Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast

In 2022, a $25 million donation from the Ginsburg Family Foundation established the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health. One major initiative of the Institute is the Ginsburg Health Equity Scholars Program. The scholars program seeks to prepare rising members of the healthcare, public health, and scientific workforce to conduct research into children’s health equity and deploy evidence-based programs and resources into underserved communities. Nancy Molello, Executive Director for the Ginsburg Institute, joined us to share details of the Ginsburg Health Equity Scholars Program alongside one of its inaugural scholars Brianna Karim.

Apply to be a Ginsburg Scholar. The deadline is March 15, 2024.

Guests:
Nancy Molello, MSB, Executive Director, Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health
Brianna Karim, Health Equity Program Coordinator and Ginsburg Scholar, Nemours Children’s Health

Producer/Host: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

From the time a pediatrician or parent suspects a child could be affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) until an actual diagnosis takes over two years! On today’s episode, we learn about two strategies that are currently in use to reduce that time to just weeks — or even days.

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

In part two of our series, we dig deeper into conversations with our Black physician leaders, guided by our Black, African and Caribbean Associate Resource Group. Joining the table in today’s episode is Latonya Quann, Clinical Operations Supervisor for Nemours Children’s Health, Orlando, and Jane deHeers, Director of Operations, Therapeutic and Rehabilitation Services, Nemours Children’s Health in Delaware. Latonya asks our physicians what helped them get to where they are today and to share any advice they can give to the next generation of Black leaders. Jane concludes our five-question discussion with what our physicians envision for the future of Black leaders.

Answers revolving around these questions of Black leadership growth and sustainability include the magnification of imposter syndrome in the Black community, leaning on champions in your corner, the importance of sharing experiences across race and hierarchy, and the power of perseverance. 

Dr. Robyn Miller shares her take on the importance of DEI: “I want people to be able to show up as their authentic selves and be accepted for their authentic selves and be able to learn as their authentic selves because that's who goes in the room with patients, and patients need to see those authentic selves.” 

To hear a more detailed account of our physicians’ experiences, be sure to tune in and listen! 

• Kara Odom-Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, Executive Vice President, Chief Population Health Officer, Nemours Children's Health
• Alfred Atanda, MD, pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Surgical Director, Nemours Children's Center for Sports Medicine
• Lonna Gordon, MD, PharmD, Division Chief of Adolescent Medicine, Nemours Children's Hospital, Florida
• Cedric Von Pritchett, MD, pediatric otolaryngologist, Co-Director of Nemours Children's Ear, Hearing and Communication Center
• Robyn R. Miller, MD, Interim Division Chief of Adolescent Medicine and Pediatric Gynecology, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware

Featured members of the Nemours Children's Health Black, African, and Caribbean Heritage ARG:

• TeNeasha Billingsley, MSN, CPNP-AC
• Taynika Jones, BS
• Jane deHeer, PT, DPT, MBA, CLT
• Latonya Quann

Host/Producer, Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

February is Black History Month and, to celebrate, the Well Beyond Medicine podcast welcomed colleagues from the Nemours Children's Health Black, African and Caribbean Heritage Associate Resource Group (ARG). They posed questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion to Black physician leaders across the Nemours Children's enterprise, including:

• Kara Odom-Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, Executive Vice President, Chief Population Health Officer, Nemours Children's Health
• Alfred Atanda, MD, pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Surgical Director, Nemours Children's Center for Sports Medicine
• Lonna Gordon, MD, PharmD, Division Chief of Adolescent Medicine, Nemours Children's Hospital, Florida
• Cedric Von Pritchett, MD, pediatric otolaryngologist, Co-Director of Nemours Children's Ear, Hearing and Communication Center
• Robyn R. Miller, MD, Interim Division Chief of Adolescent Medicine and Pediatric Gynecology, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware

Featured members of the Nemours Children's Health Black, African, and Caribbean Heritage ARG:

• Danielle Davis-Evans, BSN, RN
• TeNeasha Billingsley, MSN, CPNP-AC
• Taynika Jones, BS
• Jane deHeer, PT, DPT, MBA, CLT
• Latonya Quann

Host/Producer, Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common and severe form of muscular dystrophy. According to Nemours KidsHealth.org, it affects boys more often than girls. According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, heart and respiratory muscle problems emerge in the teen years and can lead to serious complications. In terms of the heart, the issue at hand is cardiomyopathy.

Dr. Takeshi Tsuda is a pediatric cardiologist at Nemours Children’s Health who studies cardiomyopathy in boys with Duchenne. He joins this episode to talk about the unique qualities of cardiomyopathy in young teenagers with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which have not previously been well characterized.

Guest:
Takeshi Tsuda, MD, Pediatric Cardiology
Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder that makes the muscles of the bodies of those affected get weaker over time. There's no known cure, but there are treatments, and researchers continue to learn more about how to prevent and treat it.

In this episode, we discuss one specific type of genetic disorder: Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and learn about a new FDA-approved gene therapy that is bringing hope to families.

Learn More 

Guests:
Omer Abdul Hamid, MD, Neuromuscular Neurologist, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida
Rulla Starr, Neuromuscular Program Coordinator, Nemours Children's Hospital, Florida

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

When it comes to providing health services, the most precious resource of any healthcare system, hospital or provider's office is its people: those who make up the healthcare workforce. Yet the nation's expanding healthcare needs are outstripping the workforce size, creating a severe shortage of employees at all levels.

While there is no single solution to the healthcare workforce crisis, a unique partnership pairs Nemours Children's Health with the state's vocational-technical high schools to train high schoolers for healthcare careers. 

Guests:
Yvette Santiago, Director, Community Engagement, Nemours Children's Health, Delaware Valley
Margaret LaFashia, DNP, Director of Workforce Partnership Development, Nemours Children's Health, Delaware Valley
Kyle Hill, EdD, Principal, Howard High School of Technology of the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, Wilmington, Delaware
Deanna Lee, Certified Clinical Medical Assistant, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, and student, Howard High School of Technology

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

The non-profit, non-denominational St. Patrick's Center in Wilmington, Delaware, has served that community for over half a century. They provide emergency food, meals, respite for the homeless, clothing, transportation, and recreational activities for people in need on the city's east side. Our guest host, Che Parker, met up with Joe Yacyshyn, St. Patrick's Center's Board Chair, as Nemours Children’s associates were conducting a clothing drive to benefit the organization's clients. They talked about the work of the St. Patrick's Center and the strong bond between this non-profit and Nemours Children's Health.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1: Menstruation: it's something half of the world's population experiences. Yet having the right resources - access to period products and health information about menses can prove elusive for some due to financial concerns, lack of communication and openness on the topic due to stigma, or cultural and religious considerations.

Our topic with Nemours Children's Health adolescent medicine specialist Dr. Robin Miller is period equity- and how to achieve it.

Nemours Period Pantry Amazon Wish List

SEGMENT 2: A partner profile of Duffy's Hope, serving at-risk teens in Wilmington, Delaware, by providing them with one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, financial literacy, educational and enrichment trips, etiquette training, school and home visits, inspirational guest speakers, and group discussions.

Learn more about Duffy's Hope.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1:  As children with congenital heart disease (CHD) become adults with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD), they continue to require specialized care and will need that care and monitoring for life. Find out why this is an important — and growing — area of specialty care.

SEGMENT 2:  It takes hours of preparation, planning and education by a multidisciplinary team before a high-risk pediatric cardiology patient can leave the walls of a hospital and head for home. Identifying risk factors and mitigating them at the point of discharge is key! Since 2019, the Supervised Family Care Program at the Nemours Children's Cardiac Center has been utilized to ensure the safe discharge of high-risk cardiac patients.

Guests:
Devyani Chowdhury, MD, MHA, Cardiologist, Medical Director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program, Nemours Children’s Cardiac Center, Delaware

Deepika Thacker, MD, Pediatric Cardiologist, Medical Director, Cardiac Inpatient Unit, Nemours Children’s Cardiac Center, Delaware

Dana Zingo, RN, Specialty Nurse, Nemours Children’s Cardiac Center, Delaware

 
Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

In the final episode of our four-part series “Hot Topics in Neonatology” we explore neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a byproduct of prenatal drug exposure — one of the fastest growing public health problems in the world.

In the U.S., the most recent data from the CDC indicate that the number of pregnant people with opioid-related diagnoses documented at delivery increased by 131% from 2010 to 2017. The implications for their babies include preterm birth, still birth, birth defects and neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS.

SEGMENT 1: We talk with Dr. Ju-Lee Oei from the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney, Australia, who provides an overview NAS — what it is, how it's diagnosed and how it's treated.

SEGMENT 2: Andre Sukta, a research and development projects manager at the United States Drug Testing Laboratories in Chicago, joins us to talk about the recent history of newborn toxicology screening.

Carol Vassar, producer/host

Explore the Full Series:
Part 1, Episode 50
The NICU View: Mom & Baby

Part 2, Episode 51
 Fluid Dynamics: What's New in Treating EPRA

Part 3, Episode 52
Fragile Beginnings: Exploring NEC in Newborns 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

In the third of our four-part series “Hot Topics in Neonatology” we talk with health care providers who are on the frontlines working to prevent adverse outcomes and improve the quality of care for the most vulnerable babies.

SEGMENT 1: Necrotizing enterocolitis  (NEC) is the most common and serious intestinal disease among premature babies. It’s so dire that preventing it has become the life’s work of many who treat pre-term babies, including Dr. Sheila Gephart with the University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson. Dr. Gephart and her team have created an NEC prevention protocol bundle that is showing promising outcomes, and she’s using a telementoring tool called Project ECHO to  “force multiply”  implementation and training around the protocol bundle to make large-scale change easier to accomplish at NICU level.

SEGMENT 2: Continued quality improvement (QI) is a high priority for every health care system at every level of care — and our nation’s NICUs are no exception. When working with the smallest of babies in the most precarious of medical situations, the principles of high reliability, the reliance upon evidenced-based protocols and practices, the ability to sustain success and to learn from failures are absolute necessities.

Neonatologist Dr. Hannah Fischer is Director of Quality Improvement and Safety for the Division of Neonatal Medicine at Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky sits down with us to discuss her philosophy of NICU QI, bringing QI to NICUs across her state, and the quality measures that are critical in the first 60 minutes of the life of of a premature newborn — the so-called "Golden Hour".

Guests:
Sheila Gephart, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Interim Chair, Division of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, University of Arizona, College of Nursing 
Hannah Fischer, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Neonatology at the University of Louisville 

Producer/Host: Carol Vassar

Full Series:
Part 1, Episode 50
The NICU View: Mom & Baby

Part 2, Episode 51
Fluid Dynamics: What's New in Treating EPRA
 
Part 4, Episode 53
Babies in Crisis: Understanding Neonatal Abstinence 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

We continue our four-part series “Hot Topics in Neonatology” with Part 2 that explores the latest in neonatology-related research and education with experts from across the United States.

SEGMENT 1: Amniotic fluid is the liquid that surrounds a baby during pregnancy, and it plays a key role in the development of the fetus. According to the March of Dimes, in the early weeks of pregnancy, the amniotic fluid is mostly water that comes from mom. After about 20 weeks, the baby’s urine makes up most of the amniotic fluid. There are instances, however, when there is fetal kidney disease. That means no urine, and no amniotic fluid. That is known as Early Pregnancy Renal Anhydramnios (EPRA), which is almost universally fatal. However, there is a new trial taking place in the U.S. — the RAFT Trial — which provides amniotic fluid replacement. Here to talk about this promising new development is Dr. Jena Miller, who serves as an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy in Baltimore.

SEGMENT 2: According to the NIH, medical simulation allows the acquisition of clinical and non-clinical skills for use in a health care setting through deliberate practice. In simulation, trainees can make mistakes and learn from them without the fear of harming any patients. Dr. Rachel Umoren is a Neonatologist at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital where she is the Director of the Neonatal Education and Simulation-Based Training Program. Her research focuses on improving neonatal outcomes globally through simulation-based education, and our wide-ranging conversation includes her work using a Smart-phone-based virtual simulation app to bring training to underresourced areas here and abroad.

Guests:
Jena Miller, MD, Assistant Professor, John Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy
Rachel Umoren, MD, MS, Director, Neonatal Education and Simulation-Based Training Program, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Full Series:
Part 1, Episode 50
The NICU View: Mom & Baby 

Part 3, Episode 52
Fragile Beginnings: Exploring NEC in Newborns

Part 4, Episode 53
Babies in Crisis: Understanding Neonatal Abstinence 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

We begin our four-part series “Hot Topics in Neonatology” with the story of author and preemie family advocate Deborah Discenza. Deb was 30 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to her daughter, Becky.  In this episode she shares their NICU story of persistence, resilience, and how she is paying it forward by helping and supporting other pregnant people and their pre-term babies.

Find resources and more info at PreemieWorld Foundation.

Guest: Deb Discenza, Founder & Executive Director, PreemieWorld Foundation Inc.

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Full Series:
Part 2, Episode 51
Fluid Dynamics: What's New in Treating EPRA

Part 3, Episode 52
Fragile Beginnings: Exploring NEC in Newborns

Part 4, Episode 53
Babies in Crisis: Understanding Neonatal Abstinence 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

New research indicates that injecting neuroblastoma tumors with Zika virus can shrink or eliminate those tumors in mice, suggesting that the virus could someday serve as an effective cancer therapy. This is newly published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research Communications, from the American Association for Cancer Research.

On this week's episode, we hear from the study's lead, Dr. Tamarah Westmoreland, and first author, Dr. Joseph Mazar, both with Nemours Children’s Health, about this incredibly exciting research.

For more information, read the recent press release about the study.

EXCITING UPDATE - AUG. 20, 2024: Nemours Children's received its largest donation to a single research project thanks to the Pass It On to Kids Foundation. Its $7 million donation will advance the groundbreaking research harnessing the Zika virus to target and eradicate neuroblastoma and ovarian cancers.

Guests:
Tamarah J. Westmoreland, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida
Joseph Mazar, PhD, Research Scientist, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida

Carol Vassar, host/producer
 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1:  Culinary medicine is an evidence-based medical practice that affirms the saying "You are what you eat." One part food, one part cooking, and one part medical science, culinary medicine aims to help folks make the right decisions about food to help prevent and treat disease. Pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Maria Mascarenhas with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia counts among her many specialties culinary medicine. On this episode, we talk about her passion for this relatively unknown but vitally important sliver of health care.

SEGMENT 2: Whenever a child leaves the hospital setting for home, it's a cause for celebration. But it's also the moment when the role of hospital-based child life providers — the specialists who help children cope with their medical experience — often ends. For children whose medical conditions continue to require treatment, even at home, their psychosocial needs don't end, and one Texas-based organization, Child Life On Call, is using technology to bring important child life services to kids outside the hospital setting, no matter where in the world they may live.

Carol Vassar, producer

Guests:
Maria Mascarenhas, MBBS, pediatric gastroenterologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Katie Taylor, CCLS, CEO & Founder, Child Life on Call

Jamie Gentille, MPH, CCLS, Advisory Board Member, Child Life on Call

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1: We're exploring the world of pediatric anesthesiology and the pressures and stresses of being an anesthesiologist with Dr. Destiny Chau, Dr. Meera Gangadharan, and Dr. Meenakshi Atteri.

SEGMENT 2: It's a trip to Philadelphia Marathon Weekend to learn more about the mentorship work of Students Run Philly Style with its Executive Director Lauren Kobylarz .

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Guests:
Meera Gangadharan, MD, FAAP, FASA, Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston
Destiny Chau, MD, Pediatric Anesthesiologist, and Professor, Division of Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesia, University of Arkansas Medical System
Meenakshi Atteri, MD, Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Arkansas Children's Hospital
Lauren Kobylarz, Executive Director, Students Run Philly Style

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

It's a pediatric health care innovation episode of Well Beyond Medicine covering two new tools applicable to improving the health and health care experience of the smallest of babies.

SEGMENT 1: It was a casual exchange between two colleagues that proved to be the point of conception for an infant positioning cradle, dubbed SmolTap, a simple medical device designed to safely, comfortably and easily hold an infant who is undergoing a spinal tap.

SEGMENT 2:  We'll talk about the smart baby bottle that is helping feed and measure outcomes for premature babies still in the NICU, where feeding issues are not uncommon.

Guests:
Robert "Bob" Cooper, CEO, SmolTap
Tom Hickey, Communications Advisor to SmolTap
Tommy Cunningham, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, nfant®

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

You've probably heard the news: an FDA-approved treatment for sickle cell disease applying the gene-editing tool CRISPR is now available in the U.S. It's a landmark moment in medical science on two fronts: the treatment - called Casgevey - is the first FDA-approved regimen to utilize CRISPR technology to treat any genetic disease. And it's a huge leap forward in the treatment of sickle cell, a genetic disease affecting about 100,000 people in the U.S. - mostly African Americans.

Today, we'll delve into what this means for patients, learn more about the process they must undergo to receive a genetic sickle cell treatment, the little-known side effect of that process that affects their fertility - and how their fertility can be preserved.

Guests:
Manisha Bansal, MD, Hematology/Oncology, Nemours Children's Health, Jacksonville
Vrunda Patel, MD, Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware
Danielle Morley, BSN, RN, CPHON, Program Manager, Andrew McDonough B+ Fertility Preservation Program
Fredrianna Copeland Webster, advocate and sickle cell disease patient, Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville

Carol Vassar, host/producer

For more information on sickle cell disease and to hear more of Fredianna's story, be sure to check out Episode 34 of the Well Beyond Medicine podcast.

Click here to see Fredriana's billboard for Florida State College at Jacksonville. 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1:  Orange County, California is home to nearly 3.2 million people. Its 42 miles of beachfront and major attractions such as Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Mission San Juan Capistrano, make it a major West Coast tourist destination. Orange County is also home to the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), where Dr. Sandip Godambe is the Chief Medical Officer. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk with Dr. Godambe about the ways in which CHOC's approach is similar to Nemours Children's Health in going well beyond medicine. 

SEGMENT 2: Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health. The prevalence of obesity for children and adolescents aged 2-19 pre-pandemic was 19.7%, affecting about 14.7 million kids. We'll dive into this issue with Nemours Children's Health Dr. Kirk Reichard — a leading national expert on childhood obesity and its treatments.

Guests: 
Sandip Godambe, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Children’s Hospital of Orange County

Kirk W. Reichard, MD, Clinical Director, Division of General Surgery, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware 

Carol Vassar, producer/host

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1: The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 2022, one in every five children in the United States was unsure where, when, or even if they would get their next meal. Childhood food insecurity significantly impacts physical, social, cognitive, and behavioral development.

Blessings in a Backpack has become a national leader and model for fighting food insecurity in kids and working to put them on the path to a healthy start by providing hungry children with backpacks filled with nutritious food items - enough to last from when a child leaves school on Friday until they return the following Monday.

SEGMENT 2: Nemours Children's Health Assistant Vice President and Chief Patient Experience Officer Dr. Peggy Greco outlines what she sees as the three most important influences on a child's mental and emotional health.

Guests:
Beth Bush, Director of Athletic & Strategic Partnerships, Blessings in a Backpack
Peggy Parish, Community Engagement Director, Nemours Children's Health, Florida
Peggy Greco, PhD, Assistant Vice President, Chief Patient Experience Officer, Nemours Children’s Health

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Healthcare has always been a hotbed of innovation, though it seems today to be moving forward at light speed, with a wide range of advancements to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, safety, accessibility, and quality of healthcare services at the bedside and behind the scenes.

We're talking healthcare innovation today with two national experts whom we met up with at HLTH 2023, including Nemours Children’s Chief Innovation Officer Eric Jackson, MD, MBA, and nurse futurist Bonnie Clipper, DNP. 

Host/Producer: Carol Vassar

Guests:
Bonnie Clipper, DNP, MA, MBA, RN, CENP, FACHE, FAAN, Founder & CEO, Innovation Advantage
Eric V. Jackson Jr., MD, MBA, Chief Innovation Officer, Nemours Children's Health

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr.  Stephen Klasko is a dynamic healthcare visionary who led Jefferson Health in Philadelphia as its President and CEO during much of the COVID-19 pandemic and currently serves as Executive in Residence for the venture capital group General Catalyst (GC). 

GC made news when they announced their intention to create the Health Assurance Transformation Corporation, through which they plan to buy an as-yet-unnamed healthcare system. The principles of this new company are based on Dr. Klasko's 2020 book entitled "UnHealthCare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance," and he gives us the basics in a wide-ranging conversation. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Garth Graham, the Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships at YouTube, has long espoused the belief that information is a social determinant of health. We had the chance to talk with Dr. Graham at HLTH 2023 in Las Vegas about this concept, as well as the topics of medical misinformation, health literacy, and the role, influence, and responsibility of YouTube - the world's most popular online video platform - and its parent company, Google, in creating a space where high-quality, evidenced-based health information get to the eyes and ears of those who need it.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Medical misinformation is a serious issue that is on the radar of policymakers, public health officials, pediatricians, and parents alike. It's so prominent that in 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging and an undercurrent of medical misinformation working against public health efforts at vaccination, the Office of U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on the deadly consequences of health misinformation and its equally concerning sibling, medical disinformation. Now Dr. Geeta Nayyar, a rheumatologist and former chief medical officer for AT&T and Salesforce, has penned a book about it, entitled "Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare's Misinformation Illness." tackling the age-old and increasingly more entrenched issue of medical misinformation and disinformation and its impacts on the health care system and patients like you and me. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

If you are serious about pushing boundaries and transforming health and wellness, HLTH is the place to be. The 2023 edition of HLTH, held earlier this month in Las Vegas, united more than 10,000 senior executives, decision-makers, and innovators across the healthcare spectrum whose common goal is to discuss the trends and strategies needed to create health's future and move them forward. This year, Nemours Children's Health convened HLTH's first-ever track focused on creating the healthiest generations of children. 

It's a goal near and dear to the heart of Nemours' president and CEO, Dr. Larry Moss, who joined us in our HLTH podcast booth in Las Vegas as we sat down for a conversation with Alex Azar, the 24th Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, who served in that post from January 2018 to January 2021.

Carol Vassar, producer 

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

AI will NOT replace the work of a skilled, trained, experienced human clinician. Yet AI, in all its formulations and manifestations, has the potential to bring revolutionary change and improved outcomes on a global scale. So, what's next for AI in pediatric cardiology? Our AI experts weigh in.

Featuring:
Dr. Scott Anjewierden, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Dr. Rima Arnaout, Assistant Professor in Medicine, University of California San Francisco
Dr. Mark Friedberg, Pediatric Cardiologist, Labatt Family Heart Centre, Division of Cardiology, Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Canada
Dr. Michael Gaies, Medical Director of the Acute Care Cardiology Unit, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Dr. Babar Hasan, MBBS, Associate Professor and a Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at the Department of Pediatric and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the Heart Center of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago
Dr. Charitha Reddy, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Stanford Medicine, Palo Alto, California
Dr. Shubhika Srivastava, Co-Director of the Nemours Children's Health Cardiac Center and Chief of Cardiology for Nemours Children's Health Delaware

Carol Vassar, producer

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Perils (Part 2 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Pei-Ni Jone is Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory a the Heart Center of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Jone also leads an artificial intelligence workgroup for the American College of Cardiology. The group was established to help fill an education gap for her fellow member physicians regarding the fast-paced changes that AI is bringing to the field. We sat down at the World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery to discuss an AI education gap among physicians, clinicians, and the public.

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Babar Hasan is an Associate Professor and a Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at the Department of Pediatric and Child Health, Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. We sat down with him at the World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Washington DC recently to talk about artificial intelligence from a global perspective:  development, research, and clinical implementation.

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Rima Arnaout is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and a member of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, and her area of expertise is as an adult cardiologist. Yet her work in artificial intelligence has spilled into the pediatric world. Her vast knowledge base includes research and background with AI as a predictive tool. We began our conversation at the World Congress of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Washington, DC, discussing a specific aspect of AI known as predictive analytics and how it applies to both adult and pediatric cardiac medicine.

Carol Vassar, producer

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

For all the hope that artificial intelligence (AI) brings to healthcare, there are perils, patient privacy concerns, public trust, legal and ethical considerations, the fear of biased algorithms, and how to handle the need for massive amounts of the right data to feed AI algorithms.  We'll discuss that with experts from across the world of pediatric cardiology.

Featuring:

Dr. Rima Arnaout, Assistant Professor in Medicine, University of California San Francisco
Dr. Devyani Chowdhury, Cardiologist, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware
Dr. Mark Friedberg, Pediatric Cardiologist, Labatt Family Heart Centre, Division of Cardiology, Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Canada
Dr. Babar Hasan, MBBS, Associate Professor and a Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at the Department of Pediatric and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the Heart Center of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago
Dr. Charitha Reddy, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Stanford Medicine, Palo Alto, California

Carol Vassar, producer

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

It seems we've been hearing a lot about artificial intelligence (AI) lately: It’s how Netflix knows what to recommend you watch next.  From ChatGPT to Netflix, AI is everywhere - and it's changing healthcare in all its aspects. The promise, the peril, and the prophecy of AI in healthcare are what we are going to examine in our next three podcast episodes. We’ll be talking with pediatric experts in one specific area - cardiology - to get their take on AI and how it’s changed and is changing their work with patients and families. 

Featuring:
Dr. Rima Arnaout, Assistant Professor in Medicine, University of California San Francisco

Dr. Devyani Chowdhury, Cardiologist, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware

Dr. Mark Friedberg, Pediatric Cardiologist, Labatt Family Heart Centre, Division of Cardiology, Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Canada

Dr. Babar Hasan, MBBS, Associate Professor and a Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at the Department of Pediatric and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Dr. Charitha Reddy, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Stanford Medicine, Palo Alto, California

Dr. Shubhika Srivastava, Co-Director of the Nemours Children's Health Cardiac Center and Chief of Cardiology for Nemours Children's Health Delaware

Carol Vassar, producer/host

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Perils (Part 2 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Future (Part 3 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Seemingly everywhere we turn, we hear about artificial intelligence - AI, and healthcare is no exception. In fact, it appears that healthcare and medicine are at the beginning stages of an all-encompassing AI revolution.

 Let's set the stage, though, about what AI in healthcare is with two experts from Nemours Children's Health: Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Devyani Chowdhury and Dr. Shubhika Srivastava, Co-Director of the Nemours Children's Health Cardiac Center, and Chief of Cardiology for Nemours Childrne's Health Delaware.

Additional Episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco


Carol Vassar, host/producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Mark Friedberg is a Pediatric Cardiologist at the Labatt Family Heart Centre, in the Division of Cardiology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. He's also a senior associate scientist at the research center there. When we met up to talk with him at the World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Washington, DC recently, we started our discussion with the importance to AI development of collaboration both inside and outside of the worlds of medicine and healthcare.

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Charitha Reddy, Stanford Medicine
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Charitha Reddy joins us for this episode. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardology, Stanford Medicine, Palo Alto, CA. We sat down to talk at the recent World Congress of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery about a wide range of topics regarding artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare, including deep learning, which she'll explain more fully in relation to the echocardiogram.

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Additional episodes in this AI series:

Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: The Promise (Part 1 of 3)
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: A Primer
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Mark Friedberg, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare: Dr. Pei-Ni Jone, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Babar Hasan, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Healthcare with Dr. Rima Arnaout, University of California San Francisco

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

SEGMENT 1: THE PLAYERS Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health includes the only pediatric sickle cell program in Jacksonville and one of the largest in the state of Florida. And it’s sickle cell disease we’re talking about today with Nemours hematologist/oncologist Dr. Julian Zorrilla and self-professed sickle cell advocate, warrior, and patient Fredrianna Copeland-Webster. Fredrianna and Dr. Zorrilla sat down with us for an interview as part of Well Beyond Medicine Day in Jacksonville earlier this month to help raise awareness about this group of blood disorders we know as sickle cell disease. 

SEGMENT 2: We catch up with Dr. Peggy Greco, Assistant Vice President and Chief Experience Officer for Nemours Children’s Health, to get her thoughts as a psychologist about what she sees as the three most significant influences on a child’s social, emotional, and mental health.

Producer: Carol Vassar

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

The word of the day was “awareness” at Citizens Bank Park this September as the Philadelphia Phillies hosted their 7th annual Childhood Cancer Awareness Night. As we learned, awareness brings funding to support improved pediatric cancer treatments and research that ultimately save lives. While at the game that night, we sat down with William Martin, president of the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation, to learn more about the impetus behind the foundation’s historic $78 million gift — $25 million of which is dedicated for sickle cell disease research — and get an update on how it’s already transforming treatment for children at Nemours Children’s Health and beyond.

 Later in the episode, we were joined by Mary Newman, Director of Nursing for the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health, who explains how the generous gift is impacting lives now and will into the future. Mary oversees all aspects of the Institute’s work and plays a key role in working with the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation to implement the shared vision of transforming pediatric cancer treatment.

Carol Vassar, producer and host

Guests:
William J. Martin, Esq., President, Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation

Mary Newman, MSN, RN, CPON, NE-BC, Director of Nursing, Lisa Dean Moseley Institute for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Nemours Children’s Health is the official Children’s Hospital of the Phillies, and the team graciously opened its doors to our podcast team during their Pediatric Cancer Awareness Night so that we could bring you the inspiring patient story of 13-year-old Madison Handley. Diagnosed with cancer twice in her lifetime, Madison and her parents, Erin and Rob, share how cancer has affected their lives and why they feel it's important to share their story.  

In our second segment, we meet Nemours hematology/oncology nurse Dyane Bunnell, who has treated patients like Madison for 41 years. Her commitment and leadership have earned her a place on the national stage as the 2023/2024 president of the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Pediatric psychologist Dr. Erica Sood joins us again in this episode to talk about her work improving the emotional health of children with chronic health conditions and her research into the care of moms, dads, and other family members following a prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. 

We also talk with Dr. Zachary Boynton, Co-Chief Resident at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, on heart health in high school athletes and the effectiveness of including an electrocardiogram, or ECG, in a student-athlete’s pre-participation health screening. 

Recorded at the 8th World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Washington, DC.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

The recent "Well Beyond Medicine Day" in Orlando, Florida saw the Nemours Children's Podcast truck on site and ready with microphones open to hear from Nemours associates at all levels, including six members of the Nemours Children's Health, Florida Leadership Team:

• Martha McGill, President, Nemours Central Florida
• Dr. Daniel Podberesky, Chief Medical Officer
• Vonda Sexton, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer
• Jacob Horner, Enterprise Associate Vice President of State External Affairs
• Dr. Todd Glass, Division Chief of Emergency Medicine
• Dr. Jared Capouya, Chief Quality and Safety Officer

Of them, we asked three specific questions, eliciting a variety of thought-provoking answers. Listen in as we bring you, in their own words, the Nemours Children's Health, Florida leadership perspective on the barriers and challenges surrounding the social determinants of health, and firsthand accounts of patients and families working with Nemours associates to overcome such barriers, both large and small. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Carissa Baker Smith is a preventive and transplant cardiologist whose research includes a high concentration of work looking at the social determinants of health and working to mitigate health disparities for patients with congenital heart disease.

She sat down with us when we took the podcast on the road to the 8th World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, a biennial gathering of international experts. Dr. Baker-Smith was there to moderate panel discussions on topics ranging from her area of specialty to the need for diversity in the health care workforce, all of which we discuss. 

Carol Vassar, producer

Guest: Carissa M. Baker-Smith, MD, MPH, MS
Director, Preventive Cardiology Program at
Nemours Children's Cardiac Center, Delaware Valley

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

As harvest season approaches, we're checking in on the Can Grow Garden, part of the Nemours Estate in Wilmington, Delaware. This encore episode was originally recorded for the  Champions for Children series.

The Can Grow Garden is a collaboration between the Nemours Estate and Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, to grow plants and provide a place for patient, family, and associate education and respite. The grown plants - mainly vegetables - provide food for the community helping to alleviate food insecurity and providing a platform to teach healthy cooking and eating. For more information about the Can Grow Garden, contact Judy Lieberman.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

At Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, associates (staff) and patients celebrated “Well Beyond Medicine Day" with some very honored guests. These VIPs stopped by the podcast to talk about osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic disease in which bones fracture (break) easily, often with no obvious cause or minimal injury. 

Detroit resident Stephen Sheehy is a remarkable man who answered the Nemours Children's Health call for an adult male with OI to be part of the Nemours Children's "Reflections” ad campaign. Already lined up was 4-year-old Nemours OI patient MJ Strickland. Guest host Cheryl Munn boarded our mobile Well Beyond Medicine podcast truck to talk with Steve, MJ’s mom Alex Rice, and the leader of MJ’s care team, Nemours orthopedic surgeon Dr. Alec Stall about OI: how it’s diagnosed and treated today versus when Steve was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s; barriers faced and overcome; the importance of community connection; and how Steve became a model for Nemours.

Host: Cheryl Munn 
Producer: Carol Vassar

Guests: 
Stephen Sheehy, husband, father and adult living with OI
Alex Rice, mom to Nemours Children's Health OI patient MJ
Alec Stall, MD, Vice Chair, Department of Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Surgeon, Nemours Children's Hospital, Florida

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Pediatric Cardiologist Mary Mehta, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer at Nemours Children’s Health, Pensacola. For more than 20 years she has served the communities of the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. It's a vast swath of land that draws visitors from around the world to its beautiful white sand beaches. It's also a hurricane-prone area dotted with rural communities and military bases. Dr. Mehta discusses the challenges and opportunities that exist to ensure families can access the care and services they need for their children, when and where they need them.

Hear more from Dr. Mehta on Nemours Champions for Children's Health Episode 58.

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Navigating Misinformation and Becoming An Academic Sleuth in the Social Media Age was the topic presented as a panel discussion at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Washington, DC. Panel member Dr. Atul Malhotra advises healthcare professionals on how best to present evidence-based medical information on social media to avoid misinterpretation and he shares advice for parents and caregivers on how to steer clear of medical misinformation on social media.

We also dig into Dr. Malhotra's neonatal cell therapy research at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where he serves as Associate Professor Consultant Neonatologist & Head of the Early Neurodevelopment Clinic at Monash Children's Hospital.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr.  Brian Alverson is a healthcare clinician, educator, innovator, and patent-holder who currently serves as the Nemours Pediatric Residency Program director. We met up with Brian at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting to talk about his vision for the Residency program, his recently granted patent for children undergoing spinal taps, and his leadership in working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to create evidence-based guidelines to diagnose and streamline the care of children with urinary tract infections.

Carol Vassar, producer/host

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Hear about the development of Nemours Children's Health's newest brand campaign, Reflections, which depicts the future of children whose lives are positively impacted when social, cultural and healthcare delivery barriers cease to exist. The campaign also serves as an invitation to every person and organization already on this journey to address the social impacts of health to come together to make full health and wellness a reality for every child across the U.S. 

Featuring:
Gina Altieri, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, and Enterprise Chief Communications Officer, Nemours Children's Health

Drew Landmeier, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Nemours Children's Health

Shanky Das, Co-Founder, and Chief Creative Officer, Tilt

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Anaphylaxis is a word that sends shivers down the spines of parents, grandparents, and caregivers everywhere, and with good reason - it can be life-threatening. Joining us to define anaphylaxis and give us an update on what’s happening in the research world to prevent and treat it is Dr. Timothy Dribin, Associate Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Dribin is one of the world’s leading researchers on anaphylaxis in children. He presented primary data on that subject at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meeting in Washington, DC, where we spoke with him.

Carol Vassar, producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Dr. Thomas Babcock is a pediatric otolaryngologist — an ear, nose, and throat specialist, commonly referred to by the acronym ENT. He joined Nemours Children's Health, Pensacola in December 2022 with a specific task: rebuild a much-needed pediatric cochlear implant program for Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama. 

Dr. Babcock was born and raised in the Gulf Coast Region. Serving his community as an ENT specialist has become his mission, one that began just steps from the specialty clinic in Pensacola where we conducted this interview.

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Guest: Thomas Babcock, MD
Nemours Children's Health, Pensacola

Subscribe, review or leave a voicemail with your thoughts at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.

There is no single solution to the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in health care today. But myriad efforts are being made. In this episode of the podcast, we’re focusing our conversation on one such effort: The New Century Scholars Resident Mentoring Program from the Academic  Pediatric Association. The New Century Scholars program aims to decrease racial/ethnic disparities by increasing the number of pediatricians working in academic settings such as education, research, and clinical care.  

Here to talk about the program are three past New Century Scholars: 2023 program co-director Dr. Brandi Freeman, an academic pediatrician at the University of Colorado where she also serves as their Vice Chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion; co-director Dr. Morgan Walls, a general academic pediatrician at Atrium Health Wake Forest in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dr. Rachel Thornton, Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for Nemours Children’s Health.

Learn more about the New Century Scholars Resident Mentoring Program.

Carol Vassar, host/producer

Views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or management. 

Subscribe, review or let your voice be heard at NemoursWellBeyond.org.