Podcasts about umass chan medical school

UMass Chan Medical School biomedical engineer and professor Rachael Sirianni leads a lab that researches new technologies to help treat brain tumors in children. Delays in federal grants have led her to slow down and suspend some her team's research.

A new study examines how conditional and unconditional cash transfers affect exclusive breastfeeding rates. JAMA Pediatrics Editor in Chief Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, and JAMA Pediatrics Associate Editor Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH, discuss how cash transfers can be designed to improve the health and well-being of children and families with Meg Parker, MD, MPH, of the UMass Chan Medical School. Related Content: Conditional and Unconditional Social Transfers, Early-Life Nutrition, and Child Growth

Audible Bleeding editor Wen (@WenKawaji) is joined by 4th-year general surgery resident Sasank Kalipatnapu (@ksasank) from UMass Chan Medical School, JVS editor Dr. Forbes (@TL_Forbes), JVS-VS associate editor Dr. John Curci (@CurciAAA) to discuss some of our favorite articles in the JVS family of journals. This episode hosts Dr. Mota, Dr. Liang and Dr. Weinkauf, authors of the following papers.   Articles: The impact of travel distance in patient outcomes following revascularization for chronic limb-threatening ischemia Serum detection of blood brain barrier injury in subjects with a history of stroke and transient ischemic attack  Show Guests: Dr. Lucas Mota- third-year general surgery resident at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Dr. Patrick Liang- assistant professor at Harvard medical school and a practicing vascular surgeon at the Beth Israel Deaconess medical center.  Dr. Weinkauf - assistant professor with the Department of Surgery Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine  Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.

In this episode of Audible Bleeding, editor Dr. Imani McElroy (@IEMcElroy) is joined by General Surgery PGY-4 Sasank Kalipatnapu(@ksasank) along with Dr.David Rigberg, MD (@drigberg), and Dr. Guillermo Escobar, MD (@GAEscobarMD) to discuss the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) Rising Seniors / Incoming Fellows Program. This episode brings out a conversation exploring the history behind the development of the program, the current state of the program, and the overwhelming importance of the program in the current day. The episode also provides a broad overview of the content presented in the program and the reasoning behind the talks.    Guests: Dr. David Rigberg - Professor of Surgery, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Gonda Vascular Center, Program Director for the Vascular fellowship and integrated vascular surgery residency at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, California Dr. Guillermo Escobar- Associate Professor, Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, Program Director for the Vascular Surgery Fellowship and Residency at Emory University School of Medicine   Relevant links: Rising Seniors / Incoming Fellows Program - Program Details SCVS - Fellows & Chief Residents Program SCVS - Young Vascular Surgeons Program   To apply for the Rising Seniors / Incoming Fellows Program, go to apply now! Audible Bleeding team: Dr. Imani McElroy is 1st year vascular surgery fellow at USC/LA and editor at Audible Bleeding Dr. Sasank Kalipatnapu, PGY-4 general surgery resident, Dept of Surgery, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of microRNA, tiny biological molecules that tell the cells in our body what kind of cell to be by turning on and off certain genes.In this episode, we speak to Ambros, who is professor of natural sciences at UMass Chan Medical School in the US, about the discovery that led to his Nobel prize and find out what he's researching now. And we hear from Justin Stebbing, professor of biomedical sciences at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, about how a deeper understanding of microRNA is opening up new avenues for potential treatment of diseases such as cancer. This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, which is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen.Further reading:MicroRNA − a new Nobel laureate describes the scientific process of discovering these tiny molecules that turn genes on and offMicroRNA is the Nobel-winning master regulator of the genome – researchers are learning to treat disease by harnessing how it controls genesNobel prize in medicine awarded for discovery of microRNAs, the molecules that control our genesFull coverage of the 2024 Nobel prizes on The Conversation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the week the Nobel prizes for science are announced, Roland Pease takes a look at the stories behind the breakthroughs being recognized, and the themes that connect them. From the discovery of the tiny fragments of RNA that regulate our cells' behaviour, via computer structures that resemble our brains, and harnessing those sorts of computers to design drugs and medicines, it has been one of the most interdisciplinary years for the prize panellists. We hear from old students, recent colleagues, laureates and lab (and life) partners, including Rosalind “Candy” Lee and her husband Victor Ambros, of UMass Chan Medical School, US, Erika DeBenedictus of the Crick Institute, UK, and Dmitri Krotov of IBM Research. Presented: Roland Pease Produced: Alex Mansfield Production co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis(Photo: 3d rendering of RNA strands and lipid-based nanoparticles or liposome. Credit: Love Employee via Getty Images)

Audible Bleeding editor Wen (@WenKawaji) is joined by 1st year vascular surgery fellow Richa Kalsi (@KalsiMD), 3rd year medical student Nishi (@Nishi_Vootukuru), 4th-year general surgery resident Sasank Kalipatnapu (@ksasank) from UMass Chan Medical School, JVS editor Dr. Forbes (@TL_Forbes), JVS-VLD associate editor Dr. Arjun Jayaraj and JVS social media liaison Dr. Haurani to discuss some of our favorite articles in the JVS family of journals.   This episode hosts Dr. Amy Felsted, Dr. Salvatore Scali, and Dr. Arjun Jayaraj, the authors of the following papers. Dr. Arjun Jayaraj and Dr. Haurani will also spend time discussing a virtual special issue, centered around iliofemoral venous stenting published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, Venous and Lymphatic Disorders that includes six articles published between August 2023 and May 2024.    Articles: Part 1: A patient-centered textbook outcome measure effectively discriminates contemporary elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair quality by Dr. Felsted, Dr. Scali and colleagues.    Part 2: Virtual special issues on contemporary role of iliofemoral venous stenting    Show Guests  Dr. Amy Felsted (@aefelsted): Completed fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Currently an assistant professor of surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and practicing vascular surgeon at the VA in Boston   Dr. Salvatore Scali: Professor of Surgery at University of Florida Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, program director of the vascular fellowship at University of Florida.   Dr. Arjun Jayaraj: Vascular surgeon at the RANE Center in Jackson, Mississippi with a focus on the management of venous and lymphatic diseases, Associate Editor of JVS-VL.  Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.

In this episode, Sasank Kalipatnapu (@ksasank) and Leana Dogbe (@ldogbe4) sit down with Dr.Joseph Mills(@jmills1955), Dr. Douglas Jones and Dr. Premchand Gupta (@pcvasc) to discuss the origin of the SVS Step Challenge. This episode features a conversation about the history behind the SVS Step challenge and the role of walking in treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). It also covers the origin of “Walkathon”, the Indian equivalent of SVS Step Challenge.    Dr. Joseph Mills is Professor and Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Michael E DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also the John W. Reid and Josephine L. Reid Endowed Professorship in Surgery and is currently the chair of the SVS Foundation.    Dr. Douglas Jones is an associate professor of Vascular Surgery at UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA. He currently leads the Limb Preservation Center at UMass Memorial Health.    Dr. PC Gupta is the clinical director of vascular and endovascular surgery and vascular interventional radiology at the Care Hospitals in Hyderabad, India. He is President of the Vascular Society of India and now President of the World Federation of Vascular Societies.   Relevant links:    SVS Step Challenge - Home Page - Link to look up the details of the Step Challenge vascular.org/step2024 - Link to sign up for the Step Challenge 2024   Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.

Chancellor Michael F. Collins kicked off a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast season by highlighting the growth and future of UMass Chan Medical School and how it is shaping the future of health care.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director general of the World Health Organization, delivered the keynote address and received an honorary degree when UMass Chan Medical School celebrated the opening of the new education and research building. Listen to his speech.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey delivered the Commencement address at UMass Chan Medical School on June 2. She celebrated the Classes of 2024 from the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. Gov. Healey was presented with a Chancellor's Medal prior to her speech. Listen to the full speech in the podcast. Read more about Commencement: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2024/06/massachusetts-gov.-healey-to-umass-chan-grads-we-need-you-now-more-than-ever

In a time of stress, uncertainty, and isolation, Christine Runyan turns our attention to what often evades our awareness — the response of our nervous systems. As part of On Being's 2021 Midwinter Gathering, she offered this brief, practical, gently guided practice as an invitation to befriend your beleaguered body, to “blanket it with a little bit of tenderness, a little bit of kindness.”Delve more deeply into Runyan's wisdom in her On Being conversation with Krista, “On Healing Our Distressed Nervous Systems.”Christine Runyan is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMass Chan Medical School. She is also a certified mindfulness teacher, and she co-founded and co-leads Tend Health, a clinical consulting practice focused on the mental well-being of medical and health care workers.Find the transcript for this practice at onbeing.org.Watch an animated version of this practice on our YouTube page.

The years of pandemic and lockdown are still working powerfully on us from the inside. But we have trouble acknowledging this, much less metabolizing it. This conversation with Christine Runyan, which took place in the dark middle of those years, helps make sense of our present of still-unfolding epidemic distress — as individuals, as communities, as a species. She has cultivated a reverence for the human nervous system. She tells truths about our bodies that western medicine itself is only fitfully learning to see. This quiet conversation is not just revelatory, but healing and calming. It holds startling prescience about some of what we're navigating now. And it offers self-compassion and simple strategies for finding ease within ourselves — and with each other — as we live forward from here.Christine Runyan is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMass Chan Medical School. She is also a certified mindfulness teacher, and she co-founded and co-leads Tend Health, a clinical consulting practice focused on the mental well-being of medical and health care workers.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.This show originally aired in March 2021.______Sign up for The Pause — a Saturday morning companion newsletter to the On Being podcast season, and our mailing list for news and invitations all year round. Be the first to know as tickets go on sale for the On Being 2025 live national conversation tour.

About Malekeh Amini:Malekeh Amini is the Founder and CEO of Trayt, a healthcare software company dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatments in brain-based disorders, including Autism, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, substance use, and Alzheimer's, among others. Prior to Trayt, Malekeh was the Senior Vice President of Products & Business Development at Base Health, where she provided the vision connecting new breakthroughs in medical science to the needs of healthcare organizations and consumers. A former consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and the Parthenon Group, Malekeh has provided strategic, operational, and fundraising advice to healthcare and education organizations globally. Malekeh served on the fundraising Board of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Wings Learning Center in Redwood City. Malekeh has an M.B.A. from Harvard University. She earned her bachelor's degrees in Communication Sciences (Cognitive Science) and computer science and her master's in Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California.About Nancy Byatt:Dr. Byatt is a perinatal psychiatrist and physician-scientist focused on improving systems of care to promote the mental health of parents and children. Her passion for her work is deeply rooted in her experiences as a clinician, researcher, daughter, and mother. She is a Professor with Tenure of Psychiatry, OB/GYN, and Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School. She developed the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) for Moms. MCPAP for Moms is a statewide program that has 1) increased access to mental health care for thousands of perinatal individuals, 2) become a national model for perinatal mental health care, and 3) impacted state and national policies and funding. She is the Founding Executive Director of the Lifeline for Families Center and Lifeline for Moms Program at UMass Chan Medical School. The Center's activities include capacity building, consultation, and research. Dr. Byatt's research uses implementation science methods to design, implement, and evaluate scalable approaches for improving parental and child mental health services and outcomes. With over ten years of continuous federal funding for her research, Dr. Byatt's achievements have led to over 90 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, over 250 presentations, and numerous national awards. Her love is her family, especially her two teenage boys. Her passion is increasing access to and the quality of mental health care. Her mission is to redefine perinatal and family healthcare to include mental healthcare.Things You'll Learn:Progress at both the state and federal levels demonstrates significant support for maternal mental health initiatives.Federal funding and grants are readily available for perinatal psychiatry access programs, with 29 programs currently operational nationwide.Technology plays a crucial role in streamlining workflows, analyzing data, and offering valuable insights into program effectiveness within maternal mental health initiatives.Technology serves as a catalyst for accelerating care delivery, measuring outcomes, and establishing benchmarks for high-quality maternal mental health services.The healthcare industry possesses the means to accelerate advancements in maternal mental healthcare, emphasizing the critical need to prioritize prevention and support for families to mitigate the intergenerational impact of mental health challenges.Resources:Connect with and follow Nancy Byatt on LinkedIn.Connect with and follow Malekeh Amini on LinkedIn.Follow Trayt Health on LinkedIn and visit their website.Follow UMass Chan Medical School on LinkedIn and visit their website.

In the latest episode of Voices of UMass Chan, Cherise Hamblin, MD, delves into the critical topic of black maternal health and the significance of Black Maternal Health Week at UMass Chan Medical School. For a full list of events with registration information, head to the following link: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2024/03/black-maternal-health-week-at-umass-chan-to-address-disparities/

Margret Chang, MD, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of resident addiction curriculum in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at UMass Chan Medical School, and her team at Tri-River Family Health Center in Uxbridge have developed an addiction treatment program in the primary care setting. In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, Dr. Chang explains how their team-based approach, which includes a dedicated nurse who helps with outreach and focuses on providing a high level of engagement, could serve as model to help bridge the gap in addiction treatment for millions of patients.

In this episode of Audible Bleeding, editor Dr. Adam Johnson is joined by General Surgery PGY-3 Sasank Kalipatnapu, MS2 Nishi Vootukuru, along with Dr. Anton Sidawy, MD, and Dr. William Schutze to discuss the nuances of the recently launched Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Outpatient Verification Program, in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons. This episode brings out a conversation exploring the history behind the development of the program, the current state of the program, and the overwhelming importance of the program in the current day. The episode will also cover the broad steps that need to be taken by a facility looking to become verified and will also show the value added by being verified by this joint ACS/SVS Vascular Verification program.   Dr. Anton Sidawy, MD, MPH, FACS is the Lewis B. Saltz Chair and Professor of Surgery at George Washington School of Medicine, Washington DC. He is the chair of the Vascular Verification Program steering committee and oversees the development and implementation of inpatient and outpatient vascular verification programs.   Dr. William Patrick Shutze is a Vascular Surgeon from Texas Vascular Associates in Plano, TX, and Chair of the Outpatient Committee. He is also the secretary for the Society for Vascular Surgery and is also the chair of the Communications Committee. He has led the efforts with the implementation of the recently launched Outpatient Verification Program.   Relevant links: Official page of the Vascular Verification Program   Co-Hosts: Dr. Adam Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Duke University and editor at Audible Bleeding. Dr. Sasank Kalipatnapu is a PGY-3 General Surgery resident at UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA. Nishi Vootukuru is a 2nd-year medical student at Rutgers NJMS University, Newark, NJ.  

Audible Bleeding editor Wen (@WenKawaji) is joined by second year medical student Nishi (@Nishi_Vootukuru), 3rd year general surgery resident Sasank Kalipatnapu (@ksasank) from UMass Chan Medical School, JVS editor Dr. Forbes (@TL_Forbes) and JVS-CIT associate editor Dr. O'Banion (@limbsalvagedr) to discuss two great articles in the JVS family of journals regarding endovascular management of acute limb ischemia and ultrasound-based femoral artery calcification score. This episode hosts Dr. Thomas Maldonado (@TomMaldonadoMD) and Dr. Raul J. Guzman, the authors of the following papers:   Articles:   Safety and efficacy of mechanical aspiration thrombectomy at 30 days for patients with lower extremity acute limb ischemia by Dr. Maldonado and colleagues. An ultrasound-based femoral artery calcification score by Dr. Raul Guzman and colleagues.     Show Guests: Dr. Thomas Maldonado is the Schwartz - Buckley endowed professor of surgery in the Vascular Division at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York,  Co-Director of Center for Complex Aortic Disease Dr. Raul J. Guzman is the Donald Guthrie Professor of Vascular Surgery, Chief of Division of Vascular Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. He is also Surgeon-in-Chief of Vascular Surgery, Heart and Vascular Center for the Yale New Haven Health System. (raul.guzman@yale.edu)   Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.  

In a guest editorial in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, authors Eric G. Smith and Kushani M. Patel discuss how case series and case reports can contribute to psychiatric treatment decisions. Their article in the March-Apil 2024 issue is titled “The Role of Case Series and Case Reports in Evidence-Based Medicine.” Dr. Smith is from the VA Bedford Healthcare System and the UMass Chan Medical School. Dr. Patel is from the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.   Case reports and case series are justifiably far down in the hierarchy of evidence-based medicine, but there are specific clinical situations in which referring to case reports or case series can be of value. In this podcast, Dr. Smith discusses some of these circumstances, such as when there is no FDA-approved treatment for a disorder or when treating patients who have declined treatment with medications supported by higher levels of evidence such as randomized controlled trials. Additionally, case reports can assist in evaluating questions of safety.

The biliary tract (or biliary system) includes the liver, gallbladder and bile ducts. They work together to make, store and secrete bile, which is an important role in our digestive system. But what are the signs and symptoms that something is wrong? Doctor Navine Nasser-Ghodsi, a Gastroenterologist at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts joins us with some vital insight. She explains the role of the biliary tract, the potential causes and risk factors of bile duct and gallbladder cancer, as well as treatment options. This episode also features expert tips on preventative care and recognizing when your gallbladder or biliary tract is telling you it's time to see your doctor. This episode is brought to you in partnership with The American College of Gastroenterology's Patient Care Committee. 

Usually, when you hear of treatments for substance abuse, you think of rehab, therapy, and support groups, and you don't think of the dentist. However, many people who are struggling with addiction are also dealing with a major hurdle to recovery: poor dental health that's caused by the use of substances like drugs or alcohol. Dr. Hugh Silk and his team at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester just received a new grant to work directly with those battling addiction in the Worcester area, helping them restore their dental health and develop more self-confidence. Dr. Silk joins Nichole this week to talk about why oral health is so important and his plans for this new grant.

Sunita Puri is a writer, a palliative medicine physician, and an associate professor at the UMass Chan Medical School. In her memoir, That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour (Penguin, 2020), she explores her journey of helping patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness. In her article in Tricycle's Winter 2023 issue, “A Gift,” she explores how she has learned to navigate love and loss through the lens of impermanence. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle's editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Puri to discuss the importance of unlearning our assumptions around death, how language can shape people's experience of illness, her journey of learning to regard death with reverence instead of fear, and how working with dying patients influences how she lives her daily life. Life As It Is is a monthly podcast featuring prominent voices from within and beyond the Buddhist fold. Listen to more episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Sunita Puri is a writer, a palliative medicine physician, and an associate professor at the UMass Chan Medical School. In her memoir, That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour (Penguin, 2020), she explores her journey of helping patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness. In her article in Tricycle's Winter 2023 issue, “A Gift,” she explores how she has learned to navigate love and loss through the lens of impermanence. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle's editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Puri to discuss the importance of unlearning our assumptions around death, how language can shape people's experience of illness, her journey of learning to regard death with reverence instead of fear, and how working with dying patients influences how she lives her daily life. Life As It Is is a monthly podcast featuring prominent voices from within and beyond the Buddhist fold. Listen to more episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

In today's episode I speak with workplace ally Karen Catlin and emergency medicine physician toxicologist Kavita Babu. We discuss Karen's book Belonging in Healthcare. We also highlight what belonging in the workplace can mean at the holidays. For 25 years Karen Catlin built software products and served as a vice president of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, Today, she is a highly acclaimed author and speaker on inclusive workplaces. She is the author of five books: Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces, Belonging in Healthcare, The Better Allies Approach to Hiring, Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking, and The Better Allies Way.  ​​Kavita Babu, MD is a Professor of Emergency Medicine Chief Opioid Officer, and Director, Division of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. She is a graduate of Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University where she also did her residency, followed by her Medical Toxicology Fellowship training at the UMass Chan Medical School.  

Audible Bleeding editor Wen (@WenKawaji) is joined by 5th year general surgery resident Richa Kalsi (@KalsiMD) from University of Maryland Medical Center, 3rd year general surgery resident Sasank Kalipatnapu (@ksasank) from UMass Chan Medical School, JVS editor Dr. Forbes (@TL_Forbes), and JVS-CIT editor Dr. Smeds (@matsmeds) to discuss two great articles in the JVS family of journals regarding endosuture aneurysm repair mid-term follow-up and endovascular repair of thoracic aortic aneurysm with aberrant subclavian artery. This episode hosts Dr. Frank Arko (@farkomd), Dr. Sukgu Han (@SukguH), and Dr. Fernando Fleischman, authors of the following papers:   Articles: Five-year outcomes of endosuture aneurysm repair in patients with short neck abdominal aortic aneurysm from the ANCHOR registry by Arko et al Sandwich thoracic branch endoprosthesis technique for endovascular repair of thoracic aortic aneurysm with aberrant right subclavian artery by Fleischman and Han et al   Show Guests: Dr. Arko is the Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery with Atrium Health, Siverling Endowed Chair of vascular surgery clinical professor at Wake Forest University, and  co-director of Center for Aortic Disease at Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Sukgu Han is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Program Director for the residency/fellowship in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Keck School of Medicine of USC. He is also the Co-Director of the Comprehensive Aortic Center at Keck Hospital of USC.  Dr Fernando Fleischman is a cardiothoracic surgeon with extensive aortic expertise at Keck Hospital of USC. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Program Director of cardiac surgery at USC. He is also the Co-Director of the Comprehensive Aortic Center.     Follow us @audiblebleeding Learn more about us at https://www.audiblebleeding.com/about-1/ and provide us with your feedback with our listener survey.

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast episode, learn about the new accelerated three-year MD Program at UMass Chan Medical School. Medical students interested in enrolling in the program can find out more info at: https://www.umassmed.edu/som/academics/aMD-AcceleratedMD/

Diet-related disease such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes create a crushing burden on individuals, families, and the healthcare system in the United States. However, Produce Prescription Programs where medical professionals prescribe fruits and vegetables and health insurers pay, promise to improve nutrition and health. Today we will talk with Dr. Kurt Hager from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and lead author of the largest assessment of Produce Prescription Programs to date. Interview Summary   So, let's get into it. Before we dig into the study itself, can you tell our listeners more about Produce Prescription Programs?   So, the programs that we evaluated in our study gave participants electronic cards. So, either a debit card, a gift card, or a loyalty card that they could use at retail grocery stores and some farmer market partners as well to get free fruits and vegetables of their choice. The food could be either fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. These programs acknowledge that nutrition education alone likely is not sufficient to increase healthier eating for many low-income households, for which just the cost of healthier foods is really the primary barrier in improving their diet. These programs seek to overcome that barrier, and it's really exciting to see that clinics across the country are turning to these. I think physicians, from our conversations with the clinics we partnered with in this study, are really excited to have a tool they can use and provide to patients to offer higher-quality care and help improve their nutrition when they're talking with their patients about managing diet-related illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, or obesity.   Thank you, Kurt. Could you tell me a little bit about why you and the team decided to do this particular study?   Food insecurity has been consistently associated with poor health outcomes, higher healthcare costs, and lower dietary quality. Many food insecure households tend to have higher rates of diet-related chronic illnesses. We worked with a wonderful organization called Wholesome Wave. They have operated Produce Prescription Programs across the US, and they have been collecting data on these programs for about five years now. Wholesome Wave reached out to our research team at Tufts University's Friedman School. They wanted to see if these programs are working at improving health outcomes. The key thing, I think, to contextualize where this study stands, is prior to this work, there had been a handful of studies that had shown, not surprisingly, that Produce Prescription Programs can improve dietary quality and improve food insecurity. However, very few had gone that extra step to see if Produce Prescription Programs were associated with improvements in really important clinical outcomes. Things like hemoglobin A1C, which is an important measure of average blood sugar levels in the past three months. This is critical for managing diabetes, and outcomes like blood pressure and obesity and overweight. Previous studies had found mixed results on these outcomes, and most had been very small, maybe about 50 participants. We built on this by doing the largest analysis to date. Our study had nearly 4,000 participants from 22 programs across the US, from 12 states. These ranged from cities like Los Angeles to Minneapolis, to Houston, to Miami, Idaho - so all over the US.   So, it was the fact that previous studies have had relatively small samples, and some of these other studies did not take all of the sort of important measures of health into consideration. So, you were able to build on that past work in a unique way in this study?   Exactly. I think the key thing is that Wholesome Wave had excellent relationships with their partner clinics. This meant that the clinics were willing to share medical record data with us. This is always just very challenging and many other studies weren't able to go that extra step. We were blessed with access to a lot of medical record data and we were able to do analyses that looked at important clinical biomarkers. I will say though, our study is a step in the progression. I'll be the first to admit, we did not have a comparison group in this analysis. So, the results that we found also could have occurred due to other reasons. Such as, for example, perhaps when someone is referred to a Produce Prescription Program, their physician might also make other referrals, or perhaps change their medications because this patient has been identified as high need. We certainly built on previous literature by having a much larger sample size and pooling data across the US, and to me, our findings really provide us with a strong rationale to continue research into this area. But also, to confirm our findings with randomized trials similar to what you would do, for example, for drug research.   That is helpful to hear. One of the things that's really important about what I understand of this study is the fact that you worked with Wholesome Wave, and that allowed you access to a lot of different programs across the US as you described. Could you give us a little bit of a sense of what some of those programs were, and how did they provide the support that you were able to study in this project?   Most programs provided the benefits on electronic card. It's similar to in WIC or SNAP, where participants have an EBT card, they can use it at retail settings. It's administratively very simple. From interviews among SNAP participants and other research, this tends to be lower stigma - when you're using a card at a checkout. These cards gave about $50 a month for six months on average for the adult programs, and $110 a month for the pediatric programs. Some of the children's programs were also a little longer. Some of the child-focused programs that we include in the analysis were up to 10 months.   So I understand from this description that the Produce Prescription Programs also look different. There were some programs for children, some for adults. How did you manage that? There's a lot of other things that could be going on. How do you sort of do that in this work?   Participants were referred to these programs because they were either food insecure or were recruited from a clinic that served a low income community and were very likely to be food insecure. Individuals also had a risk factor for poor cardiometabolic health. So, this means that they either had diabetes, high blood pressure, or were overweight or obese at baseline. That was really the common thread across all of these programs. We did all the analyses for adults and children separately. So, we report changes in fruit and vegetable intake, and changes in self-reported health status separately. Food insecurity - we did assess at the household level, but then for other outcomes, for example, hemoglobin A1C, we restricted that to the adult population that had diabetes when they enrolled into the program. For blood pressure, we restricted those analyses to adults with hypertension at baseline. For Body Mass Index, we restricted analyses to adults who were overweight or obese at baseline, and then did those same analyses separately for children for age and sex, only looking at children with overweight or obesity at the start of the study.   This is really important then. Thank you for that clarification. You know, you've talked about some of these critical measures such A1C for diabetes. You've talked about obesity measured in BMI. Can you tell us a little bit more about the importance of these findings and what they mean in real terms for participants' health?   Absolutely. So, we found that participation was associated with improvements in dietary quality and food insecurity. For example, among adults, they were reporting that they were eating, on average, about 0.8 more cups per day of fruits and vegetables by the program end. And food insecurity rates were cut by about a third. So, the program seemed to be working as intended, which was excellent to see. But then looking at the clinical biomarkers, for example, hemoglobin A1C among those with diabetes dropped by 0.3 percentage points. And among those with uncontrolled diabetes, those having chronically high blood sugars that are very difficult to manage, dropped by about 0.6 percentage points. So, to put that in context, that's about half the effects of commonly prescribed medications to manage high blood sugar levels. So, for just a simple change in diet, that is I think fairly impressive and very encouraging to see. And the effects on the reductions on blood pressure were also about half as large as we would see with commonly prescribed medications. I think it's really important to highlight that, one, we don't know if these changes will be sustained long-term when the program ends. There might be some participants where this program caught them in a moment of crisis perhaps, in which this helped stabilize them, and maybe they would be able to maintain these new improvements in dietary intake long-term. But I suspect many participants might not be able to maintain this healthier eating because the cost of healthier foods was the main barrier to healthier eating at the onset of the program. And so, this is an area that we're really interested in looking at in future research. But I will say, if one were to maintain these improvements that we would see in hemoglobin A1C, blood pressure, and BMI among adults, they really were clinically meaningful. And if sustained long-term, it could reduce risks of things like heart attack or stroke years down the line. Any reduction in these biomarkers can really have a meaningful impact on patient quality of life. Things even like averting diabetes complications with damage to the circulatory system, to nerves, to the retinas in the eyes and having vision loss. So, sustained long term, I think these really are meaningful impacts on health and wellbeing. The last thing I'll say, is for children, we did not see a change in BMIs for age and sex. I'm not too surprised, given it's a relatively short program on average six months. But also, child BMI is a notoriously challenging metric to move. But I do want to highlight that among the households with children, we did see an improvement in fruit and vegetable intake, and reduction in food insecurity, and self-reported rates of higher health status. And I think if we're thinking about childhood development, to me, that is still an important success. We know that having enough access to food in the household and having higher dietary quality is really, really important for childhood development and wellbeing. There's certainly a nutrition causal pathway here. But it's important not to forget that there's so much stress and anxiety when someone is experiencing food insecurity, about not knowing necessarily where your next meal is going to come from. Just worrying constantly about managing household budget, about trade-offs, say between buying healthier food, paying for medications, paying for other needs. So, I suspect these programs are improving health outcomes both through a nutritional pathway, but also through like a mental health pathway, perhaps reducing anxiety for some households as well, which can also have an impact on things like blood pressure.   So, given these results, it says that there's some important implications of these Produce Prescription Programs for the health and wellbeing of the participants in this study. I mean the fact that just changing fruit and vegetable consumption through a program like this had an effect similar to half the effect of some medications is really a powerful finding. I have got to ask, what are the policy implications of this work?   There is very exciting momentum across the US federal programs, promoting produce prescriptions and other forms of, for better or worse, what is known as food as medicine. And these programs all provide free healthy food to patients in partnership with the healthcare system or through a physician's office. So, Produce Prescriptions are the focus of this study, but the other Federal programs also include things like medically tailored meals, which are healthy, home-delivered meals, often to patients with even more advanced chronic disease who also might have activity limitations or disabilities that makes it really challenging for them to shop and cook independently. Last fall there was a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health, in which the Biden administration in the summer prior engaged at a national level, major stakeholders in the anti-hunger space, large health systems, researchers, and government agencies to bring together a policy agenda to address hunger in the US, and the really high rates of diet-related chronic diseases. And it's important to note that, I think it is the first recommendation in the section of the final national strategy from this White House conference under the healthcare sector highlights Produce Prescriptions as a policy priority and expanding them in Medicare and Medicaid. So currently Medicaid, which is the federal health insurance program for individuals with low incomes or who have a disability, Medicaid is managed in partnership between each state and the federal government. And this means that states have some flexibility in how they manage their Medicaid program. They can apply for what is known as Section 1115 waivers. The federal government can approve these waivers if the state makes a good case that if they propose an innovative pilot, an innovative change, that they can make the case is likely to improve health outcomes and remain budget neutral, then the federal government can approve them to pilot this idea. So, currently in Massachusetts, we are several years into an 1115 pilot that is actually paying for produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals through the state Medicaid program. And currently about 10,000 people in Massachusetts have received some sort of nutrition support through the state Medicaid program. About 10 other states now have either similar waivers approved or pending approval to allow other Medicaid programs to do something similar. So, this is a really exciting area where expanding access to these programs is happening. And then in Medicare, which is the health insurance program for older adults, in Medicare Part C, which is the Medicare private health plans, those health plans can choose to cover Produce Prescriptions as a benefit. They're not required to, but they have the flexibility to offer that service if they would like. And then finally, I'll just say that there's also new pilots that were announced in Indian Health Services and the Veterans Health Administration. All these examples show that across the federal government there are exciting pilots and expansions occurring to cover Produce Prescriptions, and other foods and medicine programs. However, they remain unavailable to the vast majority of Americans who might benefit. And so, they're not a core component of any of those programs at the moment. And rather, these are pilots that are being tested, but very exciting movement, nonetheless.   Thank you for that really comprehensive set of examples of how policy is implicated in this work and potentially the need to expand this work. It makes me think of USDA's Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. That would be another way that folks could access some of the benefits of federal dollars to support produce-type prescription programs. How do you hope to build off this study in future research?   At UMass Medical School, we're the official independent evaluator for the state Section 1115 waiver, which means we are essentially responsible for evaluating if things like the Produce Prescription Program in the Massachusetts Medicaid program is improving health outcomes. So, that is what we are working on right now. In our partnership with the state, we actually have access to all of the claims and encounters data within Medicaid. And we also are working with several health systems that are also sharing medical record data with us so we can evaluate the impacts of food as medicine programs on hemoglobin A1C, blood pressure, and BMI, so similar outcomes to this study. We actually have a large study funded by the NIH in partnership with former colleagues at Tufts University that is doing a deep dive on the Medicaid medically tailored meal program. And we're hoping to do something similar for the Produce Prescription Program in Massachusetts Medicaid. And the nice thing about these studies, they aren't randomized trials. Since this is a kind of a policy rollout, anyone who's eligible for these programs can receive the benefits. But we will be improving upon this study that we just published by leveraging two really strong comparison groups, and using some statistical techniques to make sure we're identifying patients who are as similar as possible to those who are receiving services, but ultimately didn't enroll. So, we're excited to have these results a couple years down the line and see if these programs are working in the context of a large state Medicaid pilot. Bio Kurt Hager is an Instructor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School. Dr. Hager's interests lay at the intersection of structural determinants of health, food insecurity, and government nutrition and health programs. He is currently evaluating the effectiveness of the Flexible Services Program, which addresses food and housing insecurity in Massachusetts Medicaid. His involvement in state and federal policy initiatives underscores his commitment to translating science into policy, including initiatives with the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition and Health and the National Produce Prescription Collaborative.  

Chancellor Michael F. Collins kicked off the first episode of a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast season days after he welcomed UMass Chan Medical School's largest medical school class in history. In the podcast, Collins sheds light on UMass Chan's milestones and its pursuit of excellence as the community advances together.

Grace Makari-Judson, MD, is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UMass Chan Medical School, Baystate. She is also the Co-Director of The Rays of Hope Center for Breast Cancer Research, and Chair of the Baystate Health Breast Network and Baystate Regional Cancer Program. She is known as an educator, speaking at forums for both medical and lay audiences and also serves as the Principal Investigator of the Breast Research Registry to provide opportunities for translational research and of numerous clinical trials to enhance care. “You always have to take advantage of relationships, even if you don't necessarily know who those people are that you're collaborating with. You just have to be open to it.” Joined by her own mentee, Dr. Prarthana Bhardwaj who rose to that very challenge, we sat down with Dr. Grace Makari Judson in a discussion on mentorship, taking chances, and staying enthusiastic. Tune in as we dive into the details of mentorship from both sides, gain insight into the specific pitfalls of bad mentoring relationships, and why it's important to learn from your surroundings and take chances when they're afforded. Pearls of Wisdom:   1. Stay open to new opportunities because your path is ever-changing and we can gain so much from learning around us and exploring different experiences. But be sure to instill a foundation of excellence so when that time comes you're ready.  2. A great mentor is somebody who's invested in your growth. They can be sponsors, teachers, or advocates. But be sure to find one that can set an agenda, meet with you frequently, and share beneficial opportunities with you. 3. A great mentee is one who shares enthusiasm about the work and jumps on opportunities presented to them. 4. As physicians, we need to be aware of our own personal biases when caring for patients by reminding ourselves that we're there to empower them. Rather than relating to their issues, empathize and find out what's best for them. 

Our experience with mRNA vaccines during the COVID pandemic showed us the possibility of  designing other RNA-based drugs in a flexible and efficient manner. Dr. Athma Pai of the UMass Chan Medical School talks about how her research into RNA therapeutics and the immense promise it holds for conquering a wide range of diseases, from. cancer to sickle cell anemia, and more.  Veteran broadcast journalists George Lewis and Judy Muller moderated the session with Dr. Pai, recorded at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village, Colorado

Dr. Lindsay Palmer is a social psychologist who earned her PhDs in Psychology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Pennsylvania State University in 2022. Before attending Penn State, she earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and managed a UVa laboratory in social cognition and behavior for two years. Currently, she is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the UMass Chan Medical School. She has been accepted as a scholar at the Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to further advance her work in the human-animal bond. Dr. Palmer has several lines of research related to social and health disparities, diversity, prejudice, and stigma. Her work on the human-animal bond examines social factors and psychological mechanisms that impact the relationship between humans and animals. In this episode we talk about all kinds of fascinating topics including the impact of hegemonic masculinity on the endorsement of dominance theory, how to have conversations with people who disagree with you and diversity, equity, and inclusivity.You can reach Lindsay at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-palmer-0904b51a2/ 

Check out “Heard on the Street” recorded during Day 2 of Islet Study Group 2023. Hear from Dr. Accalia Fu from UMass Chan Medical School.

Katie Couric, former host of NBC's Today show and anchor of CBS Evening News, and co-founder of cancer research charity Stand Up To Cancer, was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and delivered the Commencement address for the 50th Commencement at UMass Chan Medical School. Watch the full UMass Chan Commencement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dTcvQOMqp0 Watch a video about honorary degree recipient Katie Couric: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2023/06/video-learn-more-about-umass-chan-2023-honorary-degree-recipients/

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Tracy Kedian, the Associate Dean for Admissions, at the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA. Dr. Kedian sheds light on the unique aspects of UMass Chan's curriculum, known as VISTA. This innovative curriculum fosters curiosity, inquiry, and equity through group and problem-based learning, along with extensive use of medical simulation. One exciting feature of UMass Chan is its commitment to serving underserved populations. With a focus on health disparities and public and community health, the school offers two distinct tracks with its regional campuses - the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health track, based at Baystate Health Systems in western MA and the LEAD@Lahey track, located in Burlington, MA, that concentrates on leadership skills and health systems science to prepare future medical leaders. Dr. Kedian also provides valuable insights into the admissions process at UMass Chan. While the school predominantly admits students from Massachusetts, it remains an excellent resource for premeds from all backgrounds. Throughout this conversation, you'll discover a wealth of helpful advice for aspiring medical students, regardless of whether UMass Chan is your state school or not. Join us as we delve into the world of UMass Chan Medical School and med school admissions with Dr. Tracy Kedian, a dedicated family physician and an expert in medical school admissions. If you find this podcast to be a helpful resource, RATE, REVIEW, & SUBSCRIBE please! It helps others find it! Send me your recommendations for future medical schools that you'd like to hear featured! Send it to: allaccess@case.edu Visit our website for more information on this episode and others. https://linktr.ee/allaccessmedschool RESOURCES: UMass Chan Medical School 2022 Year in Review YouTube Video VISTA Curriculum CONTACT: admissions@umassmed.edu Music: Kalte Ohren by Alex (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. https://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612 Ft: starfrosch & Jerry Spoon  

Orcas Are Attacking Boats Near Spain. Scientists Don't Know Why This Thursday, the Supreme Court restricted the scope of the Clean Water Act pertaining to wetlands, in a 5-4 vote. This could affect the Environmental Protection Agency's power to protect certain kinds of wetlands, which help reduce the impacts of flooding by absorbing water, and also act as natural filters that make drinking water cleaner. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberal members in the dissent, writing that the decision will have, “significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States.” Plus, earlier this month, three orcas attacked a boat, leading to its sinking. This is the third time an incident like this has happened in the past three years, accompanied by a large rise of orcas attacking boats near the Strait of Gibraltar. Scientists are unsure of the cause. One theory is that these attacks could be a fad, led by juvenile orcas in the area, a documented behavior in this subpopulation of the dolphin family. They could also be a response to a potential bad encounter between boats and orcas in the area. Science Friday's Charles Bergquist talks with Sophie Bushwick, technology editor for Scientific American, about these and other stories from this week in science news, including a preview of a hot El Niño summer, an amateur astronomer who discovered a new supernova, and alleviating waste problems by using recycled diapers in concrete.     A Famous Sled Dog's Genome Holds Evolutionary Surprises Do you remember the story of Balto? In 1925, the town of Nome, Alaska, was facing a diphtheria outbreak. Balto was a sled dog and a very good boy who helped deliver life-saving medicine to the people in the town. Balto's twisty tale has been told many times, including in a 1990s animated movie in which Kevin Bacon voiced the iconic dog. But last month, scientists uncovered a new side of Balto. They sequenced his genes and discovered the sled dog wasn't exactly who they expected. The study published in the journal Science, was part of a project called Zoonomia, which aims to better understand the evolution of mammals, including our own genome, by looking at the genes of other animals—from narwhals to aardvarks. Guest host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Elinor Karlsson, associate professor in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology at the UMass Chan Medical School and director of Vertebrate Genomics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Dr. Katie Moon, post-doctoral researcher who led Balto's study; and Dr. Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, who coauthored the new study on Balto and another paper which identified animals that are most likely to face extinction.     The Long And Short Of Telomere Activity Telomeres are repeating short sequences of genetic code (in humans, TTAGGG) located on the ends of chromosomes. They act as a buffer during the cell replication process. Loops at the end of the telomere prevent chromosomes from getting inadvertently stuck together by DNA repair enzymes. Over the lifetime of the cell, the telomeres become shorter and shorter with each cell division. When they become too short, the cell dies. Telomere sequences weren't thought to do much else—sort of like the plastic tip at the end of a shoelace. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers now argue that telomeres may actually encode for two short proteins. Normally, those proteins aren't released into the cell. However, if the telomere is damaged—or as it gets shorter during repeated cell replication cycles—those signaling proteins may be able to leak out into the cell and affect other processes, perhaps altering nucleic acid metabolism and protein synthesis, or triggering cellular inflammation. Jack Griffith, one of the authors of the report and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of microbiology and immunology at the UNC School of Medicine, joins SciFri's Charles Bergquist to talk about the idea and what other secrets may lie inside the telomere.   Philadelphia's Mütter Museum Takes Down Digital Resources Robert Pendarvis gave his heart to Philadelphia's Mütter Museum. Literally. He has a rare condition called acromegaly, where his body makes too much growth hormone, which causes bones, cartilage and organs to keep growing. The condition affected his heart, so much so that a heart valve leaked. He had a heart transplant in 2020. Pendarvis thought his original heart could tell an important story, and teach others about this rare condition, which is why he was determined to put it on display at the Mütter Museum. The Mütter Museum is a Philadelphia institution, a medical museum that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to its rooms filled with anatomical specimens, models, and old medical instruments. The place is not for the squeamish. Display cases show skulls, abnormal skeletons, and a jar containing the bodies of stillborn conjoined twins. Pendarvis thought it would be the perfect home for his heart — and more. To read the rest, visit sciencefriday.com   To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Guest: Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, FACOG Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP New guidelines regarding the screening, diagnosis, and pharmacological treatment of perinatal mental health conditions as well as resources like in-depth toolkits and implementation guides are now available to help optimize the management of patients with perinatal mental health conditions. Find out how these tools can help you better address one of the most common complications of pregnancy with Dr. Charles Turck and Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas, the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UMass Chan Medical School who presented a few sessions focusing on this exact topic at the 2023 ACOG Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting.

Guest: Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, FACOG According to a poster that was featured at the 2023 ACOG Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting, only 75 percent of patients at UMass Chan Medical School were screened for perinatal mental health conditions, and of those screened, white patients were more likely to be connected with appropriate care and treatment than black or Hispanic patients. Dive deeper into the findings that underscore the importance of addressing disparities and inequities in perinatal depression care with Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UMass Chan Medical School.

Guest: Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, FACOG According to a poster that was featured at the 2023 ACOG Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting, only 75 percent of patients at UMass Chan Medical School were screened for perinatal mental health conditions, and of those screened, white patients were more likely to be connected with appropriate care and treatment than black or Hispanic patients. Dive deeper into the findings that underscore the importance of addressing disparities and inequities in perinatal depression care with Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UMass Chan Medical School.

Guest: Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, FACOG Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP New guidelines regarding the screening, diagnosis, and pharmacological treatment of perinatal mental health conditions as well as resources like in-depth toolkits and implementation guides are now available to help optimize the management of patients with perinatal mental health conditions. Find out how these tools can help you better address one of the most common complications of pregnancy with Dr. Charles Turck and Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas, the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UMass Chan Medical School who presented a few sessions focusing on this exact topic at the 2023 ACOG Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting.

On June 17, UMass Chan Medical School and Central Mass Links are inviting the local community to participate in the Multicultural Women's Health Summit, a free family wellness event, on Saturday, June 17, at UMass Chan in Worcester. The mission of the summit is for community members to learn about a wide range of health topics, including preventive care, chronic disease management and mental health. Registration for the event is open: https://www.umassmed.edu/dio/ Multicultural Women's Health Summit Saturday, June 17 8:30 a.m - 2 p.m. UMass Chan Medical School Albert Sherman Center 368 Plantation Street Worcester, Mass. 01605

Terry Flotte, MD, discusses the early days and possible future of gene therapy, the use of AAV to deliver GT to targeted sites in the body, and his inspiration behind becoming a physician, scientist, and medical school dean. He spoke one-on-one with ASGCT President Hans-Peter Kiem, MD, PhD. Welcome to the sixth episode of Giants of Gene Therapy! Dr. Flotte is the Provost, Dean, and Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor at UMass Chan Medical School, with faculty appointments in the Department of Pediatrics and the Horae Gene Therapy Center. He is also a practicing pediatric pulmonologist and a prolific researcher who has authored more than 280 papers and been the principal investigator of multiple clinical gene therapy trials. Dr. Flotte is the editor-in-chief of his field's oldest journal family, Human Gene Therapy. In 1995, Dr. Flotte was the principal investigator for the first human use of AAV vectors, in a trial in cystic fibrosis patients. He's currently investigating the use of gene therapy for genetic diseases that affect children, including alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency and lysosomal storage diseases. Dr. Flotte has been an ASGCT member since the Society's founding. He's served on the board and committees, and spoken at the ASGCT Annual Meeting and other events.   Music by: Steven O'Brienhttps://www.steven-obrien.net/ "Making Progress" (Used for free under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Show your support for ASGCT!: https://asgct.org/membership/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE SUMMARY: “The ultimate solution to burnout is not self-care. It's caring for others and others caring for you.” There's no denying that self-care is important. Eating healthy, exercising, and taking vacation days can reduce stress on the body. But it's human connection and the relationships you have with others that make the difference. In this month's episode, Tony speaks with Dr. Heather Forkey and Dr. Jessica Griffin with UMass Chan Medical School about a different approach to address secondary traumatic stress and burnout. During their conversation, they share with us the affiliate response. They discuss the evolutionary foundation and strategies for organizations and individuals to reduce secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Topics in this episode Burnout and secondary traumatic stress definitions (4:03) Secondary traumatic stress symptoms (11:30) Evolutionary response to stress (12:51) Impact of culture and society (19:14) Strategies to reduce stress and burnout (27:22) Recommendations for organizations and teams to recognize and take action (30:52) Technology (36:00) Caring for others, others caring for you (39:12) Resources (42:50)   GUESTS: Heather C. Forkey, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics and at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Director of the Foster Children Evaluation Service (FaCES) of the UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center.  She also serves as the Medical Director of Lifeline4Kids at University of Massachusetts Medical School.  She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She completed her pediatric residency and chief residency at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Forkey has been the recipient of local and federal grants to address issues of children in foster care and to translate promising practices to address physical and mental health needs of children who have been traumatized.  She has published and presents nationally and internationally on the topics, and serves in leadership roles for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the American Academy of Pediatrics on issues related to foster care, mental health and child trauma. She recently coauthored the book Childhood Trauma and Resilience: A Practical Guide, available from AAP Press. Jessica Griffin, PsyD Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics; Executive Director, Lifeline For Kids; Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics; Executive Director, Lifeline For Kids; Executive Director, Resilience Through Relationships Center; Executive Director, Child Trauma Training Center Dr. Griffin is a clinical and forensic psychologist with specialties in childhood trauma, resilience, and relationships. Dr. Griffin is a nationally recognized expert in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), trauma, resilience, and relationships. She developed the UMass Child Trauma Training Center (now known as Lifeline For Kids) which has trained over 100,000 professionals in trauma, trauma-informed care, and trauma sensitive practices. She is a highly sought-after public speaker and go-to expert for national media and is a regular contributor on news outlets. She is a co-author of a book by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Childhood Trauma and Resilience, A Practical Guide, a go-to resource on childhood trauma for pediatrics. Recently, Dr. Griffin also authored a book for couples, Relationship Rx: Prescriptions for Lasting Love and Deeper Connection.   RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: Childhood Trauma and Resilience: A Practical Guide by Heather C. Forkey MD FAAP, Jessica L. Griffin PsyD and Moira Szilagyi MD PhD FAAP: https://www.amazon.com/Childhood-Trauma-Resilience-Practical-Guide/dp/1610025067 Relationship Rx: Prescriptions for Lasting Love and Deeper Connection by Jessica Griffin and Pepper Schwartz: https://www.amazon.com/Relationship-Rx-Prescriptions-Lasting-Connection/dp/1538165732 Lifeline for Kids: https://www.umassmed.edu/cttc/ Caring for Caregivers Experiencing Secondary Trauma: A Call to Action: https://assets.libsyn.com/show/159677/STS_Clinical_Peds_2022.pdf Oxytocin has ‘tend-and-defend' functionality in group conflict across social vertebrates: https://assets.libsyn.com/show/159677/tend_and_defend.pdf Physician Distress and Burnout: The Neurobiological Perspective: https://assets.libsyn.com/show/159677/neurobiol_burnout_shanafelt.pdf Physician Well-being 2.0: Where Are WE and Where Are We Going?: https://assets.libsyn.com/show/159677/wellbeing_2.0_shanafelt.pdf Northeast Regional Children's Advocacy Center: https://www.nrcac.org Regional Children's Advocacy Centers: https://www.regionalcacs.org   Have an idea for a future Team Talk guest or topic? We want to hear from you! Email your suggestions to Tony DeVincenzo at tony@nrcac.org. Disclaimer: This project was sponsored by NRCAC from Grant Award Number 15PJDP-22-GK-03061-JJVO awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, OJJDP or NRCAC.  

UMass Chan Medical School and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (Lahey), part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, have received approval from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) to establish a new regional medical school campus in Burlington. LCME is the accrediting body for medical schools in the United States and Canada.   The UMass Chan-Lahey regional campus will emphasize leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education, preparing students to lead and create solutions to future challenges in health care. The new track will be called LEAD@Lahey, which stands for lead, empower, advocate and deliver. The first cohort of medical students participating in the program will begin in August 2024. Guests for this episode include: Anne Larkin, MD, associate professor of surgery and vice provost and senior associate dean for educational affairs at UMass Chan Anne Mosenthal, MD, chief academic officer at Lahey Hospital Medical Center, and inaugural regional executive dean of the UMass Chan-Lahey regional campus. Read about the new program at: umassmed.edu/news Get more information at: https://www.umassmed.edu/umass-chan-lahey

The Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma (CCWT) is a partnership between Massachusetts' Office of the Child Advocate and ForHealth Consulting™ at UMass Chan Medical School. CCWT supports child-serving organizations and systems in becoming trauma-informed and responsive through trainings, technical assistance, communities of practice, and coaching. Audrey Smolkin, MPP, Executive Director, and Alison Cebulla, MPH, Associate Director of Curriculum Development and Training, will describe their innovative organization and services that were launched in 2021.

The Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma (CCWT) is a partnership between Massachusetts' Office of the Child Advocate and ForHealth Consulting™ at UMass Chan Medical School. CCWT supports child-serving organizations and systems in becoming trauma-informed and responsive through trainings, technical assistance, communities of practice, and coaching. Audrey Smolkin, MPP, Executive Director, and Alison Cebulla, MPH, Associate Director of Curriculum Development and Training, will describe their innovative organization and services that were launched in 2021.

The Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma (CCWT) is a partnership between Massachusetts' Office of the Child Advocate and ForHealth Consulting™ at UMass Chan Medical School. CCWT supports child-serving organizations and systems in becoming trauma-informed and responsive through trainings, technical assistance, communities of practice, and coaching. Audrey Smolkin, MPP, Executive Director, and Alison Cebulla, MPH, Associate Director of Curriculum Development and Training, will describe their innovative organization and services that were launched in 2021.

In this podcast, Marlina Duncan, EdD, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, and Sharina Person, PhD, the Dr. Marcellette G. Williams Senior Scholar and vice chair and professor of population & quantitative health sciences, explain why it is important for the UMass Chan Medical School community to participate in the upcoming Diversity Engagement Survey. Dr. Person was instrumental in the creation of the DES. Read more about the survey here: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2023/01/umass-chan-preparing-for-launch-of-diversity-engagement-survey/ UMass Chan's Diversity and Inclusion Office website: https://www.umassmed.edu/dio

According to the CDC, cardiovascular disease remains to be the leading cause of death worldwide across all gender, race, and ethnic groups. In fact, one person in the United States dies from it every 34 seconds. Cardiac pathologies are sometimes seen to be “silent killers,” only recognized during the actual critical moment. Are there recommended diet and exercise levels to avoid a heart attack? How can one lower their blood pressure? Should we be scared of high cholesterol levels? Can extreme stress really "break" the heart?We are joined today by Dr. Ali Haider, a board-certified interventional and structural cardiologist. He received his BS in Biology and Neuroscience from Wesleyan University in 2000, MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2005, Internal Medicine residency at Montefiore Medical Center in 2008, General Cardiology fellowship at North Shore LIJ Health System in 2011, and Interventional Cardiology fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College/NYP in 2012. Dr. Haider is currently an attending physician at NYP Queens. Outside the hospital, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School for a decade and has contributed to medical textbooks and journals, such as the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine. He continues to permeate cardiology education on social media, where he has amassed 170,000 followers, and on national television, having been featured on Fox News, NJ. com, and WWLP-22News.Livestream Air Date: February 15, 2022Ali Haider, MD, FACC, FSCAI: IG @yourheartdoc, YT Ali Haider MD, & Twitter @yourheartdoc1Friends of Franz: IG @friendsoffranzpod & FB @friendsoffranzpodChristian Franz (Host): IG @chrsfranz & YT Christian FranzThankful to the season's brand partners: Clove, BETR Remedies, Eko, Lumify, RescueMD, Medical School for Kids, Your Skincare Expert, Twrl Milk Tea

A new Voices of UMass Chan podcast describes how the Office of Well-Being and the Employee Assistance Program is helping to promote a culture of wellness for faculty, staff and students in the UMass Chan Medical School community. Find information about the OWB on UMass Chan's Sharepoint site at OWB. Contact the Office of Well-Being at: owb.umassmed.edu Contact the Employee Assitance at: eap.umassmed.edu

Mary Antonelli, PhD, RN, MPH, provides an overview of the Master in Science Nursing and Interprofessional Leadership Program in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Chan Medical School.

Cori Bargmann, PhD, head of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, and the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at The Rockefeller University, delivered the keynote address at UMass Chan Medical School's 49th Commencement. Listen to Dr. Bargmann's full speech in this episode of the Voices of UMass Chan. Learn more about Dr. Bargmann in this video: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2022/06/video-inside-the-lives-and-accomplishments-of-cori-bargmann-paula-johnson-and-james-oconnell/ Read more about Commencement: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2022/02/umass-chan-medical-school-to-celebrate-classes-of-2022-at-49th-commencement-on-june-5/

Guest: Kavita Babu, Professor of Emergency Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

Maryann Davis, Ph.D. is a professor of psychiatry at the UMass Chan Medical School and the Director of the Implementation Science & Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC) and the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research (ACR). She discusses the challenges students with mental illness face in their journey towards a college degree and how campus community members, particular faculty, can better understand and support these students. The Center recently released a video guide series (https://www.umassmed.edu/TransitionsACR/hot-off-press/2022/01/pass-videos/) with faculty and student narratives that help inform faculty on issues such as accommodations, reducing stigma around mental health conditions, and helping students thrive academically.

A new program at the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester helps resettled refugees from Afghanistan find jobs.

In this episode, Marlina Duncan, vice chancellor for Diversity & Inclusion at UMass Chan Medical School discusses the institution's focus on building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive environment on campus.

In this episode of “Bring Out The Talent,” we speak with Bonnie Rivers, Director of Employer Relations for Work Without Limits at UMass Chan Medical School's Commonwealth Medicine. With one in four adults in the US living with a disability, what can business leaders do to support their success? With so many organizations increasing their focus on inclusion and diversity, many are looking to find ways to better support employees with disabilities. Bonnie and the team at Work Without Limits provide training and consulting services to help build the capacity of employers, employment service providers, state agency personnel, and educational institutions in advancing workplace disability inclusion. Bonnie will discuss how their programs work, training programs they offer, how to address neurodiversity in the workplace, and much more. Tune in and learn how you can support a more diverse workplace that thrives without limits.  About Work Without Limits: Work Without Limits is an initiative of Commonwealth Medicine, the consulting and operations division of UMass Chan Medical School. Their goal is to position Massachusetts as the first state in the nation where the employment rate of people with disabilities is equal to people without disabilities.

More details on the study from WBZ's Carl Stevens

Dr. Nathaniel Hafer, Professor of Molecular Medicine & RADx Lead at UMass Chan Medical School (12/21/21)

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, three UMass Chan Medical School students discuss their participation in the dual-degree MBA program. Developed with the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell, the program is available to all students accepted into the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. Most of the interest in the program has been among medical students.

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, two UMass Chan Medical School researchers who have been tracking vaccine acceptance since the COVID-19 pandemic began share reliable advice based off of their findings.

In this episode of the Immigration Conversation, Fragomen Partner, Aaron Blumberg, Pediatric Physician, Dr. Amanda Alladin, and Vanessa Paulman, Director of Immigration Services Office at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA discuss the current challenges facing foreign medical graduate's as well as the various J-1 waiver options, including the Conrad 30 now that we are in the midst of "Conrad 30 Season.”

The VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System and UMass Chan Medical School hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, Nov. 8, to celebrate the opening of a new 48,000-square-foot community-based outpatient clinic for veterans located on the Medical School's campus in Worcester. You can listen to the entire press conference in the podcast. Learn more at: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/

A $175 million historic gift from The Morningside Foundation to UMass Chan Medical School was announced on Tuesday, Sept. 7, with a press event at the UMass Club in Boston. Listen to the full press conference in this podcast episode. For more: https://www.umassmed.edu/umasschan/