INTERVIEWS

Guest: Professor Birgit Lohmann

Presenter: Tabetha Moreto

Guest Bio: Professor Birgit Lohmann is the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunshine Coast. She has broad responsibility for the academic activities of the University, is the standing deputy to the Vice-Chancellor and President, and the Chair of Academic Board. Prior to joining USC, she served in a number of leadership roles including Head of the School of Science and Director of the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Quality) at the University of Adelaide. Professor Lohmann is a graduate of the University of Adelaide (Honours degree in Physics), and of Flinders University (PhD in Atomic Physics).

Segment Overview: In today’s interview, Professor Birgit Lohmann talks about the exciting new Bachelor of Medical Science major that the University of Sunshine Coast will be offering beginning in the first of September next year. Details about the Medical Science degree available here.

Guest: Anne Buck

Presenter: Tabetha Moreto

Guest Bio: Anne Buck is the CEO of Wounds Australia. Anne has extensive experience in health policy and the not for profit sector. She was previously a senior executive with Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. Anne’s career focus has reflected a strong interest in the areas of health, employment and social policy sectors.

Segment Overview: In today’s interview, Anne Buck from Wounds Australia talks about Wound Awareness Week, the causes of chronic wounds as well as what can be done to prevent them.

Guest: Iman El-Hariry, M.D., Ph.D.

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Iman El-Hariry, M.D., Ph.D. has served as Chief Medical Officer of  ERYTECH Pharma, Inc., since June 2015. Prior to her appointment as Chief Medical Officer, she served as President of Azure Oncology Consulting from July 2014 to June 2015 and also assisted us in a consulting role from November 2014 to June 2015. Dr. El-Hariry served as Vice President of Clinical Research at Synta Pharmaceuticals from November 2010 to July 2014 and as Global Head of Oncology at Astellas Pharma, Inc. from June 2009 to July 2010. From 2001 to 2009, she served as Director of Clinical Development, Oncology at Glaxo Smith Kline. Dr. El-Hariry is a licensed oncologist with an M.D. from Alexandria Medical School (Egypt) and a Ph.D. in Cancer Research from Imperial College of Science and Medicine (United Kingdom).

Segment Overview: Dr. Iman El-Hariry, PhD, CMO of Erytech discusses positive results for Erytech’s Phase 2B study of lead product Eryaspase (GRASPA®) in pancreatic cancer.

Guest: Sharon Dill

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Sharon was diagnosed with Variegate porphyria, an even more rare form of acute hepatic porphyria, at the pinnacle of her career as a human resources executive. Like acute hepatic porphyria, Variegate porphyria is a rare, inherited disease that causes severe pain and nausea but is also associated with skin issues, such as blistering and sloughing. Since receiving her diagnosis, Sharon is no longer able to work and experiences chronic pain and nausea daily.  

Segment Overview: Sharon Dill discusses her diagnosis of Variegate Porphyria, part of a family of rare, life-threatening metabolic disorders, known as Acute hepatic porphyrias, that cause incapacitating and potentially fatal attacks for days or weeks at a time.

Guest: Dr. Jelena Pavlovic

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Dr. Jelena Pavlović is a practicing Neurologist and Headache Specialist at the Montefiore Headache Center and is an Assistant Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY.  Dr. Pavlović is also a physician-scientist who holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine. Her research interests broadly focus on hormonal regulation of migraine in women and specifically she aims to answer the question of how hormonal fluctuations affect migraine symptoms during the menstrual cycle and across the transition to menopause. Dr. Pavlović is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the American Headache Society (AHS), and the International Headache Society (IHS). She has published extensively on the topic of migraine in women and is funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Aging (NIH/NIA) to conduct research on this topic.

 Segment Overview: Dr. Jelena Pavlovic, a presenter at the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting (Oct 2017), a practicing Neurologist and Headache Specialist at the Montefiore Headache Center and a physician-scientist who holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine discusses her presentation on a study that she is lead author on linking migraines, heart disease, and hormones.

Guest: Eliz Greene

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Eliz Greene is part of a new consumer health initiative called Take Cholesterol to Heart, which aims to help people better manage their cholesterol by choosing and staying on the right statin for them, as part of an overall heart-healthy lifestyle. When she was seven months pregnant with twins, she suffered a massive heart attack and needed open-heart surgery. The experience was life-changing and gave her an entirely new perspective on heart health. It was the catalyst for her decision to start a new career focused on inspiring others to take their heart health more seriously, by becoming better informed and actively involved in decisions with their doctor.

 Segment Overview: Eliz Greene, a motivational speaker shares her personal story about surviving a heart attack while pregnant with twins and her passion and involvement with a new initiative called Take Cholesterol to Heart.

Guest: Dr. Eliot Brinton, MD

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Dr. Eliot Brinton is Director of Atherometabolic Research at the Utah Foundation for Biomedical Research, and President of the Utah Lipid Center, both in Salt Lake City, UT. Dr. Brinton earned his MD from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, and completed a 3-year research Fellowship in Endocrinology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has held faculty positions at The Rockefeller University and Wake Forest University, among others.  Dr. Brinton is President of the American Board of Clinical Lipidology and was a founding member and is a diplomate of that organization. He chairs the Clinical Lipidology Committee of the American Heart Association (AHA) and is a founding board member of the National Lipid Association (NLA) and was President of the Pacific Chapter of the NLA. He is founding President of the Utah Atherosclerosis Society, a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the National Lipid Association, and Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Brinton has received several scientific awards, including a Clinical Investigator Award from the NIH, a Merit Review Award from the Veterans Administration, and the Robert I. Levy Award of the Kinetics and Metabolism Society (co-recipient with Jan L. Breslow, MD of The Rockefeller University).

 Segment Overview: Dr. Eliot Brinton, MD, discusses cholesterol, best practices for management, and the results from ACTION: The Statin Survey, conducted by Harris Poll and commissioned by Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.  He also discusses the new consumer health initiative ‘Take Cholesterol to Heart‘ , that was launched on October 3, 2017.

Guest: Evelyn Jacobucci  

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Evelyn has been living with porphyria for almost 30 years. Her personal experience with this devastating disease, including her difficult 22-year journey to diagnosis, and the significant social and economic impact it’s had on her family and four children causes Evelyn to live with the fear that she has passed this disease on to her kids and keeps a close eye on her teenage daughter for potential symptoms.  

 Segment Overview: Evelyn Jacobucci discusses her 22-year journey to a diagnosis of Acute Hepatic Porphyrias (AHP), a family of rare and life-threatening metabolic disorders that cause incapacitating and potentially fatal attacks for days or weeks at a time.

Guest: Dr. Joseph Vassalotti

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Dr. Vassalotti is the Chief Medical Officer of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology, at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He received his medical degree with Distinction in Research from the SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine and completed an Internal Medicine Residency and Nephrology Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. At NKF, his major focus is implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on chronic kidney disease (CKD), including the NKF’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI), particularly through guidance of the NKF’s primary care initiative, called CKD intercept. He has served as co-PI for the CDC Demonstration Project “CKD Health Evaluation and Risk Information Sharing (CHERISH)”, which aimed to identify individuals at high risk for CKD in the U.S. and as an investigator for the NIH-sponsored clustered practice randomized trial entitled, evidenced-based primary care for CKD. Leadership also includes multiple roles over the last decade with the CMS Fistula First national quality  improvement initiative for hemodialysis, including as Lead Physician Consultant from 2013 through 2015. He has served on numerous committees that shape innovation and health policy in kidney disease for the CDC, the NIH and CMS. Dr. Vassalotti has over 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been featured in Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America.

Segment Overview: Dr. Joseph Vassalotti, chief medical officer of the National Kidney Foundation, talks about the importance of understanding the seriousness of hyperkalemia (elevated potassium levels in the blood), especially for people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and ways to manage it.

Guest: Lee Reichman, MD, MPH   

Presenter: Neal Howard

Guest Bio: Lee Reichman, MD, MPH, is the Founding Executive Director of the Rutgers Global Tuberculosis Institute, and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in Newark, New Jersey. He serves on several national and international committees, advisory boards, professional organizations and societies, including the National Coalition to Eliminate Tuberculosis (now Stop TB USA); U.S. Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis; International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, and the American Lung Association, among others. Dr. Reichman has published over 200 articles, scientific reviews and book chapters, particularly about the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, control, patient adherence with therapy and the epidemiology of and advocacy for issues related to tuberculosis.

Segment Overview: Dr. Lee Reichman, Professor of Epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health, discusses a recently published article in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ about the need for renewed action to fight the war against tuberculosis (TB). He also discusses new latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) technologies, the need for testing for those who are at risk, and what he means by the term “U-shaped curve of concern”.