What can we do to promote women’s health, increase health equity, and prevent Ovarian Cancer? LOTS! If you want inspiration and practical ideas to improve your health and the health of those you love, then tune into Swift Healthcare Podcast with guest Diane Powis, PhD, Chief Spokeswoman at Aspira Women's Health.

Ranked a Top 60 Healthcare Leadership podcast by Feedspot.

Diane Powis, PhD is a licensed healthcare provider, an advocate for women’s health, and the Chief Spokeswoman at Aspira Women's Health. Through her advocacy, storytelling, coordination and management of an ethnically diverse patient advisory board, she is working toward empowering women to take control over their gynecological health by increasing their awareness of symptoms, understanding their genetic risks, and knowing that Aspira’s life saving biomarker tools exist.

Special Note:

Dr. Patrick Swift/Swift Healthcare do NOT have any financial relationships with any commercial interests with Aspira Health. Dr. Swift invited Dr. Powis on the show because they are grad school friends and Dr. Powis has an amazing and powerful story to share with the world. The information in this episode is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this video podcast/web site is for general information purposes only.

Dr. Diane Powis, PhD Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-powis-a7885a37/

https://aspirawh.com/

Music Credit:

Jason Shaw from www.Audionautix.com

THE IMPERFECT SHOW NOTES

To help make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who like to read rather than listen to podcasts, we’d love to offer polished show notes. However, Swift Healthcare is in its first year. 

What we can offer currently are these imperfect show notes. The transcription is far from perfect. But hopefully it’s close enough - even with the errors - to give those who aren’t able or inclined to audio interviews a way to participate.  Please enjoy!

Transcript:

Advancing Women's Health, Change the Story w/ Diane Powis, PhD

[00:00:00 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:00:00 ] Welcome to another episode of the Swift healthcare video podcast. I'm delighted that you're here and I have a fantastic guest for us today. Diane Powis, Diane. Thanks for being on the show. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the Swift healthcare podcast.

[00:00:12 ] Diane Powis, PhD: [00:00:12 ] Thank you. It's an honor to be here, Patrick. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:16 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:00:16 ] It's a joy having you here and the show title is Advancing Women's Health, Change the Story with Diane Powis . And let me tell you about Diane Powis, a dear colleague of mine. Diane has worked as a clinical psychologist since 2001. She did her training at NYU medical center, the Rusk Institute of rehab medicine.

[00:00:37 ] And then she suffered through the postdoctoral fellowship in neuro-psychology rehabilitation, psychology at Mount Sinai medical center in neuro-psychology rehab psychology. I say suffered because she and I both went through the same program LOL.

[00:00:51 ] Diane Powis, PhD: [00:00:51 ] We survived together?

[00:00:53 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:00:53 ] fellows and, um yes!, uh, the, and inspiration and trainingand outstanding training and all the wonderful stuff [00:01:00 ] that came with that as well. Right. Um, but since then, Diane, um, served as a rehabilitation psychologist neuropsychologist at Stanford hospital. And then she was at Greenwich hospital where she specialized in behavioral medicine.

[00:01:14 ] And, um, here's where it gets real. Not that that is a significant enough, um, in her training and the services done for patients and, and, and the community. Um, but here's where it really gets interesting in the work Diane's done; since 2019, Diane  served as the chief spokeswoman for the MAT , Marilyn Ann Trahan  charity program aimed at raising awareness.

[00:01:36 ] For health care providers on how to better prevent and detect early stage breast and ovarian cancers. And since then in November, 2020, Diane joined ASPIRA women's health, senior leadership team as chief spokeswoman and through her advocacy, storytelling, coordination management of an ethnically diverse patient advisory board, she's working toward empowering women.

[00:01:59 ] All [00:02:00 ] of us have benefit to that. She's, she's working on empowering women to take control over their gynecological health by increasing their awareness of symptoms and to understanding their genetic risks and knowing that APIRA's life-saving biomarker tools exist. Diane Powis, Dr. Diane Powis . Thank you for being here.

[00:02:16 ] Diane Powis, PhD: [00:02:16 ] Thank you, Patrick, what a lovely introduction. I really appreciate that. And, um, I'm really looking forward to our conversation today and trying to get the message out there. So

[00:02:27 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:02:27 ] and that's why we're doing absolutely. I'm happy to do it. So I'm going to give you the title again. Folks,  Advancing Women's Health, Change the Story with Diane Powis.  Folks, . I want you to bear in mind. This is about women's health, but it's. It's advancing healthcare in general, whether we're healthcare leaders, we're healthcare providers, whether we're healthcare leader providers, or whether we support the work being done in health care.

[00:02:50 ] These are issues that we all at least need to have a working knowledge of. And I'm grateful that Diane is on the show to talk with us about it. So Diane, if we could start [00:03:00 ] with your journey of misdiagnosis to diagnosis and the relevance to what we're talking about here now.

[00:03:07 ]Diane Powis, PhD: [00:03:07 ] Thank you. So yeah, my, my journey to diagnosis, , I, um, fortunately just have been so blessed with a very healthy life up until age 45. , I have beautiful family, husband and children, two great kids. , a working as Patrick mentioned, , it a very rewarding position as a clinical neuropsychologist rehab psychologist at various hospitals. , and suddenly after my 45th birthday. I started to develop some strange new problems and symptoms. , this period lasted for over 10 months overall. , and the symptoms varied. , it started with, , heavy menstrual periods, , with my gynecologist, , and the symptoms ranged from. [00:04:00 ] Pelvic discomfort and urinating frequently again, with my gynecologist to, , lower back pain to bowel problems, to, , just not feeling exhausted and just knowing something was wrong. , what happened over the 10 month period is I was bounced from specialist to specialist and the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Was missed. , and I was misdiagnosed with everything and anything from perimenopause to, , urinary tract infections, which the tests were negative, but the doctor said, well, it must be a false negative because, , you're still healthy. Nothing else would be wrong with you? , this is by my gynecologist along the way, I was referred to a urologist because, , since the many antibiotics I took for my faux bladder infection, , didn't seem to help. He said, well, , sorry. My faux , , urinary tract infection didn't seem to help. He said it must be a bladder infection.

[00:05:00 ] [00:04:59 ] So he referred me and this was a new doctor for me. He did his in-office evaluation and he did an, an office scan. And I told him I was really worried. Something just felt wrong. And he looked me in the eye and he said, um, Diane, you're perfectly fine. And as I was. Leaving the office. I, you know, I still wasn't convinced that, you know, as he put it, I have an overactive bladder and just take these new pills and that will help me.

[00:05:27 ] Um, I said, you know, doctor, look, I really think something's wrong. In fact, it's not just my, my bladder when I have to have a bowel movement, um, having some severe cramping and pain. And he smiled, chuckled, looked me in the eye and this is a direct quote. He said, well, that sounds like a gastrointestinal problem. So I guess I'm completely off the hook. So, uh,

[00:05:54 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:05:54 ] guess I'm completely off the

[00:05:55 ] Diane Powis, PhD: [00:05:55 ] guess I'm completely off the hook. Um, and that was the end of [00:06:00 ] that appointment and that interaction. Uh, from there I was passed. I saw my GP. She diagnosed me with diverticulitis because of the stomach pain and cramping, based on an in-office exam, more antibiotics after which, uh, those didn't help.

[00:06:17 ] I went to a gastroenterologist. She thought I had colitis. Um, ultimately this is 10 months after my initial heavy menstrual periods where I had peri-menopause. Um, she was, she had me for a colonoscopy to confirm the colitis and I woke up from the Twilight of the procedure and she stood over me and said, um, listen, I, I can't, I couldn't get the tube through.

[00:06:45 ] Cause there was a blockage. Um, you have cancer. So I was completely. I was completely blindsided. Yeah. It was devastating

[00:06:54 ] Patrick Swift, PhD, MBA, FACHE: [00:06:54 ] Incredible to be going through that months and months, and months, and months and months of seeing our colleagues in [00:07:00 ] healthcare who go to work every day with the intention of doing good. Um, but if we work in a siloed mentality and we think we're either on the hook or off the hook, then it's no longer putting the patient in the center of the care, but.

[00:07:16 ] Um, uh, put in the hero as the center of the care ins