Episodes

May 26, 2022

Practicing medicine as a Deaf physician is an uphill battle

"No one anticipated how the pandemic would impact their Deaf colleagues’ work environment and career opportunities. Yet, 15% of adults report some form of hearing difficulty. This number increases dramatically with advancing age, with 50% of those...

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May 25, 2022

Non-profit work and exploring the life of a pathologist

In this episode, we talk to pathologist Hoda Zeinab M. Amer who discusses her work with non-profits, along with her book detailing the behind-the-scenes lives of pathologists. We also open the proverbial black box of pathology and she explores the...

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May 24, 2022

Are you financially cheating on your spouse?

"If you have never heard the term 'financial infidelity,' it doesn’t mean you don’t know what it is. In fact, according to a recent creditcards.com survey, 32 percent of respondents have financially cheated on their partners. Both finances and...

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May 23, 2022

Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response

"As physicians, we are masterful at suppressing so many of our emotions, and the thoughts and memories associated with them. However, trauma has a way of impacting us in great big obvious ways (as we saw with Will Smith), and …

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May 22, 2022

A burnout coach saved my medical career — and possibly my life

"I almost quit my job in 2014. I didn’t like my life, and I didn’t like myself. I had a lot of problems personally and professionally, and I wondered if I was good enough to solve them. I often felt …

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May 21, 2022

Why I help physicians write

"Physicians have a deep well of experiences to draw from in their writing. They witness dramatic episodes of heroism, cures, disappointments, and failures. They see unforgettable scenes, hear devastating words, make difficult decisions, and observe...

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May 20, 2022

A physician’s story of dissociative identity disorder

"I had no recollection of this, but as I processed what Yael said, my response was the opposite of what one might expect—I felt tremendous relief! I was happy. My pain had a name and hopefully that meant that I …

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May 19, 2022

Infertility treatment's hidden costs

"Looking to the future, since I only froze one embryo and my ovary reserve is diminishing, we are hoping to go through another infertility treatment cycle. Although, once again, the medications are once again being denied. Infertility is just like …

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May 18, 2022

Make technology work for doctors

"I know many physicians are already maxed out. Technology can make that worse. As soon as you introduce what will be perceived as new obstacles to moving from A to Z, all they’re going to think is, “I can’t do …

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May 17, 2022

Only patients can save U.S. health care

"Having a physician partner who knows us well, who we can trust, and whose judgment we value exponentially increases the odds of accurately making the distinction between self-limited illness versus a significant disease process. This will also assist...

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May 16, 2022

Are my coping skills a result of my emergency medicine training?

"We’re encouraged to mentally rehearse life-saving procedures for conditions that occur so rarely we might go our entire career without performing them. And the reality is that I could spend every minute of my free time this way and still …

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May 15, 2022

Residency interviews and the inner muse

"Have you ever wondered how many times death has not come, but could have? On the corner of Church Street and Dubuque how close was I, pausing to assess an ice-sheeted puddle just before a woman turns, her head turned …

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May 14, 2022

A patient explains the reasons behind doctor hopping

"Oh no, it’s a doctor hopper. You know who I’m talking about: the patients with twenty previous doctors documented in their chart. The ones who took years to be diagnosed. The ones who still have not been diagnosed, but insist …

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May 13, 2022

Listening to the doctor's heart

"A few months ago, I embarked on an ethnographic study to understand what health care professionals saw as the psychosocial needs of pediatric patients. This involved conversations with several doctors in Pakistan, who had volunteered to share their...

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May 12, 2022

Inside the mind of a medical novel writer

In this episode, we talk with writer Dustin Grinnell. He takes us behind the scenes on his ideas for his books, his research process, and how he brings medical stories to life. We also delve into the realm of speculative …

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May 11, 2022

COVID-19 and the Great Resignation: a catalyst, not the cause

"The Great Resignation. I doubt there is a medical practice out there that has not been affected by it. And experts predict we are just at the beginning. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ early data from 2022 shows that …

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May 10, 2022

Jim Dahle, MD and the White Coat Investor

In this episode, I interview Jim Dahle, creator of the White Coat Investor. He has literally created a new asset class of content: the health care professional personal finance space. He discusses how he got his start with the White …

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May 9, 2022

We are not defined by what we eat

"I propose that we look at what each choice in food does for us: How does it make my body feel? How am I able to sleep and move and focus when I eat this food? How am I giving …

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May 8, 2022

Who will heal the physician?

"Medical errors exist at the far end of a continuum of unexpected events in clinical practice and they are devastating for all involved. Even when care is attentive and patient compliance perfect, unexpected outcomes occur in medicine. Unanticipated...

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May 7, 2022

What we need to know about environmental toxins

"Even low dose mercury toxicity can be harmful to human health in a variety of ways: enhanced free radical stress, reduced glutathione levels, increase in apolipoprotein E g4 genotype expression, promotion of neurofibrillary tangles and altered immune...

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May 6, 2022

Finding meaning with medical missions

"One initiative that more administrators should support is global medical outreach. The ability to practice pure medicine, like the neighborhood doctor from long ago, renews a love for the vocation that physicians sought when they first entered...

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May 5, 2022

What patients need vs. what patients want

"Patients want more than simply learning about a problem and how to treat it. Patients want reassurance. While I summarized the proposed surgical treatment, I watched for signs of anxiety or lack of understanding. Ultimately, my patient wanted to have...

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May 4, 2022

Understanding your medical malpractice insurance policy

"Arguably one of the most overlooked yet incredibly important aspects of your malpractice insurance policy is the Consent to Settle Provision. You’re paying thousands of dollars a year for your malpractice insurance; you should have a say in how...

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May 3, 2022

Mental illness and suicide: a physician's story

"Sufferers of mental illness often believe that others feel they have control of their symptoms, only having to decide to not be, for example, depressed. While they themselves suffer the symptoms of mental illness, they often have the feeling that...

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