The PennHealthX Podcast

Latest Episodes:

55 - COVIDCast #6 - Dr. Danish Nagda Founder/CEO of Rezilient - Merging Telemedicine and Robotics May 04, 2020

Show notes

Today’s episode is a conversation I co-hosted with Maryam, one of the VP’s of Curriculum for Penn HealthX, and our guest, Dr. Danish Nagda. Dr. Nagda is the founder and CEO of Rezilient, an exciting telemedicine company. From their website: After speaking to countless physicians, they’ve heard the same rationale for the lack of adoption of current virtual care solutions for outpatient care: Doctors don’t see themselves consistently using telehealth because of the inability to perform their objective physical assessments through videoconferencing. We believe that this current gap between in-person and internet-based outpatient care can be addressed by incorporating recent advances in medical robotics and digital health into the clinical workflow. Through our web-based care command center, physicians can assume control of a mobile medical robot in our network, allowing them to deliver in-person care from a distance. Prior to founding Rezilient, Danish was formerly a founder at Schoology, the first social learning platform, which now has had over 20 million users in 130 countries. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his MD and Wharton MBA. Since the beginning of his ENT residency at Washington University in St Louis, he has served in advisory roles for Doximity, Inventr, and Enterprise Bank & Trust. In the episode, we discuss how he became interested in the intersection of business and medicine, why he chose ENT, why he founded the company Rezilient to improve telehealth capabilities, and what the last few months have been like due to increased demand for such services. We also discuss the future of telemedicine, it’s limitations, and how physicians need to drive continued innovation and policy now that we are at a crossroads. He also makes the case that medical students have the potential to be the greatest innovators in the medical field, especially as it relates to COVID in part because we are still learning, have more time, and we are allowed to make mistakes. Footnotes Danish’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagda/ Rezilient Website: https://www.rezilient.io/

54 - COVIDCast #5 - Dr. David Fajgenbaum - Repurposing Drugs in the Fight Against COVID Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

For this episode, Jonathan Wakim and my fellow Co-President Logan Brock joined me to welcome back our very first guest on this podcast all the way back in 2017, Dr. David Fajgenbaum. In the episode we hear about some of the major milestones and highlights of the last 3 years since we last spoke with Dr. Fajgenbaum. These include memories of successfully treating other Castleman patients with the drug sirolimus, the birth of his daughter Amelia at Pennsylvania Hospital, and publishing the book, Chasing My Cure. We also discuss the decision to transition some of Dr. Fajgenbaum’s lab’s resources to studying COVID, and what specifically we can learn from the CDCN’s previous research on cytokine storms and on repurposing off-label drugs to treat rare diseases. We talk more in detail about their tireless work diving into all of the published literature (which was more than 2500 papers and counting) to find which drugs have been tried against COVID-19 to get a better sense of what has been done, what may be working, and where we can go from here. We wrap up with a quick discussion of some precautions Dr. Fajgenbaum is taking, as someone who is on an immunosuppressive drug, his love for Borat (yes, you heard that right), and what Dr. Fajgenbaum is most looking forward to in the coming years. - Ryan O'Keefe Footnotes Dr. Fajgenbaum’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfajgenbaum/ Dr. Fajgenbaum’s Twitter https://twitter.com/davidfajgenbaum?lang=en Chasing my Cure https://www.amazon.com/dp/1524799610 The CDCN Website https://cdcn.org/ Drug Repurposing https://cdcn.org/repurpose/ The Database the CDCN Created on All COVID Drugs Used https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jH0MRE9S8CDOfL-lP9GM4eMIx6aKOAEa_uLgwJBHRL4/edit#gid=0 WHYY Article/Podcast https://whyy.org/segments/penn-doctor-uses-his-near-death-experiences-to-research-why-covid-19-patients-crash/ Dr. Fajgenbaum's Full Bio David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc is a groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, and bestselling author of the acclaimed memoir, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action. Fajgenbaum went from being a beast-like college Quarterback to receiving his last rites while in medical school and nearly dying four more times battling Castleman disease. To try to save his own life, he spearheaded an innovative approach to research and discovered a possible treatment that has put him into an extended remission. Now, he is spreading this approach to advance cures for other diseases and sharing lessons he learned about living from nearly dying through Chasing My Cure. One of the youngest individuals ever appointed to the faculty at Penn Medicine and the top 1 percent youngest grant awardees of a leading NIH grant, Dr. Fajgenbaum is co-founder and executive director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) and Associate Director, Patient Impact, for the Penn Orphan Disease Center. He has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, as a top healthcare leader by Becker's Hospital Review, the Global Genes RARE Champion of Hope: Science awardee, and one of three recipients--including Vice President Joe Biden--of a 2016 Atlas Award from the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Before co-founding the CDCN, Dr. Fajgenbaum co-founded and led the Actively Moving Forward Support Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting grieving college students. Dr. Fajgenbaum has been profiled in a cover story by The New York Times as well as by Good Morning America, CNN, and the Today Show, among others. Dr. Fajgenbaum earned a BS from Georgetown University magna cum laude with honors and distinction, MSc from the University of Oxford, MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and MBA from The Wharton School. He is a former Division I college quarterback, state-champion weight lifter, and co-founder of a national grief support network.

53 - COVIDCast #4 - Prototyping the SaniPack to Help Protect Frontline Healthcare Workers Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

This episode is a continuation of our series of COVID-related content. Jonathan Wakim and I speak with the SaniPack team, consisting of Omar Abdoun, Khaled Abdoun, Lina Ibrahim, Ahmed Aly, Zonia Moore, and Doreen Lam. Each of the team members is a student at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Doreen Lam is currently one of the VPs of Curriculum for Penn HealthX. Together, their group developed the Sanipack, a pouch that can rapidly decontaminate an N95 mask and enhance its usability and shelf life to help protect healthcare workers. HealthX actually provided some tiered, non-dilutive grant funding so that the team could rapidly prototype the device to begin testing them and piloting them in the clinics. In the episode, we chat about how the team formed, the problem they were looking to solve, how they came up with the solution, how they worked as a team to put together a pitch for the Johns Hopkins COVID competition in under a week, and what the next steps are to get the device created and ready for use. It was a lot of fun to have everyone on one zoom call, and I’m glad we have such thoughtful and innovative students at Penn who are heeding the call to help in the COVID crisis. - Ryan O'Keefe

52 - David Lindsay - Founding Oncora Medical and Leveraging RWE to Improve the Treatment of Cancer Apr 25, 2020

Show notes

Today’s episode is a conversation I had with David Lindsay, who is an MD/PhD student at Penn. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Oncora Medical, which is a Philadelphia based company developing of a digital health platform intended to improve the way oncologists access, organize and learn from past radiation treatment data. The company's platform uses predictive analytics to unify data on radiation oncology, enabling oncologists to analyze the side effects, success and failure of past treatments and offer better treatment to cancer patients. In the episode we talk about how he became interested in medicine, computer science, and entrepreneurship, and how he leveraged the Penn community to help found Oncora Medical. We talk more about what Oncora does, why he wanted to innovate in the cancer space, what it is like balancing being a student and a CEO, and some of the lessons David has learned as a leader. We also talk about important mentors of his, the challenges of electronic health records and interoperability, and a number of key decisions he and his team had to make as the company has grown. We wrap up with a discussion of some recent partnerships that Oncora has entered into, and what the future holds. - Ryan O'Keefe Footnotes David’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/wdlindsay/ Oncora Medical's Website https://oncoramedical.com/ Stephen Hahn (one of David’s early Mentors) https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/stephen-hahn Oncora and Varian Partnership https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/varian-and-oncora-partner-to-accelerate-precision-medicine-in-radiation-oncology-300917662.html

51 - COVIDCast #3 - Nicole Jochym - Co-Creator of Sew Face Masks Philadelphia (SFMP) Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

Today’s episode is a quick one we recorded with Nicole Jochym to highlight the work she has done as the co-creator of Sew Face Masks Philadelphia (SFMP). Nicole is currently a 3rd-year medical student at Cooper Medical School just across the river from us in Camden, New Jersey. She holds a Masters of Bioethics from UPenn. Be on the lookout for a lot more COVID content to be released soon, highlighting other work students, residents and faculty have been leading here in Philly and beyond. Footnotes Nicole’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolejochym/ SFMP Website https://www.sewfacemasksphilly.com/

50 - COVIDCast #2 - Casey Kim - Developing Educational Guidelines and Daily COVIDigests Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

For this episode, we are continuing our series featuring healthcare students and workers who are helping in the response to COVID-19. I spoke with Casey Kim, who is a 3rd-year medical student. She is on the leadership board for POHPS, the Philadelphia Organization of Health Professions Students and has taken the lead on creating guidelines for both medical professionals and the public regarding COVID-19. She has also created CoviDigest which is a daily summary of news, announcements, and other takeaways regarding the coronavirus. Be on the lookout for future COVID episodes where we speak with more of the POHPS leadership, teams of students designing solutions to address PPE and ventilator shortages, those developing the eICU elective, and more. Foot Notes Casey’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-kim-b235a8149/ COVIDigests https://www.pohps.org/covidigests?fbclid=IwAR0JFk3dxWvSHbAIuhvtDU_IrrIQAkzd2Da42Dy3Yi2hSS7MFxk2a4eZot4

49 - COVIDCast #1 - Ramie Fathy - Founding POHPS to Organize the Student Response to the Pandemic Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

POHPS Website www.pohps.org Today, we are finally getting some COVID-related material. Over the next few weeks, we are going to continue highlighting some of the amazing work healthcare students and staff are doing in the Philadelphia area to help address the coronavirus pandemic. First, we are sharing a conversation Wakim, a 1st year Penn Medical student and VP of Strategy for HealthX, and I had with Ramie Fathy. Ramie is a 3rd-year medical student at Penn. He is the founder of POHPS, which stands for the Philadelphia Organization of Health Professions Students (POHPS). POHPS is an independent student-driven coalition born out of the COVID pandemic. The group includes students in the Philadelphia area who collaborate to meet community and health care worker needs, provide volunteer opportunities to fellow students, and promote holistic professional and personal wellness. In the conversation, we talk about his background, research interests and hobbies, how he and others came together to form POHPS, and what you can do to get involved. Check out the website, www.POHPS.org and join the Facebook group. In our ongoing COVID series of episodes, we will be sharing interviews with other members of the POHPS leadership, including those who are creating medical guidelines, compiling and organizing all volunteer opportunities, gathering PPE, sewing facemasks, and leading wellness initiatives, among many other projects. We will also highlight some of the groups of students who are innovating in the med device and med-tech space to address PPE and ventilator shortages, students who are working on developing an eICU elective, students who are working on developing a ChatBot for the Penn website, and those who are getting involved with new clinical trials happening at Penn. We will even speak with a few residents and faculty to hear what it is like in the hospitals and emergency departments now, and how they are preparing for an influx of patients. We’re excited to share these amazing stories with you all. - Ryan O'Keefe Footnotes Ramie’s website https://www.ramiefathy.com/aboutramie Ramie’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramiefathy/ POHPS https://www.facebook.com/groups/POHPS/ POHPS Website www.pohps.org

48 - Dr. Ravi Parikh - Using AI and Machine Learning to Improve Patient Care Apr 07, 2020

Show notes

Todays episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Ravi Parikh who is a Heme/Onc fellow at Penn. He received his MD from Harvard and his MPP from the Kennedy School. He completed an internal medicine residency at the Brigham. Dr. Parikh gave our first (and unfortunately probably only) in-person seminar series talk this semester. He spoke about Machine Learning in healthcare, some of the projects he is involved with to better identify patients who would benefit from having a “serious illness conversation” and the challenges of bias. He joined me to talk about this topic further. In the episode, we discuss his background, the decision to get an MPP degree, artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, some of his research interests, and what he is most looking forward to in the future of medicine and oncology. - Ryan O'Keefe Footnotes: Ravi’s Bio https://ldi.upenn.edu/expert/ravi-parikh-md One of Ravi’s Recent Publications on ML in Medicine https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155171442030029X?via%3Dihub

47 - Dr. James Buxton - From CT Surgery in the U.K to Studying Business at Wharton Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. James Buxton – all the way from across the pond in London. James is an MBA colleague of mine and a physician from the U.K who was training to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. In the episode we discuss how the coronavirus has impacted him these last few weeks and how he may soon be called to the frontlines in the U.K. We also discuss how we became interested in surgery, why he decided to get a business degree in the U.S, what he’s learned about the U.S healthcare system, and how he plans to use his degree in the future in both the business and medical worlds. It was a fun episode to record, and I’m looking forward to featuring more of my Wharton classmates on this show in the near future! Host: Ryan O'Keefe, MD/MBA Candidate Footnotes James’ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-buxton-138a93139/

46 - Dr. Richard Baron - Pres/CEO of ABIM - Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in Medicine Mar 25, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Richard Baron. Dr. Baron is currently the president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, or ABIM. He received his MD from Yale and completed his internal medicine residency at NYU-Bellevue Medical Center. He served a 3-year obligation in the National Health Service Corps in rural Tennessee, practiced general internal medicine and geriatrics for almost 30 years at Greenhouse Internists, served as the CMO of Health Partners, a Medicaid HMO in Philadelphia, and was the Group Director of Seamless Care Models at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. In the episode, we discuss how his interest in English informed his career trajectory, some memories from training at Bellevue and practicing in rural Tennessee, and the difference between working in leadership for an HMO, and for the government. We also discuss the ABIM, and the increasing issue of the public rejecting expertise, how that impacts the medical field, and steps the ABIM is taking to address it and maintain the trust of patients. Show Notes Dr. Baron’s Bio https://abimfoundation.org/person/richard-j-baron-md-president-and-ceo From the Journal of a Leper – John Updike https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1976/07/19/from-the-journal-of-a-leper The Message in the Bottle – How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with The Other - Walker Percy https://www.amazon.com/Message-Bottle-Queer-Language-Other/dp/0312254016

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