Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. James C. Wittig on Integrative Cancer Care, Mind-Body Healing and AI Innovation

Transcript

Dr. James C. Wittig on Integrative Cancer Care, Mind-Body Healing and AI Innovation · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
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  - podcast.
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  - Thrilled today to be joined by a brilliant
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  - surgeon. We're joined today,
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  - by doctor James Wittig. And doctor Wittig's an
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  - orthopedic,
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  - oncologist,
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  - and sarcoma surgeon.
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  - He's also an author, a speaker, and innovator.
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  - He's trying to make a difference in health
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  - care.
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  - You do a lot of things, doctor Wittig.
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  - Take a moment and tell us how you
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  - frame yourself, how you think about yourself, your
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  - introduction,
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  - and then we'll talk about what you're watching,
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  - what you're trying to accomplish, and a lot
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  - more. And thank you so much for joining
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  - us.
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  - Oh, thank you very much, Scott. I really
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  - appreciate being invited to the podcast.
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  - Well, I'm doctor James Whittig. I'm an orthopedic
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  - oncologist and sarcoma surgeon. And what that means
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  - is for the majority of my career, I've
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  - taken care of children and adults
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  - with bone and soft tissue tumors and the
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  - real, you know, the real specialized
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  - feature of my practice is taking care
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  - of children and adults with bone and soft
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  - tissue sarcomas
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  - and saving their limbs while helping to save
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  - their
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  - lives. So that's been the the major part
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  - of my career
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  - but I've gotten, more,
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  - very much interested over the years in a
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  - holistic approach to cancer patients
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  - and including integrative medical aspects of it,
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  - revolving around
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  - the brain, the body, the soul, and the
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  - spiritual.
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  - Still more recently, I founded a
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  - company called Mandala Medical Group as a way
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  - to extend my work beyond the operating room,
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  - and it's become a platform for me for
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  - education,
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  - innovation, wellness, coaching,
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  - and helping patients, families, and clinicians understand complex
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  - cancer care while exploring some new approaches to
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  - healing.
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  - And it's with that emphasis on brain, body,
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  - soul, spirit
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  - that we're we're working on.
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  - Thank you. And talk a little bit about
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  - how you came to that.
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  - How this came to be sort of the
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  - where you evolved to how this became sort
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  - of your core focus, this holistic approach,
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  - thinking about this differently. And and and talk
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  - a bit about that, how you evolved or
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  - came to this.
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  - Well, I personally
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  - always had a fascination
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  - with the brain
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  - and how the brain can influence your health.
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  - The brain controls,
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  - the body. I always had a fascination with
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  - hypnosis and neurofeedback.
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  - And, you know, there's,
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  - when we do studies on different types of
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  - drugs to see if they work, we do
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  - randomized controlled trials often with a placebo. Right?
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  - And a patient can get a placebo
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  - and,
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  - you know, maybe you give the placebo to
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  - a 100 patients and a 100 other patients
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  - get the pill.
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  - And still 30 or 40 patients out of
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  - the 100 will respond to the placebo,
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  - showing you that there's a tremendous effect that
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  - the brain can have on the body. So
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  - that's always been a big interest of mine.
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  - As well as just, like, figuring out, like,
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  - why are people developing cancer? What are all
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  - the the basic root causes
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  - of cancer? Looking at a functional approach
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  - to patients' health
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  - as well as how it how to optimize
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  - it.
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  - When I've been taking care of the cancer
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  - patients, you know, I did
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  - I felt like I achieved a lot with
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  - surgery. I did very sophisticated
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  - surgery,
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  - but I thought that there was more there
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  - that I needed to offer the patients right
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  - there. They come in, they're diagnosed with a
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  - with a rare type of cancer when they
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  - come to see me
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  - and instantaneously
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  - they're traumatized. That's true. That's trauma
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  - on top of whatever pre existing trauma that
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  - they have.
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  - And I really felt like there were different
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  - things that we could do to optimize
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  - the
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  - the global function of their body and the
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  - global function of the brain
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  - that could, help them deal with the cancer
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  - better, get through the treatments, and get through
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  - recovery,
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  - and lead to a better outcome.
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  - And, so that's always been a desire of
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  - mine, and I've had the opportunity to start
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  - to develop it over the last year.
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  - That that's amazing. And and talk a little
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  - bit about this this mind body, which is
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  - so important to
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  - to health. It is not just taking care
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  - of the fracture, taking care of the the
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  - cancer, which is so, so important,
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  - but that mind body connection. Talk a little
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  - bit about how important that is. You mentioned
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  - that some when you talk about even the
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  - placebo effect of people feeling that because they
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  - feel like they're being taken care of. How
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  - important is that feeling of being taken care
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  - of emotionally
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  - to go with great technical care?
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  - Well, you know, first, you have to understand,
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  - right, that the that the brain, there's different
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  - emotions that you experience. Right? And there is
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  - the emotions of despair, depression,
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  - anxiety.
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  - Those types of emotions,
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  - stimulate release of different chemicals in your body,
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  - different hormones,
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  - right, that have negative effects on the body.
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  - And then there's the emotions of happiness and
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  - joy and love.
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  - Right? Those type of emotions,
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  - stimulate positive hormones, hormones that can lead to
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  - healing, turn on different genes
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  - that can,
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  - improve your health. Right? So you imagine a
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  - person
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  - with cancer comes into you. Right? Or they're
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  - they're diagnosed with cancer,
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  - instantaneously,
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  - those bad
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  - actors get turned on. Bad emotions, bad actors.
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  - Right? So what I always saw that was
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  - extremely important
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  - for me as the
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  - doctor, the surgeon who's going
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  - to lead them through this journey, not only
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  - take care of them, but lead them through
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  - it and guide them and be their coach,
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  - right, their cheerleader
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  - is the first thing that I have to
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  - do is make sure that they know that
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  - there's hope, establish hope.
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  - And that, I think, is one of the
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  - first keys to developing your relationship with the
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  - patient. And they need to know that you
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  - are on their side and you're there to
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  - to to get them better whatever way you
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  - can
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  - and also to improve the quality of their
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  - lives no matter what they're gonna go through.
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  - Yeah. I'm gonna give you a name,
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  - and I want you, doctor Wittig, to give
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  - me your first response to that name. You
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  - you'll let me know if you're up for
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  - the challenge.
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  - Sure. Sure. Give me it. Okay. So here
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  - is the name I'm gonna give you. It
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  - is PJ Caruissimo.
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  - Yes.
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  - Well, he certainly knows how to establish hope.
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  - Right? So,
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  - PJ, do we know each other from college
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  - by any chance? So No. But I did
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  - see that you're a Seton Hall guy.
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  - That's where that comes from.
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  - So,
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  - yeah. So, PJ, you know, when I was
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  - in college, he was the coach of the
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  - basketball team
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  - and Sean Paul had not done very well
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  - for many years. And he brought them to
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  - the final four,
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  - which was just, I mean, the the hope
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  - that he established and you know just right
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  - after that you know Seaton Hall took off
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  - it became less of a commuter school and
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  - more of a school where people wanted to
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  - travel from a far distance and and come
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  - to so you really did some,
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  - remarkable things for the entire school just by
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  - leading that basketball team.
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  - Great joy, great excitement, great emotion, and and
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  - so much can be done by an innovator,
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  - somebody who's a catalyst to push us forward.
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  - I mean, really remarkable.
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  - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.
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  - And and talk about doctor Wittig. I'll take
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  - you back to this discussion.
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  - Where are you most focused and excited this
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  - next six months, this next year you founded?
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  - You had this fantastic career
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  - leading health systems
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  - as a chairman of orthopedics, chairman of orthopedic
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  - oncology. I mean, you've had this great, great
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  - career.
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  - Talk about your excitement now and where are
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  - you most focused, you know, currently and excited.
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  - Well, I'm I'm very, very excited about building
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  - different models of integrative cancer care and combining
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  - surgical precision with functional medicine
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  - and the various wellness practices
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  - and, in particular,
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  - neurofeedback and that brain body communication
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  - and,
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  - incorporating things like,
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  - you know, meditation, hypnosis,
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  - neurofeedback,
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  - all those things that enable you to tap
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  - into the subconscious
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  - and
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  - maintain or build some sense of happiness or
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  - joy
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  - despite these challenges that the patients are going
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  - through.
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  - I'm also very much interested in
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  - developing
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  - different aspects
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  - of artificial intelligence, of AI, and helping patients
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  - with that. And over the last year, I've
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  - also built,
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  - well, I I,
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  - you know, I ventured into publishing a textbook
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  - of a 111 orthopedic oncology cases that are
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  - designed
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  - to teach residents and medical students
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  - about the different aspects of orthopedic oncology. So
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  - I've been working on that for a year
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  - and hope to get that published in the
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  - next year.
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  - That's remarkable. Teaching platform.
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  - Yeah. I'm gonna stop you for the question
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  - again real really quickly here, doctor Wittig, which
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  - is we're at the spot where in the
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  - nation,
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  - there's a shortage of pediatrics.
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  - There's a tremendous shortage of oncologists. There's 27,000
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  - oncologists,
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  - 2,000,000 new diagnosis a year,
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  - and people could then frame that however they
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  - want to. But most of the time, when
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  - I come across oncologists
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  - and specialists,
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  - they're exhausted, they're burnt out, there there's too
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  - much to do, there's information overload,
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  - and to then bring the empathy and compassion
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  - to the patient they bring. And it's just
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  - your numbers thing.
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  - And so when I see someone like you,
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  - who is so enthusiastic
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  - about new areas, new ways of approaching care,
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  - I find that to be so refreshing
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  - given the amount of sort of burnout there
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  - is out there or not not I don't
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  - blame
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  - the physician at all. It's just the numbers
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  - don't work. The number of oncologists
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  - treating the amount of diagnosis we have and
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  - the amount of subspecialists, we're just so short.
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  - How do you what do you attribute your
• 11:00
  - energy level to and your enthusiasm and creativity
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  - for? Because that is just a breath of
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  - fresh air, doctor Wittig. Talk a little bit
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  - about where that comes from and how you
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  - can inspire others, because I think that is
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  - just remarkable.
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  - Well, I've always
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  - found tremendous
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  - fulfillment in taking care of patients
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  - and having a very patient centric focus.
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  - So I never consider myself to have ever
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  - worked a day in my life. This has
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  - always been my hobby because I've enjoyed it
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  - so much.
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  - And I think as a doctor or a
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  - surgeon
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  - or whatever your position is in the health
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  - care field, right, you have to focus on
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  - what brings you joy and fulfillment.
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  - And I think for almost everybody, the reason
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  - you go into medicine is you wanna take
• 11:43
  - care of other people and that's what you
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  - gotta
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  - focus on. And I'm very competitive with myself.
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  - I'm not necessarily competitive with other people. I
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  - always wanna do
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  - do better for myself, which means taking care
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  - of patients better and better in different ways.
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  - Right? And always coming up with new ways
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  - or innovative ways to take to take care
• 12:02
  - of them and help them. And you're right.
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  - There is a tremendous amount of stress and
• 12:07
  - burnout going on
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  - in the medical or health care field right
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  - now. And I think one opportunity
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  - that we have, because one of the things
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  - leading to burnout is the tremendous administrative burden
• 12:19
  - that goes on with taking care of patients.
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  - And we have to really,
• 12:24
  - I think, capitalize
• 12:26
  - on the use of AI driven technologies
• 12:29
  - to help minimize
• 12:31
  - those administrative burdens and enable us to take
• 12:34
  - sort of more,
• 12:35
  - efficient care of patients
• 12:38
  - and educate patients also and create better patient
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  - engagement and overall satisfaction
• 12:45
  - by using these various new technologies that are
• 12:47
  - coming out.
• 12:49
  - Well, Doug, a 100%. I I wanna take
• 12:51
  - a moment and just thank you for joining
• 12:53
  - us
• 12:54
  - and thank you for what you're doing. I
• 12:55
  - I just love the perspective. I love the
• 12:58
  - energy.
• 12:59
  - It is so needed today. It's so hard
• 13:01
  - to find. And there are so many, like,
• 13:03
  - as as George Bush used to say, so
• 13:05
  - many thousand points of light. People trying to
• 13:07
  - make a difference. And and I and I
• 13:09
  - see you doing that, and I think it
• 13:10
  - just is, literally fantastic. And so so thank
• 13:13
  - you so much for what you're doing,
• 13:15
  - and for joining us today on the Becker's
• 13:17
  - Healthcare podcast.
• 13:19
  - Well, thank you very much. It's been my
• 13:21
  - pleasure to be on it. Thank you for
• 13:22
  - inviting me.