No one is ever ready to hear that they have a life-changing diagnosis. For patients and families, this news brings a whirlwind of emotions, fears, and uncertainties. This is especially true for patients who are diagnosed with lung diseases that can make it difficult to breathe, profoundly affecting daily life and leading to significant physical and emotional suffering. This is where palliative care comes in.

Palliative care offers an interdisciplinary approach to treatment. that goes beyond addressing only the medical aspects of a disease. It's not just about managing pain. It's about enhancing quality of life at every stage of illness and addressing the various needs of patients, their families, and caregivers when navigating life with a serious illness. By focusing on quality-of-life palliative care, palliative care ensures that patients are met with compassion. and treated with dignity as they face the challenges of a serious illness.

In this episode of Science Never Sleeps, we're joined by Dr. Kathleen Lindell, associate professor in the College of Nursing and the Mary Swain Endowed Chair in Palliative Care. Dr. Lindell has extensive clinical experience working to improve support available to patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF. She's a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. where she received her bachelor's and master's of science in nursing, as well as her PhD. Her research focuses on promoting palliative care knowledge and preparedness to improve the quality of life for patients with advanced lung disease, specifically IPF, and their caregivers.

Episode Links:

A Program of SUPPORT: Pulmonary & Palliative Care with Dr. Kathleen Lindell

College of Nursing equips student with palliative care training

Nurse-Led Palliative Care Clinical Trial Improves Knowledge and Preparedness in Caregivers of Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

For nearly a hundred years, science fiction stories have been giving us an idea of what living with artificial intelligence might be like. But we don't have to look to our favorite sci-fi to see artificial intelligence, also called AI, in action. It's already making an impact in our everyday lives whether we realize it or not. When you ask Alexa or Siri a question, unlock your phone using face recognition, or get a notice from your bank about possible fraudulent activity on your account, AI is working in the background to offer us an opportunity or information that we didn't have before. AI uses computers and machines to solve problems and make decisions in the same way human minds do, faster and often with more accuracy. This offers incredible opportunities in biomedicine, where AI can not only help us understand more about how the human body works, it can help us discover the best ways to treat patients, leading to better outcomes.

In this episode of Science Never Sleeps, we're joined by Dr. Hai Yao, a professor of oral health sciences in the College of Dental Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and associate department chair for the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program. He also serves as the Ernest R. Norville Endowed Chair and professor of bioengineering at Clemson University. His research studies tempera mandibular joint function and disorders, also called TMJ, and why risk factors for this issue impact treatment and prevention. The TMJ makes it possible to move the lower jaw, which is important for eating and speaking.

We are also joined by Shuchun Sun, who at the time of recording, was a senior PhD engineering student in Dr. Yao's lab, studying machine learning and biomechanics. He is currently a research associate in the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program.

Episode Links:

Explainable deep learning and biomechanical modeling for TMJ disorder morphological risk factors

The goal of biomedical research is to move healthcare innovations, like evidence-based programs and interventions, to places where patients can access them for their benefit. But there are often challenges to making this happen. One study estimates that less than half of clinical innovations make it into routine practice. This can be due to the time it takes to translate research into practice, a lack of training on the part of researchers about how to move their work closer to patient care, and because often the setting researchers use doesn't reflect the real-world settings where innovations would be delivered. Luckily, there's a special area of research designed to help improve this process called Implementation Science.

In this episode of Science Never Sleeps, we're joined by Dr. Caitlin Allen, an assistant professor in the Public Health Science Department in the MUSC College of Medicine. Dr. Allen is a social and behavioral scientist with expertise in the implementation of evidence-based research to advance precision public health initiatives. Her overarching research goal is to support the translation of genomics applications to maximize population health impact and improve health equity. Dr. Allen is also a 2024 MUSC Developing Scholar Award recipient.

Episode Links:

Building trust and saving lives: A community approach to genetic education