The Penn HealthX Podcast

Dr. Debbie Kelly joins us to speak about her career, and the decision to leave clinical practice to work in pharma. Map: 5:30 – finding ophthalmology 9:45 – things that she didn’t like about clinical practice 12:30 – learning about GSK, industry, and the options for MD’s 21:00 – shifting to Pharmacovigilance 28:30 – getting contacted by the headhunter and going to Spark 34:15 – mulling the decision to leave clinical practice 45:00 – choosing one path vs. the unknown 51:00 – finding work-life balance in medicine and in industry 54:30 – challenges of pioneering gene therapy development Links: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-kelly-47963922/ Pharmacovigilance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacovigilance Spark Therapeutics http://sparktx.com/ Lancelot the Dog http://www.blindness.org/glossary/lancelot

Ryan Littman-Quinn tells us about how he became an mHealth expert, and the challenges of overseeing successful projects abroad in Botswana and other African countries. Map: 5:20 – reaching out to click diagnostics and taking the job as graphic designer 8:20 – going to Botswana 14:00 – what is mHealth? 21:00 - working for the UPenn Botswana partnership 27:00 – Ryan’s first project – mLearning to support medical education 32:00 – challenges in mHealth projects and learning on the job 38:30 – Peak Vision 51:00 – Funding projects that are mix of entrepreneurship and non-profit Links: LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlittmanquinn/ The Botswana-UPenn Partnership http://www.med.upenn.edu/botswana/ Andrew Bastawrous TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_bastawrous_get_your_next_eye_exam_on_a_smartphone Peek Vision Website https://www.peekvision.org/ Lancet Paper Framing the Need for Vision Care http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30293-0/fulltext

Dr. Kovarik tells us about her career, and how she became a leader in the teledermatology field. Note: In the intro, I mistakenly said that the Accessderm Platform was rolled out both in Philly and Africa. It is a U.S only platform. Other local platforms are used in Africa. Map: 5:22 - Finding Dermatology at Baylor 8:39 - The beginning of telederm 12:20 - Becoming a leader in the field 14:45 - Issues in Derm field – shortage, long wait times, etc. and how telederm helps solve them 22:00 - Barriers to the growth of teledermatology 37:30 - Aligning incentives 44:00 - Limitations of teledermatology Links: Dr. Kovarik Profile https://www.pennmedicine.org/providers/profile/carrie-kovarik Her Twitter https://twitter.com/carriekovarik?lang=en Penn Med Teledermatology http://healthcareinnovation.upenn.edu/projects/teledermatology AlJazeera Article http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/17/teledermatology-helpspeoplefrommalawitophilly.html

We kick off the Penn Health-X Podcast with Dr. Fajgenbaum! Map 4:30 – football at Georgetown, his mother’s illness, and starting AMF 8:45 – getting to Penn Med and being diagnosed with Castleman Disease 13:40 – relapsing, and not being content with the state of research 17:20 – mentors, the orphan disease center, and starting the CDCN with an email 21:00 – getting the MBA and learning to manage a group of researchers 23:30 – learning to negotiate 24:50 – how biomedical research funding needs to change 31:00 – using the CDCN model for other orphan diseases 34:00 – thoughts on high drug prices, right-to-try legislation, and FDA regulation, and off-label use 39:55 – being compared to a Nobel Prize winner, and planning for another potential relapse 43:45 – final thoughts Links: LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfajgenbaum/ NYTimes Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/business/his-doctors-were-stumped-then-he-took-over.html Actively Moving Forward (AMF): https://healgrief.org/actively-moving-forward/ CDCN Website: http://www.cdcn.org/ Getting More by Stuart Diamond https://www.amazon.com/Getting-More-Negotiate-Succeed-Work/dp/0307716902 The Castle Man Image http://files.www.cdcn.org/3590_SketchWarrior-process-s312x341.jpg