BTF Podcast BTF Podcast

Technology has revolutionized healthcare. The technology we have today allows us to understand much more about our health and our health system using technology, than ever before.

But yet, millions of people still suffer from completely preventable diseases worldwide each year. Many health systems are on the brink of collapse.

Cleary technology is not the only answer to addressing all the problems in healthcare.

So what role does digital health play in improving healthcare access and delivery? What exactly is digital health anyway? How do we use digital health in a way that does not leave behind the poor or technologically illiterate? 

How has Covid-19 impacted all of this?

In this episode of the BTF podcast, I chat with Dr Benji Ozynski, to try to make sense of digital health solutions during Covid and beyond. Benji is a medical doctor and the Director of Business Development of Wits Healthcare Innovation, he is also and a co-founder of Market Mx. Benji discovered his passion for entrepreneurship after starting his first business in medical school, and is working to build a career integrating business, health and technology.

The Wits Healthcare Innovation (WHI) was established to catalyse the implementation and creation of scalable, patient-centred and technology-driven solutions within the healthcare ecosystem of South Africa and beyond. WHI is a division of Wits Health Consortium and consists of a diverse, multi-talented team working to further the digital transformation of healthcare within South Africa, change the culture within healthcare and make a positive social impact.



Benji, is changing the world.

Please remember to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I look forward to your comments and reviews and you are welcome to send me a voice note using the links below to be featured in future episodes.

Together, let's figure out how to change the world.


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message

Children are not prone to severe covid complications, but this doesn’t mean that the pandemic hasn’t affected them. What is the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on their physical, psychological and social development?

The pandemic has affected many people’s mental health. How do we recognize that our kids might be struggling with their mental health during this time? How can we best support them? When should we seek professional help?

When it came to returning kids to school, people had mixed views. On the one hand, we want to protect them, and the teachers, from COVID. On the other hand, schooling is an integral part of their development and often much more than just education.

In this episode of The Behind the Frontline podcast, I chat with child health educator, Dr Carmen, to try and make sense of the impact COVID has on child health.

Dr Carmen is a medical researcher working with Covid vaccine trials. She is a woman and child health advocate and provides up-to-date information to parents about child health, and since the beginning of lockdown, accurate and easy to understand information about COVID

Dr Carmen, is changing the world.


Please remember to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I look forward to your comments and reviews and you are welcome to send me a voice note using the links below to be featured in future episodes.

Together, let's figure out how to change the world.


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message

Do you think frontline healthcare workers heroes? 

What's the problem with calling them 'heroes'? A hero never tires. A hero is not overworked. A hero isn't fearful that they will transmit a deadly infectious to their granny. The label of hero adds to the burnout many frontline healthcare workers are feeling.

What's the problem with the term burnout?

It places the fault on the individual's flaws (bottom-up), rather than on the underlying health system failures (top-down).

Frontline HCWs are already highly resilient workers due to the nature of their training and the tough working conditions. However, they feel overworked due to inadequacies in the health system. They are plagued with moral injury when they can't deliver the best possible patient care due to constrained resources - especially during a peak of a COVID wave. These factors could lead to physical and mental health challenges resulting in so-called "burnout".

Frontline healthcare workers are told to 'build their resilience' in order to cope better. But would adding a little resilience really solve the failures of the health system?

What are your thoughts? Should we call frontline healthcare workers 'heroes'? What support should we be giving them? Let me know in the comments.

In this episode of the  BTF podcast, we unpack some of the challenges facing frontline healthcare workers since the pandemic. My special guest is Dr Precious Chikura. Precious junior doctor currently completing her community service. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Precious started an NGO called the 'Frontline Refuge' that provides free mental healthcare services for healthcare workers. She is passionate about improving health care outcomes for women and children and empowering communities to be self-determined via healthcare and business.


Please remember to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I look forward to your comments and reviews and you are welcome to send me a voice note using the links below to be featured in future episodes.

Together, let's figure out how to change the world.


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message

Have you ever heard a doctor say to a grieving family member, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing more that we can do?”. It’s usually in the context of someone who is terminally ill and death is around the corner. 

My next guest on Behind the Frontline podcast seeks to remove this saying from medicine. Because in medicine, there’s always something that can be done. And while it may be true that someone who is terminally ill may not recover from their illness, palliative care – which is the specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness – offers much more to a person than just medication. Palliative care is about treating people and their families holistically, it’s about empowering them to make informed decisions, it’s about restoring dignity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to comes to terms with the death of close family and friends members. On the previous podcast about COVID & mental health, we heard how one person lost 16 people to COVID. 

What are the implications for palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic? What can we learn from it moving forward? What are the great innovations created during this time?

These are the questions I will put to my next guest, Dr Clint Cupido. Dr Cupdio is an experienced specialist internal medicine physician  at Victoria Hospital in Cape Town. He has a keen interest in palliative care and runs the palliative care unit at the hospital - affectionately called 'Abundant Life'.

The work Dr Cupido does to improve restore the dignity of our seriously ill in our community is inspiring. 

Dr Cupido, is changing the world.

Please remember to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I look forward to your comments and reviews and you are welcome to send me a voice note using the links below to be featured in future episodes.

Together, let's figure out how to change the world.


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message

With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout started, many people have questions about it. Is it safe? Does it work? What is the government doing to protect me? There are also multiple equity considerations about how the vaccine is distributed amongst nations and within each country as well.

In this episode, my guest and I will try to answer common FAQs about the COVID-19 vaccines, dispel myths and provide an overview of the equity considerations. I am delighted to introduce the special guest for the episode, Dr Indira Govender. Dr Govender is a Public Health specialist and Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr Govender has vast experience both academically and clinically. She has previously worked for MSF (AKA Doctors without Borders) in South Sudan, as well as on the frontline during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. She is currently based at the Africa Health Research Institute in Somkhele, KZN South Africa, where her population-based research interest is TB infection control in health facilities.

I look forward to your questions and comments. You're welcome to leave a voice note in the links below that will be featured in future episodes. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. 

PS: keep trying to change the world.


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message

1 in 10 people are currently suffering from depression and 1 in 5 with an anxiety disorder.

Mental health challenges are increasingly being recognized as an important global health concern. Nobody is immune. It can affect anyone. There is not a single person that can that they have not been impacted by the COVID19 pandemic in one way or the other.

What is the overall effect of the COVID19 pandemic on our mental health? What is the psychological toll of a forced lockdown, economic insecurity, fake news and a continuous state of anxiety? Who are the people that are most affected?

These are some of the questions I will be unpacking with our special guest today. In this episode of the behind the frontline podcast, I speak with Professor Grobler. Prof Grobler is a psychiatrist with more than 20 years of clinical experience in psychiatry and workplace mental health. He is an academic and mental health advocate and in his opinion, every day should be mental health awareness day at work.

Together we will try to highlight the mental health challenges related to the pandemic, to celebrate some of the great solutions being done to improve mental health and look ahead to mental wellness beyond the pandemic.

Please remember to rate and subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I look forward to your comments and reviews and you are welcome to send me a voice note using the links below to be featured in future episodes.

Together, let's figure out how to change the world.




---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btf-podcast4/message