Health care providers have a lot of information on their patients – medical histories, demographics, identity and financial data. That means those providers have a responsibility to appropriately use and protect patient data.
In the second installment of our year-long series, “The Toughest Questions in Health Care,” Dr. Ed Ewen, Director of Clinical Data and Analytics for ChristianaCare, and ChristianaCare’s Chief Information Security Officer Anahi Santiago help answer the question, “How do we use and protect patient data?”
We journey through the evolution of collecting patient data and examine how health systems use data to improve individual and community care. And we consider the complexity and scope of the challenge of thwarting cybercriminals, especially as more care moves outside the digital safety of the hospital or doctor’s office.
Dr. Edward Ewen is Director of Clinical Data and Analytics for ChristianaCare. He leads the organization’s enterprise information management program and is responsible for coordinating and setting strategy for its data warehousing, data governance, and business analytics activities. He has over 25 years’ experience in health care data warehousing and analytics.
Anahi Santiago is Chief Information Security Officer at ChristianaCare and one of the nation's foremost cybersecurity experts. She has overall responsibility for the organization’s information security program and strategic direction. Winner of the prestigious Routhy Award, Santiago has extensive experience in areas of cybersecurity, privacy, regulatory compliance, program management and infrastructure services.
Links
According to the World Health Organization, worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. Obesity is a serious and chronic health condition. Weight management can be complicated. It’s not always just about willpower and poor food choices.
This week Drs. Caitlin Halbert and Lisa Breslow join us for a frank and enlightening discussion of obesity and the immense but important journey toward better health. We explore the bariatric surgery process – from determining if surgery is right for a patient to the operating room to the incredible results that are possible in the following days, weeks and months. Learn how ChristianaCare’s comprehensive approach to weight loss surgery sets it apart from similar programs in treating the whole patient every step along the way.
And dive into the space where pop culture and medicine collide. Hear how shows like My 600-lb Life and 1,000-lb Sisters compare to the reality of bariatric surgeries. And get the low down on the true usefulness and safety of medications, including Ozempic and Wegovy, that have gotten so much attention recently.
Caitlin Halbert, D.O., MS, is a board-certified general surgeon with a focus in Bariatric and Foregut surgery. She practices at ChristianaCare and is the Assistant Program Director for the General Surgery Residency Program. She is the Medical Director of the ChristianaCare Bariatric Surgery Program.
Dr. Lisa Breslow, D.O., is a family medicine physician with over 15 years of experience and is dual board certified as an obesity medicine specialist. Her appointments are exclusively for patients with health and wellness goals related to weight loss. She believes in encouraging patient self-education while partnering with each patient to create a comprehensive health and wellness plan structured to meet their needs. She is committed to providing evidence-based education and treatment for obesity.
Links
This past week the FDA for the first time approved use of a gene editing-based therapy. The new treatment is for people with Sickle Cell Disease. Gene editing has the potential to transform so many areas of medicine. ChristianaCare's Gene Editing Institute is the only institute of its kind in the nation at a community-based health system, which has led GEI to take a unique approach to gene editing research.
On this week's episode, we talk with Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer at ChristianaCare's Gene Editing Institute, about the patient-centered approach his researchers take. We find out what factors the team considers first when determining what to study and learn what that means for the development of new medicines to treat cancer and inherited diseases.
Join us for a great conversation on the past, present and future of gene editing - what is working, what is not, what opportunities there are beyond medicine and so much more.
Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., is executive director and chief scientific officer at ChristianaCare's Gene Editing Institute. He is also co-founder and chief scientific officer of CorriXR Therapeutics. Widely recognized for his pioneering work in the fields of molecular medicine and gene editing, Dr. Kmiec has developed CRISPR based genetic therapies for Sickle Cell Disease and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Gene and Genome Editing.
Links
“Reach out and touch someone” is more than a vintage AT&T jingle, it can also be the secret to addressing pain, anxiety, stress, nausea and more.
Healing Touch is a heavily researched form of energy therapy that can bring relief and comfort to patients and caregivers alike. Stacy Noel, Nursing Integrative Care Nurse Manager, joins us for this episode to share the benefits and opportunities around this ancient healing art.
Learn how Healing Touch works and what it looks like at the patient bedside at ChristianaCare. Get suggestions on centering, grounding, intentions and affirmations that you can use at this stressful time of year.
The insights you'll gain from this episode about holistic healing methods will surely be an eye-opener.
Stacy Noel is the Nursing Integrative Care nurse manager at ChristianaCare. In this role, she implements holistic programs, such as Healing Touch, aromatherapy, mindfulness practices, meditations, to both caregivers and patients throughout ChristianaCare.
Links
- The Healing Power of Healing Touch (video)
- What Is Healing Touch Therapy?
- The Effects of Healing Touch on Pain, Nausea, and Anxiety Following Bariatric Surgery: A Pilot Study
- Effects of Healing Touch and Relaxation Therapy on Adult Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant
Especially due to the pandemic, most of us have had at least one telemedicine interaction – maybe sitting at home talking to a clinician via smartphone app when you have a fever or sore throat.
But virtual interactions can now also be part of your care when you’re actually in the hospital.
In this episode discover how virtual nursing is making acute care more efficient and effective. Michelle Collins, ChristianaCare vice president for nursing professional excellence, and Melanie Ries, a nurse providing virtual acute care at ChristianaCare, are with us to share the positive impact this innovation is having on patient experience, shrinking lengths of stay and enhancing overall outcomes.
Listen as we explore not only what virtual acute care nursing looks like today but how the success ChristianaCare and other health systems are seeing with this work could have future benefits far beyond nursing in the hospital.
Michelle L. Collins leads ChristianaCare's systemwide efforts to support nursing practice innovation and problem-solving. She also has led ChristianaCare to achieve its third Magnet designation, a preeminent excellence designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Only 9 percent of the nation’s hospitals hold the prestigious Magnet designation. ChristianaCare has earned Magnet designation for Christiana Hospital, Wilmington Hospital, Ambulatory Services, and ChristianaCare HomeHealth.
Links
The average person’s heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times during their life. As we age the possibility of developing an irregular heartbeat – arrhythmia – increase.
Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) is the most common type of arrhythmia. In this episode Dr. Kevin Tsai, a cardiac electrophysiologist with ChristianaCare’s Center for Heart and Vascular Health, tells us about how treating AFib is changing and improving locally and nationally.
Dr. Tsai explains the mechanics of AFib, risks and care options. Then he shares why a treatment technique called catheter-based ablation is becoming more common, why it is offering better outcomes for many patients and why those results may be even easier to achieve in the coming years.
The US Centers for Disease Control estimate 12 million Americans will have AFib by 2030. So, now is the time to learn about the condition and the best options for improving quality of life for those facing it.
Dr. Wen-Chi Kevin Tsai specializes in cardiovascular disease, clinical cardiac electrophysiology and internal medicine. Dr. Tsai is board-certified in clinical cardiac electrophysiology, cardiovascular disease and internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Links
From Chat GPT to self-driving Teslas, in some ways it feels like we're living in the future we were promised in movies and television. Similar technologies are having a huge and growing effect across the healthcare industry.
In this episode Kat Collard, ChristianaCare Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, and Susan Birkhoff, Ph.D., Program Director for Technology Research and Education at ChristianaCare, open up the world of robots in patient care. They shed light on how mechanical marvels are enhancing efficiency and improving patient outcomes.
Hear about ChristianaCare’s own cobot, Moxi, which is designed to handle the tedious, and yet surprisingly complex, task of collecting and transporting supplies. Learn about the dramatic benefits of that work and the challenges of integrating robots into an ever-dynamic hospital environment.
If you are curious about the future of healthcare and how robots are part of that, this conversation promises to be a fascinating and informative listen.
Katherine Collard is chief nursing informatics officer at ChristianaCare, responsible for the strategy and implementation of IT systems that directly impact nurses. In addition to leading the system's work with Moxi, she has also led teams in improving documentation for nurses particularly around pressure injury identification on admission. This process led to a significant improvement in identification on admission avoiding significant penalties.
Susan Birkhoff, PhD, is a nurse and a scientist leading and supporting interprofessional research education, systemwide technology evaluation, and grantmanship. She conducts research studies that investigates the implementation of technology-based solutions to improve complex health problems.
Links
Working in health care is certainly rewarding, but it can also be challenging mentally and emotionally. That's what makes caring for the caregiver such an important part of how health care organizations support their staff.
In this episode we’re joined by Katie Godfrey, a psychologist and director of ChristianaCare’s Center for Worklife Wellbeing. We dive into the mental stressors health care professionals face and explore a program called Psychological First Aid (PFA), a powerful tool in cultivating empathy and compassion between colleagues.
Discover how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the conversation around the emotional well-being of health care workers, how public perception around that well-being is evolving and how organizations in health care and other industries are responding.
Katie Godfrey, PhD, is director of the Center for WorkLife Wellbeing at ChristianaCare. She leads a team of psychologists and researchers, who develop, deliver, and study programs and initiatives to promote and sustain the wellbeing of health care professionals. She previously managed Care for the Caregiver, which is one of the country’s best utilized healthcare professional peer support programs with over 500 individual and group encounters per year.
Links
Becoming a parent is both life-changing and challenging. One of the first challenges some new parents face is the need for their baby to receive life-saving care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A small number of hospitals across the United States, including ChristianaCare, offer “couplet care” – having mother and baby cared for in the same NICU room – as a way to make a stressful situation a bit less stressful.
Dr. David Paul, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at ChristianaCare, and Tamie Hotchkiss, assistant nurse manager in the NICU, join us for this episode to explain how this revolutionary approach to care works and how it benefits both parents and babies.
We walk through the journey families have before and after couplet care, discuss how moms and babies qualify this specialized care, along with what care looks like when couplet care is not an option.
Learn where the concept of couplet care comes from and why it is such a rarity in American health care.
Dr. David Paul is one of the nation's leading neonatologists who's been recognized for his excellence in teaching, research and care. He was appointed Chair of Department of Pediatrics in June 2014. He has been a practicing neonatologist in the community since 1994 serving at ChristianaCare's Christiana Hospital and Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children as well as several other hospitals. A champion for the prevention of infant mortality, Dr. Paul has led the Delaware initiatives to decrease infant mortality and premature birth for over a decade.
Links
- Pregnancy and Childbirth at ChristianaCare
- JAMA: Association of a Zero-Separation Neonatal Care Model With Stress in Mothers of Preterm Infants
- A new day for mothers and babies in Delaware (Delaware News Journal)
- Mother-Newborn Couplet Care from theory to practice to ensure zero separation for all newborns
- Increasingly, NICUs Integrate Families into Care with Single-Family Rooms
Parenthood can be one of life’s most rewarding, challenging and varied experiences. As children grow up, parents usually play less of a role in their lives. But that is not necessarily the case for parents of children with special health care needs. Many of them face the daunting responsibility of perpetual parenthood. In this week’s episode, Dr. Charmaine Wright, medical director of ChristianaCare’s Center for Special Health Care Needs, takes us into their experience.
She explains what happens at “the cliff” and shares what parents and other caregivers do to prepare for the day when they are gone. Dr. Wright tells us not only why perpetual parenthood has become so much more common in the past three decades but also why it is lasting families are facing it for even longer periods of time.
Learn what ChristianaCare’s Center for Special Health Care Needs does on a daily basis and how Dr. Wright’s team there is collaborating with some of the nation’s other top health systems to provide even greater support to families navigating this complex terrain.
Join us for this enlightening conversation and gain a new perspective on perpetual parenthood.
Dr. Charmaine Wright is the medical director of ChristianaCare’s Center for Special Health Care Needs, which is the only center in the region dedicated to providing primary care for adults ages 18 and older with complex medical and social conditions that originated in childhood. Dr. Wright oversees a team of medical experts who focus on guiding these patients and their families through the transition from pediatrics to adult medicine. Dr. Wright is also the Medical Director of the Mary Campbell Center and serves on the Easter Seals of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore Board of Directors.
Links
- ChristianaCare Center for Special Health Care Needs, phone: 302-320-6300
- "Guiding patients with special needs into adulthood" (DelawareOnline.com)
- Got Transition - National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health
- University of Delaware Center for Disability Studies
