Inside Out Quality Aaron & Leslie

“I will tell you something about stories. They aren't just entertainment. They are all we have to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you don't have stories.” ― Leslie Marmon SilkoThe story of Scott Jerome Parks captivated me and the filled headlines in 2010. His story led me to connect with people around the US and world and, ultimately, to Dr. Joel Carter, a palliative care physician. While treating patients, Joel discovered that stories alone provided relief from pain a...

Gordon Isaacs sat on a table at Stanford Medical School in 1955. A large linear accelerator shadowed behind him while he waited for treatment of the tumor growing in his retina. He made history as the first patient treated in the US with this radiation therapy approach. Linear Accelerators (LINACs) have come a long way since that time and have treated millions. How has there been so much success? The answer is a harmonization between quality and engineering. Dr. Todd Pawlicki, Professor and V...

Scott Jerome Parks died in 2007 from a radiation overdose. His slow, agonizing death captured headlines. Headlines were followed by a congressional hearing, where his dad shared of Scott's suffering and the need for reform in medical device and radiation safety. As I learned of his story, it brought me to many more stories. The first being the Therac 25. Natalia Silvis-Cividjian also found the story of the Therac 25. She too became captured and harnessed its lessons to teach students th...

In this episode, Dr. David Evans, Virologist at the University of Alberta joins Leslie and I, where we explore a question he once asked. Could he and his team synthetically recreate horsepox virus? Science is all about asking questions and creating experiments to answer them. These questions can make us uncomfortable. Quality Assurance also thrives on questions. Listen in while we discuss his experiment and ask him questions.Link to Dr. Evans' publication on horsepox virus:https://journa...

In 1920, the US began recording deaths from Opioids; between 1920 and 1921, 105 people died from accidental overdose.In 2021, 80,816 people died from overdose on opioids (CDC). We are losing a battle. The opioid crisis is a healthcare system problem; one component of this system is the sales rep. In this episode, we interview Alec Burlakoff. Alec was the VP for sales at Insys and a master of sales and building teams. His skills, contributed to explosive sales of Fentanyl and current crisis.&n...

Michelle Hutchison is an actress, voiceover coach, writer, and producer. She also teaches professionals in the medical product industries on how to present more effectively-- we knew we couldn't talk about motivational speaking with talking about the speaking part!In this episode, Michelle talks about performance in presentations with Leslie and I to discuss getting past slide decks and communicating with skilled expression and your emotional palette. To learn more about Michelle's class...