Raise the Line

"Headache is just a teeny piece of the puzzle," says Dr. Regina Krel, an insight that’s at the heart of why migraine syndrome, one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, remains so persistently misunderstood. In this informative conversation with Raise the Line from Elsevier host Michael Carrese, Dr. Krel, the director of Headache Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center, explains migraine as a storm that sensitizes the entire brain, not just the site of the headache, which explains the long list of symptoms people experience including sensitivity to light and sound, brain fog, fatigue and problems with balance. “The headaches can be severe, but it’s the other symptoms that really kind of take over your whole body that make patients dysfunctional.” Dr. Krel also explains why migraine disproportionately impacts women in the prime of their working and caregiving years, and offers guidance for treating migraines in women, whose symptoms are commonly dismissed by non-specialists.

Stay tuned to also learn about:

The "migraine triangle";

Why stigma around migraine persists even in doctors' offices;

New treatment options including neuromodulation devices.

Mentioned in this episode:

Headache Center at Hackensack University Medical Center

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To mark the sixth anniversary of Raise the Line from Elsevier we're revisiting one of the most remarkable stories we've had the privilege of sharing over the last 575 episodes. To do that, we're delighted to welcome back Dr. David Fajgenbaum, a physician-scientist who repurposed an existing medication that saved his own life from Castleman disease, an ultra-rare condition that nearly killed him on five occasions. Because there was no treatment specifically for Castleman, Dr. Fajgenbaum set out to find a previously approved medication that might work. “I eventually found a drug that was made for another disease 50 years ago. It's been over 12 years that I've been doing great on this medicine.”  

When he first joined us in 2022, Dr. Fajgenbaum was just launching a non-profit organization called Every Cure with the hope of replicating the success he achieved in his own case, and as you’ll learn in this inspiring interview with host Lindsey Smith, its work has already saved thousands of lives. “It's a tragedy if someone dies while there's already a drug in their local hospital that could help them.” 

In the latest installment of our Year of the Zebra series on rare conditions, you’ll hear an inspiring example of a life saved by this approach and also learn about:

The role of artificial intelligence in scanning thousands of medications and diseases to find possible matches;

How Every Cure decides which drugs merit the costly research needed to confirm a match; 

Dr. Fajgenbaum’s philosophy of “living in overtime.”

Mentioned in this episode:
Every Cure

Osmosis Video on Castleman Disease

Dr. Fajgenbaum's Bestselling Memoir, Chasing My Cure

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How AI Could Strengthen the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at Yale School of Public Health and Affiliate Faculty at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs

“Ultimately, AI needs to be a tool that doesn't break down trust or empathy or clinical judgment, but rather helps enhance those things.” That aspirational perspective from Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at the Yale School of Public Health and Affiliate Faculty at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, frames a nuanced conversation about one of healthcare’s most consequential changes. Drawing on his experience as New York City Health Commissioner during the COVID-19 crisis and decades in global and public health, Dr. Vasan argues that the future of AI in medicine should be shaped less by the technology itself than by the values guiding its implementation, and that physicians need to play an active role in this process. “I think it behooves us to engage with this technology and steer it in the directions that we want as a society.”

This timely discussion also offers Dr. Vasan’s thoughtful perspectives on:

How AI could allow physicians to focus on the human side of care;

The risks of AI reinforcing inequities and driving costs higher;

Public health as the marriage of science, society and trust.

Join host Lindsey Smith for a valuable Raise the Line episode on how AI can be harnessed to benefit patients and provides alike. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Yale School of Public Health

Yale Jackson School of Public Affairs

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Imagine you had a tutor who was with you every time you were studying and, because they knew your learning style, strengths and weaknesses, could hand you the right content at the moment you needed it to deepen your understanding of a topic.  That’s the pedagogically powerful experience students are having with AI-enhanced learning systems such as Osmosis AI, making possible what our guest, Elsevier’s Chief AI Officer Paul Crockett, describes as a new era of precision learning.  “We now have signal from how students actually engage with content – such as where they get stuck and how they learn – and that behavioral data can tell you more about what a learner needs than any sort of static assessment. That's a profound transformation,” he says. In this fascinating conversation with Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, Crockett also highlights how AI enables tutoring-like interactions with students which supports deeper reasoning rather than rote memorization. That in turn, helps Elsevier achieve the goal of getting students ready to practice medicine, not just ready to take tests. In addition, limiting the AI’s sources to the evidence-based material in the Osmosis and Elsevier content libraries provides both students and faculty with the level of trust and verifiability they desire. Tune in to learn how this meaningful shift from static content delivery to dynamic, data-informed learning experiences is changing healthcare education.

Mentioned in this episode:

Osmosis AI

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“Everything I’m not, made me everything I am.” For Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, that song lyric captures how growing up in a community marked by food insecurity and limited access to healthcare shaped a lifelong mission to improve health on a broad scale. Dr. LaMar, as he’s known, has pursued that mission in a variety of impactful roles, including CDC disease detective, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Reflecting on today’s public health challenges, Dr. LaMar sees the biggest problem not as a specific disease, but rather the constant “noise” of modern life and the social isolation that fuels sedentary lifestyles and chronic disease. 

This thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation with host Lindsey Smith also explores:

The rise of the “know-it-all-ogist” and the dangers of misinformation;

The importance of transparent communication and humility when navigating public health crises;

Going beyond community engagement to being a true community partner.

This is a great opportunity to hear from a seasoned and encouraging voice at a time of unprecedented challenges for public health professionals and programs.

Mentioned in this episode:

DLM LLC

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast