Voices of Duke Health

Father and son physicians, Michael and Kenyon Railey, share their personal stories and the importance of DEI for patients and providers. Their interview was led by Dr. Beverly Gray.

Joe Naasz shares his journey with chronic pain, including his insights, advice for others, and how he's found a new version of himself.

Brian and EmmaLee Monteiro were thrilled to learn they were expecting a baby. However, at 18 weeks, a severe asthma attack put EmmaLee in the ICU. In this episode, the Monteiros chronicle their harrowing experience and the life-saving treatments that EmmaLee and baby Greyson (now a year old) received.

Every Wednesday afternoon, the Chapel at Duke Raleigh Hospital becomes a place for staff to relax and recharge. Hear about this inspiring program lead by our interviewee, Adrian Dixon, Director of Chaplain Services and Education.

Cheryl Morgan Maxey shared with us how her work at Duke Health suddenly collided with her personal life, and the lessons she learned along the way.

Join Steve Hodges, a member of Duke's Patient Family Advisory Council, as he shares his experience of a routine rheumatology appointment that led to the care of his whole being.  

Shawn Burrow, a nurse practitioner from Virginia, stopped by the Voices of Duke Health mobile recording cart to explain the relief she felt when she brought her son, Rowan, to Duke Health.

Originally released: August 20, 2018

Thanks to everyone who helped make the pilot season of Voices of Duke Health a satisfying success. We hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast as much we enjoyed working with all the participants of the listening booth.

We’re making plans for season two, with an expansion of the listening booth and more conversations from colleagues and visitors across Duke. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, we thought Voices of Duke Health listeners might enjoy this vignette about Nancy C. Andrews, MD, PhD, dean emerita of the Duke University School of Medicine. Folklorist Joseph O’Connell interviewed Dr. Andrews for the Duke Medical Center Library and Archives, and produced this bonus episode for us.

As a teenager, Dr. Andrews brought some unusual house guests back to her parents’ home in upstate New York: 30 live horseshoe crabs. In this bonus episode, Andrews looks back on her early formation as a physician-scientist and her journey to becoming the first woman dean of a top ten medical school.

Originally released: May 20, 2019

David Zaas was diagnosed with leukemia on Valentine’s Day of 2017.

In the weeks that followed, he faced many challenges—breaking the news to his sons, undergoing chemotherapy, and learning how to be a patient. At his side for every bit of this was Aimee Zaas, his wife and like him, a Duke doctor.

David Zaas, MD, MBA is president of Duke Raleigh Hospital and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine.

Aimee Zaas, MD, MHS is director of the Duke Internal Medicine Residency Program and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

David and Aimee came to the listening booth to talk about the cancer experience and how it gave them new insights on what patients focus on when they’re ill.

Originally released: March 20, 2019

Tell Me Something Good—that’s the name of a weekly email Emily Depetris sends to her coworkers in the pediatric cardiac ICU.

In the PCICU, they take care of really sick kids. So Emily wanted to give the PCICU staff a weekly reminder of the good things that come from their work—in the form of pictures of their patients playing in the park, dressing up for Halloween, and graduating from high school.

Emily is joined by Anne Schmelzer, RN, a nurse in the PCICU, to talk about why she started Tell Me Something Good, and how it’s brought joy and inspiration to the team.

Originally released: March 14, 2019

For Krunal, it was a car accident. For Jess, an unrelenting, life-threatening illness.

The students who come to medical school come with different reasons for pursuing a career in medicine. In this episode, we hear from six Duke med students — each in their first year — as they share their motivation, their hopes, and their fears.

Krunal Amin, Sonali Biswas, Grant Cabell, Fred Heller, Elana Horwitz, and Jess Rames are first-year medical students at Duke. They came to the Voices of Duke Health listening booth in August 2018, soon after they started their medical-school journey

Originally released: February 21, 2019

Anthony Galanos, MD wants people to know what happened to his son, Nicholas. And he especially wants his colleagues across Duke Health to understand his grief about Nick’s untimely death.

“There probably are no good words,” he says in this episode of Voices of Duke Health. “So maybe we just have to acknowledge there’s no good words. I mean the theme is, everything helps, nothing works. You’re still left with biology. Your son died, he’s not coming back. So I don’t think there are words because there’s nothing that can fix it—I think what can fix it is that you just be present.”

Dr. Galanos—or Dr. G has he’s known around Duke University Hospital—came to the listening booth to have a conversation about grieving, humor, Nick’s love for the Blue Devils, and a whole lot more.

Originally released: February 7, 2019

Allison Chrestensen worked as an occupational therapist, and absolutely loved her job.

“I did some work in hospitals and in people’s homes and just really got to experience what it was like for people and families to overcome illness,” she said.

Seeing patients redefine their lives wass rewarding, and she saw that delivering the best patient care means having empathy for patients and their experiences.

Through her clinical work, Chrestensen thought she had a good grasp of what patients and families who were coping with.

And then a lifelong medical condition nearly took Allison’s life and changed her perspective on what it means to be a patient.

Allison and her husband, Michael Chrestensen, an information technology analyst for Duke Health Technology Solutions, came to the Voices of Duke Health listening booth to talk about what happened next.

Originally released: January 31, 2019

Kara Lyven and Marianne Drexler wake up every day and go to work at Duke University Medical Center — the very place that saved both their lives.

Lyven is senior associate for patient safety at Duke University Hospital.

Drexler is program coordinator for the Longitudinal Clinical Skills Foundation course in the Duke School of Medicine.

In this episode, they share their patient stories, and reflect on how their experiences help them find joy and gratitude in everything they do.

Originally released: January 17, 2019

Sophia Smith, PhD, MSW, is a two-time cancer survivor, so she’s well acquainted with the anxiety that persists after treatment ends.

Through her research, she’s learned that many cancer survivors also struggle with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). This led her to create an app called the Cancer Distress Coach.

In this episode of Voices of Duke Health, Dr. Smith is joined by Bridget Koontz, MD, who shares how her patients responded to the app.

Dr. Smith is an associate professor in the Duke School of Nursing. Dr. Koontz is an associate professor of radiation oncology.

Originally released: December 20, 2018

In this episode of the Voices of Duke Health podcast, we hear from a School of Medicine faculty member and two medical students who work with him to understand how health care workers find strength through sharing their vulnerability.

Will Bynum, MD, is assistant professor in community and family medicine. He serves as associate program director of the Duke Family Medicine Residency, and researches self-conscious emotion (shame, guilt, & pride) in medical learners. Prior to coming to Duke, Dr. Bynum served seven years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force.

Medical students Claire Edelman and Ashley Adams work with Dr. Bynum on that research.

Originally released: November 26, 2018

The Voices team — Karishma, Anton, Jon, and Susannah — sat down in the listening booth to introduce ourselves and have a conversation about what we hope Voices of Duke Health can be for our colleagues across Duke University and Health System.

Originally released: August 31, 2018