Dr. Robert Cain: President and CEO of the AACOM (Raise the Line)

Hi, I'm Shivani. Thanks for checking out our raise the line interview series.

In which me and my cohost osmosis chief Medical Officer Dr Rishi Desai explore how to strengthen our healthcare system with some amazing leaders in medicine, technology, education and government.

And they have some great advice for people starting careers in healthcare as well. I hope you'll watch these highlights and then go listen to the full podcast interview wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Doctor Ride today on Raise the line. I'm happy to be joined by Doctor Robert Cain, president and CEO of the Association of American Colleges of osteopathic Medicine known as a com.

Well, you know, let me just dive in, uh, I'd love to just kind of hear a little bit about your background and what sparked your interest in medicine in the first place.

Well, actually, I didn't become interested in osteopathic medicine until I went to college. And so when I actually uh left my hometown, went to uh college in uh uh New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, Westminster College.

Uh I didn't know anything about p uh um osteopathic medicine and I was working as an EMT in uh A small community there that happened to have an osteopathic hospital.

And it was the exposure to those physicians who were so proud um of their degree and their profession and really their story and uh what they were trying to talk about their role in health care, their role in patient care.

Um the philosophy and the passion that I saw in them uh actually uh caused me to select the do degree. I'm curious right now.

A lot of those folks are just coming out of training, the students are entering a very weird time with COVID-19, maybe as a, as a closing, I'd love to get your thoughts or advice to the, to that army that you speak of um as they're trying to develop their career.

Well, I think the the the first and foremost thing is we need you more than ever right now. And, and I know there's disappointment, there's, there's uh anxiety uh within the community because there's so little control for the students no matter what degree uh they're actually trying to earn.

But that idea that we need you to keep moving forward. There are a lot of people out here trying to do their best for you, right?

And, and it may not feel that way every day, but we really are. So I think for the students, um you know, this is gonna be a defining moment uh for this generation, it's uh training not only in medicine, but other health care professions, it's going to affect the choices they make for graduate medical education, their career choices uh and carry for years into the future.

So, II suggest, don't lose hope we are going to get through this pandemic. We need them to remain committed um to prepare for potential disappointments and disruptions, you know, everyone's experiencing that.

And so, you know, to try their best to be flexible and a and, and to keep in that in mind, that idea, we need you, you know, as people move forward, we have to make sure that we continue to build a position workforce uh that is uh ready to take care of the uh patients uh every day in the future.

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