Circulation on the Run: Come Meet the Team

This week, we have a special podcast: the interviewers become the
guests! Join Digital Strategies Editor Amit Khera as he
interviews Carolyn Lam, Greg Hundley, and Managing Editor David
"Augie" Rivera as they provide a behind-the-scenes look at how
Circulation on the Run comes to you each and every week. Come
meet your favorite podcast hosts!


Dr. Amit Khera:


Hi, this is Amit Khera. I'm digital strategies editor for
Circulation, and boy, do I have a treat today? I get to step in
for Carolyn Lam and Greg Hundley, but wait, I actually get to
interview Carolyn Lam and Greg Hundley today. So we have a very
special Circulation on the run. Well, the interviewer becomes the
interviewee. These two you get to hear every week and hear this
amazing back and forth and deep insight into Science and
Circulation. But, who are these folks behind the Circulation on
the Run podcast? And boy, what interesting life stories they have
and how they work through this. And wait, we also have a third
joining us today, and that is Augie Rivera, who is the managing
editor of Circulation. So we get to see the mastermind behind how
all this runs. Well, Carolyn, Greg, Augie, welcome you three.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Thanks, Amit. Feels weird.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Good. Then mission accomplished this week. Well, first let me
start with you, Carolyn. I know you and I started this long ago,
with help from so many folks. People hear you every week and I'm
sure many people know you quite well. I will say you have one of
the most interesting backgrounds, incredible scientific and
personal accomplishments, professional accomplishments. So we're
very fortunate to have you as leading this podcast in the
beginning, but a lot of people may not know your background story
about sort of your training and your day job, because you do have
a day job outside of podcasting. So tell us a little bit about
yourself, about how you got here in life.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Oh my gosh. Amit, I'm humbled by your question. My goodness. I
feel just very lucky to be part of the Circulation editors. And I
humbly did my med school in Singapore, and did cardiology here,
and traveled and lived overseas for the first time. Guess where,
in Rochester, Minnesota. Tropical Singapore island to
refrigerator state. Other than that, it was absolutely the most
pivotal moment of my life. Met my first female mentor and Dr.
Margaret Redfield. Really, really just came into my own and got
involved in population-based research. And then hopped on over to
Boston where actually I was working at the Framingham Heart
Study. So continuing sort of the epidemiologic work, but then I
think another mentor I really have to call out too is Dr. Scott
Solomon, who kind of took me under his wing a little bit and
showed me a little bit of the world of clinical trials. And boy,
all I can say is I haven't looked back. And so here I am.


Dr. Amit Khera:


I think you took a detour in the Netherlands too. Am I right to
say that?


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Oh yes, but that was quite a late detour in life. I was really,
really fortunate meet Dr. Adrian Voris who supervised my own PhD.
That was a really interesting thing because I come from a family
of a pediatrician in my mom, and a scientist, a biologist really,
specialized in fish, in my father. And I'm saying this because my
father told me never ever follow his footsteps and do a PhD. Make
sure I follow my mom's footsteps and be a clinician, and go into
private practice.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Well, it looks like you followed both of their footsteps, maybe
the best of both, so they're very proud of you for that. We
recently had the privilege of having you give us grand rounds and
get to hear your impressive work in clinical trials. And I have
to say, the work you're doing in half half and really with some
great clinical trial and cohort data involving Asian populations
was quite inspiring and impressive. How did you sort of get
things going? You've traveled around and moved back and how did
you start getting your career going and the momentum you've had
so far, incredible success?


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Oh goodness. Thanks for letting me share. Amit, honestly, I don't
know. And I can only look back and be on my knees and be grateful
for being at the right place at the right time. I think it's a
combination of taking what I had learned in Olmsted County and
Framingham. Coming back to Singapore and realizing that there was
a need for similar epidemiologic studies. I firmly believe if I
didn't do it, someone else would. I'm not that brilliant. I just
get things done. And so that's what I did. I started that. And
one thing led to another. It's having really friends as well. And
so I really, really want to say big thanks to my mentors who have
become my friends and colleagues. And to people listening. This
is really, really from the heart. You don't plan these things.
You just go the next step that you see, and you go with all your
heart. And you make sure that you've got your eyes open to see
the next opportunity, and have the energy to seize that one when
it comes by as well. I think that's how it all happened.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Well, that is a good pivot because one of the next opportunities
that came up in Circulation on the Run after you'd done it for a
while, was to bring in this gentleman, Greg Hundley. And so we're
so glad that you two partnered. Now, Greg, you and I have a
little bit of a shared background. You were at UT Southwestern
for a period of time, where I am currently. Well, tell us your
story, Greg. Tell us a little bit about your background and
training and where you are currently.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


Sure. Thanks so much, Amit. Again, I think like Carolyn, we
really feel this is an incredible opportunity. The journal is a
wonderful blend of collecting impactful science, both clinically
and pre-clinically. And trying to bring that to the forefront.
It's just been a fantastic opportunity to participate on the
editorial side, but then after that, share with the rest of the
world, the findings that we really develop each week. And it is
truly a team effort. All the way from identifying impactful
science, discussing it, preparing it, and then sharing it. And so
I think like Carolyn, I just feel very privileged to have this
opportunity. Now, my path, listening to Carolyn, and for
listeners, you kind of move with it a little bit, and follow
along seeking, I don't know, new opportunities, but also being
very humble. And as they approach you, and doing kind of the best
that you can in the situation.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


So my career path started at what was Medical College of
Virginia, but is now VCU in Richmond, Virginia, and medical
school there. And then, at Southwestern, did my internship,
residency, and cardiology fellowship. And I would say, probably
my first strong mentors was really a mentor team. There was
expertise there. Jim Willerson had brought Ron P Shock and Craig
Malloy on the magnetic resonance imaging side. So for those that
are listening, I'm more of an imager in cardiovascular medicine.
But also a key fundamental pivotal figure or figures were David
Hillis, and Rick Lang in the cath lab. And at the time, magnetic
resonance imaging, we were trying to figure out, well, could this
noninvasive methodology help us understand problems related to
cardiovascular disease that came along maybe before, or we needed
to go to an interventional situation, or how they would relate to
an interventional situation.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


And then was briefly a faculty member at Southwestern, and then
recruited back to the East Coast to Wake Forest. Another really
pivotal figure for me was Dr. Bill Little at Wake Forest. Now,
he's passed away, but bill had again, that great insight and
excellence in science, and performing research and
investigations, but also clinical expertise and emphasize the
world... We haven't talked a lot about this, but education. How
we take the information that we gather and educate others. Began
working with the American Heart Association, with the American
College of Cardiology in that realm. Then after 22 or three
years, another opportunity came up actually to return back to
VCU, and be the director of the heart center. And so now have
that position here in Richmond, Virginia. Again, very excited to
be working here with Circulation on the Run.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Well, I hear some amazing themes from both of you about mentoring
and people along the way. It's a great story obviously for our
younger listeners that are thinking about life and careers and
opportunity sort of finding where life takes you. I think those
are great themes for both of you. Now, we won't have as much time
for this story, but Greg, you and I spoke recently. You told me
this most amazing story of how you were going to be an
interventional cardiologist, walked over to drop off something. A
patient had an MRI machine and saw this MRI and fell in love.


Dr. Amit Khera:


I'll paraphrase about staying up all night, drinking soda and
coding zeros and ones since that's the technology back then, but
what an amazing story. We'll have to do that for our next
podcast. All right. I'm going to bring in Augie Rivera. Now, he
is the managing editor of Circulation. Meaning he really keeps
everything going, and is the engine and brains behind the
operation. And one of the many things he does, is the podcast.
And we'll talk more about the logistics of that. But Augie,
people never get to hear your voice. So tell us a little bit
about how you got into this medical publishing and circulation in
the pacific, sort of your background.


David “Augie” Rivera:


Well, thanks, Amit. Also thanks to Carolyn and Greg for inviting
me as well to participate. This is going to be shocking and maybe
scary, but I only have a couple of years of scientific journal
publishing experience, and that's with the Circulation family. My
background for my entire career has been in educational school
publishing, specifically in mathematics. And mainly grade K to 12
mathematics. So making the jump over to scientific publishing
seemed a bit daunting, but after like 20 plus years, I was
looking to do something else. And I was grateful that I saw
something on LinkedIn. I interviewed for the position and I was
very fortunate the American Heart Association that ended up
hiring me. In a sense I always say, "Taking a chance on the long
shot." And so that's what brought me here. So a lot of this has
been very, very new to me, but at the same time, all the
Circulation editors have been so helpful, as well as my staff
that I work with. They've been so beneficial to me in learning
the side effects. So, that's a little bit about me.


Dr. Amit Khera:


We're very glad that the DHA found you, Augie, and you've been
obviously this incredible resource for us. I'm glad you brought
up the staff because there's so many people on Circulation that
make it run and we're very grateful for all their efforts,
including those who help us put on this podcast. Well, I want to
dig into the podcast. Carolyn, we haven't told the story in a
long, long time. I think you told it on the very first podcast,
but Circulation on the Run. For those that missed in earlier
days, remind us how you came up with that name.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Okay, very quickly. I'm a runner, and I know a lot of us are.
It's just on one of my runs that I realized, "My goodness,
wouldn't it be great to be able to just feed my mind at the
time?" I was on a treadmill actually, and I was trying to read,
and it occurred to me, "It is impossible. I'm getting a serious
headache to try to read while you're trying to run." And so I
thought, "Wow, wouldn't it be great if somebody just read that to
me, so I could just read the journal while I was running?" Yeah,
you can join the dots. So that was exactly the idea. That, "No,
I'll do that for someone. I'll give them the nuts and bolts of
that issue."


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


At least the main papers. The way it's grown since then, it's
frankly thanks to Greg. I need to make a plug here. Greg has
admitted that he's humble. And in fact, that's why I need to drag
this out of him. I did not realize until I interviewed him on one
of the podcasts, that he is totally gifted at interviewing. And
then he tells me just, by the way, in the usual Greg way, he has
a history and thick experience in this. He had done the
interviews like... Greg, you have to tell me, but he had done
several of these. He had a show, he had ideas. He used to do it.
And I was like, "Why are you hiding all this? You got to come do
this with me." But he hides it. So Greg, now you have to fess up.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


Oh gosh. And now Carolyn, she's too kind. So Carolyn, listeners
as you can tell, just has a very warm, inviting personality. And
she so couples that with just brilliance and interest in science.
I mean, I can't take credit for the things, but she's also open
to listening. And I think one of the really exciting things, this
sort of team of three with Augie and Carolyn, we have great
discussions behind the scenes on how we can bring the information
in the journal to you as listeners, in a way that is inviting,
engaging, and educational. It's really being part of a team, that
has that common goal in mind and in thought. Carolyn and Augie, I
just treasure the opportunities that we get to work together
every several weeks and putting together the most exciting
science that our journal really brings forth. So it's a team
effort for the listeners. And just to maybe anticipate the next
question, how do we do that?


Dr. Greg Hundley:


We do get the joy of reading the journal every week, and we spend
some time each of us, on our weekends and late at nights reading
thoroughly the journal. And Carolyn and I kind of divide up the
articles. Both of us taking and becoming enthralled with areas of
expertise that we may have. Again, we've talked about Carolyn in
heart failure expertise and maybe me a little bit more on the
imaging side and cardio oncology and the like. And then in any
way we divide up the articles, we read them thoroughly, and then
we produce a script. So one of the fun parts of this is working
with Augie. We're producers as well as editors, as well as the
spokespersons.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


So it's kind of all done in one shop and put together, and
interactive, if you will. And then we are able to record that in
sessions with Augie, coordinating them, and involving some of our
authors, editorial experts. And then other experts that we gather
from around the world that are also involved in the science. And
the goal is to create discussions in addition to presenting the
information that's in the journal, but to create meaningful,
thoughtful discussions regarding this impactful science, so that
we can actually take it in as practitioners or other researchers
and scientists in the field quickly. And that's sort of the
general concept.


Dr. Amit Khera:


You jumped right in there, Greg. And that's exactly what we want
to dive into, which is sort of the behind the scenes, the
mechanics about the why. Now, you two have an incredible
chemistry. I will say since you two have been doing this
together, it's really been a joy listening to you two. Carolyn,
just maybe the dovetail on what Greg just talked about, about
sort of the chemistry. That back and forth that you two do, the
preparation behind that. Tell us a little bit about how that
works out.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


Oh, absolutely. I've been dying to share. You should hear the
bloopers. It's hilarious. So after a while, we just totally
like... We have the fun doing this. And we realize it's very
serious science that we're talking about. We're so solidly proud
of circulation, but it's okay to have fun. It's okay by the way,
to mispronounce some of these basic science words and to call Joe
Hill, which I've done by the way, literally called him to ask him
how to pronounce certain things. And you know what? And have fun
at the same time. And so Greg starts these quizzes. Now, that is
all Greg, okay. This Carolyn quizzes and... So after a while, we
started to try to hide little quizzes inside our script with the
answers given just in case. But it sometimes catches us unaware,
and it's just really hilarious.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


And once or twice, I think Greg and I have tried to quiz Augie as
well. But Augie never allows us to do that. So it's really great
when we're having fun. And that is exactly what I'm so grateful
for Greg to showing me that. He's the one who had the experience
with the back and forth and gave us the idea. He's the one who
push to say, "Look beyond the original articles, I really like as
a listener, to have an overview of every single article." That
was Greg. He's the one who initiated the sort of forum type
discussions and double bill discussions, because he got feedback
and acted on it, that people really, really enjoy listening to
the authors too. And finally, we're really trying to make it even
more useful for the audience based on feedback by seeing if we
can get CME accreditation, seeing if we can be more responsive. I
just want to let people know, even if we don't manage to achieve
it, that we're listening, and we're trying, and we're constantly
trying to improve. And that's what I really, really thank both
Greg and Augie for.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Thanks for that. Listen, I want to just pick up on many things
that you just said. First, I think what people may not appreciate
is how much work goes into this. You read all of the articles and
prepare with the featured articles. You create a script, and you
have fun doing it, which is the most important thing. You record
and have to coordinate. Takes a lot of time. I've seen this too,
then people don't realize afterwards, you listen to the entire
thing and edited again. This is impressive. And it shows, because
it's a fantastic product. I want to talk a little bit about some
of the deeper features. So you two obviously summarized in the
beginning, the original research and we talked a little bit about
the back and forth. I want to talk about the featured articles
and the interviews of these different folks. Tell me a little bit
about that and how that goes. What do you enjoy about the
interview part of that. Greg, you want to start?


Dr. Greg Hundley:


Well, I thoroughly enjoy what we call the feature discussions,
where we bring together the authors of the paper, editorial
experts that... With Circulation, there's a team of associate
editors that process the papers. And actually, when you as a
listener submit an article, we review these in a discussion
format. And one of the associate editors is leading that through
a discussion group. And so we bring in that expert. And then
oftentimes, we have an editorialist, or an expert from the world,
and bringing together a discussion and focusing on the content,
not only in that article, but how that article pertains to the
world's literature, and then where we really want to go next with
research.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


And I think that's sort of our objective, is to bring a living
discussion for us as listeners, with authors, the active
researchers, with the editorial team and the experts. Why of all
the papers you get did this impactful science really come to the
forefront for you? And then from the editorialists, how do we
take this information and put it in the context of the world's
research that's going on in cardiovascular medicine? So those are
sort of the main insights and as listeners, just as Carolyn said,
we really enjoy receiving feedback from you, and how we can
perfect that further. One of the things we've started thinking
about is, if we have a basic paper and a clinical paper on the
same topic, is really having even a broader discussion, a forum
discussion, where we talk about several papers at one time and
really embrace a topic. And I love what Carolyn said about
providing not only continuing medical education credits, but for
those in the United States or maybe North America in particular,
maintenance of certification credit, and something we're actively
looking at, trying to work through right now.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Thank you for that. And Carolyn, do an add to the features and
the interviewing these folks and some of the... what it is that's
most interesting to you in doing that process and what you've
learned.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Yeah. I certainly want to add, but probably in an angle you would
not expect. And here, I really, really want to point out the
tremendous work of coordinating this, that Augie takes care of.
It is incredible. When we have an editor in Europe, a author in
California, a me in Singapore, himself in another part of the US.
I do not know how Augie does it. And not only does he do it super
well, it's always with a smile. Augie, you truly are amazing.
Your positivity has honestly kept me going many times, when I
just came on the recording half dead. Kudos to you, truly.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Thank you, Carolyn, because I wanted to bring in Augie back again
now. Augie, it must be amazing for you. I mean, first, the
logistics. Maybe you can tell us about coordinating people from
all over the world, different time zones, every single week and
obviously people that are quite busy and show what a hard thing
to do. And then maybe seeing the process. Boy, from seeing these
papers come through our meeting, to the selection, to
coordinating, to seeing the final product at the end, it must be
a pretty satisfying process for you. Tell us a little bit about
the mechanics and what this is from your vantage point.


David “Augie” Rivera:


Well, indeed, it is very interesting. It's something that I did a
little bit of production back in college when I did college
radio, way back in the day, but I never do. I would end up doing
this again, but I think as far as the logistics are concerned,
I'm not by myself in this at all. I mean, a big shout out to
Sarah O'Brien who trained me when I took on this job because she
was covering Circulation on the Run while there was a search for
a managing editor. So she was the one who taught me all the
tricks of the trade, on how to make some of this happen. But also
it's the two assistants for Carolyn and Greg, Afshaan and Angela,
who I contact and I go, "Please let me know what their
availability is, when, and what can we fit here? And what can we
fit there? And can we try to move a meeting?"


David “Augie” Rivera:


In fact, I get to tell Greg that we were successful in moving a
meeting for tomorrow, and we have another one scheduled. So we
made it work. So really Afshaan and Angela really help out with
those logistics as well. We also have to thank you Ishara and her
team over at Learner's Digest. They're the masters who put
together all of our raw audio files, and cut them all together,
to make the final product of the podcast. And not only does her
team do that flawlessly, but it also coordinates with having
those reviewed and approved by the editors as well. So there is
no way that we would ever be able to get any of our podcasts out
and delivered without their awesome help and support. So a big
shout out to Ishara and team. And most importantly, and the
viewers can't see this, but also to the authors and associate
editors, editorialists.


Augie Rivera:


First of all, we're grateful that they've sent and submitted
their articles to circulation for peer review, and then eventual
publication, but their flexibility, because I know that they are
very busy during their time too, and trying to make things work.
I have had an author say, "Oh yeah, 12:30 in the morning, past
midnight? Oh totally. I can totally do that. No problem." Or an
associate editor who says, "Yeah, I can probably do that for 5:00
AM in the morning." So the flexibility of the authors, the
editorialists and the associate editors is also what makes the
logistics and everything work out. So it's not me, but it's
completely a team effort. And it's also thanks to Carolyn and
Greg for finding those pockets of time while they're doing their
day job, to also take the time to be prepped and interview our
authors and editorialists. So on that end, like I said, it's not
me, it's a team of all of us that put this together.


Dr. Amit Khera:


Well, I appreciate everyone's humility, including yours, Augie.
And you are right, there's a broader team and I appreciate you
calling them out, but we certainly acknowledge you're at the
center of that, and appreciate all your work to make this come to
fruition. Well, we're winding down. I have maybe one last
question for you two, Carolyn and Greg. Tell us about the future
of Circulation on the Run. Where do we go from here? What's the
future of this specifically? Or maybe podcasting and Circulation
in general.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


Well, what I can say is, it is continuously going to improve.
You've heard us commit to that. We will and promise to try to
make it as short and snappy as we can. So for those of you
listening, who kind of don't get to the end, please hang in there
with us. We're continuously getting better.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


Yeah. I would just want to echo that. If listeners have
suggestions and there's a pathway to gather that information from
you, we are all ears. We're listeners, and we would love to shape
and mold this further based on your suggestions, because really,
your suggestions have shaped a lot of where we are today.


Dr. Carolyn Lam:


And Amit, if I could, because the podcast is only one cog in the
whole wheel of what you do as overall strategy for us, digital
strategy. Could I ask you to give us that last word? I have to be
the interviewer again.


Dr. Amit Khera:


You can't get it out of your system. This one is not about me.
I'll give two seconds on my role specifically, but I have a neat
role. We purposefully chose the term, digital strategies, because
we appreciate there's so many different things behind getting
medical literature out there, including website, working with
traditional media, social media, podcast, and whatever else comes
in the future.


Dr. Amit Khera:


So I'm very lucky because I get to work with you all plus a ton
of other folks to really bring this material to life. And the
coolest part is, you all are so easy to work with and so
creative, and have done so many amazing things with this podcast.
And it's been real privilege just to watch this grow and develop.
What I love that you both said, and I hope the listeners heard
this, that have hung on with this, you're appreciated for
feedback and you always have been. Have made tweaks along the way
to make this better and better. And so if anybody has any, feel
free to email any one of us, and we welcome that feedback to make
this even better. Listen, I want to say what a treat this has
been to interview the interviewers. Amazing, and certainly did
not disappoint learning about your backgrounds and a little bit
more about all of you, and about what makes Circulation on the
Run come to life.


Dr. Amit Khera:


So that's it. There's another rap. I'm Amit Khera, stepping in
and interviewing Carolyn Lam and Greg Hundley, who will join you
again next week. Thank you.


Dr. Greg Hundley:


This program is copyright of the American Heart Association,
2021. The opinions expressed by speakers in this podcast are
their own, and not necessarily those of the editors or of the
American Heart Association. For more, visit ahajournals.org.