Public Health Me

Today, we sit down with Dr. Serena Chen, M.D. and discuss IVF and how it's been affected by changes in legislation. We talk about how IVF is used, when it should be considered an option and your choices.

Studies have shown that 1 in 8 women in the United States that experienced a recent live birth has experienced some symptoms of postpartum depression. According the the CDC, approximately 1 in 5 women are not asked about depression during their prenatal doctor's visit. The CDC also reports that over half of pregnant women with depression did not receive any treatment. This episode focuses on antenatal and postpartum depression, the signs and symptoms, where to seek help, how to mitigate symptoms, and create balance as a new mom. This episode features Dr. Erica Montes, a Board-Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist and a Fellow of the American College of OB/GYN. Dr. Montes is a proponent of encouraging her patients to take an active role in their own health/healthcare. Dr. Montes speaks from the perspective of an OB/GYN and mother of 3, Dr. Montes models her own experiences as a mother and physician to help encourage women to know that they are not alone. This episode also features the personal experience of Amber Johnson, MPH the founder of the Public Health Me podcast, who struggled with prenatal depression while carrying her first child. 

This episode focuses on LGBTQ health, health disparities, and health inequities that have persisted for generations. LGBTQ+ individuals are less likely to have a primary care physician due to health disparities that continue to plague medical education and practice. This episode features Dr. Stacy De-Lin, a board certified gynecologist and family medicine physician who discusses her stance of LGBTQ+ health from the lens of a physician but also as a proud bisexual individual. Dr. De-Lin sees first hand in her medical practice how health disparities and lack of preventive care can directly effect the health of LGBTQ+ individuals long-term. This episode also features Maggie Hawkins, MPH, CHES who has a long history of providing health education for members of the LGBTQ+ individuals and other individuals in public health settings. Maggie is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and works hard to mitigate health disparities within her community; she has seen first hand how epidemics like the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80's in America has had long-standing effects on the treatment of gay individuals in medical settings, but also how it has affected the lives of close friends she has lost due to HIV/AIDS. This episode serves as a catalyst for further action and education for medical professionals, policy makers, public health professionals, etc. to provide improved policies and care for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

This episode explores the topic of social determinants of health through the lens of public health and medical professionals. We often forget that social determinants of health are in everything the we do on a daily basis, from where we work, eat, play, live, etc. All of these factors and more have an effect on health outcomes of a person and their progeny. This episode features Dr. Arunima Bera, a board certified pediatric intensive care hospitalist who practices in Southern California. Dr. Bera sees first hand each day how social determinants of health affect her patient's and their family's lives. This episode also features Holly Eckelberger, MEd, MPH, an HIV Prevention Educator with years of experience in reproductive health education. Holly believes that social determinants of health are much deeper than what we see on the surface and that we must dive deeper to understand a patient's overall health and story. This episode focuses on social determinants of health from maternal health to children's health to educating physicians' regarding social determinants of health. 

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping or attempting to sleep. Most individuals either have a hard time going to sleep or staying asleep. This episode features special guest, Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell, a board certified physician and sleep specialist. Dr. Holliday-Bell discusses helpful tips and tricks to help individuals to gain better overall sleep in a short time frame. Dr. Holliday-Bell, also discusses how lack of sleep interferes with our body's overall metabolic processes and circadian rhythm. 

This episode explores the effects of COVID-19 on children’s health from a physical, mental, and social standpoint. The goal of this episode is to shine a light on children ’s well-being which has often been forgotten during this pandemic. This episode features Dr. Arunima Bera, MD, a board certified pediatrician who currently works as an ICU pediatric hospitalist at Valley Children’s hospital in Madera, CA. Dr. Bera, discusses her experiences as a physician who has cared for children affected by COVID-19 and other serious illnesses. Dr. Bera, discusses the effects of mask mandates, COVID-19 and safer schools, and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines; Dr. Bera, discusses how each of these factors has affected children’s physical and mental health. This episode serves as a tool to educate parents' about mask wearing, vaccinating their children, vaccinating themselves before, during, or after pregnancy, and keeping up with their child’s routine vaccine schedule and pediatric care in the midst of the pandemic.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the goal of this episode is to provide BIPOC and disadvantaged communities with the knowledge that they need to combat high mortality rates associated with breast cancer. Although, black women comprise 12% of new breast cancer diagnoses their rate of mortality comprises 41% of breast cancer cases. This episode seeks to provide knowledge and prevention strategies to mitigate the high rate of mortality among women of color as it relates to breast cancer. This episode features Dr. Wendy Goodall-McDonald, is a board certified OB/GYN and  graduate of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who practices in Chicago at Northwestern Prentice Women's Hospital. Dr. Goodall-McDonald, also known as Dr. Every Woman shares evidence-based health information to educate the masses and inspire future physicians through music and literature in fun and innovative ways using her social media platform on Instagram @dreverywoman. Throughout this episode Dr. Goodall-McDonald provides pertinent information regarding breast cancer screenings, monthly breast exams, and important signs and symptoms that may be of concern. 

In honor of World Mental Health Day, this episode explores mental health and breaking the stigma surrounding mental health, especially as it relates to communities of color. This episode provides tools for both patients and physicians to discuss their mental health openly in safe spaces without the fear of judgment or feeling like they are "weak". This episode features Dr. Danielle Johnson, MD, FAPA who is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.  She treats adults in the inpatient and outpatient settings and has expertise in treating women’s mental health issues.  She is a board member of the International Society of Reproductive Psychiatry.  Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences.  She has spent her career at the Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason, OH. Dr. Johnson has spoken locally and nationally about mental health, she is particularly passionate about topics relating to women and minority and underserved communities. On this episode, Dr. Johnson, speaks candidly about eradicating mental health disparities, lack of access, provider bias, shortages of mental health professionals particularly those of color, and ways to break the stigma surrounding mental health. 

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, this episode discusses the plight of the AAPI community from historical and current perspectives. This episode features special guests, Dr. Thuy Ho-Ellsworth, a board certified foot and ankle surgeon and Allison Maladore, MS, a Doctor of Public Health Student (DrPH). Dr. Ho-Ellsworth and Allison provide suitable solutions to mitigate AAPI hate in our current social climate and beyond. Both Allison and Dr. Ho-Ellsworth share the plight they both faced as either a child of Asian American immigrants or as a first generation immigrant from Laos and Thailand, respectively. Steps to promote solidarity against Asian hate in medicine, public health, and communities are discussed in order to bring about sustainable changes that will propel the AAPI community forward, and ultimately helping to eradicate AAPI hate for our posterity. 

May is Mental Health Awareness month and this episode focuses on tools to improve self-care, mindfulness, and gratitude while experiencing difficult times. This episode features, Dr. Deepti Gandhi, MD a Family Medicine and Aesthetics Medicine Physician with an interest in lifestyle medicine. Dr. Gandhi believes that mental health is integral to an overall sense of well-being. She is passionate about empowering her patients to take control of their own health and wellness. She hosts a weekly series called Ruminations on Gratitude on Instagram in which she discusses the science and wisdom of gratitude as well as insights and tips to implement gratitude into daily life. On this episode Dr. Gandhi provides sustainable solutions regarding how self-care and gratitude can play a role in improving one's life. Dr. Gandhi explains to listeners how difficult times often subjugate the mind and body, however, implementing small tools each day can gradually improve a person's outlook on life. 

This episode explores strategies to empower healthier eating habits in low-income communities, food insecurity, and food deserts. Empowerment of healthier food options and choices is explored from adolescence into adulthood as a preventive measure to decrease disease incidence in addition to public health strategies to combat these issues. This episode features special guests: Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu, PhD, MPH, CHES and Adebusola Ogunnaike, MPH. Adebusola Ogunnaike, MPH who completed her Master of Public Health degree at Emory University and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Busola is passionate about reducing Non-Communicable Diseases, particularly in Low Middle Income Countries. Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu is an educator, a researcher, a public health consultant, and a change agent. Dr. Kassimu possess a heart for public health and kids, a desire for health equity, and a passion for advocacy. She created Dr. K.'s Health Minute to serve as a source of easily accessible and digestible health and wellness information. Her work focuses on reduction of health disparities and increasing the quality of life in POC, particularly African American/Black people.

This episode explores the topic of infertility and diseases associated with infertility. This episode features special guests: Dr. Serena L. Chen, MD who serves as Director of Reproductive Medicine at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center, and IRMS, the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science in New Jersey, and a Clinical Associate Professor at both Rutgers Medical Schools; Dr. Sara J. Mucowski, MD a fertility specialist in Dallas, TX who is double board certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) as well as Obstetrics and Gynecology; and Mindi Huber who graduated with academic honors from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelors in anthropology with a minor in psychology, who has since become a philanthropist, infertility advocate and warrior herself. Diseases such as endometriosis and PCOS are explored and discussed as they relate to fertility issues as well as strategies to mitigate these tumultuous diseases. Support strategies are also discussed in order to help to empower infertility warriors, while breaking infertility stigmas along the way!

This episode explores global health security and diseases of poverty in developing nations with special guest Dr. Tara Bracken, PhD who is a global health advocate supporting global malaria programs. Tara obtained a doctorate in Infectious Diseases from the University of Georgia Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, specializing in the immunology and pathogenesis of malaria in pregnancy. Tara has previously aided communications and advocacy efforts around vaccine hesitancy and neglected tropical diseases at the Sabin Vaccine Institute. In this episode Dr. Bracken discusses diseases of poverty such as malaria and other communicable diseases such as Covid-19 which affect global health security. This episode also explores mitigation strategies for communities and for government agencies to explore in order to decrease the burden of communicable diseases within the population.

This episode defines what public health is from the lens of budding and career professionals in the field of public health. Kimberly Green, MPH, the founder of SMART Health Education and Brooke Mootry, MSW, the CEO and lead recruiter for the Public Health Network, discuss careers in public health and their own personal journeys breaking into the field of public health. Strategies for success and networking  are also discussed to provide listeners with a knowledge base regarding the steps needed to begin one's career in public health. 

This episode focuses on the plight that black physicians' face in America, from lack of diversity and inclusion to microagressions. This episode features special guest, Dr. Fenwa Famakinwa Milhouse, a female African American, fellowship-trained and board certified urologist. Dr. Milhouse practices at Dupage Medical Group (the largest private practice group in the Illinois) as the female pelvic floor surgeon. Originally born in Nigeria, her family immigrated to the US when she was a young child. She grew up in Texas and ended up at the University of Texas at Houston for medical school. She is passionate about introducing young people to urology and mentoring underrepresented minorities pursuing medicine. Dr. Milhouse provides her own personal experiences as a black female urologist in a male dominated specialty and her crusade to break barriers in medicine for future black physicians. 

This episode dives into women's health and public health initiatives from a community mobilizing standpoint. This episode features special guest, Natrina Kennedy, who is a Community Mobilizer and Social Entrepreneur from the Southside of Chicago with a love for the community and a passion for breaking systemic barriers. She founded the Women’s Health Initiative, Inc. (WHI) in 2017, a 501(c)3 non profit organization dedicated to building a society where all women and young girls are empowered and live healthy lives free of racial, social, or economic barriers. She is an outcome-driven individual aspiring to advance public health.  She has spent nearly 10 years in community work and utilizes her voice to challenge inequities that will empower individuals by improving individual health, creating healthier families, and ultimately a more unified society. Natrina shares her point of view from a community mobilizing standpoint, having dwelled and spent the entirety of her career in an urban city, which provides her with a unique point of view as to how to effect change in urban and disproportionately affected communities of color. 

This episode is the first episode in the series of Women's Empowerment episodes during the month of March, in which we celebrate Women's History Month. This episode focuses on tools for empowering women from a mental, physical, and spiritual perspective. Featuring special guest, Dr. Eva Beaulieu, MD an internal medicine hospitalist in the Atlanta, GA area who immigrated from Haiti at age of 15 equipped with a thirst and undeterred passion, which led her to pursue medicine. Dr. Eva is businesswoman, mother, author, physician, and leader who believes that if she can she can achieve her dreams, every woman can. In this episode she shares a snapshot of her personal journey to success and how she is able to empower herself and others, while balancing a dynamic life. 

This episode explores health equity in disadvantaged communities of color from the lens of budding and experienced public health professionals.   Special guests include: Ruth Thomas, a Government Operations Consultant and Candace Sibley, a Behavior Scientist and Evaluator with combined years of experience in the field of public health these ladies provide their take on health equity from a systems thinking and systems change perspective. 

This episode focuses on tools for empowering teens and young adults to develop self esteem, bettering their own mental health, and most of all loving themselves first. This episode features special guest, Rakinya Henson, MPH whose passion lies in assisting individuals in discovering their best self and inspiring them to live it out. Rankinya was concerned by the lack of programs dedicated to the empowerment of young ladies and thus founded P.R.E.T.T.Y Ladies (Preparing Responsible, Educated, Talented, Tenacious Young Ladies). The vision for this girls’ mentoring program is to create an environment that will assist and educate participants in making sound decisions that will lead them into becoming responsible adults. This program is designed with concepts to specifically support young ladies during their formative years with the desire that as a result of this voyage, the participants will become better equipped to make sound decisions. 

This episode focuses on health disparities in minority communities as well as potential tools to ameliorate these issues in low-income and minority communities. This episode features LaKia Thomas, MPH, an environmental Health Specialist who works with Jefferson county as a COVID-19 Outbreak Investigator assisting facilities regulated by Jefferson County Public Health, with implementing mitigation and prevention strategies. LaKia possesses over 15 years of experience working to empower and provide communities with resources to build self-sufficiency. This episode also features Sandra Najuna, MPH who works as a Senior Project Manager-Quality Contracts for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Ryan White contracts for all 25 locations across the United States. Sandra works alongside health centers on several quality improvement projects to improve rates of viral load suppression and cervical cancer screening. Sandra is also concurrently working towards obtaining her DrPH from Johns Hopkins University. 

This episode episode explores COVID-19 and debunking myths associated with the pandemic. This episode features Dr. Stacy De-Lin, MD a gynecology and family planning specialist who worked through the height of the COVID pandemic in the spring of 2020 in New York City, and one of her roles as Associate Medical Director at her clinic during that time was to follow all of the emerging evidence on COVID-19 in order to keep staff and patients safe. Since then, she has continued to stay up-to-date on the evidence and works to combat online misinformation on both COVID and the vaccine through her Instagram account, @stacydelin_md

This episode dives into maternal health and mortality in communities of color alongside special guest Chinemenma Amonu, MPH, CHES the founder of Mama's Maternity Home, LLC. The conversation focuses on potential solutions to quell high maternal mortality rates in the United States as it relates to communities of color. 

This episode explores implicit biases in healthcare and steps that can taken to eliminate biases, while creating better outcomes in communities of color. This episode features Dr. Jennifer Chung, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician who also specializes in spine and musculoskeletal medicine in the Greater Cincinnati area.  Dr. Chung discusses how her own awareness of implicit bias has altered the way she sees medicine and the world around her. 

This episode focuses on the introduction to Amber Johnson, MPH, founder of the Public Health Me podcast on January 12, 2021. This episode tells her story from her perspective to help her audience see that success has many avenues and often alternate paths can reveal the greatest blessings.