Raise the Line Michael Carrese, Shiv Gaglani

Today, we add another voice to our ongoing conversation on Raise the Line about how to improve the nurse staffing crisis faced by the US healthcare system. That voice belongs to Bhavdeep Singh, founder and CEO of Global MedTeam, a startup focused on bringing foreign-born nurses to the US to fill staff shortages. When Singh, who has deep experience in healthcare management, learned from a hospital executive that the annualized cost of employing one travel nurse can reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars in some locations, he realized there was room, and a need, for new approaches. “There's some wonderful work being done in this space, whether it's process improvement, remote monitoring, or software to make sure that we have the right kind of scheduling…all of these things are very helpful, but that's not going to get us to where we need to be. We will still have a huge shortage.” Singh believes employing pre-credentialed nurses from abroad, especially from the Philippines which has a long history of sending nurses to the US, is a viable part of the solution and his firm has put processes in place to make it a turnkey experience for employers. “We handle everything for the client including immigration from start to finish.” Join host Michael Carrese as he explores potential healthcare impacts on the “supplying” countries, the storied reputation of Filipino nurses and how this approach might also work for shortages in allied health professions.

Mentioned in this episode: https://globalmedteam.com/

Today, we’re excited to bring you the first episode in a special Raise the Line series that Osmosis from Elsevier has created in partnership with the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. PAIS: Root Causes, Drivers, and Actionable Solutions is a ten-part examination of a range of post-acute infection syndromes such as long COVID, tick-borne illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, and connective tissue disorders. Your host, Dr. Raven Baxter, a molecular biologist and Director of Science Communication at CoRE, will be joined by an impressive array of specialists in the field to explore causes, symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, as well as the devastating impact on patients who often struggle for many months or even years with a troubling span of symptoms affecting everything from muscle movement to mental health. As you’ll learn in the series, diagnostic protocols are lacking for many of these conditions, leading to delayed treatment and prolonged suffering for patients. In this inaugural episode, Dr. Baxter is joined by microbiologist Dr. Amy Proal, CEO of the PolyBio Research Foundation; Yale University Professor of Immunobiology, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki; and Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine who will discuss the Building Blocks of PAIS.

Mentioned in this episode:
Mount Sinai Health System (www.mountsinai.org)
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation (www.stevenandalex.org)

For those proponents of psychedelic-assisted therapy concerned that demand for therapists will outstrip supply in the coming years, you may be reassured by today’s conversation with Dr. Ingmar Gorman and Dr. Elizabeth Nielson, psychologists who have been involved in FDA-approved clinical trials of MDMA and psilocybin, and the co-founders of a company called Fluence Training which is working to scale education for this purpose. As they explain to host Shiv Gaglani, they see their task, broadly speaking, as serving three categories of people: those with general interest in the field; all types of clinicians who want to be able to have informed conversations with patients wishing to discuss their current and/or future use; and those who want to become therapists in this modality. Fluence is especially well-positioned for that last group because of Gorman’s and Nielson’s involvement in designing therapy protocols in clinical trials, but also because of their work developing therapy manuals for drug companies. “If and when their drugs go to market, we’ll be able to train clinicians in the community who will be working with those compounds,” says Gorman. One bottom line message in this richly-informed discussion is that the field needs all comers and they hope people aren’t dissuaded by misconceptions about what’s required. “We hear all the time, 'I want to be involved, but I’d have to go back to school and get all these years of clinical experience' when the reality is there's just so many ways now to get involved,” says Nielson. This is a great overview of the status of training, the potential pitfalls awaiting the field, the importance of managing patient expectations, and much more.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.fluencetraining.com

Part of why we love bringing Raise the Line to you is we get to introduce you to creative, committed people who see challenges in the healthcare system as opportunities to improve it.
Today’s guest, radiation oncologist Dr. David Grew, is a perfect example. In the depths of COVID when his patients had to meet with him unaccompanied by a support person, he realized his ability to help people understand the complexities of their care was more important than ever, so he doubled-down on his practice of making simple drawings for them on whatever piece of paper was handy. When patients told them they were bringing the papers home so they could explain things to family members, he realized he needed to up his game. “That’s when the light bulb went off. I need to digitize these drawings so that we can scale this educational moment between a doctor and a patient,” he tells host Michael Carrese. Armed with a laptop and basic educational software, Dr. Grew founded the company PRIMR and started building a library of short, animated videos containing the most common explanations he would give patients. When clinical trial managers noticed what he was doing, they wanted in and so a major focus of PRIMR is educating potential trial participants as well. “I'm on a mission to make sure that patients have an easy way to understand clinical trials.” Listen in to find out about a major medical and societal benefit to better education about these trials and to learn how Dr. Grew thinks PRIMR can help with the crisis of physician burnout.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.primrmed.com/

“Maybe we think we’re just students and we’re just learning, but you can have an impact as a medical student,” says Dr. Desiree Franco Lugo, who has acted on that insight throughout her recently completed journey at Anáhuac University, Mexico and during her participation in the Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship, where she has served as a Regional Lead for the past two years. Des, as we’ve come to know her, has happily embraced one of the most important roles Regional Leads play: being a mentor to fellow med students. “I love talking to them and seeing how they develop and follow their own dreams. I literally feel like a proud mom with them,” she tells host Hillary Acer. Speaking of which, Hillary, as leader of the OMEF program, has the same pride in all that Des has done to support her peers through hosting events, writing blogs, conducting research and so much more. Beyond Osmosis, Des has developed a global footprint in medical education through internships and being selected to participate in prestigious international conferences. All of those experiences have stoked a previously unknown passion for medical education, and given her confidence to pursue other passions for entrepreneurship and leadership. This is an invigorating conversation in our NextGen Journeys series that underscores what can come from jumping at opportunities, or as Des puts it, having an attitude of ‘less fear and more go for it.’

Mentioned in this episode:
Osmosis Health Leadership Initiative https://www.osmosis.org/community

Promising research, a growing respect for the patient voice and innovative ways of using technology to support patients might be adding up to a new reality of Alzheimer’s and other dementias being experienced as chronic diseases like some cancers are now considered to be. We’re going to learn about that trend and other positive developments in the space on this special episode of Raise the Line with the leaders of CaringKind - one of the nation’s premier organizations focused on Alzheimer’s and dementia caregiving - who took time out from preparing for its annual gala on June 3 for an in-depth discussion of what’s new, what’s coming and what’s most important for the individuals and families affected by dementia. One welcome theme is that the voices of those with lived experience are being given more weight. “We're going to see more grassroots-driven change where people living with dementia are not just participants in research, but they are partners in research, and they’re actually pushing policy change," says Chief Innovation Officer Stephani Shivers. Tune in as host Michael Carrese explores advancements in diagnostics and research with CaringKind adviser Dr. Anne Kenney; gets briefed on a new Medicare pilot program from Stephani; and learns about the “Forget-Me-Not” gala -- which includes dancing robots -- from CEO Eleonora Tornatore-Mikesh. “For the gala, we're really excited about weaving in the work that we're diving into in the next couple of years to ‘connect to living’ -- to culture and music, people, science and services. Being able to utilize technology to bring joy and socialization back to your life is part of that.” This is a revealing look at the current and future state of caregiving for diseases that are affecting a rapidly growing number of Americans and their families.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.caringkindnyc.org/gala/