Episodes

March 6, 2021

Captions on the COVID vaccine selfie matter as much as the picture

"For a vaccination campaign to be highly effective, we need to be open to having difficult conversations with people who disagree with our perspective. If we don’t, the result will be a polarization of philosophical ideas and not an unbiased and...

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March 5, 2021

Do politics have a place in medicine?

"In addition to being a pediatrician, I am Jewish and the granddaughter of a sole Holocaust survivor. My grandfather’s family perished in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland. My grandfather alone escaped, skiing through the night, to his...

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March 4, 2021

An introduction to medical-legal consulting

"There is a unique non-clinical consulting opportunity any physician can learn to do full-time, as part of your existing practice, or in lieu of retiring.  I’m Dr. Armin Feldman, and I’m a full-time medical-legal consultant in legal...

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March 3, 2021

We need to work together to help schools reopen

"Children cannot afford to wait, especially our youngest learners who have difficulty engaging on a screen.  We need to all work together to help schools reopen, especially in low-income communities that are disproportionately suffering and may...

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March 3, 2021

Health care from the trenches: Change must come from us

"We, as a profession, must accept some blame for many of the developing problems in health care delivery. No, I am not suggesting that we caused the problem. I am stating that we have had ample opportunities to manage the debacle and even to reverse...

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March 2, 2021

Why I trust the COVID vaccine

"Many friends have asked for my perspective on the COVID vaccine. Answering this requires both an explanation of clinical trials and an understanding of what normally slows down pharmaceutical development. Importantly, COVID vaccines are required to...

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March 2, 2021

How physicians can emerge stronger after 2020

"With 2020 behind us and the pandemic still raging, it is incumbent upon us to take a close look in the rear-view mirror. While the vaccines’ approval gives us all hope, the vaccination initiative’s slow rollout should worry us. Physicians, health...

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March 1, 2021

Samuel Shem, MD on how can we put the connection back into medicine

"There is a frenzy of trying to use technology to re-establish the healing human connection in the doctor-patient interaction. These efforts range from advanced transcription of voice-to-record, scribes who do the data recording during a patient...

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Feb. 28, 2021

How residents can create a positive clinical learning environment

"For me, the team room became a safe space filled with light, stories, laughter, and food. There, my residents helped me read CT scans, interpret CBCs, come up with the differential for bradycardia, and organize my oral presentations. My residents...

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Feb. 27, 2021

Is there a role for vitamin D in COVID-19?

"As we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic causing spiking numbers of cases, the scientific and medical communities continue to search for effective treatments and preventive measures. We have clearly established the importance of wearing...

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Feb. 26, 2021

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chadwick Boseman: a tale of two cancers in Am…

"Separated by less than a month (Boseman on August 28th and Ginsburg on September 18th) and both due to gastrointestinal cancers (Boseman had colon cancer and Ginsburg had pancreatic cancer), the situations of Ginsburg’s and Boseman’s deaths is...

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Feb. 25, 2021

Interstate licensure for telehealth can fuel medical practice growth

"When it comes to using telehealth to treat patients out of state, most physicians are mindful about licensure issues. But some are not aware that if you don’t have a license to practice medicine in a given state, it isn’t just malpractice: It’s...

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Feb. 24, 2021

How books influence the medical student experience

"I will never forget these words. This physician validated my efforts to emotionally connect with patients. This message will indelibly shape the way I allow myself to care for and become invested in the patients to come in my future. Illness is often...

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Feb. 23, 2021

Letizia Alto, MD on why to become a semi-retired MD

"Something had to give, and it would either be clinical medicine, or my business. I finally had to admit I was no longer fulfilled to the same level doing hospitalist work. So I made the decision to leave my clinical job. It was so terrifying that I...

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Feb. 22, 2021

Overcome COVID vaccine hesitancy and boost vaccine confidence: How yo…

Vaccine hesitancy can have a negative impact on rollout. A striking example comes from long-term care facilities. Approximately 78 percent of residents received a vaccine. In contrast, only 37 percent of staff members agreed to be vaccinated. Reasons...

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Feb. 21, 2021

How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19

"As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the globe, companies are working hard to develop innovative solutions to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese companies such as Alibaba have led the way using artificial intelligence, data science, and...

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Feb. 21, 2021

Everything physicians need to know about Bitcoin

"It is still extremely early in the Bitcoin story. This is due to the same network effect that Facebook, Amazon, and Apple have had as adoption of new technologies rapidly expand and are adopted by society. Bitcoin has passed its 'tipping point.'...

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Feb. 20, 2021

How the pain of unexpected and tragic deaths lingers with physicians

"The memory of these patients, and their families’ utter anguish, stays with me. There was nothing I could have done to save them, nothing I did wrong. I’ve lost sleep, questioned my career choice, and sought mental health counseling to manage the...

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Feb. 19, 2021

Expanding the osteopathic concept for the health of all things

"We are all interrelated. This is the foundational basis of osteopathic medicine. Whether considering internal relationships of the systems of the body or the external relationships of a person with the world around them, connection is a key principle...

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Feb. 18, 2021

Telehealth in underserved populations needs telecommunication expansi…

"COVID-19 has propelled the nation into widespread telehealth services to provide consumer-based care, especially for those who access this technology. Equity issues arise when using digital communication because many underserved populations lack...

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Feb. 17, 2021

A dermatologist reflects on his career

"At that point, I realized Thanksgiving came early this year, and I missed it. It was a reminder of why many of us go into medicine. I didn’t go into medicine for glory or fame. Nor did I go into medicine for financial reward. Still, I often told...

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Feb. 16, 2021

To MBA or not to MBA as an MD

"The first thing my husband said when I told him about MBA school was, 'the NBA has a school?'  It didn’t help that we first had our conversation about MBA school during the NBA playoffs but really – NBA school?  I quickly overcame this...

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Feb. 15, 2021

Suicide in veterinary medicine is a huge problem right now

"I am a veterinarian. More specifically, I am a veterinary specialist, board-certified in emergency and critical care. I don’t play with puppies and kittens. I treat the worst of the worst in a specialty hospital setting with a state-of-the-art ER...

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Feb. 14, 2021

Infertility and the physician journey

"I am a medical doctor—a hospitalist working in an environment with many talented professionals. We share our knowledge and our approach to medicine with one another in ways that profoundly affect our patients and other personnel in the hospital. At...

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