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

Episode 015: Chuck Huss and Wilderness Medicine

Mt. Everest, part of the Himalayan Mountain range is the highest mountain on the planet.  Those who attempt to climb to the 29,000-foot-high peak are a pretty hardy bunch; past 26,246 feet, climbers are challenged not just to climb but to survive.  Exhaustion can occur just from the effort of breathing, never mind the dangers associated with lack of oxygen, extreme cold, and falling off the mountain.  Climbers who die near the top are most often entombed there, because to bring their bodies back would entail too great a risk for other climbers.

Iowa City emergency medicine physician Chuck Huss is a veteran mountaineer who has participated in expeditions to high peaks across the globe, including four expeditions to Mt. Everest.  He has served as expedition physician on several trips, and has an incredible wealth of knowledge on international travel, mountaineering, and global medicine.  He sat down recently with med student Asitha Jayawardena to talk about his experiences in the wilderness.

Listen: Episode 015: Chuck Huss and Wilderness Medicine

Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders, Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of Dr. John Lawrence's discussion on Doctors Without Borders (here's Part 1).

In 1971, a group of doctors and journalists in France got together to create Medecins Sans Frontieres.  Today, MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, boasts more than 27,000 committed individuals representing dozens of nationalities who provide assistance to people caught in crises around the world. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals and others who work in more than 60 countries helping people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.  They also bring attention to neglected crises, challenge inadequacies or abuses of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In the second part of this two-part episode of The Short Coat, Dr. John Lawrence, formerly associate professor of surgery at the University of Iowa and now at the University of Vermont, continues to discuss his work in Doctors Without Borders.

Special thanks to the Carver College of Medicine's Global Programs department, and to Mo Yacoub for production assistance! 

Listen: Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders, Part 2
Or, start with Part 1.

Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders, Part 1

In 1971, a group of doctors and journalists in France got together to create Medecins Sans Frontieres.  Today, MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, boasts more than 27,000 committed individuals representing dozens of nationalities who provide assistance to people caught in crises around the world. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals and others who work in more than 60 countries helping people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.  They also bring attention to neglected crises, challenge inadequacies or abuses of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In this two-part episode of The Short Coat, Dr. John Lawrence, formerly associate professor of surgery at the University of Iowa and now at the University of Vermont, returns to the Carver College of Medicine to discuss his work in Doctors Without Borders.

Special thanks to the Carver College of Medicine's Global Programs department, and to Mo Yacoub for production assistance! 

Listen: Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders