Author: William Trick

  • See·Believe·Create, with Dr. Tom Frieden

    See·Believe·Create, with Dr. Tom Frieden

    Dr. Frieden has led public health institutions through some of the most defining moments of our time—from his stewardship of New York City’s Department of Health to his leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In his new book, The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives—Including Your Own, he distills decades of experience into a powerful approach: See·Believe·Create. Dr. Frieden explains how rigorous surveillance and data serve as public health’s superpower, allowing leaders to identify needs, design effective programs, and measure life-saving impact. As President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, he works on a global scale, advancing efforts to prevent millions of premature deaths by treating hypertension and promoting healthy eating.

    Through his optimistic and action-oriented perspective, we are reminded that—even amid today’s challenges—public health can transform and thrive. 

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  • Ground Zero: Santa Clara County’s COVID Response

    Ground Zero: Santa Clara County’s COVID Response

    Dr. Sara Cody spent her career at Santa Clara County’s Department of Public Health. When COVID-19 first struck the United States, Santa Clara County was among the earliest and hardest hit. Dr. Cody reflects on the intense decision-making of those early days, the public’s fatigue and frustration, and the necessity of coordinating decision-making across public health jurisdictions. Drawing on her early training in CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service—where she investigated outbreaks linked to contaminated apple juice and raw milk—those formative experiences shaped her approach to managing the pandemic. Dr. Cody’s story is one of a deep sense of duty to community and an inside look at what it means to lead in local public health when decisions have enormous consequences.

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  • Battling TB: Science, Service, & Spirit

    In the shadow of the HIV epidemic, Drs. Bill Clapp and Jim McAuley faced a growing tuberculosis crisis in the United States as frontline clinicians and public health leaders. In this episode, they discuss the science behind TB control, the values that guided their mission-driven work in government health systems, and the faith that sustained their commitment to service.  
    Bill, a pulmonologist, cared for patients in one of Chicago’s impoverished neighborhoods before transitioning to public health and eventually returning to clinical medicine at Cook County Hospital. Jim, an infectious diseases physician, trained at the CDC, helped build TB control programs in Chicago and Africa, and now serves as Clinical Director at the Whiteriver Indian Hospital in Arizona. They share how medicine, public health, and faith intertwined in shaping lives devoted to healing and service. 

    In the shadow of the HIV epidemic, Drs. Bill Clapp and Jim McAuley faced a growing tuberculosis crisis in the United States as frontline clinicians and public health leaders. In this episode, they discuss the science behind TB control, the values that guided their mission-driven work in government health systems, and the faith that sustained their commitment to service.  
    Bill, a pulmonologist, cared for patients in one of Chicago’s impoverished neighborhoods before transitioning to public health and eventually returning to clinical medicine at Cook County Hospital. Jim, an infectious diseases physician, trained at the CDC, helped build TB control programs in Chicago and Africa, and now serves as Clinical Director at the Whiteriver Indian Hospital in Arizona. They share how medicine, public health, and faith intertwined in shaping lives devoted to healing and service. 

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  • Toxic Burgers, Toxic Shock, & Vaccine Talk with Mike Osterholm

    Toxic Burgers, Toxic Shock, & Vaccine Talk with Mike Osterholm

    Public health expert Mike Osterholm discusses outbreak investigations, pandemics, and the risky path the US is taking abandoning innovative vaccine technology and issuing poorly-informed recommendations. Mike’s motivation to leave his small town in Iowa to become a disease detective was driven by a steady diet of “The Medical Detectives” by Berton Roueche. As an epidemiologist, he helped solve hamburger-associated thyrotoxicosis, a tampon-related epidemic of toxic-shock in 1980, and a decades-old cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases called “Austin pneumonia”. Recently, he directed his energy toward filling the gap created when CDC’s science-backed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was dismantled and replaced with political appointees. Mike’s new book “The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics” was published in September, 2025.

    Hamburger Thyrotoxicosis

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  • Decoding a Legionnaires’ Outbreak, New York City

    Using molecular methods and shoe-leather epidemiology, Don Weiss and Kim Musser teamed up to resolve a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx in 2015.  It’s a classic tale of combining surveillance and field epidemiology with advanced molecular methods to pinpoint and eradicate the lethal source. Future deaths were prevented when the New York City Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health, and the CDC collaborated on this public health success story.  You can read about this and other cases in Don’s new book Disease Detectives: True Stories of NYC Outbreaks.  You can read about this and other cases in Don’s new book Disease Detectives: True Stories of NYC Outbreaks. 

    Using molecular methods and shoe-leather epidemiology, Don Weiss and Kim Musser teamed up to resolve a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx in 2015.  It’s a classic tale of combining surveillance and field epidemiology with advanced molecular methods to pinpoint and eradicate the lethal source. Future deaths were prevented when the New York City Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health, and the CDC collaborated on this public health success story.  You can read about this and other cases in Don’s new book Disease Detectives: True Stories of NYC Outbreaks. 

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  • Ruth Rothstein—Effective Advocate

    Ruth Rothstein—Effective Advocate

    In Wind Beneath Their Wings: Improving a County Health System, Caryn Stancik and Elizabeth Reidy describe their work as the Chief Communications Officer and General Counsel for a large and expanding government-run urban health system.  They credit Ruth Rothstein, former CEO of the Cook County Hospital, for establishing a culture that promoted women into leadership positions.  Rothstein had a remarkable life, progressing to CEO of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago and Cook County Hospital by demonstrating competence and an unwavering belief in justice.  Her noteworthy accomplishments included building a new hospital to replace the old Cook County Hospital, acquiring funding for the eponymous Ruth Rothstein Core Center to provide HIV-AIDS care, and expanding the ambulatory clinic network to provide longitudinal healthcare.  At Mt. Sinai Hospital, after being denied a job in medical administration because she did not have a college degree, Rothstein refused a secretarial position saying “I don’t type”.  Her humor is evident when under a photograph of her with Golda Meir, the caption was added, “But can she type?”

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cook_County_Hospital.jpg, Jeff Dahl

  • Wind Beneath Their Wings: Improving a County Healthcare System

    Chief Communications Officer, Caryn Stancik, and General Counsel, Elizabeth Reidy, recognized the value of having a highly functional government healthcare system to care for the medically underserved population of Cook County.  Their careers were devoted to helping guide Cook County Hospital through the Affordable Care Act, a transition to an independent health system board; they provided stability through a series of CEOs. They describe their motivation for working in government, in health care, and how the mission sustained them as they developed legal and communications strategies to navigate a series of crises—and, they managed to retain their sense of humor.  Find out what it takes to thrive in a no-frills work environment.

    Chief Communications Officer, Caryn Stancik, and General Counsel, Elizabeth Reidy, recognized the value of having a highly functional government healthcare system to care for the medically underserved population of Cook County.  Their careers were devoted to helping guide Cook County Hospital through the Affordable Care Act, a transition to an independent health system board; they provided stability through a series of CEOs. They describe their motivation for working in government, in health care, and how the mission sustained them as they developed legal and communications strategies to navigate a series of crises—and, they managed to retain their sense of humor.  Find out what it takes to thrive in a no-frills work environment.

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  • Drug Packaging Protects Patients with Laura Bix

    Drug Packaging Protects Patients with Laura Bix

    Professor Laura Bix, the Director of the School of Packaging at Michigan State University, is a national leaders in designing solutions for drug packaging that improves medication safety.  Two catastrophic events, young children dying of aspirin toxicity during the 1940s and 1950s, and deaths due to intentional contamination of Tylenol with cyanide in the 1980s, prompted Federal agencies, industry, and academic partners to design child-resistant and tamper-evident drug packaging. The slogan for Professor Bix’s department speaks to their work, “It’s the industry that no one thinks about, but saves lives”.

    The Tylenol Murders: Their Impact on Packaging

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  • Leadership With Laughter: The Triple Threat Doctor

    Leadership With Laughter: The Triple Threat Doctor

    Dr. Robert (Bob) A. Weinstein, former Chair of Medicine at Cook County Hospital, describes a career formed early as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer investigating hospital outbreaks at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.  A single investigation led to decades of research & inquiry, and international leadership. With characteristic humor, he provides advice on life and leadership. Epilogue by Denise Cardo, former Director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC. 

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  • Essential Items for Your Medical Bag

    Essential Items for Your Medical Bag

    When asked, “What is the one item, literal or figurative, that you would put in your medical bag?”, seventeen former Cook County Hospital healthcare workers provided responses that sustained them during challenging but fulfilling, mission-oriented careers. Collectively, they distill hundreds of years of patient care into advice that is critical to pack with you during a healthcare career.

    Laryngoscopy: From Head Mirrors to Fiberoptics

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