A Dose of Optimism

Autism affects nearly 1 in 31 children in the United States, and yet in many ways, we are still in the early stages of understanding what it actually is, and what it takes to support the children and families living with it.

In this episode, two innovators share how they are advancing the science and the care of autism from very different angles.

Dr. Shafali Jeste, Professor and Mattel Executive Endowed Chair of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, describes the emerging science of autism's genetic causes, how approximately 20% of autism cases now...

Youth sports are one of the most powerful forces for development in a child's life. They're also, when done wrong, one of the most reliable ways to injure a child, physically and mentally. In this first episode of a two-part series on youth sports, two experts share what they're seeing at the frontlines of pediatric sports medicine and concussion management.

Dr. Bianca Edison, sports medicine and orthopedic physician at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, makes the case for movement, variety, and play, and describes what happens when kids specialize too early, train too hard, and sacrifice sleep, mental...

What does it cost when a patient can't understand their discharge instructions? What does it cost when a healthcare system hasn't adapted its business models to the tools now available?

In this episode, two very different conversations shed light on where healthcare is losing people, and what's being done about it.

Julie Wilner and Joe Corkery of Jaide Health, recently acquired by AMN Healthcare, share how their AI-driven medical interpretation and translation platform is closing one of the most consequential and underaddressed gaps in healthcare equity: the failure to communicate with patients in their own...

Before a child can learn, they need to be able to see. And before a nurse can care for a complex pediatric patient, they need to have experienced something close to it. In this episode, two leaders at the intersection of innovation and workforce development share how they are closing two very different but equally foundational gaps.

Dr. James Dickhoner, Chief Medical Officer of Vision to Learn and Associate Director of Digital Health at CHLA, describes how a mobile clinic model is providing free eye exams and glasses to between two and four million children across the...

Healthcare treats the diagnosis, but what about everything else a family carries alongside it? In this episode, two innovators share their work on the parts of the care experience that clinical medicine often misses.

Dr. Megan Visser, hospital chaplain, sociologist, and postdoctoral research fellow at The Saban Research Institute at CHLA, describes what spiritual care looks like across the spectrum of pediatric illness, from the acute crisis of a terminal diagnosis to the long, quiet grief of learning to live with a chronic condition like diabetes. She shares what surprises her about families' resilience, what parental guilt...

Two things children need more of: someone who shows up for them, and food that doesn't harm them. In this episode, two innovators share their work on both sides of that equation.

Amy Braun, President and CEO of HealthCorps, describes how her organization deploys college-age mentors into middle and high schools across 12 states to deliver health and wellness programming, and why the near-peer relationship is the most powerful driver of real health behavior change in teenagers. 84% of students in HealthCorps make at least one measurable health behavior change. Students are 50% less likely to experience poor mental health...

What happens to the patients the system never quite finds? In this episode, two teams share how they are using technology to reach children who have been invisible to specialist care, whether because of geography, or because the signs of their rare disease didn't add up to a referral.

Dr. Carl Rosen, Alaska's only board-certified oculoplastic and neuro-ophthalmology surgeon, describes how he built MyEyesAI, a teleophthalmology platform that uses AI-assisted triage, image capture on consumer devices, and video consultation to extend specialist eye care to patients across a state with virtually no ophthalmology subspecialists outside Anchorage. Having...

Healthcare workers are facing a crisis that rarely makes headlines, and it's getting worse. In this episode, three innovators share what's really happening to nurses and other frontline clinical staff, and what's being done about it.

Sandy Hall, Executive Director, PCS Quality, Safety, and Patient-Centered Services at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, describes the landscape of workplace violence in pediatric settings, from verbal harassment by families under stress to physical injury from neurodivergent and behavioral health patients who can't control their actions. She explains why pediatric settings have a particular underreporting problem (the "pediatric pass") and why the...

What would it mean to catch a problem earlier, whether it's a child missing therapy between sessions, a student whose mental health needs are going unidentified, or a promising young researcher who never gets the mentorship to find their path? In this episode, three innovators share how they are working to close the gaps that appear before the crisis.

George Frey of Cognishine and Arie Melamed from ALYN Hospital (Cognishine’s design partner) describe Cognishine’s digital therapy platform, used by more than 5,000 therapists across 10 countries, that gives occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and psychologists the tools to deli...

What if technology could make a frightened child feel safer, less alone, or better understood, without replacing the human beings who care for them? In this episode, three innovators share how they are using avatars, robots, and wearable sensors to improve the pediatric care experience.

Erin Bogdanski, licensed therapist, CEO and Founder of THERA VR, describes how virtual reality with customizable avatars is creating new possibilities for therapy with traumatized and hard-to-reach children, giving young patients the ability to choose what their therapist looks like, and to engage in ways that Zoom and traditional in-person sessions haven't...

Three very different innovations. Three very different settings. One shared direction: pediatric care moving closer to children and families.

Dr. John Cleveland, Associate Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, shares the science and the hope behind xenotransplantation, the use of genetically modified pig hearts as a bridge to human heart transplantation for infants dying on the waiting list. With baboon models now surviving over two years with pig hearts, and human trials potentially one to two years away, this may be the most significant breakthrough in pediatric cardiac care in a generation.

...

For too long, diabetes and obesity in children have been treated as failures of willpower, by the child, by the parent, by the family. In this episode, three innovators share how they are rewriting that story.

Dr. Jennifer Raymond, Division Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at CHLA, describes her community-based research with Latinx families living with type 1 diabetes, and what she has learned about the role of spirituality, peer support, language, and parental guilt in diabetes management. She also shares a striking clinical observation: that GLP-1 medications, most often discussed for their metabolic...

What does it look like to meet a child where they are, not just physically, but technologically, emotionally, and clinically? In this episode, three innovators share how they are redesigning pediatric care delivery around the child rather than around the hospital.

Dr. Caitlin Sayegh, clinical psychologist and researcher at CHLA and USC Keck School of Medicine, describes her work using cell phone coaching to help teenagers with chronic illness take their medications. The insight that drives it: a small dose of human accountability (a phone call or text from a coach who sees a teen as a...

Twenty years ago, the HPV vaccine was approved in the United States. It is one of the most powerful cancer prevention tools ever developed, protecting against 90% of HPV-related cancers, with a safety record spanning more than 500 million doses worldwide. And yet today, only about 63% of eligible adolescents in the US are fully vaccinated.

In this special anniversary episode, six voices from across the HPV prevention landscape share what 20 years of this vaccine has taught us, and what still needs to happen.

Dr. Heather Brandt, Senior Director of the HPV Cancer Prevention Program at St. Jude...

What if the most effective treatments for children looked nothing like traditional medicine?

In this episode, three innovators share how games, biofeedback, and AI are being used to treat some of the most overlooked conditions in pediatric healthcare.

Juliette Hawa, pediatric physical therapist and founder of PFRx, describes how a gamified biofeedback device is helping children with pelvic floor dysfunction (a condition affecting around 10 million kids) learn to control muscles that cause constipation, incontinence, and pain. Designed with Children's Hospital Colorado and built for home use, PFRx turns muscle training into a video game children...

Thirty episodes in, and this is a special one. Over the first 30 episodes of A Dose of Optimism, host Omkar Kulkarni has sat down with physicians, founders, researchers, and change makers working at the edges of what's possible in pediatric healthcare. In this episode, he revisits some of the moments that stayed with him the longest, ideas that challenged conventional thinking, insights that sparked optimism, and reflections that encouraged deeper thinking about the future of children's health.

Featuring standout moments from:

Dr. Bimal Desai on  how digital check-ins are supporting medically complex children a...

What happens when the people who need care most are also the least likely to receive it?

In this episode, two innovators share how they are building solutions for populations that healthcare has consistently underserved, BIPOC mothers navigating the perinatal period, and children living with pain from complex medical conditions.

Priya Iyer, Founder & CEO of Our Roots, describes how her virtual peer coaching platform is working to prevent and address perinatal anxiety and depression in BIPOC and low-income communities, where mood disorders occur at twice the rate of the general population, and where access barriers...

Teenagers today are navigating something genuinely new, a world where the pressure to belong, the weight of social expectations, and the tools of social media and AI are all arriving at once, during the most identity-defining years of their lives. In this episode, two researchers and innovators share what the data actually shows about youth well-being, and what's being done to help.

Dr. Kristine Gloria, founder of YoungFutures, describes how her organization is working to fund, connect, and amplify the community programs already helping young people build the resilience, life skills, and social connections they need, and...

What does it take to reach a pregnant mother in rural Kenya, and a teenager in America who's been told not to trust vaccines? In this second episode recorded at the Clinton Global Initiative, two innovators share how they are working to close two very different but equally urgent gaps in children's health.

Dr. Lorraine Muluka, obstetrician and founder of Malaika, describes how her maternal health platform is bringing comprehensive, end-to-end pregnancy care to women in Kenya, using WhatsApp as the front door, AI to fill the gaps between clinical visits, and community cohorts to address the...

What does it take to deliver healthcare to the children who are hardest to reach, in conflict zones, refugee settlements, and communities where the health system has collapsed entirely? In this episode, recorded in the context of the Clinton Global Initiative, two innovators share how they are working to close some of the world's most urgent gaps in care for children and families.

James Roberts, co-founder and CEO of mOm Incubators, shares how a collapsible, inflatable neonatal incubator (born from a design engineering student's final degree project and the personal story of his own premature mother) is...

Half of children in the United States don't have easy access to quality pediatric care. And for children with epilepsy, even accessing the right diagnosis (let alone the right treatment) has until recently been out of reach for many families. In this episode, two pediatric innovators share how they are working to close those gaps.

Dr. Lyndsey Garbi, co-founder of Blueberry Pediatrics, describes how her telehealth platform is bringing board-certified pediatricians directly into families' homes, complete with a diagnostic kit that includes an otoscope, pulse oximeter, and thermometer, so that a child in rural America gets the...

What does healing look like beyond the medical chart? 

In this episode, two practitioners at Children's Hospital Los Angeles share how art, music, and virtual reality are playing meaningful roles in pediatric care, not as extras, but as essential parts of the patient experience.

Nicole Albers, art therapist and Team Lead for the Mark Taper – Johnny Mercer Artists Program at CHLA, explains how art and music therapy meet children where they are, giving hospitalized kids a sense of power and control in an environment where almost everything else is decided for them. From lullabies customized to...

Some of the most common conditions affecting children today remain among the most underserved, and some of the rarest are only just beginning to be understood. In this episode, four innovators share how they are rethinking the diagnosis, treatment, and access pathways for pediatric chronic conditions.

Dr. Jonathan Santoro, pediatric neurologist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, shares his research on a newly identified condition in people with Down syndrome, a regression syndrome that was misdiagnosed for decades and is now showing meaningful response to immunotherapy in clinical trials.

Dr. Alesandro Larrazabal and Christina LaMontagne, co-founders...

The neonatal intensive care unit is one of medicine's most remarkable achievements, and one of its most persistent challenges. In this episode of Dose of Optimism, three innovators share how they are working to improve care for some of the most vulnerable patients in healthcare: premature and critically ill newborns.

Dean Koch, CEO at smallTalk, explains how a sensor-equipped pacifier and a speaker device are being used to explore whether contingent voice interaction, where an infant controls when they hear their parent's voice, may support early brain development in the NICU environment.

Saheel Sutaria, CTO...

Healthcare has a habit of overlooking the obvious. In this episode, three innovators share how they are addressing some of medicine's most persistent blind spots, from a vital organ that has gone unmonitored for decades, to a fragmented system failing new mothers, to the children whose voices rarely shape the digital tools built for them.

Todd Dunn, CEO of Accuryn Medical, shares why the kidney remains one of the least monitored organs in acute care settings, and how better real-time data could support clinical teams managing critically ill patients. He also introduces the concept of "think flow"...

Children’s mental health challenges are rising worldwide, yet access to effective care remains limited. In this episode, we explore new approaches to pediatric mental health with three leaders working to expand access and improve outcomes.

Kristina Saffran, CEO of Equip, explains why eating disorders are one of the most misunderstood public health crises affecting children and adults, and how evidence-based family-based treatment can dramatically improve recovery when delivered earlier and more broadly.

Dana Klein, co-founder of Gheorg, shares how a new generation of child-centered digital tools is helping children ages 7–12 buil...

Canadian healthcare innovators are proving that optimism, data, and thoughtful technology can reshape pediatric care. In this episode, three leading physician-innovators share how digital health, artificial intelligence, and smarter care models are transforming outcomes for children and families.

Dr. Shazhan Amed discusses how her startup Haibu Health is using digital health platforms and data integration to improve the lives of children living with type 1 diabetes, reduce hospitalizations, and support care across the entire lifespan.

Dr. Joshua Liu, CEO at SeamlessMD, explores the evolving landscape of AI in healthcare, from the rapid rise of AI scribes...

Pediatric sleep care is undergoing a transformation, from hospital-based sleep labs to home-based, data-driven insights.

In this episode, Dr. Eugene Kim and Conner Herman, explore how wearable technology and environmental behavioral sensors are reshaping how we understand children’s sleep. Dr. Eugene Kim shares how Apple Watch–based data collection could help identify sleep apnea risk before anesthesia, potentially reducing ICU admissions, shortening surgical delays, and improving perioperative safety. Meanwhile, Conner Herman explains how Percy uses multi-sensor fusion to objectively measure sleep behaviors at home, especially for children with autism and chronic conditions.

Together, they reim...

What does a “moonshot” look like in pediatric healthcare?

In this episode, three visionary leaders share how artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and consumer-grade design thinking are transforming care for children worldwide.

Dr. Timothy Chou introduces the Pediatric Moonshot, a global effort to deploy privacy-preserving AI across 500 children’s hospitals to reduce healthcare inequity and improve outcomes through patient digital twins. Prof Iain Hennessey explores how quantum computing could revolutionize scheduling, imaging, and diagnostics, positioning hospitals today for breakthroughs 7–10 years from now. Aaron Patzer, Founder and CEO of Vital.io, shares how consumer product design principles are impr...

What if pediatric procedures could be less painful, less invasive, and safer for long-term health?

In this episode, three leading physician-scientists from Children's Hospital Los Angeles share how breakthrough technologies are transforming children’s medicine.

Dr. Jeffrey I. Gold explains how immersive virtual reality reduces pain, anxiety, and even eliminates sedation for certain procedures. Dr. John Wood discusses how low-field MRI is reducing radiation exposure and anesthesia in pediatric imaging. And Dr. James Amatruda reveals how zebrafish models are accelerating cancer research and improving outcomes for children with rare tumors.

From bedside innovation to...

In this episode, we explore how pediatric healthcare leaders are redesigning systems to prevent harm before it happens.

Anne Lyren, Chief Medical and Strategy Officer of the Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) Network, explains how children’s hospitals across the country collaborate to reduce serious harm through shared data, transparency, and continuous improvement.

Rebecca Egger, CEO of Little Otter, brings a data and mental health lens, discussing why early childhood mental health has long been underestimated and how better data systems can surface risks earlier and more equitably.

Manju Dawkins, Founder and CEO of...

In this episode, we explore what it takes to design pediatric care that truly meets children where they are, especially those with sensory sensitivities, autism, and anxiety.

Healthcare operator Missy Krasner shares perspective from decades across government, big tech, venture capital, and digital health, reflecting on why real innovation in healthcare often comes down to execution, empathy, and sustainability.

We then hear from leaders at Children’s Wisconsin, including Anita Norton, Lisa Boettcher, and Jill Wiench, who describe the hospital’s Let’s Cope Together program, an approach that proactively gathers family insight to personalize hospit...

In this week’s episode of A Dose of Optimism, we explore how health policy, public trust, and emerging technology continue to shape the future of pediatric care.

Tom Priselac reflects on decades of healthcare leadership, including his role as Chair of the American Hospital Association during the development of the Affordable Care Act. He shares how large health systems evolve, why access and quality must move together, and what remains unresolved for Medicaid, public health infrastructure, and underserved communities.Joining him is Boston Children's Hospital innovation leader John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and entrepreneur who bridges public he...

In this deeply moving episode of A Dose of Optimism, we explore how parents, families, children and caregivers navigate trauma, grief, and loss and what meaningful support looks like in the aftermath of a crisis.

Dr. David Schonfeld, Director at the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, shares decades of experience helping schools and communities respond to disasters, violence, and loss, emphasizing why resilience does not mean children should be left to cope alone. Emma Payne, Founder & CEO at Help Texts., reflects on how personal loss led her to create scalable, compassionate bereavement support that meets...

In this episode of A Dose of Optimism, Omkar sits down with two leaders shaping the present and future of pediatric healthcare.

Paul Viviano, CEO of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, shares a candid perspective on what it means to lead a children’s hospital during a period of unprecedented pressure. From workforce shortages and Medicaid uncertainty to research funding and equity in access, Paul reflects on the realities facing pediatric systems and the leadership principles required to navigate them with clarity and purpose.

Kyle Horne, Project Manager for CHLA’s Literally Healing program, brings a deep...

We’re kicking off Season 2 by spotlighting parent-innovators who turned lived experience into action. This episode brings together founders who are reshaping pediatric mental health, literacy, and NICU care through empathy, technology, and perseverance.

Hafeezah Muhammad, founder and CEO of Backpack Healthcare, shares how her son’s mental health crisis led her to build a technology-enabled, family-centered mental health platform that serves children as young as four and supports parents, caregivers, and clinicians together. Carla Small, founder of Sprout Labs, explains how science-backed literacy tools and AI can identify dyslexia early, personalize instruction, and prevent years of acad...

Pediatric healthcare is shaped by systems that are often invisible to patients and families, yet deeply influential in how care is delivered. In this episode of A Dose of Optimism, Omkar Kulkarni is joined by three leaders working at the intersection of pediatrics, informatics, and digital transformation.

Rod Tarrago, CMIO Pediatrics at Amazon Web Services, and Troy McGuire, CHIO at CHLA, share how informatics and data-driven design can reduce friction in pediatric care. Together, they discuss interoperability, clinician workflows, and the importance of building systems that support care teams without adding unnecessary burden.

Shaun Miller...

Improving children’s health requires more than medical care alone. It depends on access to nutritious food, early learning support, trusted information, and healthcare systems designed around families.

In this episode of A Dose of Optimism, Omkar Kulkarni speaks with three leaders working across different parts of the pediatric ecosystem. Sam Polk, CEO of Everytable, shares how food access and affordability shape health outcomes and why he believes nutritious meals should be available in every community. Patti Miller, Director of Too Small to Fail (Clinton Foundation), discusses the role of early childhood development, media, an...

Parents want fast, credible answers about their children’s health, and asynchronous care is opening a new path to get there. 

In this episode, Omkar Kulkarni speaks with two leaders shaping how families access pediatric care. Ellen Da Silva, Founder and CEO of Summer Health, explains how message based pediatric support can deliver answers from real physicians within minutes. She shares how parents use text, photos, and videos to get both urgent and everyday questions addressed without needing live appointments. Then, designer and digital health leader Arna Ionescu Stoll describes how Wavely Dx is turning the smartphone int...

Once a year, a very special group gathers in person: the behind-the-scenes innovators, operators, clinicians, policymakers, and digital health leaders shaping the future of children’s healthcare. This year, that group met in Chicago at the KidsX Pediatric Health Innovation Summit, and we recorded the entire experience.

In this unique live episode, Omkar shares highlights from the day: inspiring stories from leaders like AVIA CEO Clay Holderman, discussions on patient experience and digital tools from Stacy Zoucha, insights into pediatric AI from Ali Nasser, and conversations about policy, innovation pathways, device development, and the role of federal ag...