Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast

We're taking some time to get to know Nemours’ new Chief Population Health Officer, Dr. Kara Odom-Walker. Dr. Odom Walker came on board with Nemours in September after 2-and-a-half years as the top public health official in the State of Delaware, serving as Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. Delaware is also the state where she was born and raised, and where she discovered her love of the STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). She was guided by supportive, loving parents in a world that wasn’t always kind.

Carol Vassar, producer

Dr. Lauren Averill, Chair of medical imaging at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington shares the family ties and puzzle-solving skills that led her to life as a radiologist. We’ll also hear from Cheri Berryhill about the team of behavioral health clinicians and support staff she works with at the Nemours Children’s Speciality Care Clinic at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, as well as the office just behind the coffee stand near the outpatient entrance of the AI Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, home to the Nemours Delaware Valley family financial support team made up of people who, at various times during the workday, serve as detective to find any way possible to help relieve families of the financial burden of an ill or injured child. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Mary Mehta is the chief medical officer of the Nemours Children’s Specialty Clinic based in Pensacola, Florida. It's a practice where more than 100 associates - from clinicians to researchers to support staff - provide specialized pediatric care throughout Northwest Florida and parts of Southern Alabama - despite hurricanes (and being in a completely different time zone from their fellow Nemours associates)

Carol Vassar, producer

Four Nemours associates share what inspires them in their daily work, including wisdom of business and life learned from parents, and patient stories that clinicians will never forget.

Featuring Nemours associates:

Dr. Lauren Averill, Chair of Medical Imaging at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE

Cindy Bo, Operational Vice President and Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer, Nemours Children's Health System

Becky Phillips, Manager, Partnership Development and Cause Marketing,  Nemours Fund for Children’s Health

Dr. Meg Frizzola, Division Chief,  Pediatric Critical Care Unit (PICU),  A.I. Dupont hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE

Carol Vassar, producer

In 2010, 15-year-old Manny Gonzales was a varsity high school runner when he received a stunning diagnosis: cancer. Ten rounds of chemotherapy, thirteen lumbar punctures and the support of the associates of the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington helped him get back on track. Today, he is Dr. Manuel Gonzales, a first-year resident at the very same hospital where his life was saved.

Carol Vassar, producer

Radio done right can mobilize a community to do good - and that is exactly what is happening this week in the Delaware Valley. It's the annual fundraising effort known as the “Help Our Kids” radiothon, an all-hands-on-deck broadcast extravaganza held, in years past, in the atrium of the A. I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington and on the airwaves of six Delaware Valley radio stations. Nemours associate Becky Phillips fills us in on the move from an in-person event to one that is now fully virtual. 

Florida-based Nemours patient services specialist Sharleen O’Brien-Smock shares her first Nemours experience as a 14-year-old living outside Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and how that experience informs her work today. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Today's episode highlights the work of the Simulation Labs at both the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, and the Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, part of the Nemours Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). 

Featuring Nemours associates:

Heather Sobolewski, RN, Simulation Educator, NCH-Delaware

Kimberly Dawson, RN, Simulation Education Specialist, NCH-Delaware

Melisa Colon, EMT & Paramedic, Simulation Operation Specialist, NCH-Orlando

Carol Vassar, producer

Join EMT, Paramedic, and Simulation Operation Specialist Melisa Colon, who talks about about why, after the birth of her son, she wanted to work for Nemours. We’ll also hear from James Digan, Nemours' Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, about his passion for leveraging philanthropy and development to level the playing field anyone seeking healthcare. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Meet pediatric rheumatologist Dr. Maureen Leffler, Nemours first-ever enterprise-wide Chief Wellness Officer.

Long before she arrived at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children as a pediatrics intern in 2004 she had a sense that healthcare could be delivered in a better, more holistic manner - a vestige of her childhood where she watched her family struggle as her mother battled a chronic disease. 

Featured Associate: Maureen Leffler, DO, A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE

Carol Vassar, producer

Be Brave. Be Bold. Be Caring.

Those are the words of Nemours Associate Crystal Renderos, who shares the story of her long-time desire to work with kids in a healthcare setting, and about the grave incident that solidified her resolve to follow her dream.

We also speak with Executive Assistant Debra Griffin, whose relationship with Nemours is longer than her employment here - in fact, it goes back to the early 1970s, when she herself was a child.

Featured Associates:

Crystal Renderos, Emergency Medical Technician/Medical Assistant, Lake Nona Primary Care, Orlando, FL. 

Debra Griffin, Executive Assistant, A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE. 

Carol Vassar, producer