Episode 044: Peace Be With You, Russian Sex Geckos

Nathan Miller and Aline Sandouk return to react and discuss the latest news and info from the world of medicine and medical education.  We say a little prayer for some Russian geckos sent into space for what should have been the time of their lives, but sadly wasn't.  We also applaud the NIH's solution to the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of Henrietta Lacks' so-called immortal cells in research (catch up on that by going back to episode 025).  We talk about resident- and fourth-year suicides and what to do about the problem.  We talk about Dr. Brian Goldman's solution to medical mistakes: talking about them openly.  And yet another innovative use of 3d printing: medication implants.

Listen to Episode 044: Peace Be With You, Russian Sex Geckos.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• Sex Geckos Die In Orbit on Russian Space Project
• NIH Finally Makes Good with Henrietta Lacks' Family
• Why Do Doctors Commit Suicide?
• Doctors Make Mistakes. Can We Talk About That?
• LSU Student Creates 3D Medical Implants

Episode 043: COFFEEEEEE!

This week an overly caffeinated Dave is joined by new podcaster Jordan Harbaugh-Williams, who, along with Cole Cheney, Corbin Weaver, and Aline Sandouk discuss the Midwesterner habit of being polite; the Deeded Body Ceremony; and Cole outs Corbin's possible run for office in medical school government.  That's not confirmed, by the way--her spokespeople say she's currently exploring her options and hasn't ruled out a campaign.  Also, a drive through pain medicine clinic in Texas is shut down, for some reason.  Tulane opens a teaching kitchen for medical students.  A review of lithopedion cases.  And a Chinese man gets a 3D printed skull implant operation.

Listen to Episode 043: COFFEEEEEEE!.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• 38-Year-Old Skeleton Removed from Woman, 62
• Victoria's Drive Thru Doc indicted
• Tulane School of Medicine opens first-of-its-kind teaching kitchen
• Farmer left with chunk missing from his skull after fall has it rebuilt with 3D printer

Episode 041: The M1s Are All Right

One week of the semester gone, and M1s Aline Sandouk, Ethan Craig, and Nathan Miller report in on their experiences.  Who's their favorite lecturer?  They won't say, but they seem to be alive, well, and moving right along. Also, the FDA thinks we should regulate the use of feces as a drug. How an extreme athlete who isn't a scientist did what she always does--pushes through the pain--to discover her genetic flaw when no-one else could. A company founded by a medical student with a bioengineering background comes up with a smart, simple, easy way to treat a scourge of childbirth in developing countries--postpartum hemorrhage. And a quick plug for The Discover Fit & Health channel which continues its fine tradition of infotainment programming with "Untold Stories of the ER," featuring a story of a woman who fed her daughter tapeworms to get her ready for that all-important beauty pageant.

Listen to Episode 041: The M1s Are All Right.


Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• Should We Regulate Poop As A Drug?
• DIY Diagnosis: How An Extreme Athlete Uncovered Her Genetic Flaw
• Touro Med Student Secures $250K Grant for Lifesaving Technology
• Woman Feeds Tapeworms to Daughter on Untold Stories of the ER

Episode 041: Orientation Week!

This week, first-year medical student Corbin Weaver joins the team, and gives Keenan Laraway the low-down on her orientation week experiences.  We discuss the alleged shady medical theories of Dr. Henry Heimlich (of the eponymous maneuver), a 6-year-old's MAGEC spine correction treatment, Walmart's desire to be your primary care doc's office, and a device that might just revolutionize the transportation of (and therefore the whole process of transplanting) donor organs.

Listen to Episode 041: Orientation Week!.

 Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• Is this the next big leap for organ transplants?
• Walmart wants to be your doctor's office.
• How Dr. Heimlich Maneuvered Hollywood into backing his dangerous AIDS "cure".
• 6-year-old boy with scoliosis is first in New York area to get magnetic spine lengthening.

Episode 040: Finding A Way Out

In this episode, we meet new Carver College of Medicine Learning Communities Coordinator Megan McDowell, who I shanghaied into being on the show after she'd been on the job only 4 days and 3 hours.  Then Terrance Wong shares a painful moment from his past growing up in Oakland, California, amidst gangs and gang violence, and what he's trying to do for a pre-medicine student who's searching for his own exit strategy. What can healthcare professionals do in the face of such upheaval?

Listen to Episode 040: Finding a Way Out of Gang Violence.
Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore
• McNair Scholars Program
• Upward Bound
• Summer Research Opportunities Program
• Hospital Gives Free Tattoo Removals to Gang Members
• Fighting Gangs the Healthy Way
• Health Care Professionals Response to Gang Violence

Episode 039: Fist Bumps, Ebola, and Too Many Teeth

This week, Cole Cheney, Terrance Wong, and Lisa Wehr  marvel at an Indian boy's odontoma and its many, many, many toothlets.  Also, how to decrease transmission of Ebola by using fist-bumps instead of handshakes and have the hippest clinic in the world all at the same time.  Also, Ebola.  The Second Fittest Woman On Earth hopes to do better, and how the future of pharmacology is imperiled by climate change.

Listen to Episode 039: Fist bumps, Ebola, and Too Many Teeth.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

• The Future of Medicine Depends on The Most Fragile Places on Earth
• Fist Bumps Safer Than Handshakes
• Case Med School Student Out To Prove She's the Fittest Woman On Earth
• Peace Corps Pulls Volunteers Over Ebola Outbreak
• Indian Boy Who Had a World Record 232 Teeth

Episode 038: Changing the World Outside the Clinic

Doctors enjoy, for better or worse, and elevated social status.  How can they use that high regard, as well as their knowledge, to change the world when they're not in the clinic?
In this episode, Alison Pletch, Zeynep Demir, Eric Wilson, and Alison Seline brainstorm some avenues from politics to journalism that docs explore when they have the itch to change the world.

Listen to Episode 038: Changing the World Outside the Clinic.

• Working Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park and This Widow's 4 Kids Were Taken After She Left Them Home Alone
• Israel-Gaza conflict: Doctor Mads Gilbert evokes conditions in a Gaza hospital
• A Day in the Life of a Successful Nurse Writer
• Four Ways Katie Couric Stacked The Deck Against Gardasil
• Agriculture and Health Policies Intro
• Physicians of the 113th Congress
• UIHC spinout seeks to reduce blindness

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 037: Junk Science

Junk science dominates our thoughts in this episode, our first recording in front of a live studio audience (the Introduction to Medical Education at Iowa students who were kind enough to join us).  Cole Cheney, Alison Pletch, Keenan Laraway, and Eric Wilson talked about Dr. Mehmet Oz's recent troubles, including a New York M3 who asked the AMA and the NY Medical Association to step in.  Also, Cole drops some new research knowledge on us about why pot makes people paranoid (hint--having a researcher stand over you asking you if you're paranoid might be another known cause of paranoia), and The Egyptian Army says it has cured HIV and hepatitis, or so they claim, using a simple point and shoot device that detects AND purifies the blood.   But it needs a leeeeetle more testing...

• AIDS-curing device needs more testing, Egypt's army says
• Meet the medical student who wants to bring down Dr. Oz
• Physician Sounds Alarm On Illegal Drugs Sold On Amazon

Listen to Episode 037: Junk Science.
Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 036: Terrible Business Ideas for Medical Students

This time Lisa Wehr, Cole Cheney, and Zhi Xiong get to hear Dave's many terrible business ideas for medical students.

Also, Zhi shares her enjoyment of studying for Step 2 CK and CS. A NY medical school proposes a terrorism-focused curriculum, which sounds nice. We view a trailer for the independent film Code Black created by an LA emergency medicine doc. Missouri is thinking about creating 'assistant physicians' to drastically shorten the intern year.  And Cole shares research that shows mice will readily use a running wheel and tell their friends about it, if you just set it in the woods where they live, thus paving the way for tiny mouse gym memberships and strip malls.

• Terror may become a bigger focus in medical school
• Code Black
• Missouri legislators would allow assistant doctors 
• Sick notes for sale as World Cup fever grips China

Listen to Episode 036: Terrible Business Ideas for Medical Students.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 035: Freestyling in Bean!

Lisa Wehr and Dave are free styling in Bean Learning Community! 

Our own Lisa Wehr, in a grain bin.

We talk about her recent class on the public health aspects of farming.  How a 3-year-old in a Batman suit and 43 seniors in an IHOP helped create a tool (launching soon) that promises to help seniors understand and talk to their doctors about the costs of care. We discuss social media health information, and how it’s the worst.  An ER doc asks herself whether docs need to get hit by cars to understand what their patients are trying to tell them.  A geneticist sequences his unborn child’s genome “because it’s cool.” How the British Cycling team’s efforts to win the Tour de France suggests that the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ might be better and easier than big, sexy fixes, even in healthcare and studying medicine.  And Cleveland Clinic is forced to graduate a student who just…well, he didn’t meet their professionalism goals for their students.

• Power To The Health Data Geeks
• ‘Nothing Is Broken’: For An Injured Doctor, Quality-Focused Care Misses The Mark
• For One Baby, Life Begins with Genome Revealed
• This Person Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here's What Happened
• Judge Orders Case Western to Grant Diploma to Medical Student

Listen to Episode 035: Freestyling in Bean.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 034: Freestyling in Boulware!

This week, Lisa Wehr and I talk about the dangers of lady hurricanes (do NOT ignore a lady or you will suffer).  A Yale prof get's addicted to an exercise app.  Bringing cheaper medical equipment to developing countries.  Iowa's new Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building is nearing completion, which is nice for science but even nicer for people who don't want to look at mounds of dirt any more. X-factors in med school applications--what is (was) yours?  Apple moves on creating a place to store all the data your apps are currently housing separately.

• Female-named hurricanes kill more than male hurricanes because people don’t respect them
• Is Some Tech Too Addictive?
• The secret to surviving surgery in a little yellow box
• Apple's Answer to the Quantified You

Listen to Episode 034: Freestyling in Boulware!.

 Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 033: Freestyling in Flocks!

Summer is here, and...everyone's gone. Except for Lisa Wehr, who joined Dave Etler for a little freestyle convo in Flocks Community.   We congratulated the recently graduated M4s, talk a little about the dreaded 'dean's letter,' or MSPE, and some of our favorite stories from the past few weeks' news:

• UC Irvine plans med school's Google Glass integrations.
• Medicine's top earners aren't MDs.  
• Medical students aren't competent to treat patients with disabilities.
• Students aren't being trained to disclose medical errors, apologize.
• Fork-swallowing Romanian's docs take 'First, do no harm' perhaps too seriously?

Listen to Episode 033: Freestyling in Flocks!

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 032: Medicine and the Arts? They get along just fine.

This week, a bit of a departure from our usual format.  M2 Eric Wilson files a report on how medicine and the humanities, and specifically writing, are interacting with each other in ways that not long go would have seemed unlikely.  Medical schools either have or are beginning to embrace the humanities as a way to build empathy and reflect on how medicine is practiced.  Our own Carver College of Medicine, part of 'The Writing University', was naturally among the first to celebrate the fit between writing and medicine by establishing a Writing and Humanities Program for its students.  

Serena Fox, Louise Aronson, and Rachel Hammer

If you’re pre-med, a medical student, or a doc yourself, and you’ve been trying to reconcile a love for writing and art with a love for medicine and science, Eric’s interviews with poet and critical care doc Serena Fox, geriatrician and fiction writer Louise Aronson, and Mayo Clinic med student Rachel Hammer will give you some comfort.  As they each prepared to visit Iowa for the eighth annual Examined Life Conference, they talked about what writing offers them in their practice of medicine.

Listen to Episode 032: Medicine and the Arts? They get along just fine..

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 031: Andrew Solomon, and Parents Raising Unexpectedly Different Children

The Carver College of Medicine's conference on the intersection's between the humanities and medicine was fortunate to book author and psychologist Andrew Solomon as its featured presenter this year. Solomon is an activist and philanthropist in LGBT rights, mental health, education and the arts.

Andrew Solomon, PhD

His latest book, Far From the Tree, is an exploration of families coping with the differences between the parents and their extraordinary children: deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender.

These stories are courageous in their telling, as are the families who opened themselves up to Dr. Solomon over the eleven-year course of writing the book. Ultimately, they led Dr. Solomon to understand his own identity, and helped him with his decision to have his own children.

Students Rachel Press-Goosen, Eric Wilson, and Dwiju Kumar sat down with Dr. Solomon to discuss the book and find out more about the struggles and triumphs these families experienced.

Listen to Episode 031: Andrew Solomon, and Parents Raising Unexpectedly Different Children.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 030: Freestyling in McCowen

We're trying something new with the podcast. It's been a while between episodes, and your erstwhile executive producer hasn't had a lot of time to arrange for great interviewees or topics.  So, I thought, let's get together and just...talk.  Freestyle, as it were.  We talk with med students Tim Bahr, Pat Hussey, Elizabeth Dupic, and Rhonda Endecott about their highs and lows of the past week, CCOM Match Day results, and whatever crossed our minds, basically.

And there were some news stories that caught my eye recently including infection rates at hospitals according to the CDC (hint: I'd rather drive recklessly than get admitted); and Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales says "Uh, no" to alt-med champions because he'd rather the site feature actually credible medical info (which is good news for basic science course directors, eh?).

Listen to Episode 030: Freestyling in McCowen.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

Episode 029: What Tech Makes Med School Easier?

When you're drinking from the firehose, you need a good straw.  This is why medical students often turn to technology to help distill everything down into something they can actually remember and use.  But buried under a mountain of technological possibilities, it’s really difficult to decide on what level of dependence on technology you’ll accept, what apps to use, what websites to trust, how to establish a workflow for studying, whether or not residents (or worse, patients) will ding you for whipping out your smartphone during rounds, how to keep all your devices charged, and how to pay for it all.

Students Alison Pletch, Jesse Van Maanen, and Cole Cheney talked about the tech they use;  what about you?  

Listen to Episode 029: What Tech Makes Med School Easier?.