Episodes

Thursday Jan 19, 2023
Can famotidine — a heartburn drug — treat Covid?
Thursday Jan 19, 2023
Thursday Jan 19, 2023
People with Covid-19 often get sick because the body’s inflammatory response to the virus overreacts. To tamp down that inflammation, researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, turned their sights toward famotidine, the active ingredient in a common over-the-counter heartburn medication with anti-inflammatory potential. On this bonus episode, we speak with the lead researcher of a unique clinical trial testing famotidine for Covid. Tobias Janowitz, MD, PhD, AN Assistant Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and adjunct professor at the Feinstein Institutes, shares the results of the study, as well as how the pandemic impacted their approach and led to an early success story for decentralized trials, repurposing medications and the importance of collaborating with other institutions.
Chapters:
- 00:08 - Intro
- 01:39 - Safety, efficacy of famotidine for Covid
- 02:55 - What is famotidine?
- 04:45 - A fully remote trial
- 05:58 - Virtual trial strengths, weaknesses
- 07:00 - Famotidine dosage for heartburn, Covid treatment
- 08:12 - Studying famotidine for Covid
- 09:10 - Decentralized clinical trials
- 10:56 - New paradigms, new problems
- 12:02 - A national focus on decentralized trials
- 13:16 - Collaboration supports clinical excellence
This bonus episode expands on Ep. 102 featuring Onisis Stefas, PharmD, executive director of VIVO Health. Listen to that episode, available in our feed, to learn about the Covid treatments available today.
More from Northwell Health
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Friday Jan 13, 2023
Covid treatments: Over-the-counter, prescription and in-hospital
Friday Jan 13, 2023
Friday Jan 13, 2023
While Covid-19 vaccines remain the best protection against the novel virus, if you do catch Covid there are also several treatments to help manage symptoms, like Covid cough, and prevent hospitalization. Onisis Stefas, PharmD, executive director of VIVO Health, breaks down what treatments are available over the counter, by prescription (paxlovid and molnupiravir) and if you do end up in the hospital (remdesivir). He explains the difference between the types of medications (anti-viral vs monoclonal antibodies) and which remain effective today against the new Covid variants.
Chapters:
- 00:07 - Intro
02:08 - A personal experience with paxlovid
05:26 - Covid treatments for mild-to-moderate Covid-19
08:13 - Categories of Covid treatments
10:05 - Paxlovid effectiveness
10:24 - Molnupiravir vs paxlovid
11:22 - When should you take paxlovid
12:05 - Remdesivir infusion
12:57 - Covid anti-viral medication vs monoclonal antibodies
14:11 - Paxlovid, molnupiravir, remdesivir work against new Covid variants
14:47 - Why paxlovid usage is low
16:39 - Outro
Listen to more from Dr. Stefas on 20-Minute Health Talk:
- When hospitals close: How to address "care deserts" - March 15, 2022
- Breaking down the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine - March 5, 2021
- What's in the Covid-19 vaccine? - Jan. 13, 2021
Watch episodes of 20-Minute Health Talk on YouTube.
For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu. And follow us on social media:
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/northwellhealth
- Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/northwellhealth
- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/northwellhealth/
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin/northwellhealth

Wednesday Jan 04, 2023
BONUS: Top 5 moments of 2022
Wednesday Jan 04, 2023
Wednesday Jan 04, 2023
- 00:36 - Extending benefits of telemedicine to War in Ukraine
- 02:22 - Heart, double lung transplant saves young mother's life
- 03:35 - Sandra Lindsay awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
- 04:40 - Ross Prize awarded to mRNA inventors
- 05:36 - A celebration of service
Listen to our episode reviewing the Top 5 medical innovations of 2022.
Watch episodes of 20-Minute Health Talk on YouTube.
For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu. And follow us on social media:
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/northwellhealth
- Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/northwellhealth
- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/northwellhe...
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin/northwellhealth

Thursday Dec 29, 2022
Top 5 medical innovations of 2022
Thursday Dec 29, 2022
Thursday Dec 29, 2022
As 2022 comes to a close, we look back on five exciting medical advances coming from clinical researchers at Northwell Health and the health system's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. In the last year alone, investigators published more than 2,500 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In this episode, we spotlight studies that made strides against endometriosis, diabetes, lupus, pancreatic cancer and (yes) Covid-19.
Read more about these Five notable Northwell advances of 2022.
Chapters:
- 02:05 – Treating pancreatic cancer in a petri dish | Matthew Weiss, MD
- 05:51 – A powerful lupus treatment in the pipeline | Richard Furie, MD
- 10:25 – Famotidine for Covid | Tobias Janowitz, MD, PhD
- 14:45 – A noninvasive test for endometriosis | Christine Metz, PhD
- 19:12 – Treating diabetes with ultrasound | Sangeeta Chavan, PhD
Meet our guests:
Matthew Weiss, MD, professor in the Institute of Cancer Research at the Feinstein Institutes and the deputy physician-in-chief and surgical director in the Cancer Institute at Northwell Health
Richard Furie, MD, chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Northwell and global principal investigator on the LILAC (Part A) clinical trial
Tobias Janowitz, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; adjunct professor at the Feinstein Institutes; and principal investigator of the trial studying famotidine for Covid
Christine Metz, PhD, professor in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes and co-director of Research OutSmarts Endometriosis (ROSE) study
Sangeeta Chavan, PhD, professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research

Thursday Dec 22, 2022
BONUS: Can pediatricians treat psychological disorders?
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
It's a staggering stat: More than 15 million children and adolescents are in need of a pediatric psychiatrist. But finding treatment is anything but easy with just around 8,300 trained pediatric mental health professionals in the U.S. The consequence: Long wait times, worsening symptoms and even higher costs when they do get help. To increase the pool of providers that can offer effective treatments to this population, Project TEACH is training pediatricians, as well as family doctors and Ob/Gyns, to be able to handle mild-to-moderate behavioral health conditions. On this bonus episode, host Sandra Linday, RN, speaks with two pediatricians using the New York State program, a collaboration between the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and seven top universities and hospitals across the state, led by University at Buffalo (UB). They share their experiences treating youth with mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and ADHD before Project TEACH began in 2010, and how the free training, consultation and referral service has transformed their practice.
This bonus conversation builds on an earlier podcast featuring two of the founders of Project TEACH, David Kaye, MD and Victor Fornari, MD, as well as the new NYS lead for its reproductive psychiatry branch, Kristina Deligiannidis, MD.
Our guests this week are:
- David Fagan, MD FAAP, vice chair of Pediatric Ambulatory Services at Cohen Children's Medical Center, a part of Northwell Health
- Maureen Montgomery, MD, FAAP, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at SUNY Buffalo
Watch episodes of 20-Minute Health Talk on YouTube.

Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Tripledemic: Should you be concerned?
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
- Masking recommendations
- Overlapping symptoms between Covid-19, flu and RSV
- How hospitals handle surges
- The importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19 and the flu
- Bruce Farber, MD, chief of Public Health and Epidemiology at Northwell Health
-
Eric Cruzen, MD, senior vice president and executive director of the Emergency Medicine service line, Northwell Health

Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Doctor/therapist: How a NYS program is expanding access to behavioral health care
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
While we associate mental health care with psychologists and psychiatrists, primary care doctors are often the first to see children and families with behavioral health issues. To strengthen and support doctors' ability to deliver that care, a state-wide program called Project TEACH provides free psychiatric consultation support and training. Since its inception in 2010, Project TEACH has enrolled nearly half of the 9,000 primary care physicians in New York State, leading to over 23,000 consultations of pediatric patients. This is a critical resource amidst an ongoing maternal and child mental health crisis in the US. On this episode, two of the founders of this unique program discuss this collaboration between the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and seven top universities and hospitals across the state, led by University at Buffalo (UB). Our third guest explains how a recent 5-year, $16.8 Million grant from New York State has enabled the expansion of Project TEACH into behavioral health services that support OB/GYNs, family physicians and other clinicians who work with women who are pregnant or have recently given birth.
Meet our guests
- David Kaye, MD, professor of psychiatry and vice chair of academic affairs at the University of Buffalo, and executive director, Project TEACH.
- Victor Fornari, MD, vice chair and director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwell and site medical director, Project TEACH.
- Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, is director of women’s behavioral health at Zucker Hillside Hospital, a part of Northwell Health, and the new medical director of reproductive psychiatry for Project TEACH.
Chapters:
- 03:05 - A maternal mental health crisis
- 04:28 - An unmet need in child/adolescent mental health
- 05:40 - What is Project TEACH?
- 07:04 - Examples of how Project TEACH is used by primary care doctors
- 08:14 - A typical consult
- 09:46 - Are there similar programs in other states?
- 10:13 - What are the differences between the program's child/adolescent and Ob/Gyn sides?
- 12:28 - How the primary care setting helps remove the stigma associated with mental health
- 14:09 - Getting buy-in from Ob/Gyns
- 17:00 - Changing the face of medical education

Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
How hyperbaric oxygen therapy heals the body - Part 2
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Chapters:
- 00:56 - Hyperbaric oxygen therapy research
- 01:55 - Treating Covid-19 with hyperbaric oxygen hood
- 04:50 - Recognizing excellence in hyperbaric medicine
- 06:10 - Hyperbaric medicine training
- 07:41 - What to look for when seeking hyperbaric medicine
- 08:46 - Standardizing care
- 10:50 - The future of hyperbaric medicine
Find hyperbaric medicine near you:
Northwell hyperbaric facilities include:
Mather Hospital Northwell Health Wound Treatment Center
75 N Country Rd
Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Contact us: (631) 476-2768
Department of Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine | Phelps Hospital Northwell Health
701 North Broadway
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
Contact us: (914) 366-3690
Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine | Long Island Jewish Valley Stream
900 Franklin Avenue
Valley Stream, NY 11580
Contact us: (516) 256-6576
Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine | Northern Westchester Hospital at Chappaqua Crossing
480 Bedford Rd
Chappaqua, NY 10514
Contact us: (914) 458-8771
Comprehensive Wound Care Center
1999 Marcus Avenue, Suite M6
Lake Success, NY 11042
Contact us: (516) 233-3780
Hyperbaric medicine and wound care | Plainview
888 Old Country Road
Plainview, NY 11803
Contact us: (516) 719-2298
Huntington Hospital Wound Care Center

Wednesday Nov 23, 2022
How hyperbaric oxygen therapy heals the body - Part 1
Wednesday Nov 23, 2022
Wednesday Nov 23, 2022
Oxygen is crucial to healing — but it has to be able to reach the damaged tissue to help the body recover and fight off infection. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can facilitate that process by dramatically boosting the amount of oxygen your blood cells deliver to an injury. You may have heard about the therapy’s use in treating scuba diving incidents or carbon monoxide poisoning, but it can also speed healing from crush injuries, chronic wounds related to diabetes, radiation damage from cancer treatment and a host of other conditions. In part 1 of this two-part episode, two world-renowned experts in the field explain the history of this powerful treatment, how it works and what to expect during a session in the "727 airplane-sized" hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Phelps Hospital, who qualifies and the research driving it forward.
Meet the guests
- Owen J. O’Neill, MD, MPH, medical director Division of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine at Phelps Hospital
- John Peters, Executive Director of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society
* Part 2 of this episode will be available Wednesday, November 30.

Thursday Nov 17, 2022
RSV: What parents need to know about the surge of this airway infection
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Typically, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) sends thousands of children to the hospital over fall and winter, peaking in January and February. But for the second year in a row cases have spiked early and continue to grow. This has led to unprecedented cases of the common respiratory virus across the U.S. On this episode, Cohen Children's Medical Center leaders Joshua Rocker, MD, and Margaret Duffy, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, discuss what they are seeing on the front lines in New York, the impact flu will have leading into the winter months, and how hospitals are responding to the need. They explain what parents need to know about RSV, and what steps they can take to reduce transmission within the home, particularly for those with children under the age of 1, who are at the greatest risk.
Meet our guests
- Dr. Joshua Rocker is the chief of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Division at Cohen Children's Medical Center
- Margaret Duffy is associate executive director for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
Chapters:
- 00:01 - Intro
- 01:31 - Why are we seeing an RSV surge now?
- 03:27 - What is RSV?
- 05:04 - RSV symptoms
- 05:56 - How is RSV transmitted?
- 09:58 - Diagnosing RSV
- 11:52 - A view from the frontlines
- 13:23 - The RSV surge in context
- 16:15 - Flu, Covid-19 and RSV
- 16:51 - Can you prevent RSV?
- 17:53 - Coping with RSV