SPEAKER_01 0:15

Hi, I'm Audwan Chimmerting from the National Minority Quality Forum, and this is For Your Health News. Your health, your news, your power. And we are here live at the NM2F 2026 Leadership Annual Summit. And I'm here with Dr. Rocky O'Tang. Yes. All the way from Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

All the way from Michigan today, yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

This is your first time at the summit, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

This is my absolute first time here, yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

So we have had the pleasure at the National Minority Quality Forum to be working with Dr. O'Tang, who I'm just gonna be calling Rocky, uh, through this conversation. Uh, because we've been in Flint, Michigan, you know, where one of the communities that have been impacted in so many ways um by systematic challenges, including, of course, the water crisis that everyone knows so much about, and what have been sort of the ensuing health challenges the community has faced since then. And NAQF has been in Flint for the past couple of years now, uh, with the luxury of working with renowned clinicians like Rocky over here to see what we can do collaboratively to meet the moment and address the challenges. But first, Rocky, would you like to introduce yourself, who who you are, and who you work with? Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Well, thank you for inviting us. We're we are um so happy and so for the word I guess is hungry, right? To to do more in our community in Flint. Um, I am an emergency physician by training. Um, I work in the emergency department at Hurley Hospital in Flint, Michigan. Uh, we are the community hospital um that has the backing of big universities like the University of Michigan uh and Michigan State University. So we have a really unique opportunity to provide world-class service to the population in Flint.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Um the emergency department is the uh equalizer, is what I call it, right? Everybody comes there when you're there. Um, coverage or not? Yeah, whatever's wrong, we are taking care of it, right? My job is not to ask you who you are or what money you make or what you're driving. It's your arm is out of socket. Let me put that back in as soon as I can. You're having chest pain, let me make sure you're not having anything horrific happen to you as soon as I can. Um, and then later on, I'm sure there's other people that get involved. But like for me, my job is to make sure that people are are are doing well, yeah. Um, making sure that there's no emergencies happening. If the emergency is happening, then we're helping them the best we can. So when when the opportunity came up from NMQF for us to reach outside of the clinical space into another space that I work in, like I said, we jumped right at it. Right. Um I I have yeah I I am um I'm also involved in a lot of uh clinical research through the University of Michigan, yeah. Where I think we start to really start to look at why are people coming?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I think as a doctor, it's always you can sit there in the emergency department and see people every day, day in and day out, but then you start to wonder why.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Why are all these people having car accidents? Why are all these people coming in? Why is their diabetes so terrible? Why is their asthma so bad? Why is this and why is that happening? Why are we seeing people with cancer coming in very late?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Right? And so those questions pop up, and and for myself uh and my colleague Dr. Denica Dalton, we were like, this is happening too often. Yes, right? We know I've worked in other environments, I do work in multiple different places where people have earlier detection. People find out that they're sick sooner. Yes, and so we know that there's those disparities that exist, right? Where if you don't have a lot of money or you live in an urban environment where maybe there's not a lot of clinical research happening, um, there are things that are happening that you don't have access to.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Things just happening to people, just like that, right? And we're losing too many people just like that. So we are so pleased to be working with you and Dr. Dalton regarding early detection of disease pre-symptomatic. So that means before symptoms even appear. And we're doing that through the Cancer State Shifting Initiative. Um, so the early focus is on cancer, but we know that this kind of technology and science that's available right now to detect disease can be expanded beyond cancer to other disease types.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Tell us a little bit about more about Flint Leads. So Flint Leads is our program later on this summer that's gonna bring everybody together, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

For sure, for sure. Flint Leads is is an idea. Um, Flint Leads will be the uh implementation of a concept where we are trying to create a community-based approach to clinical research, right? So it's this idea that having folks from the community really leading and sort of directing us as to, hey, here are the needs, here are the things that we're really concerned about. Um, not only having a place where the clinical research can happen, which is important, but having folks from that place be an intricate part of the community. Right. For us in Flint, I like I said, I work at the community hospital. The community hospital is where a significant percentage of the population goes when they're sick. So our first work, our first study is around early detection of cancer. Yeah, right. But again, it's a concept, it's one of the first things we're doing, not all that's going to happen. So if patients, for example, come to participate in the clinical study around early detection of cancer, say they choose to join. They come in and blood work gets done and say, one of the blood works that one of the tests that we do looks at diabetes.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

So I was giving an example earlier. There was one of our participants came in, he already knows he has diabetes, but there was a test to see how well his diabetes is controlled. It was one of the tests that we run. His came back just a little bit high. We didn't have to call him, he knows he has diabetes, but we did call him because our concept in Flint is that we want to make sure that this is a value add when people choose to participate.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

So I called him to see, hey, your number was a little high today.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Right? That tells me the last three months your diabetes hasn't been so great. Right. And he was like, Oh, my doctor didn't even tell me that. I got the number and it looks just like this. And I'm like, no worries, this is what it actually means. And so we want to make sure that again, with the knowledge that I've gained through school, that I can help these folks when they come in with all the things that they're concerned about, not just my cancer screening.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

The idea is that people come in, if they, for example, don't have insurance, or say we diagnose them with diabetes.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Okay, so you have diabetes. What do you do next? We've joined up with Hurley Hospital such that they have a free clinic there. These patients can go there for free, start to manage their diabetes, and prevent all the badness that we know comes with not managing diabetes. As far as the cancer is concerned, we've partnered with the Cancer Institute in Flint, meaning that if you come in and you don't even have symptoms, we do the blood testing, and the blood testing, which is so incredibly new, it is so incredibly useful because if you can find a cancer before you even have symptoms, it gives you such a good chance of recovering from it. Yes, right? There are cancers like pancreatic cancer that we right now do not have any testing for. This blood testing is the latest and the newest thing. And you know, it's right when when these things get developed, they unfortunately don't end up in communities that we are serving until 10-15 years later. Yeah. Which means for 10-15 years, people could have been saved, people's lives could have been changed, saved, families could have been kept together, right? And so this opportunity bringing together the uh community clinical site with the hospital that serves the community, with the cancer institute that serves the community, gives us sort of a 360 degree approach when people come in and are a part of this. So I love that.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I love what you said about the community participating in its own research.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

And the fact that the clinicians are taking ownership of providing as much information as possible as to what's happening, providing the answers as to what you said. Yes. You know, to what is happening with us, what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So go ahead. So I I think you know, with um with all things, knowledge is power.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Right? And uh our approach in uh at life in 3D is that we want to make sure that our patients are partnering with us, right? Yes, I'm a doctor, everybody calls me Rocky. Yes, that's important. That's that's the embodiment of my approach. My my name is Rockefeller, my last name is Otang, but nobody knows that because it doesn't matter, right? Right? My name is Rocky, I'm a regular person. I just happen to have spent you know 12 years in school to become a doctor. It does happen, right? But I want patients to have that kind of relationship with me where they just see me as a guy, right? Right? That they we we can take away that sort of white codes and I'm stiff and I'm just some guy that I don't understand, right? I want to be able to have a conversation with them about what diabetes actually is. Because what I feel is that if they understand what diabetes actually is, it helps them to make better decisions for themselves, right? When they start to feel unwell, I want them to trust me enough to be able to come in early and be like, Rock, I just don't feel well.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

And I'm like, yeah, okay, let's let's search into this, let's figure this out for you.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So with the help of an organization like NMQF, right, bringing in these biomarker companies, these companies that are developing these new technologies, giving them access or partnership with our communities will do great things. One, it'll help our communities have access to these new things that are out there changing lives. Number one. But number two, it'll also give them a diverse population for the things that they're doing, right? If if these techniques have not been tested on people that look like me, how do we know that they're as effective? Right. Right? And we want to make sure that they're effective instead of just being like, oh, it should work for you. We know there are genetic differences, and sometimes those things come into play. And so for these companies to have access to urban populations, minority populations, it's beneficial for them because they can make sure that their product or whatever they're developing is actually really good for those populations as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Well, you've taken the words right out of my mouth, but I definitely want to make sure that people know what they can be a part of sooner rather than later. Uh so National Minority Quality Forum, who you've now mentioned, um, is partnering with organizations, including yourself, uh, on on access to this science and this research, um, and which we are going to be bringing important stakeholders together as well as the community. So on that Saturday, there will be a community expo of which the community will get to come and witness and also get information about the very research and science and innovation you're you're talking about from all of these biomarket companies and others, so that we can really get a sense of what is out there because it's amazing what kind of science and innovation has happened. For sure. And our community is be the last one to know.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

For sure. And it's detrimental, and it's costing us lives, it's costing us important people, right? Um when it happens to someone in your family that is an important person. And so to be able to potentially find these things early when we know early detection means better chance of cure, right? We want to make sure we have the same advantages that other people have. And so it's important to us at Life in 3D, it's important to NMQF, it's important to the mayor of Flint, it's important to the um the leaders at my hospital that I work at that we do the best, not only for our patients when they're there, but before they get to us. Yes. Right, and so that they can have health, right? We always talk about health care, but we don't talk about the health part, right? Which is not seeing you in the emergency department is what I want, right? So um, well, Dr.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Otang, we want to thank you for setting before your health news today and getting the word out there. I'm hoping that for those of you watching, if you're not in Flint, Michigan, that you start to inquire about how we can make your city become the next early detection model city, and that we can start to find disease early, fight back, and uncover new frontiers of what our health could look like as a community. Thank you so much for joining us in today's conversation. And make sure to subscribe to For Your Health News.