Author: healthprofessionalradio

Guest:  Kouris Kalligas

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: As CEO and co-founder, Kouris Kalligas leads the strategic and operational direction of Therachat. Kouris has a rich history of working on innovative products in health and wellness and helping companies grow and scale. Previously, Kouris co-founded Addapp and spent over six years at Sappi Fine Paper as a supply chain service manager and lead business development manager overseeing innovation projects. He received his B.A. in International Economics & Development from Democritus University of Thrace, completed the ERASMUS program in International Business at the University of Gavle and earned his M.A. in International Relations from the University of Warwick.

Segment overview: Kouris Kalligas, Co-Founder and CEO of both Therachat and Addapp Corp. discusses a smart journaling tool that allows psychologists, therapists and counselors greater insight into their client’s life between sessions.  

Guest: Dr. Andrew Blauvelt

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Andy Blauvelt hails from Portland, OR, and is President and Investigator at Oregon Medical Research Center, a small business dedicated to performing high quality clinical studies in dermatology. A native of Michigan, he received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, his medical degree at Michigan State University, and his MBA from Portland State University/Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Blauvelt trained in dermatology at the University of Miami from 1989-1992 and in basic immunology and virology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1992-1996. He has held senior staff positions at the NIH, as Professor of Dermatology and Microbiology at OHSU, and as Chief of Dermatology at the Portland VA Medical Center. Andy’s clinical and research expertise is in immunology, virology, infectious diseases, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and biologic therapies for complex medical dermatology patients, having published over 200 papers and spoken across the world on these topics. Dr. Blauvelt was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2004, a leading society for physician-scientists, and is an elected member of the International Psoriasis Council, the premier group of psoriasis experts in the world.

Segment overview: Andrew Blauvelt, MD, MBA, President of the Oregon Medical Research Center, discusses the recently FDA approved medication TREMFYA™ (GUSELKUMAB), the first and only biologic that selectively blocks IL-23, a cytokine that is thought to play a key role in plaque psoriasis, for the treatment of adults living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy.

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Dr. David Spetzler joined Caris Life Sciences in August of 2009, and has held several management positions with increasing responsibilities during his tenure. He currently serves as President and Chief Scientific Officer and provides executive leadership for the company’s service lines, Caris Molecular Intelligence® and ADAPT Biotargeting System™.

Prior to his position at Caris, Dr. Spetzler was a member of the research faculty at Arizona State University where he developed multiplexed nanotechnologies for single molecule detection of nucleic acid and protein targets. At Arizona State University Dr. Spetzler earned an MS from the School of Mathematical and Statistical Science in Computational Bioscience, a Ph.D. in Molecular Cellular Biology and an MBA. Dr. Spetzler is an adjunct faculty member of the molecular cellular biology program at Arizona State University.

Segment overview: David Spetzler, Chief Scientific Officer at Caris Life Sciences to talks about their involvement with several studies where cancer is being treated based on molecular profile rather than its site of origin.

Guest: Toni Riley

Presenter: Tabetha Moreto

Guest Bio: Toni Riley is a pharmacist and has for many years practised as a community pharmacist and a consultant pharmacist, providing medication review services to the community and in Aged Care. She has been the national project of the National Return and Disposal of Unwanted Medicine Project (the RUM Project) since 2015 and during this time has commissioned a National Audit and General Population Survey, and most recently a public awareness campaign for the RUM project.

Segment overview: The RUM Project is a Commonwealth funded program, providing all community pharmacies in Australia a method of environmentally safe disposal of unwanted and expired medicines returned to the pharmacy by the consumer. This program has been in operation continuously since 1998 and today incinerate in excess of 700,000kg of unwanted medicines annually. Anyone can return their household medicines to any community pharmacy. The returned medicines are put in a secure bin and then collected and disposed of by high temperature incineration in accordance with regulatory and EPA requirements.

Guest: Kylie Ward

Presenter: Henry Acosta

Guest Bio: Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward has had a successful and celebrated career as a Nursing Leader and Health and Aged Care Executive in Australia for over 20 years. She has held positions of Managing Director, Director of Clinical Operations, Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Director of the Division of Medicine, Associate Director of Women’s and Children’s Health and Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery in three major health services in NSW and Victoria. She has been a NUM, After Hours Coordinator, Campus Manager, Bed Manager and Patient Flow Manager. Her clinical background is in intensive care and aged care.

Kylie has enjoyed a long history with ACN and the organisations that ACN is founded upon, RCNA and the College of Nursing. After years of membership and involvement in both organisations including RCNA Chapter Chair of Sydney West Kylie was awarded Fellowship of both organisations in 2007. In 2009 Kylie was awarded a Wharton Fellowship from the University of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Understanding the history and commitment of these two great organisations to nursing professionalism in Australia Kylie is committed to honouring the past to lead the Australian College of Nursing as a dynamic and influential key professional organisational well into the future.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, we are joined by returning guest Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward from the Australian College of Nursing here to discuss the topic of Electronic Health Records of Patients and their safety. According to Kylie, a national shared electronic health record means that as people move between health care providers, or even move between states, clinical professionals have a single trusted source of information. This information that could be vital such as a person’s allergies or medications, they can quickly and easily access. She also said that the ACN supports moves towards a national op-out approach to My Health Record and wants to ensure the vast majority of Australians take up this opportunity to improve their health care. Kylie mentioned that security concerns could play a factor in people choosing to wait to participate. She believes that nurses must be involved in the development, implementation and ongoing maintenance of My Health Record.