Raise the Line

Regular listeners to Raise the Line know so-called "rare diseases" aren't really rare when you consider up to thirty million Americans are affected by them directly. That makes it likely you know someone who is impacted, or you know one of their colleagues, friends or loved ones. That fact has hit home at Osmosis over the last few months as we've started planning a major focus on rare diseases for...

Grace Wilsey was born with a deadly genetic mutation so rare that at the time of her birth, it had never been identified in another person. The disorder, NGLY1 deficiency, causes a wide range of physical and cognitive problems such as muscle weakness, speech deficiencies and seizures. “The NGLY1 gene is in every cell in the body. It's almost like a firefighter that's on call, ready to go when ther...

“You know, it's easy to say that default answer that everything's okay, but it's really not. She's lost a lot of her vision, she's got hundreds of seizures at night, and she's having difficulty walking,” shares Luke Rosen about his eight-year-old daughter Susannah.  She was born with KIF1A-associated neurological disorder -- or KAND -- a rare, degenerative genetic disease for which there is curren...

As we continue our focus on rare diseases on Raise the Line , we’re delighted to be joined by Dr. Alaa Hamed, Global Head of Medical Affairs, Rare Diseases at Sanofi, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Although most well known for their focus on lysosomal storage disorders including Gaucher and Pompe disease, Dr. Hamed and his team at Sanofi are also working in adjacent dise...

“Imaging has really become the tip of the spear of the patient journey,” says Daniel Arnold, CEO of Medality. In order to train future radiologists in this critically important and complex specialty, and keep current practitioners on top of their game, Arnold and his team are on a mission to transform the way radiologists learn by offering an online solution that mimics practicing radiology in the...

“One of the reasons I really wanted to be at Walmart is that you're touching people that truly have a need,” says Dr. John Wigneswaran, the retail giant’s Chief Medical Officer.  And giant is not an overstatement.  150 million Americans visit a Walmart every week, and there is a store within ten miles of 90% of the U.S. population.  In terms of healthcare, there are roughly 5,000 Walmart pharmacie...

It’s not hard to start feeling relaxed when you experience a virtual reality visit to a mountain top, taking in the beautiful views of forested peaks and valleys and hearing the rustling breeze. You can actually feel transported from the real world.  But imagine how much more transporting it would be if you could also smell the pine trees? Well, now you can, thanks to OVR Technology, a Vermont-bas...

“We're the richest country on the planet, healthcare access has to be core to who we are,” says Karthik Ganesh, CEO of EmpiRx Health, one of the fastest growing healthcare services companies in the country and the industry’s only value-based Pharmacy Benefit Manager.  Ganesh and his team believe that radical changes are needed in the country’s healthcare system and they’re working to create a bett...

Would you rather be poked with a needle, or get a diagnosis from a non-invasive scan? Most of us would choose the latter, if we had the option.  Needle biopsies also come with the risk of infection and other complications that can be avoided by obtaining a diagnosis via imaging. Those are just some of the advantages underpinning the work of Perspectum, a global precision health company focused on...

“We know that whenever nurses are listened to in policymaking arenas, health outcomes improve,” says Dr. Michelle Acorn, chief nurse at the International Council of Nurses, a federation of nursing associations. That’s why she’s focused on making sure nurses are at the decision-making tables all over the world. “ICN ensures that nurses have a voice in developing and implementing health policy so th...

Science As a Force for Social Good: Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet   The first scientific paper on the clinical features of patients infected with what came to be known as COVID-19 was published in The Lancet, launching that famed journal's prominent role in COVID research, which it has maintained throughout the pandemic. But being an influential force in science and medicine is...

Deploying community-based health workers has been a popular tactic to boost vaccination rates during COVID, but when the crisis ends, how can they stay engaged to help achieve other public health goals? That’s the kind of question Maria Thacker-Goethe grapples with as CEO of the Atlanta-based Center for Global Health Innovation. “You have to have the respect to keep paying people and not leave the...

The first thing you see when you walk into the medical school building at the University of Texas at Tyler is a teaching kitchen, and the director of the nutrition curriculum is a dietician from the East Texas Food Bank. That should give you some idea of how differently the school’s founding Dean, Dr. Brigham Willis, sees its mission. “What we're trying to do is create a very unique program focuse...

Ninety percent of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut, says Jeff Glueck. So, if you are like the many millions of Americans with a digestive disorder, happiness and calm may not come easily. Enter Salvo, a “medical clinic in an app” that provides specialty care for people suffering from chronic GI conditions. In this episode of Raise the Line with host Michael Carrese, hear how the loss of...

Heather Fullmer will never forget seeing her nursing license for the first time and realizing the date of issuance was the same as her son Michael’s birthday.  She had spent the week since delivering him in the NICU as Michael’s struggle with the rare, life-limiting skin disorder Epidermolysis Bullosa began. “It was a surreal moment. I became a nurse professionally, and in my personal life on the...

Although many countries are facing a shortage of physicians, Israel is being hit particularly hard by this problem, especially in rural areas. But as we’ll learn in this episode of Raise the Line , Dr. Peter Gilbey and Dr. Yair Blumberg of The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University are doing their part to reverse that trend by developing new approaches to medical education. “If you tak...

As the rate of new medical knowledge continues to accelerate, how can medical students and practitioners keep up with it all and make sure they are providing the most up-to-date care to their patients? One answer is being provided by AMBOSS, a German medical technology company whose platform has greatly improved the way medical knowledge is acquired and utilized at the point of care. In this episo...

Imagine 60% of your skin having open wounds every day. That's the grim reality of those with Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, a rare genetic connective tissue disorder which results in blisters and tears to the skin being created from even minor contact or friction. The range of complications this causes for almost every normal activity – from eating to bathing to sleeping – is daunting, leading our...

Just a few weeks ago we shared the story of John Crowley’s family and their battle with Pompe disease on Raise the Line,  and in this episode, we’re honored to share another remarkable story of a rare disease parent and the contributions they've made beyond their efforts to help their own loved ones.  Nick Sireau is the CEO and Chair of Trustees of the AKU Society, an award-winning patient group t...

As Dr. Katie Kay reflects on what adjustments need to be made to nursing curricula in light of the pandemic, she is not focused mainly on academic content. “We have to address some gaps in curriculums across the board that really prepare individuals for what they're going to encounter in the healthcare setting.” Assessing grit, making sure students seek out resources when they are struggling and a...

The increasing integration of oral healthcare with medical care could lead to a reconsideration of roles and responsibilities on care teams in both fields. That’s just one of the emerging trends in oral healthcare we explore on this episode of Raise the Line with guests Laura Skarnulis, CEO of the Dental Assisting National Board and the DALE Foundation, and Ann Battrell, CEO of the American Dental...

It was on a Friday the 13th in late winter 1997 when John Crowley’s life changed forever.  John and his wife Aileen had been noticing concerning symptoms in their infant daughter Megan for several months, and after a few rounds of testing she was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as Pompe disease.  Doctors told the Crowleys their daughter likely only had a few years to live, a...

Direct-to-consumer healthcare and how technology can empower people to be active participants in achieving and maintaining their own good health is a favorite topic on Raise the Line.  Today we’re going to take a closer look at how one consumer health device that’s growing sharply in popularity, continuous glucose monitors, can be used to drive healthier decisions.  Millions of Americans wear the...

Unlike many young children who are fearful of visits to the doctor, Dr. David Canes was fascinated by his.  This early interest set the foundation for a career in medicine, leading him to become a skilled urologist and robotic surgeon. But he started to feel unsatisfied with the repetition of information he needed to deliver during patient appointments. “I think there's a lot of other doctors like...

There’s good news in the world of organ donation and transplant.  For the first time last year, more than 40,000 transplants were performed in the U.S. and donations from deceased donors increased for the eleventh year in a row. And as we’ll learn from today’s guest Leslie McMahon, newer technologies are making it possible to evaluate organs for viability that previously might have been rejected d...