Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast

It's Labor Day, and we're talking labor and delivery within the Advanced Delivery Program (ADP) at the Nemours Children's Hospital (NCH) in Delaware. It's a two-and-a-half-year-old program that started as a partnership between ChristianaCare and Nemours Children's Health aimed at having mom's deliver at NCH Delaware if their child had been diagnosed with a fetal anomaly requiring treatment immediately following birth. Nemours is taking on this program solo starting this month, and here to tell us about it are Nemours associates Dr. Margaret Chou and Dr. Joanna Costa. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Breastfeeding is not easy. It's a learning experience for moms and babies, especially the first time around. Nemours associate Lindsey Killian faced more barriers than most when it came to her first-time breastfeeding experience: her son was diagnosed with the metabolic disorder PKU when he was just four days old. This required the introduction of specially blended PKU formula to his breastfeeding routine - a staple of his diet (and that of his father, Tom, who also has PKU) to this day.

This makes 2022 particularly worrisome, as the Killians, and many other families in the U.S., do their best to find the formula they need amid a nationwide shortage. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Listen to the Killian family's full PKU journey in these episodes of Champions for Children:

Episode 124: What's That You're Eating?

Episode 125: Becoming a PKU Family

It is breastfeeding awareness month. And in previous podcast episodes this month, we've talked to the clinical experts on the benefits of breastfeeding to moms and their babies and breastfeeding across cultures.

In part three of our Breastfeeding Awareness Month podcast, we'll talk with a breastfeeding mom and a lactation consultant - both Nemours associates- about family and community support and the key role it plays in a mother's breastfeeding journey. Fathers, grandparents, sisters, aunties, and friends all play a role!

Featuring Nemours associates Lavisha Pelaez and Yolanda Sterling

Carol Vassar, producer

 

August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and in this episode, we'll explore some of the cultural aspects of breastfeeding with Dr. Tara Williams, Nemours General Academic Pediatrician and Breastfeeding Medicine Specialist based in Orlando, and Karina Charra, site coordinator in the Emergency Department of the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, and co-lead of the Adelante Associate Resource Group. 

Carol Vassar, producer

 

August is National Breastfeeding Month. According to the March of Dimes, though natural in many ways, breastfeeding is also a skill learned through practice. The benefits of breastfeeding are numerous and long-lasting. Nemours associates and breastfeeding counselors Ainger Walker and Shamiya Gould are here to talk about the benefits, the struggles, the stigmas, and ultimately the triumphs of breastfeeding.

Carol Vassar, producer

Since 2021, retired healthcare executive Elliot Joseph has been a member of the Nemours Foundation Board of Directors. Prior to his retirement in 2019, he was the CEO of Hartford HealthCare, a fully integrated, multi-specialty healthcare network serving the state of Connecticut. Mr. Joseph brings that expertise, experience, and leadership to Nemours. We'll talk about his Nemours journey,  the path that led him to the business side of healthcare, the function of a board of directors within a not-for-profit healthcare organization, and confirm the rumor that he has a particular passion for a band out of California band known for its eclectic music and dedicated enthusiasts, commonly known as Dead Heads.

Carol Vassar, producer

Today we begin an occasional series within the podcast to highlight precision medicine and the associates here at Nemours who are researching and implementing these innovative approaches to medicine, specifically pediatric medicine. 

Answering the basic question of "What is precision medicine" are two Nemours geneticists with 73 years of combined experience in genetics and at Nemours: Dr. Pamela Arn, Nemours Division Chief for Genetics, and Dr. Vicky Funanage, Nemours' Operational Vice President for Research.

Carol Vassar, producer

 

Dr. Wade Shrader has seen Cerebral Palsy (CP) from two important perspectives: that of a physician, a surgeon, and the Chief of the Division of Cerebral Palsy inside the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, and as the father of four children, two of whom are young adults living with CP.  His perspective as both family member and provider has proved influential in his decision to specialize in CP. 

Carol Vassar, producer

 

We catch up with performer, singer, Nemours respiratory therapist, and optimist Mary Ann Douglas, who we first met on Episode 4 of the podcast from 2019. In a new interview recorded in July 2022, she provides an update on enduring the COVID-19 pandemic with her PICU team at NCH Orlando, providing stories of lessons learned and stresses born, along with patient stories from that time, which includes singing!

Carol Vassar, producer

We're taking a deeper dive into Project HOPE by examining a partnership between Nemours and the State of Oklahoma that brings capacity-building skills and technical assistance to that state to help them in the work of preventing social adversities in early childhood.

Featuring Nemours Associate Trevor Lee, Program and Policy Analyst in the Nemours Office of Policy and Prevention in Washington, DC., and  Carrie Williams, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness.