Re:solve Talks Re:solve Global Health

Have you heard of plaque psoriasis? Our host, journalist Brian Mastroianni, speaks with Nitika Chopra, a U.S.-based chronic illness advocate, talk show host, and social media influencer. As the founder and CEO of Chronicon, which serves as a hub for the more than 133 million Americans who live with a chronic illness, Nitika is committed to empowering others like her to share their stories and combat stigma. As the face of Clear Understanding, an awareness campaign from Bristol Myers Squibb, Nitika wants to dispel misconceptions and share the realities of what it is like to live with this chronic illness. 



Shedding a spotlight on psoriasis is needed. A life-long chronic condition, a psoriasis flare can be greatly disruptive to a person’s daily life. This condition touches all walks of life, all over the world. The World Psoriasis Day consortium reveals that 125 million people around the world — about 2 to 3 percent of the global population — live with this condition. 



What can we, as a collective global health community, do to better address psoriasis and other chronic conditions?



Follow and subscribe to Re:solve Talks to listen to our past episodes and check out our website at https://www.re-solveglobalthealth.com. You can continue the conversation on X @Resolve_GH and follow us on LinkedIn. 

In recent years, there has been much discussion over the ways substance use disorders — particularly alcohol use disorders — have manifested themselves around the world. This has been acutely clear since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the overall global burden of disease and injury is attributed to alcohol at 5.1%. 

What are we doing right -- and getting wrong — in addressing hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders today? What interventions are in place, and how can we come together as a global community to address these chronic health issues that affect people from all walks of life, all over the globe? 
To discuss all of this, our host -- journalist Brian Mastroianni -- speaks with Dr. James MacKillop — he’s a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who led a global team of researchers who co-authored a paper in Nature Reviews Disease Primers on the current state of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders around the world. 

Follow and subscribe to Re:solve Talks to listen to our past episodes and check out our website at ⁠https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com⁠. You can continue the conversation on Twitter @Resolve_GH.

Dr. David Fajgenbaum understands better than most what it is like to live on both sides of medicine. He has been both patient and caregiver, taking his experiences over the past 13 years to inform his work as a rare disease advocate and innovator, working to find ways to unlock the potential of existing drugs and repurpose them as new treatment solutions. Back in 2010, when he was a third-year medical student, he became critically ill.

He was diagnosed with Castleman disease -- a rare immune disorder. He nearly died five times. At one point, he was even read his last rites in the hospital. For Dr. Fajgenbaum that was just the start of his journey. He would use his diagnosis as a call to action, working with his medical team to unlock the potential of an existing immunosuppressant drug, never before used to treat Castleman disease. He's been in remission over 9 years.
Dr. Fajgenbaum is the author of the best-selling memoir, "Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action," is on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, is the Co-Founder and President of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, and co-leads Every Cure, a nonprofit drug development organization focused on advancing repurposed treatments.


Now, he joins our host -- journalist Brian Mastroianni -- to discuss how he turned his own hope into action and what we can learn from his story to work together to help build healthier societies for everyone.



Follow and subscribe to Re:solve Talks to listen to our past episodes and check out our website at ⁠https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com⁠. You can continue the conversation on Twitter @Resolve_GH. 

Dr. Kelsey Holt, a social and behavioral scientist whose research portfolio is dedicated to identifying ways to promote equity and 'person-centeredness' within the sexual and reproductive health field, joins our host -- journalist Brian Mastroianni -- to discuss why it's so vital we center reproductive health access and rights in global health today. Access for women, in particular, to safe, affirming reproductive health care is an issue that touches all walks of life. It reaches
far and wide as a public health, societal, and economic issue. Dr. Holt, an associate professor in family community medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, has worked on projects that
span Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and the United States. In this episode, she touches on everything from the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down nationwide abortion rights protections to her own work in crafting person-centered contraceptive counseling solutions in countries such as Ethiopia and India. How can making access to and better supporting reproductive health lead us to build healthier societies around the world and close that persistent, entrenched global gender health gap?

 

Check out our full
Special Report on closing the gender health gap here: https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com/specialreports. Make
sure to follow and subscribe to Re:solve Talks for our past episodes and
continue the conversation on Twitter @Resolve_GH 

Dr. Marci Bowers, a U.S.-based medical pioneer in gender affirmation surgery, joins our host, journalist Brian Mastroianni, in a conversation about how we can break down entrenched structural barriers and persistent stigma that transgender and gender diverse people face in healthcare globally. Dr. Bowers, the president of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) explains how we can improve education for more inclusive health settings and describes the challenges providers face in a global climate where transphobic stigma persists from medical institutions to the halls of political power. 



For more information
on Dr. Marci Bowers, visit her website (https://marcibowers.com/),  and check out our
full Special Report on closing the gender health gap here: https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com/specialreports. Read
our article, Addressing disparities in trans healthcare (https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com/post/addressing-disparities-in-trans-healthcare).



Make sure to follow and subscribe to Re:solve Talks for our past episodes and
continue the conversation on Twitter @Resolve_GH 

In conversation with our Special Report on closing the gender health gap, Dr. Mamsallah Faal-Omisore joins our host, journalist Brian Mastroianni, in a discussion on how we can better support female healthcare workers in conflict settings around the world. The Clinical Director for Primary Care International (PCI), Dr. Faal-Omisore is a general practitioner and family physician who divides her time between London and Lagos. In this episode, she sheds a needed spotlight on some of the most essential (but often unsupported, and undervalued) healthcare workers on the frontlines of conflict - women. What are some of the adversities they face? What can be done to better support them as they provide needed, equitable - often lifesaving -care under some of the most challenging circumstances? 
For more information on Primary Care International head to their website (https://pci-360.com/), and check out our full Special Report on closing the gender health gap here: https://www.re-solveglobalhealth.com/specialreports, and continue the conversation on Twitter @resolve_gh.


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