PNWU second-year medical student Naman Jain joins us to discuss his journey to medical school, his commitment to caring for others, and the value of creativity.

Paige Ely, PNWU Student Doctor of the Year, and honorable mention for National Student Doctor of the Year, joins us to discuss osteopathy, effective altruism, caring for underserved communities and more.

Opioid overdoses claim the lives of approximately 130 people in the United States each day. Sadly, many of the substance abuse disorders that lead to these devastating losses begin with the stroke of a doctors pen.  In anticipation of PNWU’s upcoming regional summit on opioid use disorder and trauma-informed care, “Trauma and the Opioid Crisis: Coming Together to Advance Prevention, Care, and Recovery,” we sat down with two medical students whose lives have been dramatically altered — in very different ways — by prescription medications.

Physicians commit suicide at a higher rate than any other profession. In fact, throughout the course of a single year, the medical field can expect to lose more doctors than the collected total of all medical students here on our campus to suicide. Dr. Linda Seaman and Angie Maxson, PNWU OMS I, join us for an emotional conversation on physician burnout.

The Fascial Distortion Model: Physicians can learn it over the course of a weekend and put it into practice immediately. It's inexpensive, fast and virtually risk-free. Dr. Todd Capistrant, PNWU's Regional Assistant Dean of Fairbanks, calls it the most powerful thing he's ever seen in medicine, and after using the model to radically improve the lives of countless patients throughout the years, he has plenty of evidence to support that claim. So why isn't FDM mainstream? Dr. Capistrant and fourth-year PNWU osteopathic medical student Thomas Pentzer join us for an illuminating conversation on FDM.

What does it mean to you or your loved ones to be “alive?" If you had a say in how you wanted to leave this world, what would your preferences be? We will all leave this world someday; the difference is how we leave it. Katie Buckman is a second-year osteopathic medical student at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, and one of the founders of “What Matters in the End Week,” which aims to educate the community on the importance of end-of-life planning. Laurie Jackson is the Senior Director of Compass Care, Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital’s end-of-life line of services, and brings over 20 years of experience in end-of-life care to our conversation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. These conditions are known as social determinants of health. To discuss these conditions, and the massive impact they have on society, we sat down with Mike Johnson and Dr. Michael Lawler. Mike Johnson is the Executive Director of Yakima’s Union Gospel Mission, which aims to help people move from homelessness to wholeness. He has dedicated much of his life to working with underserved populations, gaining deep insight into the challenges facing theses communities firsthand. Dr. Michael Lawler is the President of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, and brings over 35 years of experience in health and human services, much of which focuses on improving the health of some of our most vulnerable populations.

According to data published recently by the US Centers for Disease, overall life expectancy in America fell fractionally in 2017, from 78.7 to 78.6 years, marking the first time in half a century that there have been two consecutive years of declining life expectancy. Underlying the drop was a bad year for influenza and a slight increase in the toll of Alzheimer’s disease. But more significant was an increase in what some are referring to as “deaths of despair”: Suicides and drug overdoses. To better understand the problem, we sat down with an expert on opioid pharmacology, pain and addiction, the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Pacific Northwest University, Dr. Edward Bilsky.

Dr. Anita Showalter, PNWU Associate Dean for Clinical Education, joins us for a conversation on the heavily-contested topic of physician assisted death.

PNWU osteopathic medical students Darrel Phong, Christi Blanton, and Megan Bedard join us to discuss their recent 16-day medical mission trip Bundibugyo, Uganda, a small town near the Democratic Republic of Congo border in Africa. Part of a team of eight second-year students, Darrel, Christi, and Megan had the opportunity to serve on a triage team that went into three small remote villages where most of the people have no income, no clean water and no medical care.