Episode 022: Marilynne Robinson and Gilead

Here at the Carver College of Medicine, on the campus of the University of Iowa which is famous for its legacy of writing and writers, we are lucky enough to receive occasional visits from some pretty outstanding authors.  Recently, during the annual CCOM Reads contest, medical students were encouraged to read author and Iowa Writers' Workshop Professor Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a novel for which she won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  It's an account of the memories of John Ames of his father and grandfather, all of whom are Congregationalist ministers in Gilead, Iowa.  After the contest was over, we asked Ms. Robinson to visit with the students to talk about her writing of the novel.

Listen: Episode 022 - Marilynne Robinson and Gilead

Episode 021: Match Day!

The Haugsdals compare their match results.

This week, we talk about Match Day, the big day when medical students find out what they'll be doing for the next few years after graduation.  It's a big deal, and to help us make sense of it, CCOM Registrar Damien Ihrig and fourth-years Jaclyn and Michael Haugsdal and Natalie Ramirez sit down to hash it out.  It's both magical and stressful, but at the end you have a job that you love...hopefully.

Listen now to Episode 021: Match Day!

Episode 020: Positive Exposure with Rick Guidotti

Photos by Rick Guidotti

Rick Guidotti is a fashion photographer working in New York, Milan, Paris, and London for everyone from Elle to Yves Saint Laurent. In 1997, he and physician Diane McLean founded Positive Exposure, a non-profit organization dedicated to using the visual arts to highlight the beauty of genetic diversity and challenging the stigmas associated with differences in appearance. Positive Exposure presents diversity workshops, educational and human rights programs, and multimedia exhibitions for physicians, nurses, genetic counselors, health care professionals-in-training, universities, elementary and secondary schools, legislators, and the general public.  Rick sat down with Iowa medical students Kurt Wall and Miriam Wiener to talk about his work with Positive Exposure, and about what families who live with genetic, physical, and intellectual differences want: to have their stories heard.

While you listen, be sure to visit http://positiveexposure.org/, and look at the galleries at the bottom of the page to meet the families and people that Positive Exposure works with.

Listen to Episode 020: Positive Exposure with Rick Guidotti.

Episode 019: Gunners and Slackers

Regular Miriam Weiner. 

It's a well-known fact that medical students fall into two broad categories: the gunners and the slackers.  A panel of students, including students Willis Hong, Mgbechi Erondu, Zeynep Demir, Cameron Crockett, Kat Hu, Miriam Weiner, Tyler Bertroche and Tony Cyr have fun exploring these two groups' styles, motivations, and the effect they can have on their peers.  So much fun, in fact, that we must say: The opinions expressed belong only to those who voiced them, and are not the opinions of the University of Iowa or the Carver College of Medicine.  

Listen--Episode 019: Gunners and Slackers

Episode 018: David Oshinksy, PhD, and Polio: An American Story

Polio patients in iron lungs in 1952. Photo: Wikipedia

Today Natalie Ramirez, Zhi Xiong, Mgbechi Erondu and Dave Etler got to hang out with a real Pulitzer winner (!) and a nice man, David Oshinsky, PhD. He is the author of Polio: An American Story. From the papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin, and other key players, Dr. Oshinsky records the U.S. public health crisis of polio and the search for a cure in the early 1950s, a frightening time for all Americans.
Dr. Oshinsky taught 20th century U.S. political and cultural history at Rutgers University before moving to the University of Texas at Austin. His other works include A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy and Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.

He has a lot to say about one of the greatest public health threats of the 20th Century, what it took to bring it down, and why the fight isn’t over.

Listen to Episode 018: David Oshinksy and Polio: An American Story

Special thanks to Michael Welsh, MD, and the members of the 2012 Distinguished Mentor Award committee for the opportunity!

Dealing with Med Student Stress

A 2006 review of studies on medical student psychological distress suggests that its common for medical students to experience depression and anxiety, more so than in the general population or those in the later years of medical training.  Hello, Captain Obvious.  As our new medical students finish up their first full week of medical school, student Natalie Ramirez and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics psychiatrist Jodi Tate join us to talk about the stress that medical students face as they begin medical school, and what they can do to take the edge off.  

Listen:  The Short Couch: Dealing with Medical Student Stress

Episode 016: Temple Grandin - My Experience With Autism: A Medical Look at How People with Autism Think

Temple Grandin was born in Boston, and was diagnosed with high functioning autism when she was 2 years old.  She didn't talk until the age of four, and like many children who are different, found fitting in to her neurotypical peer group difficult. In 1965, at the age of 18, she invented what she called a hug machine, or squeeze box, which she designed to alleviate stress through application of deep pressure stimulation. The pressure is similar to a hug, but not as overwhelming as hugs given by other people.   The device, inspired by her observation that cattle being prepared for inoculation grow calm when they are confined in a so-called squeeze chute, is still in use today in several therapy programs around the country.

Today, Temple Grandin is a doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University.  She is a leader of both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements.  In the Spring of 2012, she addressed an audience at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

Listen (2 hours, but worth it!):  Temple Grandin - My Experience With Autism: A Medical Look at How People with Autism Think