Raise the Line

New research is transforming the outlook for cervical and uterine cancers -- two of the most serious gynecologic malignancies worldwide – and we’ll be hearing from one of the people shaping that progress, Dr. Mary McCormack, on this episode of Raise the Line.  From her perch as the senior clinical oncologist for gynecological cancer at University College London Hospitals, Dr. McCormack has been a...

“The world is a very volatile place, with currently 110 conflicts globally, and yet healthcare staff in the hospitals, even here in London, are not prepared to be the only clinician who can help in a crisis or hostile setting,” says Dr. James Gough, CEO of the David Nott Foundation, which equips providers with the skills and confidence needed to function in war and other extraordinary situations....

“People are not looking for a perfect, polished answer. They're looking for a human to speak to them like a human,” says Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist and one of the most trusted science communicators in the U.S. to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. That philosophy explains her relatable, judgement-free approach to communications which aims to make science more human...

“Delivering a baby one day and holding a patient’s hand at the end of life literally the next day...that continuity is very powerful,” says Dr. Jen Brull, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). And as she points out, that continuity also builds trust with patients, an increasingly valuable commodity when faith in medicine and science is declining. As you might expect give...

“This is a time to reimagine public health and public health/healthcare system integration,” says Dr. Deb Houry, the former chief medical officer for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this thoughtful Raise the Line conversation, Dr. Houry reflects on unprecedented federal action in vaccine guidance and other issues since her noteworthy resignation from the CDC in August, and se...

“My most powerful content is when I lead with my voice as a mom because I have the same concerns about keeping my kids safe as my audience does. It’s a powerful and effective way to find common ground with people,” says Dr. Jess Steier, a popular public health scientist and science communicator seeking to bridge divides and foster trust through empathetic, evidence-based communication. Dr. Steier...

“I realized that rather than talking one-to-one with patients in the exam room, you could talk one-to-many on social media,” says Dr. Kevin Pho, explaining the origins of KevinMD, the highly influential information sharing site he created for physicians, medical students and patients twenty years ago. Since then, KevinMD has become a valuable space for clinicians and patients to share stories and...

“We’ve created this ecosystem where the vast majority of information on social media, particularly in nutrition science, is inaccurate or misleading,” says Dr. Jessica Knurick, a registered dietitian and Ph. D. in nutrition science specializing in chronic disease prevention. As you’ll learn on this episode of Raise the Line with host Lindsey Smith, countering that trend has become Dr. Knurick’s fo...

Could studying the DNA of extinct animals – or even bringing them back to life – help us save today’s endangered species and inform modern medicine?  That may sound like the premise for a Hollywood movie, but it’s work that our Raise the Line guest, Dr. Beth Shapiro, is actually engaged in as Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, which describes itself as the world’s first and only de-ext...

According to the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, women make up 70% of the global healthcare workforce but hold only about 25% of leadership positions. Our guest today on Raise the Line, Dr. Roopa Dhatt, has been a leading voice in the movement to correct that imbalance through co-founding an organization called Women in Global Health (WGH), which has established chap...

“They say it takes a village to raise a child. I really think it takes a village to treat a patient,” says Dr. Lanae Mullane, a naturopathic doctor and clinical strategist who has spent years at the forefront of bridging functional medicine, nutraceutical development, and digital health. In this episode of Raise the Line , host Lindsey Smith explores Dr. Mullane’s view that naturopathic medicine c...

“It’s kind of a miracle, frankly,” says Dr. John Buse, a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, referring to the effectiveness of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications such as Ozempic in treating type 2 diabetes, promoting significant weight loss, and reducing cardiovascular risk. As a physician scientist for the last three decades at UNC, Dr. Buse has played...

“It wasn’t a profession, it was a way of life,” observes internationally respected psychiatrist Dr. Nasser Loza, reflecting on a century-long family legacy in mental health care that began when his grandfather founded The Behman Hospital in Cairo. In this candid Raise the Line conversation with host Michael Carrese, Dr. Loza traces the transformation of psychiatry he’s witnessed in his long career...

“When I was in medical school, no one had even heard of mitochondrial disease. Today, every student who graduates here knows what it is and has seen a patient with it,” says Dr. Mary Kay Koenig, director of the Center for the Treatment of Pediatric Neurodegenerative Disease at UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School. That remarkable change in awareness has been accompanied by advances in genetic...

“Giving learners options gives them a better learning experience. It’s more holistic and more comprehensive,” says Sean Moloney, CEO and founder of EmbodyXR, an extended reality platform focused on the use of immersive technologies in medical education. In this eye-opening Raise the Line conversation, Moloney explains how AI-powered extended reality (XR) --which integrates augmented, virtual, and...

Why has America struggled so much to effectively manage the opioid use crisis? One of the answers, as you’ll learn in this eye-opening episode of Raise the Line, is rooted in laws and attitudes from the early 20th century that removed addiction from the realm of medicine and defined it as a moral failing.  “The federal Harrison Act of 1914 forbade any physician from prescribing opioids to people w...

“We don't view a person with chronic pain as someone who has a chronic illness and the effect of that is we can't follow patients continuously over prolonged periods of time,” says Dr. Jacob Hascalovici, a neurologist and pain specialist based in New York City.  In co-founding Bliss Health, Dr. Jacob, as he is known, has set out to create a continuous care model for chronic pain treatment that mat...

In recent months, public health advocates in the United States have raised concerns about proposed changes to vaccine policy, cuts to food assistance programs, rollbacks of environmental protections and reductions in public health staffing. Chief among them has been Dr. Georges Benjamin who, as executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) since 2002, has led national efforts...

“Probably the most exciting thing I've seen in gene therapy over the last ten years is we now have a lot of tools for selective delivery, which will hopefully make treatments more safe and a lot more successful,” says Dr. Jessica Duis, a geneticist and pediatrician focused on the management of individuals with complex, rare disorders. Dr. Duis, who has worked on several gene therapies that are now...

With nearly one in ten newborns in the US requiring care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the importance of NICUs has never been more clear. On today's episode of Raise the Line , we're shining a light on the extraordinary world of NICUs with Lindsay Howard, a veteran nurse with over 17 years of experience caring for premature and critically ill infants. She currently works in a Level IV NICU at...

“When you think about where we were as a country before Medicare and Medicaid were created and where we are now, it’s an incredible story,” says Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who until earlier this year was the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In a recent essay for The Century Foundation, where she is now a senior fellow, Brooks-LaSure used the 60th anniversary of...

It seems there are news stories every week about the accelerating pace of innovation in gene therapy, but only about 50 therapies have been approved so far by the US Food and Drug Administration. Our guest today, Dr. Bobby Gaspar, leads a UK-based biotech company, Orchard Therapeutics, that developed one of those treatments using gene-modified stem cells in your blood that self-renew, so a single...

You are in for a dose of inspiration in this episode of Raise the Line as we introduce you to a rare disease patient who was a leading force in establishing the diagnosis for her own condition, who played a key role in launching the first phase three clinical trials for it, and who is now coordinating research into the disease and related disorders at one of the nation's top hospitals. Rebecca Sal...

“You have to love what you do, especially in healthcare, and the earlier you find that, the better. So that’s why I love to see HOSA helping young people find what it is that they want to do,” says Dr. David Kelly, a fellow in oculofacial surgery at University of California San Francisco and HOSA’s board chair. You can still hear the excitement in Dr. Kelly’s voice describing his earliest experien...

“We've been able to show that even by 30 days of age, we can predict with some accuracy if a child is going to have a diagnosis of autism,” says Dr. Geraldine Dawson, sharing one of the recent advancements in early diagnosis being aided by artificial intelligence.  Dr. Dawson -- a leading scholar in the field and founding director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development – explains that...