Inspired To Heal
Stories of clinicians, educators, innovators, and researchers who built or led programs of excellence in government health institutions. Each guest has excelled in clinical medicine, program building, or public health. They persevered and succeeded through a clear vision, collaboration, and a passion for the mission of government-run health systems. Their stories will inspire those seeking change in their own organizations.
Episodes
39 episodes
ER Toxicology: Poisonous Pleasures—Rat Poison & Pufferfish
Dr. Steven Aks led the Toxicology Division and served as a physician in the legendary Emergency Department at Cook County Hospital—the real-life Pitt. As the frontline expert for life-threatening poisonings, he managed fentanyl overdoses, rat p...
An Epidemiologist Gives Back to His Pancreatic Cancer Team
What happens when an epidemiologist becomes a patient? Dr. Juan Alonso-Echanove spent most of his career in public health, including using epidemiologic principles to prevent firearm-related deaths in Puerto Rico. After Juan was treated f...
From Patient-Centered Care to Community-Centered Public Health
Dr. Bill Burman was foremost a clinician and researcher, providing patient-centered clinical care to patients infected by HIV or tuberculosis. After a surprise request to direct Denver’s public health department, he realized that his clinical c...
Community Informed Informatics
Numbers tell a story, but they rarely tell the whole story. Claire Dillavou, PhD, has made a career out of building and revising public health surveillance systems informed by the most critical variable: Community Context. The community reveale...
Saturday Night Fever
When CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers get the call, they go wherever an outbreak leads. For pediatrician Jim Marks, that meant three weeks investigating a rubella outbreak with a source that inspired a memorable manuscript title. Whil...
The Wandering Nurse: Confronting Ebola, Polio, & Malaria
What happens when an aspiring nurse is turned off by healthcare in college? For Catherine Dentinger, a Peace Corps stint in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a chance meeting with public health legend Jonathan Mann, changed her car...
Spine Tingling Fungal Outbreaks
Fungal infections are commonly associated with irksome, but relatively benign infections, such as athlete’s foot. However, when fungi (molds and yeasts) get into our blood or cerebrospinal fluid, the infections can be difficult to treat and let...
From Bedside to Corner Office
What prepares a physician for the pace of Cook County Hospital? For Jay Shannon, it started with growing up among 11 siblings. After training at Parkland Hospital, Dr. Shannon began his career at Cook County Hospital, fulfilling a scholarship c...
Insuring America's Poor
Two pivotal moments shaped American healthcare: the creation of Medicaid in 1965 and the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. While the ACA slashed the uninsured rate by nearly half, the system remains fragile. In this episode “Insur...
Beyond Headlines Building Health
In the 1980s, pediatricians often were called to evaluate febrile children for meningitis—a disease that could mean lifelong disability, or death. Today, that scene is dramatically less common, thanks to public health interventions championed b...
Chicken Livers in NYC & Guppies in Los Angeles
Dr. Sharon Balter, physician and poet, reflects on her career leading outbreak responses at the CDC and the public health departments of New York City and Los Angeles. Drawing on her experiences at the Federal level and in the United States’ tw...
Public Health Crises from CDC to Alaska
After attaining zoology and medical degrees, Dr. Jay Butler’s medical career took an unexpected turn when he discovered the world of public health through the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. That discovery set him on a path that led to imp...
FoodNet: Monitoring Foodborne Illness for the United States
In the early 1990s, a devastating outbreak of contaminated beef led to kidney damage and death among children, sparking a call to action on food safety. In response, the CDC, USDA, FDA, and several state health departments launched FoodNet <...
See·Believe·Create
Dr. Tom Frieden has led public health institutions through some of the most defining moments of our time—from his stewardship of New York City’s Department of Health to his leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In his ne...
Ground Zero: Santa Clara County's COVID Response
For over two decades, Dr. Sara Cody devoted her career to protecting the health of her community as the Public Health Director for Santa Clara County. Her leadership was tested in early 2020, when COVID-19 arrived in her county—one of the first...
Battling TB: Science, Service, & Spirit
In the shadow of the HIV epidemic, Drs. Bill Clapp and Jim McAuley faced a growing tuberculosis crisis in the United States as frontline clinicians and public health experts. In this episode, they discuss the science behind TB control, the valu...
Outbreak Investigations: Toxic Burgers, Toxic Shock, and Vaccine Talk
Public health expert Mike Osterholm discusses outbreak investigations, pandemics, and the risky path the United States is taking on vaccine recommendations and abandoning innovative technology. Mike’s motivation to leave his small town in Iowa ...
Decoding a Legionnaire's Outbreak, New York City
Using molecular methods and shoe-leather epidemiology, Don Weiss and Kim Musser teamed up to resolve a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx in 2015. It’s a classic tale of combining surveillance and field investigations with advanced molec...
Wind Beneath Their Wings: Improving a Government Healthcare System
Chief Communications Officer, Caryn Stancik, and General Counsel, Elizabeth Reidy, recognized the value of a functional government healthcare system to care for the medically underserved population of Cook County. They devoted their caree...
Drug Packaging Protects Patients
Professor Laura Bix, the Director of the School of Packaging at Michigan State University, is a national leaders in designing solutions for drug packaging that improves medication safety. Two catastrophic events, young children dying of a...
Safer Healthcare for Patients and Staff
Dr. Denise Cardo and David Henderson are infectious diseases physicians and leaders in healthcare epidemiology—the medical discipline that studies the causes and solutions to prevent infections, use antibiotics wisely, and prevent the spread of...
Making Microwaves Safer: Preventing Childhood Burns
Pediatrician Kyran Quinlan and occupational therapist Marla Robinson witnessed severe scald burns among young children in their hospital's burn unit. They embarked on an epidemiologic evaluation that turned into a near two-decades odyssey to im...
Running Toward Chaos
Dr. Jeff Schaider thrived in his career as an emergency medicine physician in Cook County Hospital's storied Emergency Department. From the "routine" chaos of a Friday night in the ER to the stress of resuscitating a dying patient, he enj...
Legacies: Marcus Welby to Smartphones
Legendary leaders of Cook County Hospital's internal medicine program for trainees and medical students, and expert clinicians, Peter Clarke and Chris Smith, share their wisdom. They discuss caring for patients, educating the next generat...