Today’s episode is a conversation I had with David Lindsay, who is an MD/PhD student at Penn. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Oncora Medical, which is a Philadelphia based company developing of a digital health platform intended to improve the way oncologists access, organize and learn from past radiation treatment data. The company's platform uses predictive analytics to unify data on radiation oncology, enabling oncologists to analyze the side effects, success and failure of past treatments and offer better treatment to cancer patients.

In the episode we talk about how he became interested in medicine, computer science, and entrepreneurship, and how he leveraged the Penn community to help found Oncora Medical. We talk more about what Oncora does, why he wanted to innovate in the cancer space, what it is like balancing being a student and a CEO, and some of the lessons David has learned as a leader. We also talk about important mentors of his, the challenges of electronic health records and interoperability, and a number of key decisions he and his team had to make as the company has grown. We wrap up with a discussion of some recent partnerships that Oncora has entered into, and what the future holds.

- Ryan O'Keefe

Footnotes

David’s LinkedIn

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

Oncora Medical's Website

https://oncoramedical.com/

Stephen Hahn (one of David’s early Mentors)

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/stephen-hahn

Oncora and Varian Partnership

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/varian-and-oncora-partner-to-accelerate-precision-medicine-in-radiation-oncology-300917662.html

Today’s episode is a quick one we recorded with Nicole Jochym to highlight the work she has done as the co-creator of Sew Face Masks Philadelphia (SFMP). Nicole is currently a 3rd-year medical student at Cooper Medical School just across the river from us in Camden, New Jersey. She holds a Masters of Bioethics from UPenn.

Be on the lookout for a lot more COVID content to be released soon, highlighting other work students, residents and faculty have been leading here in Philly and beyond.

Footnotes

Nicole’s LinkedIn

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

SFMP Website

https://www.sewfacemasksphilly.com/

For this episode, we are continuing our series featuring healthcare students and workers who are helping in the response to COVID-19.

I spoke with Casey Kim, who is a 3rd-year medical student. She is on the leadership board for POHPS, the Philadelphia Organization of Health Professions Students and has taken the lead on creating guidelines for both medical professionals and the public regarding COVID-19. She has also created CoviDigest which is a daily summary of news, announcements, and other takeaways regarding the coronavirus.

Be on the lookout for future COVID episodes where we speak with more of the POHPS leadership, teams of students designing solutions to address PPE and ventilator shortages, those developing the eICU elective, and more.

Foot Notes

Casey’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-kim-b235a8149/

COVIDigests

https://www.pohps.org/covidigests?fbclid=IwAR0JFk3dxWvSHbAIuhvtDU_IrrIQAkzd2Da42Dy3Yi2hSS7MFxk2a4eZot4

POHPS Website

www.pohps.org

Today, we are finally getting some COVID-related material. Over the next few weeks, we are going to continue highlighting some of the amazing work healthcare students and staff are doing in the Philadelphia area to help address the coronavirus pandemic.

First, we are sharing a conversation Wakim, a 1st year Penn Medical student and VP of Strategy for HealthX, and I had with Ramie Fathy. Ramie is a 3rd-year medical student at Penn. He is the founder of POHPS, which stands for the Philadelphia Organization of Health Professions Students (POHPS). POHPS is an independent student-driven coalition born out of the COVID pandemic. The group includes students in the Philadelphia area who collaborate to meet community and health care worker needs, provide volunteer opportunities to fellow students, and promote holistic professional and personal wellness.

In the conversation, we talk about his background, research interests and hobbies, how he and others came together to form POHPS, and what you can do to get involved.

Check out the website, www.POHPS.org and join the Facebook group.

In our ongoing COVID series of episodes, we will be sharing interviews with other members of the POHPS leadership, including those who are creating medical guidelines, compiling and organizing all volunteer opportunities, gathering PPE, sewing facemasks, and leading wellness initiatives, among many other projects.

We will also highlight some of the groups of students who are innovating in the med device and med-tech space to address PPE and ventilator shortages, students who are working on developing an eICU elective, students who are working on developing a ChatBot for the Penn website, and those who are getting involved with new clinical trials happening at Penn. We will even speak with a few residents and faculty to hear what it is like in the hospitals and emergency departments now, and how they are preparing for an influx of patients.

We’re excited to share these amazing stories with you all.

- Ryan O'Keefe

Footnotes

Ramie’s website

https://www.ramiefathy.com/aboutramie

Ramie’s LinkedIn

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

POHPS

https://www.facebook.com/groups/POHPS/

POHPS Website

www.pohps.org

Todays episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Ravi Parikh who is a Heme/Onc fellow at Penn. He received his MD from Harvard and his MPP from the Kennedy School. He completed an internal medicine residency at the Brigham.

Dr. Parikh gave our first (and unfortunately probably only) in-person seminar series talk this semester. He spoke about Machine Learning in healthcare, some of the projects he is involved with to better identify patients who would benefit from having a “serious illness conversation” and the challenges of bias. He joined me to talk about this topic further.

In the episode, we discuss his background, the decision to get an MPP degree, artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, some of his research interests, and what he is most looking forward to in the future of medicine and oncology.

- Ryan O'Keefe

Footnotes:

Ravi’s Bio

https://ldi.upenn.edu/expert/ravi-parikh-md

One of Ravi’s Recent Publications on ML in Medicine

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155171442030029X?via%3Dihub

In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. James Buxton – all the way from across the pond in London. James is an MBA colleague of mine and a physician from the U.K who was training to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.

In the episode we discuss how the coronavirus has impacted him these last few weeks and how he may soon be called to the frontlines in the U.K. We also discuss how we became interested in surgery, why he decided to get a business degree in the U.S, what he’s learned about the U.S healthcare system, and how he plans to use his degree in the future in both the business and medical worlds. It was a fun episode to record, and I’m looking forward to featuring more of my Wharton classmates on this show in the near future!

Host: Ryan O'Keefe, MD/MBA Candidate

Footnotes

James’ LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-buxton-138a93139/

In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Richard Baron. Dr. Baron is currently the president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, or ABIM. He received his MD from Yale and completed his internal medicine residency at NYU-Bellevue Medical Center. He served a 3-year obligation in the National Health Service Corps in rural Tennessee, practiced general internal medicine and geriatrics for almost 30 years at Greenhouse Internists, served as the CMO of Health Partners, a Medicaid HMO in Philadelphia, and was the Group Director of Seamless Care Models at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.

In the episode, we discuss how his interest in English informed his career trajectory, some memories from training at Bellevue and practicing in rural Tennessee, and the difference between working in leadership for an HMO, and for the government. We also discuss the ABIM, and the increasing issue of the public rejecting expertise, how that impacts the medical field, and steps the ABIM is taking to address it and maintain the trust of patients.

Show Notes

Dr. Baron’s Bio

https://abimfoundation.org/person/richard-j-baron-md-president-and-ceo

From the Journal of a Leper – John Updike

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1976/07/19/from-the-journal-of-a-leper

The Message in the Bottle – How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with The Other - Walker Percy

https://www.amazon.com/Message-Bottle-Queer-Language-Other/dp/0312254016

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. David Nash. Dr. Nash is the Founding Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health in Philadelphia. He completed his MD at the University of Rochester, and his internal medicine residency at Graduate Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. He was a RWJ Clinical scholar, and through this program completed an WBA with the Wharton School. He has been on faculty at Jefferson for nearly 30 years. He is widely regarded to be a “pioneer” in the world of population health, and he has many interests including health policy, quality and safety, outcomes management, and health reform. Dr. Nash has served on many national committees, and has sat on the board of a number of public and private organizations. He has written many blog posts about these areas which you can find on MedPage, and he is a frequently asked to share his thoughts in public speaking events and live webinars.

In this episode, we spoke about his education and training, the pivotal role one of his mentors played in has advancement, the value of his MBA degree, founding the school of Population Health at Jefferson, and some topics in the Population health space. I was hoping to cover so many more topics, but unfortunately, we had to limit this episode due to time constraints. However, I’m excited that Dr. Nash and I will be recording another episode soon to continue the conversation about Population Health, and to discuss the challenges of measures and reporting outcomes in healthcare.

Show Notes

Dr. Nash’s Bio

https://www.jefferson.edu/university/population-health/faculty/nash.html

Dr. Nash’s Blog Posts - MedPage

https://www.medpagetoday.com/columns/focusonpolicy/np_3

Welcome to the Penn HealthX Podcast. For those who are new listeners, we seek to interview students, faculty, and leaders working at the intersection of business and medicine at Penn and beyond. Penn HealthX is a student run organization at the Perelman School of Medicine that organizes a speaker series, funds internships and startup companies, and hosts an annual conference, among other things. You can learn more at PennHealthX.com.

In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Justin Barad, the Founder and CEO of Osso VR. Osso VR is a validated fully immersive surgical training platform. Osso is an incredibly exciting company that is revolutionizing training in orthopedic surgery and other surgical fields. In the discussion, we chat about how Justin decided to become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, how he started Osso, and some specific lessons he’s learned along the way. It’s a great episode for anyone interested in health tech, entrepreneurship, MedEd, or surgery.

Show Notes

Justin’s LinkedIn

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

Osso VR Website

https://ossovr.com/

Osso Clinical Trial – Intramedullary Nailing

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32035854

Time’s Best Inventions 2019

https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2019/5733053/osso-vr/

Today’s episode is a conversation I had with Elliot Stein while he was still a student here at Penn. Elliot had previously been involved with the leadership of HealthX, and, as you will see, interacted with just about every branch of HealthX during his time as a student.

Since then, he began a prelim year at Pennsylvania Hospital and will be completing a residency in Interventional Radiology at UCSF.

In the episode, we hit on his interest in IR, the Masters of Translational Research, or MTR, that Penn offers, his involvement with HealthX Labs, how he managed to co-found two companies as a student, and what you can do with the many funding opportunities on campus. Lots of great information, especially for those interested in entrepreneurship.