#29: Upskilling, Educating, and Continuous Learning in Kidney Care (with Caroline Webb, Clinical Education at IKONA)

What you’ll get out of this episodeListen in as host Tim Fitzpatrick chats with Caroline Webb about her journey over the past decade working in kidney care settings. From dialysis centers to home dialysis, and case management to pursuing professional development, Caroline shares lessons from a winding and accelerating career path. Caroline also talks about her excitement for new and innovative solutions in a traditionally complex, challenging care setting and patient population. Finally, we chat about her role leading IKONA’s Clinical Education efforts, where Caroline gets to share her insights with a virtual group of patients, care partners, and health professionals on a monthly basis.In this episode you’ll discover:Why kidney care’s unique patient population, disease complexity, and science-based approaches to care first drew Caroline to work in this space.How Caroline has navigated new opportunities to serve patients across multiple clinical settings and disease stages.The role of mentorship and professional networking in Caroline’s decision to pursue her own continuing education opportunities, and why she hopes to inspire others to follow in her footsteps.How innovation and technology can play key roles in addressing gaps in health literacy, catching kidney disease earlier, and expanding access to care in rural and underserved populations across the country. And why those same technologies have made it possible for Caroline to network with her peers in the wake of COVID.Where we need innovation most acutely today, including around modalities education and decisions to pursue options like home dialysis or transplantation. Caroline shares her hopes for increasing awareness of these treatment options and anecdotes from her time working with patients in home dialysis programs and as a case manager in chronic kidney disease (CKD).Quotables“When it comes to innovations in kidney care, I think there are a lot of opportunities. Starting from just catching kidney disease earlier, I think technology can help out with the screening process, I think it can help us with identifying people who are at risk earlier. That way we are kind of on top of it and preventing dialysis where possible, and of course where that isn’t possible and we end up on dialysis, it’s going to be immensely helpful as we continue on, and with IKONA, that’s what we’re working on - promoting patients to have autonomy and to understand their modality options.” @CarolineWebb #IKONAhealth on T-Minus 10 w/ @trfitzpatrick“Having to go in to the dialysis center 3-4x a week is strenuous, and it’s a lot. I really like the holistic approach of home dialysis and I just want everybody to have the opportunity to understand all of their options and to maybe be able to choose that.” @CarolineWebb #IKONAhealth on T-Minus 10 w/ @trfitzpatrick Recommended ResourcesIKONA Community Webinars (YouTube)230+ Patient Education Resources (IKONA)1,000+ Papers From AR/VR, Healthcare, and Learning (IKONA)NNCC Announces New President and Commissioners (NNCC Newsletter)Join the Conversation IKONA on LinkedInCaroline Webb on LinkedInFollow IKONA on YouTubeEmail: [email protected] Your HostTim Fitzpatrick is the CEO of IKONA Health, a company using neurobiology and immersive technology to improve how patients learn about their care and treatment options. Tim co-founded IKONA based on his own patient experiences while serving in the US Navy and now in the VA health system. He has served as Principal Investigator on multiple federal research grants, has co-authored papers on learning science, VR, and mental health in the age of COVID-19, and has partnered with top healthcare investors and institutions including the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, National Artificial Intelligence Institute, StartUp Health, On Deck, FundRx, MATTER and NVIDIA.T-Minus 10 is a part of the Slice of Healthcare podcast network.