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 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 026 - 'Fake Patients' and Students: a Meeting of the Minds

Few students like exams.  That probably wasn't close-to-mind when, in 1999, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical colleges, decreed that the Carver College of Medicine would incorporate clinical skills assessment into the curriculum.  Then, in 2004, the National Board of Medical Examiners began using the Step II Clinical Skills test as part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.  This Step, one of the three that seeks to ensure students are becoming competent doctors, required students to demonstrate their clinical skills on live actors.  These actors played standardized roles so that the examination results would be meaningful.

So it was that the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and MD programs across the country, created the Performance-Based Assessment Program.  The PBA program was charged with preparing third-year students for this new exam. They did this the exact same way the NBME did it: by hiring actors to portray patients with various complaints to test what third- and fourth-year students had learned about interviewing such patients.

Since then the program has grown tremendously.  Now they don’t just test medical students, but they teach them as well.  Things like general physical exam skills, PE skills specific to male and female patients, communication skills, and a lot more.

On this episode, students Cole Cheney, Senuri Jayatilleka, Michael Zhang, and Keenan Laraway joined simulated patients JC Luxton and Mary Nell Jackson meet for a little debate and an exchange of views on their roles as students and 'fake patients.' 

Listen to Episode 026 - Who Are These People, Anyway? Simulated Patients and Students.