - Science is cumulative work, a collective community

Minal Patel is the mission-driven CEO & Founder of Abacus Insights, a company that enables data by breaking down data silos to help health plans make sense of their data.

As a former physician, Minal says the driving reason behind great, connected data is ultimately about people and their health.

Minal knows first hand how the insights revealed through data analysis can be used to help patients get better outcomes.

The clean and accurate data from Abacus allows health plans to make information available to people, allowing those people to make better healthcare decisions.

Check out the interview with Minal to learn more about his intense passion for his work at Abacus.

Connect with Minal: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/minalkumar-patel-a657576/  

Learn more about Abacus Insights: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abacusinsights/ 

Topical time codes:

00:00 - Video begins

00:59 - Transitioning from Physician to CEO

2:24 - Working with health plans to help them enable their data

4:00 - How connected data helps patients 

5:19 - How Abacus helps w/ automation

7:00 - Examples of how Abacus’ data helped the end consumer

8:57 - Using data to help health plans identify those at high risk for covid & other health conditions 

13:37 - Intersection of innovation of tech and discipline of medicine

14:47 - Advantage of having a background as a physician & emphasis on the mission

18:28 - Personal passion behind the mission 

21:07 - Proudest accomplishment

Driven by a personal passion to change healthcare and “the obligation to do the right thing for the good of every American,” Pramod John, CEO of Vivio Health, is on a mission to overhaul the specialty drug market.

He and the team at Vivio - founded by a leaders previously working in Pharma - want to use data to help people get the right drug, at the right time. 

Pramod says medications are the most frequent intervention a physician will make, and that specialty drugs are the fastest growing segment of healthcare globally. 

Yet, he also says that many of the drugs aren’t widely effective. 

The team of Vivio sees opportunity for change and is working to improve things by using and analyzing real-world drug and patient data - analyzed separately from the FDA.

Learn more about Vivio Health: https://viviohealth.com 

Connect with Pramod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramod-john/ 

Topical time codes:

00:00 - Video starts

00:58 - Creation of Vivio Health

2:28 - Specialty drug market

5:15 - Endorsement of specialty drugs by influencers and celebs

8:04 - Lack of time to analyze drug trial info of every new drug

12:08 - Too much info for physicians to keep up with in practice, no infrastructure to help 

14:56 - Using computers to keep up with data doesn’t mean human replacement - they’re good at different things 

17:26 - Switch in thinking to allow change and let people work at their highest level

20:56 - Using technology more often and using it better

23:36 - Personal passion for change

For two years, the teams at Gallup and Hologic worked in partnership to develop the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index. 

We talked to Priscilla Standridge, Research Director for the Global Women’s Health Index at Gallup, and she shared the fascinating details about:

• The index-creation process

There are five key areas that the index measures, and they’re directly related to a women’s life expectancy:

• Preventive Care

Don’t miss this awesome behind-the-scenes look at this monumental new index that will help shape the global health of women.

Read the report: https://hologic.womenshealthindex.com/Hologic_2020-Global-Women%27s-Health-Index_Full-Report.pdf 

Connect with Priscilla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscillastandridge/ 

For decades, Leon Evans has been a relentless champion of mental health improvement. 

He is the former President of the Center for Healthcare Services, has received the American Psychiatric Assoc. Gold Award, was named a CNN Mental Health Warrior, and has testified before Congress.

Thanks to his innovative, mission-driven, and hope-based, bottom-up approach, Leon has made incredible strides in many areas of mental healthcare. 

He has created and been part of many innovative programs including: 

• The Restoration Center in Bexar County, TX, where people can get mental healthcare, help with substance abuse and more  

Leon says giving people hope is one of the keys to success.

Connect with Leon: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-evans-ba2bb618 

Topical time codes:

1:08 - Entering the mental health field in 1966

2:41 - Ground-up, not top-down approach

4:35 - Giving hope

5:07 - Tri-County Industries litter abatement program - hiring the mentally ill, giving them hope, purpose, benefits, and good pay

9:21 - Mommies program and the Restoration Center

13:47 - Using a peer-based program to help the homeless

15:10 - Success of collaboration between providers/law enforcement/first responders

18:13 - Scaling the personal connection and compassion (listen, and include family)

22:55 - Getting buy-in for the programs

24:24 - Training law enforcement in soft skills