Hosted by Priya Rao, MD, this episode features Dr. Kerri Glasner, a gastroenterologist diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and often fatal bile duct cancer.

They examine what it means to face a life-threatening cancer diagnosis as a physician and how surviving a liver transplant reshaped how she practices medicine, understands pain, and lives her life.

What’s Covered in This Episode:

◼️ Being diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma as a young physician

◼️ Understanding your own cancer prognosis through medical training

◼️ Chemotherapy, radiation, and qualifying for a liver transplant

◼️ ICU complications, extreme pain, and not being believed

◼️ Loss of control and vulnerability after becoming the patient

◼️ Returning to clinical work before being ready

◼️ Medical PTSD and avoidance after critical illness

◼️ Leaving an academic role after surviving cancer

◼️ Reprioritizing family, time, and work after facing mortality

◼️ How surviving cancer changed how she practices medicine

Jump to Key Moments

00:00 — Diagnosing bile duct cancer as a physician

03:00 — Prognosis and treatment decisions

11:40 — Chemotherapy, radiation, and transplant eligibility

16:50 — ICU trauma and loss of control

22:15 — Severe pain and not being believed

27:45 — How illness changed her medical practice

31:00 — Leaving an academic role after trauma

36:15 — Returning to work too soon

41:30 — Belief, survival, and meaning

45:45 — What living with an open heart means now

In this conversation, Kerri shares what it was like to receive that diagnosis as a physician and new mother, fully understanding the prognosis from her medical training. She walks through undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, qualifying for a liver transplant that most patients with cholangiocarcinoma never reach, and surviving a complex surgery that included a liver transplant and a Whipple procedure.

Kerri describes the complications that followed, including liver necrosis, pancreatic leaks, prolonged ICU care, and severe postoperative pain. She speaks candidly about being told her pain was “out of proportion,” the loss of control that comes with critical illness, and how different the patient experience feels when you are on the other side of the bed.

The conversation also explores what happens after survival. Returning to clinical work before fully recovering. The quiet pressure physicians feel to function as if nothing happened. Medical trauma and avoidance after time in the ICU. Why going back to the same institution where the trauma occurred can be destabilizing. How becoming a patient changed the way she listens to pain, intuition, and fear in her own patients.

Kerri also shares the life changes she made after surviving cancer, including leaving an academic role, moving closer to family, working fewer days, and redefining what matters most. She reflects on faith, uncertainty, intuition, and what it means to live with an open heart after facing mortality.

This is the first time Kerri has shared her story publicly.

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartthepod/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-heart-podcast/about/

Website: https://openheartpodcast.com/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

EECP is one of the most evidence-backed therapies in cardiology that many physicians still don’t fully understand, and even fewer feel confident explaining to patients.

Guest & Resources:

Michael Gratch - Founder & CEO, Flow Therapy

Website: https://flowtherapy.com/about-us/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gratch-8557266/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/flow-therapy-eecp/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/flowtherapyeecp/

https://www.instagram.com/mbgratch/

X (Twitter): https://x.com/FlowTherapyEECP

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlowTherapyEECP/

YouTube: @TrinityHeartCare

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 Introduction to Flow Therapy

01:18 Michael Atch's Personal Journey

03:06 Founding Flow Therapy

07:12 Challenges and Triumphs

21:51 The Technology Behind Flow Therapy

26:29 Flow in Life and Medicine

26:59 Exploring Healing Modalities and Rural Medicine

27:31 Incorporating Flow State into Therapy

28:50 Biofeedback and Patient Experience

30:39 The Interrelationship of Focus and Behavior

32:36 Challenges in the Healthcare System

34:51 The Role of Food and Parenting in Health

37:15 The Impact of Stress and Emotional Health

39:41 The Influence of Technology on Society

49:13 Advice for Navigating Life's Challenges

51:56 Living with an Open Heart

In this conversation, I sit down with Michael Gratch, Founder and President of Flow Therapy, to talk about what it actually takes to build a healthcare company centered on EECP, or enhanced external counterpulsation, inside a complex medical system. Michael’s journey began with one patient, his grandfather, who had undergone multiple bypass surgeries, stents, and had no remaining revascularization options. Quality of life mattered, and there were few answers being offered.

EECP is not alternative medicine. It is a noninvasive cardiovascular therapy supported by decades of research, offered at major academic centers, and covered by Medicare. And yet, access remains limited, adoption uneven, and understanding incomplete. Michael shares how that gap between evidence and availability became the catalyst for building what is now Flow Therapy.

If you are a doctor who has ever struggled to explain EECP to a patient, questioned why effective therapies remain underutilized, or felt the strain of practicing inside a system resistant to change, this conversation will resonate.

✨ Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD to hear more conversations where modern medicine and spirituality meet, where we remember that healing is as much about consciousness as it is about care.

Follow Priya & Open Heart:

Instagram: Instagram.com/openheartthepod

Website: https://openheartpodcast.com/

© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What if the most powerful thing a plastic surgeon could say is no?

In a world that rewards more, more procedures, more perfection, more transformation, restraint feels almost radical. Especially in medicine. Especially in plastic surgery. And especially when your livelihood is built on being able to change the human face.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Deepak Duggar

01:51 Journey into Rhinoplasty

05:56 Emotional Intelligence in Plastic Surgery

11:40 Balancing Professional and Personal Life

19:11 Acts of Kindness and Service

29:22 Gender Disparities in Plastic Surgery

29:54 The Demands and Expectations of Medical Professionals

30:52 Underserved Communities and the Importance of Medical Presence

32:05 The Emotional Impact of Plastic Surgery

34:39 The Power of Positive Change and Patient Testimonials

37:45 Energy, Intuition, and Patient Relationships

40:47 The Importance of Therapy and Self-Reflection

43:23 Balancing Professional and Personal Life

49:45 Final Thoughts and Reflections

In this episode of Open Heart, Priya Rao, MD, interventional cardiologist and host of the Open Heart Podcast, sits down with Deepak Dugar, MD, a world-renowned Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon whose reputation has been built not only on extraordinary technical skill, but on something far rarer: ethical clarity, humility, and the courage to refuse surgery when it is not truly needed.

Dr. Dugar specializes exclusively in rhinoplasty, one of the most complex and psychologically charged procedures in all of medicine. He spent nearly a decade training under elite mentors, studying anatomy obsessively, shadowing cases while others vacationed, and committing himself fully to mastery. Yet what ultimately distinguishes him is not just what he can do with a scalpel. It is when he chooses not to use one.

Guest Links: Deepak Dugar, MD

Website: https://www.scarlessnose.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrDeepakDugar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deepakdugarmd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-dugar-05a16059

📘 Deepak’s Book: Be You To Full, So Beautiful

Purchase here: https://a.co/d/9LO2KIP

Follow Priya & Open Heart on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openheartthepod

Instagram: Instagram.com/openheartthepod

Website: https://openheartpodcast.com/

Priya Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.kothapalli

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkothapallimd/

Thank you to our sponsor, Don’t Miss a Beat, for supporting this episode:

https://linktr.ee/dontmissabeat

© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.