Inspired To Heal

How do lessons from combating Ebola and MERS stop opioid overdoses? Former Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner and CDC official, Dr. Allison Arwady, reveals how applied public health methods can defeat the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.  The illicit drug trade changed forever with the increased introduction of synthetic opioids. Opioid overdoses quickly became the leading ca...

How do global public health leaders stop the spread of bloodborne viruses? In this episode of the Inspired To Heal podcast, host Dr. William Trick sits down with Dr. Yvan Hutin from the World Health Organization (WHO) to expose how unsafe injection practices—like reusing syringes and sharing contaminated medication vials—drive global Hepatitis B and C transmission. Discover how a strategic public...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Pauline "Polly" Thomas , who began her career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in New York City in 1981—the exact year the HIV/AIDS crisis first surfaced in public health reports.  As one of the world's first medical field investigators, Dr. Thomas worked on the front lines to identify how the virus spread. Her evaluation...

Dr. Steven Aks led the Toxicology Division and served as a physician in the legendary Emergency Department at Cook County Hospital—the real-life Pitt. As the frontline expert for life-threatening poisonings, he managed fentanyl overdoses, rat poison laced synthetic cannabinoids, and accidental ingestion of puffer-fish (Fugu). Human curiosity, thrill-seeking, and desperation continually fueled new...

What happens when an epidemiologist becomes a patient? Dr. Juan Alonso-Echanove spent most of his career in public health, including using epidemiologic principles to prevent firearm-related deaths in Puerto Rico.  After Juan was treated for pancreatic cancer, he chose to give back. Through lending his research skills and his public health mantra "information for action” to clinical oncology,...

Dr. Bill Burman was foremost a clinician and researcher, providing patient-centered clinical care to patients infected by HIV or tuberculosis. After a surprise request to direct Denver’s public health department, he realized that his clinical care practice paradigm could translate into successful public health initiatives, where his impact could be magnified to the community. In this episode, Dr....

Numbers tell a story, but they rarely tell the whole story. Claire Dillavou, PhD, has made a career out of building and revising public health surveillance systems informed by the most critical variable: Community Context. The community revealed the story behind the numbers, one of the many lessons she learned that informed her successful public health informatics career at the LA County Departmen...

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When CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers get the call, they go wherever an outbreak leads. For pediatrician Jim Marks, that meant three weeks investigating a rubella outbreak with a source that inspired a memorable manuscript title. While Jim’s career began with infectious diseases detective work, ultimately, he devoted his public health care on preventing and managing chronic diseases, and...

What happens when an aspiring nurse is turned off by healthcare in college?  For Catherine Dentinger, a Peace Corps stint in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a chance meeting with public health legend Jonathan Mann, changed her career. After attending nursing school of nursing at UCSF, she contributed to polio eradication in India, Ebola control in Guinea, and malaria prevention in Madagas...

Fungal infections are commonly associated with irksome, but relatively benign infections, such as athlete’s foot. However, when fungi (molds and yeasts) get into our blood or cerebrospinal fluid, the infections can be difficult to treat and lethal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mycotics team serves as a national and sometimes international resource to detect, intervene, and prev...

What prepares a physician for the pace of Cook County Hospital? For Jay Shannon, it started with growing up among 11 siblings. After training at Parkland Hospital, Dr. Shannon began his career at Cook County Hospital, fulfilling a scholarship commitment to work in a medically underserved community. He developed a deep connection to Cook County Hospital, appreciating its extraordinary diversity—pat...

Two pivotal moments shaped American healthcare: the creation of Medicaid in 1965 and the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. While the ACA slashed the uninsured rate by nearly half, the system remains fragile. In this episode “Insuring America’s Poor”, George Washington University Professor Sara Rosenbaum—a key architect of Medicaid expansion, CHIP, and the Vaccines for Children program—re...

In the 1980s, pediatricians often were called to evaluate febrile children for meningitis—a disease that could mean lifelong disability, or death. Today, that scene is dramatically less common, thanks to public health interventions championed by the CDC and lifesaving vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Dr. Anne Schuchat paused her clinical career to join CDC’...

Dr. Sharon Balter, physician and poet, reflects on her career leading outbreak responses at the CDC and the public health departments of New York City and Los Angeles. Drawing on her experiences at the Federal level and in the United States’ two largest local public health jurisdictions, she offers a rare insider perspective on the strengths and complexities of the U.S. federated public health sys...

After attaining zoology and medical degrees, Dr. Jay Butler’s medical career took an unexpected turn when he discovered the world of public health through the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. That discovery set him on a path that led to impactful roles with the Alaska Department of Health , the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium , and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlan...

In the early 1990s, a devastating outbreak of contaminated beef led to kidney damage and death among children, sparking a call to action on food safety. In response, the CDC, USDA, FDA, and several state health departments launched FoodNet in 1995—a surveillance system designed to monitor the incidence and severity of foodborne illnesses across the United States.  Dr. Kirk Smith , an epidemiologis...

Dr. Tom Frieden has led public health institutions through some of the most defining moments of our time—from his stewardship of New York City’s Department of Health to his leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In his new book, The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives—Including Your Own , he distills decades of experience into a powerful approach: See·Be...

For over two decades, Dr. Sara Cody devoted her career to protecting the health of her community as the Public Health Director for Santa Clara County. Her leadership was tested in early 2020, when COVID-19 arrived in her county—one of the first in the United States to detect community spread. As the virus spread rapidly, Dr. Cody faced the daunting task of making life-altering decisions with limit...

In the shadow of the HIV epidemic, Drs. Bill Clapp and Jim McAuley faced a growing tuberculosis crisis in the United States as frontline clinicians and public health experts. In this episode, they discuss the science behind TB control, the values that guided their mission-driven work in government health systems, and the faith that sustained their commitment to service.   Bill, a pulmonologist, ca...

Public health expert Mike Osterholm discusses outbreak investigations, pandemics, and the risky path the United States is taking on vaccine recommendations and abandoning innovative technology. Mike’s motivation to leave his small town in Iowa to become a disease detective was driven by reading a steady diet of “The Medical Detectives” by Berton Roueche, journalist for the New Yorker. Mike helped...

Using molecular methods and shoe-leather epidemiology, Don Weiss and Kim Musser teamed up to resolve a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx in 2015.  It’s a classic tale of combining surveillance and field investigations with advanced molecular methods to pinpoint and eradicate the lethal source of infections. Future deaths were prevented when the New York City Department of Health, the New York St...

Chief Communications Officer, Caryn Stancik, and General Counsel, Elizabeth Reidy, recognized the value of a functional government healthcare system to care for the medically underserved population of Cook County.  They devoted their careers to guiding Cook County Hospital through transitions: the Affordable Care Act; an independent health system board; and a series of CEOs. How did they maintain...

Professor Laura Bix, the Director of the School of Packaging at Michigan State University, is a national leaders in designing solutions for drug packaging that improves medication safety.  Two catastrophic events, young children dying of aspirin toxicity during the 1940s and 1950s, and deaths due to intentional contamination of Tylenol with cyanide in the 1980s, prompted Federal agencies, industry...

Dr. Denise Cardo and David Henderson are infectious diseases physicians and leaders in healthcare epidemiology—the medical discipline that studies the causes and solutions to prevent infections, use antibiotics wisely, and prevent the spread of "superbugs" in healthcare settings. Dr. Cardo led the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at Centers for Disease Control & Prevention an...