The Inside Beat

“The heartbeat of any great organization is its people.”

Episode Description:

Host: Guest
Rayanne Thorn Anilrudh Venugopal, MD – Internal Medicine

Anilrudh Venugopal, MD, is board certified in internal medicine. He proudly serves Optum as a hospitalist. He completed his internship and residency at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. In addition, Dr. Venugopal completed an infectious disease fellowship at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. Dr. Venugopal chose to specialize in infectious diseases because of the profound difference he could make in the health of so many people. Dr. Venugopal also prefers being a hospitalist to working in a medical office because he is able to diagnose and treat severely ill patients. For him, this is challenging and rewarding. In his spare time, Dr. Venugopal enjoys watching soccer and reading.

Episode Highlight:

“I think we need to be aware that everyone is unique and that people from different races or religions or social groups can have their own beliefs and practices, particularly when it comes to their own health. So to be culturally competent to me means to have the ability to understand that everyone's going to have different beliefs and practices and that you need to work within that framework to ensure that you deliver healthcare in a way that doesn't compromise their beliefs and it still allowed them to have the best outcome” – Dr. Venugopal

Episode Description:

Host: Guest
Rayanne Thorn Ella Shadmon, MD – Family Medicine

Ella Shadmon, MD, is board certified in family medicine. Dr. Shadmon completed her medical degree at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Medicine, in Israel. She completed her family practice internship and residency at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, CA. Dr. Shadmon believes in preventive medicine and patient education. She enjoys women's health and working with senior citizens. In addition to English, she is fluent in medical Spanish, and speaks conversational Hebrew and French.

Episode Highlight:

“We've incorporated cool tools from different third-party vendors that integrate with our EMR to provide great patient education. Another good example is something we're working on right now. It's actually one of our newest products for engaging patients - a texting platform for our medical group to be able to send messages to patients, like appointment reminders, which is standard, but it has room to really change the way patients interface with us.” – Dr. Shadmon

Words and Phrases from this episode:
"Health IT" – Healthcare Information Technology
"EMR " – Electronic Medical Records
"Dragon" – Speech Recognition Dictation/Documentation Software

Episode Description:

Host: Guest
Rayanne Thorn Jaime Ramos, MD – Family Medicine

Jaime Ramos, MD, is board certified in family medicine. Dr. Ramos also serves as Medical Director for Optum. Dr. Ramos earned his medical degree from the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Ramos is a firm believer in preventive care and believes that health education is critical to this effort. He enjoys being able to calm his patients' concerns by talking to them about their healthcare decisions. In addition to English, Dr. Ramos speaks Spanish fluently.

Episode Highlight:

“We have the ethnic diversity and the age diversity. I think, one of the best parts of the city is the ability to provide sophisticated outpatient management of patients to keep them out of the hospital, which is not always available in a lot of healthcare systems.” – Dr. Ramos

Words and Phrases from this episode:
"CMD" – Community Medical Director

Episode Description:

Host: Guest:
Rayanne Thorn Hannah Kim, MD – Pediatric Medicine

Hannah Kim, MD, is board certified in pediatrics. Dr. Kim earned her medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She completed her internship in pediatrics at Boston University and her residencies at Boston Medical Center and Seattle Children's Hospital. Dr. Kim believes the whole family plays an important role in a child's health and well-being. She works closely with patients and their families to educate them about the child's health and treatment plans. In addition to English, Dr. Kim speaks fluent Korean.

Episode Highlight:

“I found a note from years ago when I was going through boxes of memorabilia. And one of the things I found was a note that said, ‘When I grow up I want to be a pediatrician.’ I had forgotten I wrote that. For me, preventive care is really important and I really like working with children because I feel you're getting into the child's care and talking about disease prevention before it happens.” – Dr. Kim

Words and Phrases from this episode:
"CME" – Continuing Medical Education
"EMR" – Electronic Medical Records
"CMS" – Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Episode Description:

Host: Guest:
Rayanne Thorn Jeffrey Roth, DO – Internal Medicine

Jeffrey Roth, DO, is board certified in internal medicine. Dr. Roth earned his medical degree from the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his internship at Pacific Hospital of Long Beach and his residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Roth is a clinical associate professor of medicine at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona. He enjoys learning about his patients and their lives, and works to help as many people as possible. A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Roth enjoys volunteering in his community.

Episode Highlights:

“I started here 28 years ago and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.” – Dr. Roth

"I don't think there's a better place where a doctor can work. It's a terrific place and as long as you're doing your best and working hard and taking good care of your patients and keeping up on things, they'll always find something, hear that, satisfies your career. There's lots of opportunities to grow into a new activity within the group." - Dr. Roth

Words and Phrases from this episode:
"CHAPs Programs" – Comprehensive Health Assessment Programs
"IPA" – Independent Physician Association
"HCC Coding" - Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) coding is a payment model mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

**Interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent? Find out more HERE.

Episode Description:

Host: Guests:
Rayanne Thorn Amar Desai, MD MPH - President and CEO of Optum California
Michelle Li, PhD - Director of Workforce Planning, Optum,

Episode Highlights:
"Value-based care is really a notion of thinking about the overall care, both from the perspective of quality, the quality of care that a patient receives in terms of clinical outcomes, but also cost and affordability. Making sure you're delivering that high quality care at the best cost possible so that the overall care is sustainable for the system and affordable to the patient." - Amar Desai, MD, MPH

"We have a fantastic top performing, very diverse and highly interdisciplinary team of workforce here at HealthCare Partners (now part of Optum). My team is working on various different initiativesto showcase our team to the public, not just about their professional achievements and more importantly, to show the human side of them, their lives outside of HealthCare Partners (now part of Optum) and their lives as part of the community that they love and serve. That's when The Inside Beat, podcast was born." - Michelle Li, PhD

The Inside Beat

“The heartbeat of any great organization is its people.”

Welcome to The Inside Beat- an Optum Podcast sharing team member stories and what it’s like to work at Optum

Welcome to The Inside Beat
- an Optum Podcast sharing team member stories and what it’s like to work at Optum