Raise the Line

Today's guest, Mike Mutka, would rather employ someone with no formal education who deeply cares about customers than a PhD who doesn't care that much. In this episode with host Dr. Rishi Desai, learn why being mission-driven, caring, and empathetic are the most important qualities Mutka looks for in a team member, and hear the lessons he's learned from his company's rapid growth in the technology and teaching sphere. Tune in to discover how Relias approaches helping people to accelerate learning, the benefits of keeping a long-term perspective, and the importance of rapid sharing of best practices in healthcare. Plus...

There are over seven million disabled children in the U.S. public education system who are required to be served by speech therapy, occupational therapy, or other types of counseling through their schools, explains Kate Eberle Walker, but a lot of those needs have been going unmet. In this episode, discover how Walker's interest in the intersection of technology and education brought her to work for PresenceLearning, a company whose proprietary teletherapy platform bridges this gap by connecting kids to a network of 1500+ speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and school psychologists around the country. Join Walker and host Dr. Rishi...

AT Still University (ATSU) Physician Assistant Program Professor Dr. Raymond Pavlick, is one of Osmosis’ Raise the Line Faculty Award winners for 2020! Dr. Pavlick hopes his students see his teaching efforts as his way of paying it forward. “The way that I work with them and the way that I treat them, that's what I want the students to do with the patients in their future career,” he tells host Lindsey Smith. While teaching for ATSU, Dr. Pavlick also trains paramedics at the nearby Mesa Community College.

“We've got great doctors, we just need to give them the right ecosystem to work in,” says Bhavdeep Singh, a deeply experienced leader in the healthcare and retail sectors in the U.S. and India. Singh joins Raise the Line today to share the innovations he’s hoping to bring to the healthcare experience with his company HealthQuarters, which is developing a delivery model that combines physicians and other types of providers in one location, with an emphasis on wellness. They’ve just opened a location in New York City in partnership with Mount Sinai, offering convenient access to a wide arr...

“Most of the time, things that make sense are probably going to find their way to the top, and value-based care just makes so much sense,” says Dr. Tobias Barker, chief medical officer of Everside Health (formerly Paladina Health). Barker has been exposed to many approaches to delivering care in a career that has taken him from under-resourced areas around the globe to VA hospitals to the retail giant CVS. What makes so much sense to him about value-based care, which pays providers an upfront fee every month for the patients they treat and rewards quality of care, is it allo...

“Know the ins and outs of your job extremely well,” advises Derek Apanovitch, “but make sure you're curious, that you want to learn more about that entire ecosystem.” In this episode of Raise the Line, Apanovitch draws from his experience in law, entrepreneurship, and business to share career advice and reflect on his work as CEO of Global Safety Management, a cloud-based provider of software solutions. Listen in as he and host Dr. Rishi Desai discuss the invariable importance of personal engagement and the challenge of relationship building in the remote work environment. Plus, discover what Apanovitch believes is the most imp...

“If we're going to solve these intractable problems that have been exposed by COVID,” asserts Dr. Ami Parekh, “we're really going to need people who can lead across disciplines.” Dr. Parekh always knew she wanted to solve hard problems and make systemic change, but pursued a nontraditional track, including law school and work for McKinsey & Company, to get to where she is today. In this episode, discover her unique career path and learn about the work of Grand Rounds, Inc., a national technology company that works to raise the standard of healthcare and currently delivers expert medical opinions to over 6 million...

Dr. Sharon Goldfarb, Dean of Health Sciences at College of Marin in Kentfield, CA, very much considers herself a lifelong learner; one of the many qualities that earned her the first ever Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Award! From humble beginnings, she has found purpose in helping spread the joy of being a contributing part of the medical industry. On top of her current role at College of Marin, she is also the President of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing which supports many nursing schools in the state. As she shares in this interview with Lindsey Smith, Dr...

“Starting my career as a registered nurse really made me aware of the dedication and the heart that it takes to serve others in the healthcare environment,” says longtime nurse and healthcare leader Jennifer Sheets. She’s carried that awareness with her through a career that took her from the ICU to being a hospital CEO. After her father unexpectedly passed away as a result of a clinical error, she shifted her career focus to home care and hospice as a way to have the greatest impact possible on the quality of care delivered, and now enjoys having a global impact...

“I believe the need to foster civility and healthy work environments has never been greater,” says veteran nurse Dr. Cynthia Clark. Add incivility to the stress of the pandemic, and you get not only lower morale, but also reduced productivity and higher turnover rates. Dr. Clark, whose work has received international attention, maintains that this is something we can change. On today's episode of Raise the Line, she joins host Jannah Amiel, RN to discuss how nursing educators and practitioners can work together to create more positive and productive work environments. Tune in to learn how her team has been help...

Dr. Arif Nathoo has always been passionate about addressing the unmet needs of humanity and fundamentally disrupting the way medicine is being practiced through better technology. In this episode, he joins host Shiv Gaglani to unpack the steps his company Komodo Health is taking to better predict disease and ensure better patient outcomes. " I feel lack of data consciousness has not just permeated the profession of medicine, but it's in all aspects of policymaking in healthcare. We just have a huge opportunity to use data to get better at how we make decisions." Listen in as they discuss trends in...

The way we organize our medical system is a disaster, says Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle. When he and his team started thinking about this problem 17 years ago, they asked, "What if we actually tore down the system and started over, and built it on relationships and not transactions?" Iora Health, founded in 2010, now operates 47 practices in 10 different markets across the country and is part of a sea change of technology-driven, value-based care that puts primary care at the center of the health system. In this episode, Fernandopulle joins host Shiv Gaglani to illuminate the Iora Health model of care and explain...

The enormous disruptions in healthcare caused by the pandemic have given Eric Larsen plenty of occasions to recall some wisdom he once heard from a pastor: “In times of volatility and upheaval, learning has to be greater than or equal to the rate of change.” So that’s one reason why as president of the Advisory Board, Larsen spends about 25 hours per week studying changes in the healthcare system. Its incredible complexity is one reason the Advisory Board has long been valued by healthcare leaders as a disseminator of deeply-researched best practices. An alliance with Optum forged in 2017 is providing opport...

“One of the first questions we ask in job interviews is, tell us about your core values." For Blake Thiess, aligning employee and company values is one of the keys to retaining high quality workers. As Director of Talent Acquisition at Prestige Care, Inc., which operates more than 80 senior care communities throughout the Western United States, Thiess and his team are constantly on the lookout for people to join the thousands of employees serving their residents. The other key alignment for Thiess is between people’s career goals and what Prestige can offer. In this episode of Raise the Line, Thie...

As more students seek to join the healthcare field in response to COVID, the problem of student debt is rising once again to the fore. Enter Stride Funding, which offers a more flexible alternative to traditional student loans via income share agreements (ISAs). Stride CEO and Founder Tess Michaels joins host Shiv Gaglani on today's episode of Raise the Line to explain what ISAs are and the benefits they provide to students. Tune in to learn about Stride's multifaceted approach to career support and how they not only finance educations, but also partner with students to set them up for...

“It’s not going to be Big Tech solving some of these intractable healthcare problems,” says investor Deena Shakir. In her experiences at Google Ventures and elsewhere, she’s seen how much more impactful and efficient small teams of start-ups can be in moving innovation forward. Now at Lux Capital, she’s seeking out and supporting entrepreneurs tackling a wide range of issues from home diagnostics to women’s health to making clinical trials more accessible and equitable. It’s perhaps not a surprise that she’s drawn to people with diverse backgrounds and believes in the power of intersectionality in healthcare...

“There are all these medical schools and users out there that are hungry to reduce bias in medicine,” says Dr. Art Papier. “We have to get the word out there.” With thousands of users across the globe and the world’s largest, most equitable medical image collection, VisualDX is providing clinicians with important software tools to help improve diagnostic and treatment decisions. In this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Papier joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss racial and gender bias in medicine, the causes of diagnostic errors, and how his company is working to shift the educational paradigm and train stud...

There is a missing layer of education in schools on topics like financial literacy, African-American history, college readiness, and compassion, which leads to growing inequality, says Tom Davidson. He and his team are working hard to see that gap filled. Davidson started out as a state legislator, but now runs EVERFI, a leading education technology company that drives social change through education. In this episode, he joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss EVERFI’s progress and goals, including their recent announcement of a $100 million commitment to building and expanding their K-12 courses. Tune in to discover the secret to EVERFI's gr...

During his third year in university, John Baker knew he wanted to create an impact on the world. Searching for the biggest problem he could solve, he discovered that nothing would make as big an impact as transforming the way the world learns. It was then that he created D2L. In this episode, he joins host Jannah Amiel, RN to discuss what the company has accomplished thus far and what lies ahead as COVID-19 has made online learning a necessity. “The goal isn't just to embrace technology, it's to leverage the technology to make the educational experience more human,” says...

Dr. Justin Barad has a sobering and perhaps surprising observation to share on today’s episode of Raise the Line: there is nearly a complete lack of assessment of technical skills for healthcare professionals, surgeons included. Noticing this gap, Dr. Barad walked away from a full-time career as an academic surgeon to start Osso VR, a surgical training platform that employs the latest in virtual reality technology. Join Barad and host Jannah Amiel, RN as he explains the three core problems in training and assessment for technical skills in healthcare and how these can be solved using virtual reality. Discover ho...

How can frontline workers become the best versions of themselves? For Gary Johnson, the answer often lies in creating a more supportive and less hierarchical work environment. In his work for the consulting firm Monarch Pathways, he’s encountered organizations where empowered employees accomplish amazing things. “What could be better than a secured dementia unit where the psychotropic use is eliminated, antidepressant use is significantly decreased, and the residents are running their own store without any staff interaction? When you allow people to blossom, it's pretty neat what they become.” As he tells host Jannah Amiel, RN in this episode of Rai...

“We're missing purpose,” says Dr. Christopher Chen. By squeezing its caregivers, doctors, and nurses for volume, Chen believes the major healthcare systems strip health workers of their dignity. He wants to help them get it back. After his father’s unsatisfactory experience with the healthcare system, Dr. Christopher Chen started ChenMed, which operates nearly 80 medical centers focused on serving the elderly, poor, and chronically ill, and is probably, he says, “the first truly scalable, value-based care platform in the country.” Under ChenMed's compensation model, if the patients do well, everybody does well. Tune in to this important interview to learn about the...

“At the end of the day,” says Luke Bonney, “everybody should be asking, 'What does the patient want? Where should that data go in order for that patient to get the most value, to receive the best care?'” COVID has shifted our relationship to our healthcare data, argues Bonney, making the ability to share patient information with a core clinical team essential. In this episode, Bonney joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss how Redox is changing the game in digital health by providing a cloud-based platform that makes it easy for digital health companies to integrate with electronic health records...

“When you have multiple vaccines, managing the second shot becomes more critical because a Pfizer dose has to be followed up with a Pfizer dose. You cannot substitute one for the other,” says Dr. Suman De, head of Government Healthcare Solutions for Infosys Public Services. Add other logistical, clinical and communications challenges to the mix, and it becomes clear the COVID vaccine rollout is an enormously complex undertaking in need of systems and processes that can handle all the complexity. That’s where Infosys and Simplus come in. As De and his colleague Dr. Amy Osmond Cook describe in this episod...

Imagine community health workers, nurses, and physicians meeting patients at Walmart, and making recommendations about tortillas, shoes, or exercise equipment. By meeting people where they are and taking that to scale, explains Dr. Ali Khan, Oak Street Health seeks to make broad societal impact. Dr. Khan has spent his career blending his interests in medicine, entrepreneurship, and public policy to improve access to high-quality healthcare. In this episode, he joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss his passion for removing the “scar tissue” that has built up after years of distrust in the American medicine industry. Tune in to learn what Oak...

Accelerating knowledge. Reducing obstacles for students in reaching graduation, and helping faculty be more effective. These are the occupations of Ascend Learning, a leading learning technology company that helps people in healthcare and other professions attain their career goals through education, training, and certification. Ascend CEO Greg Sebasky has worked for over 30 years in the medical device, healthcare services, and education services markets at leading firms such as Hewlett Packard and Phillips. In this episode of Raise the Line, he joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss Ascend's business model, the impact of COVID-19, and the lasting changes he predicts on...

Overwhelmed and confused while navigating the health system during a long recovery from a bad car accident, Geri Baumblatt quickly recognized the lack of communication with and understanding for patients simply trying to get better. She has since dedicated her career to patient education, and through her company, The Difference Collaborative, she is able to work with organizations to create and deliver effective education to patients both before and after visits. In this episode, she joins Shiv Gaglani to share why she believes that by normalizing the questions most patients have, you will have a better understanding of what their...

“This is a raging fire of infection across the country right now, and the vaccine is the equivalent of so much water, but really not enough right now to hold it at bay.” In this episode, Dr. Dan Durand joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss his role as Chief Innovation Officer for LifeBridge, a $2.5 billion, continuum-based health system in Maryland, and the adjustments his company has had to make due to COVID. Listen in to discover how, through a partnership with UnderArmour, LifeBridge was able to have every member in their facility masked in a short amount of time, how they...

“This pandemic has presented a tipping point for emergency physicians,” says Dr. Mary Nan Mallory. “It's a stressful profession to begin with...but as time has gone on, I think we're gaining control.” Dr. Mallory, who is also President of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), often describes her interest in emergency medicine as accidental tourism. Working in the industry for over 30 years, her specialty is only the second youngest in the house of medicine. In this episode, Dr. Mallory joins host Jannah Amiel to discuss the importance of time-sensitive care and why this industry has become even more critical...

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

One thing we probably all understand better because of COVID is how a crisis can create opportunities for improvement and change. The unprecedented speed with which vaccines were developed is but one example. Dr. Jay Feldstein, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, sees this playing out with his students as they train in clinical settings. “This crisis forces you to be nimble. It forces you to be creative. It forces you to be the person you really want to be in healthcare.” As you’ll learn in this episode of Raise the Line, Feldstein is fut...

Put down the stethoscope and look patients in the eye, urges Dr. Toyin Ajayi. To really improve health outcomes, you've got to seek a fuller understanding than just organ systems and diseases. Dr. Ajayi grew up in Kenya, where she learned early the large role that income plays in health and social outcomes. The social justice and service ideals rooted in her childhood accompanied her through and post-medical school, when, working as a physician and hospitalist, she felt a calling to try to fix what she experienced as a broken system. Three years ago, she co-founded Cityblock Health, a New-York-based...

Early in his career as an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John Fulkerson was attracted to focusing on a small part of the knee called the patellofemoral joint because he felt it was overlooked and little understood. Decades later, there is still much to be learned and he’s leading a new program at Yale to advance the understanding of anterior knee pain and how to treat it. It’s actually a common problem in the general population and is responsible for more than 30% of complaints at sports medicine clinics. Despite this, many people never get relief. Check out today’s episode to lea...

How can we maintain the spirit of innovation virtually? Today Dr. Daniel Kraft, a driving force in healthcare innovation, joins host Shiv Gaglani to share his thoughts on this, as well as how he is helping seek solutions to address COVID-19 and improve our ability to predict, prevent, and respond to future pandemics. Listen in to learn how to spark new ideas and collaborations with people outside of your normal orbit, the importance of staying curious and trying things out whenever you can, and more. As Kraft puts it, “COVID is a bit of a catalyst. Just as Sputnik sparked th...

There's a reason why nursing is typically the most trusted profession in the world, says Dr. John Smith-Coppes, Vice President and Executive Director of Nursing at Rasmussen University It has to do with a genuine desire to serve others. Smith-Coppes and his colleague Dr. Joan Rich, Vice President of Nursing, are doing everything they can to sustain that trust. The goal of their nursing program at Rasmussen University is to turn out the very best, most competent nurses, no matter what the circumstances. In this episode of Raise the Line, Rich and Smith-Coppes share how they embrace innovation and find...

Carlos Reines and Gil Addo share a passion for leveraging technology to drive change in healthcare. Their web-based e-consult service, RubiconMD, seeks to improve access to the right medical expertise to positively influence patient outcomes. In this episode, Carlos and Gil join host Shiv Gaglani to discuss how RubiconMD helps primary care practitioners attain better results as well as their initiatives to ensure equal access of their platform to communities of color. Listen in to hear their thoughts on where we are in the evolution of primary care and their advice for those considering a career in healthcare today.

“If you're in a situation where you can help others, that's going to be the biggest thing towards having a long and stable career,” says Dr. John Dayton, who follows that advice himself as an emergency physician, investor, and entrepreneur. His non-clinical focus is on improving healthcare through innovative medical devices and digital health, and his company Medforums.com does just that by helping physicians nationwide find the best educational resources. On this episode of Raise the Line he joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss what led him to a career in emergency medicine, his experience working as a physician on t...

“With health coaching, what's often most rewarding is how you will grow and be transformed to be a person who is stronger and more confident.” That observation comes from today’s guest, Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum (also known as Dr. Sandy), a PhD clinical psychologist with more than 30 years in practice and a global leader in functional medicine. Her company, the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, helps prepare learners to collaborate with providers and patients to resolve underlying causes of disease and promote wellness. Listen in as Dr. Sandy joins host Shiv Gaglani to discuss what led her to pursue a career in med...

“Instead of trying to teach your body to recognize cancer, which is very difficult to do, we forced the cancer to look like something you've already been vaccinated against.” This is the “elegant” concept and technology upon which Chris Bradley and his co-founder have built Loki Therapeutics. Easier said than done, of course, but Bradley is encouraged by results in animal testing and is putting the pieces in place for a phase one clinical trial. It’s not his first attempt to tackle a difficult problem in healthcare. He previously co-founded Mana Health which was focused on the interoperability of medical re...

“People used to say, I don't understand science or I don't like science but now people are saying, I don't trust science.” As a physician and healthcare communicator with a global audience, that reality is both frustrating and concerning to Dr. John Whyte. He’s chief medical officer at WebMD, the leading healthcare website in the United States with nearly 130 million users viewing billions of pages each month. Overcoming this skepticism during a pandemic has become a necessary part of the mission for Whyte and his colleagues. “How do we help them understand what are trusted sources? We're trying to do that...