Healthcare

APB speaker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a six-time NBA champion and the league’s only six-time MVP. However, Abdul-Jabbar is not just a basketball legend, he is also a humanitarian, helping others during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Practicing HIV/infectious diseases specialist and medical analyst on CNN, APB speaker Dr. Celine Gounder is getting a lot of questions from both American citizens and healthcare professionals on how to deal with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Dr. Gounder, epidemiologist (aka disease detective), wrote on Clinical Care Options that one of the biggest challenges during this epidemic is how to test for COVID-19.

The Healthcare Technology Report issued their annual list of the top 25 Biotech CEOs of the year, and APB’s own John Crowley tops the list at #1! Crowley is being recognized for his groundbreaking work as the Chairperson and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics, which he has grown from a 4-person startup operation to an international biopharmaceutical firm with over 500 employees. Crowley is uniquely mission-driven, having left his original career and founded his own company after both his children were given fatal diagnoses of the rare neuromuscular disorder, Pompe disease. Crowley was frustrated with the slow pace of Pompe research, so he took matters into his own hands at his own company, eventually finding a life-saving enzyme treatment for his two young children and thousands of others like them. 

Known as the “go-to expert” for the impacts of the COVID-19 virus, APB speaker Dr. Michael Osterholm was featured on Joe Rogan’s podcast to share what is to come of this pandemic.  In the viral interview, Dr. Osterholm discusses how to stay safe during these turbulent times and also disproves popular myths.

An Emmy Award-winning medical journalist and CNN analyst, APB speaker Dr. Seema Yasmin recently debunked the myths surrounding the rapidly growing COVID-19 virus in an interview with 90.9 WBUR. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and APB speaker Nick Kristof published his 12-step coronavirus action plan in the New York Times Opinion section, drawing from both public health research and his decades of experience covering dire situations all over the world and at home. Kristof’s 12-step plan is very clear, which is a welcome contrast to the uncertainty of current events. He recommends measures such as setting up drive-through testing, suspending the vacations of health workers and passing paid sick leave legislation. Kristof points out that flattening the curve is our best option, saying, “we are much better off if 100 million Americans contract the coronavirus over 18 months than over 18 weeks.”

A legendary news anchor and the best-selling author of What Unites Us, APB speaker Dan Rather is now taking on a different role behind the camera as the executive producer of the new film, Human Nature. In Human Nature, Rather tells the story of the biggest tech revolution that has occurred in modern history and how it will forever change medicine. The groundbreaking discovery of CRISPR led to the ability to control a person’s building blocks of life, such as curing life-threatening diseases and designing our own children. The film shows the approach of all parties involved surrounding the discovery, from scientists to families to bioengineers and others. Human Nature is set to hit theaters next month.

Former Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and APB speaker Gro Harlem Brundtland weighed in on the coronavirus epidemic, drawing parallels to the SARS epidemic that originated in China in 2002. Brundtland was at the helm of the WHO when the global threat of SARS arose, and her clearheaded leadership during a time of hysteria helped curtail and contain the spread of the disease.

Joining the likes of Greta Thunberg in the top ranks, APB Speaker Nora McInerny’s, “We don’t ‘move on’ from grief. We move forward with it,” has been named the fourth most popular TED Talk of 2019. The list of 19 talks, ranked by number of watches, “reflect a year defined by fighting for what’s right, believing in the good despite all the bad, supporting others and yourself — and hoping for the best in the decade to come,” according to TED. Nora’s talk, with more than 3.7 million views and growing, recounts a six week period in her life when she miscarried her second baby, lost her Dad to cancer and became a widow at age 31 when her husband died of brain cancer. Described as “heartbreaking and hilarious,” Nora’s TED Talk champions her liberating approach to loss and grief. “A grieving person is going to laugh again and smile again,” she says. “They’re going to move forward. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve moved on.”

Boston Marathon bombing survivor and healthcare speaker Heather Abbott recently had her philanthropic work highlighted by a WMUR segment on UMass Lowell lacrosse player Noelle Lambert. Lambert was a Division 1 athlete who lost her leg in a tragic moped accident, but remained determined to stay active and to continue with high-level athletics. Abbott, who lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, quickly visited Lambert in the hospital, inspiring Lambert to say, “I kind of thought to myself, if [she] can get through that tragedy, and do so well with it, then I should be able to.”