Tag Archives: autism

The Darkness Without: SAD in Med School

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Madeline called to ask: it’s finals week and you’re stricken with seasonal depression–what’s a med student to do?  We feel you, Madeline.  Luckily, Aline Sandouk, Nick Lind, Derek Bradley, and Hillary O’Brien are ready to throw open the curtains on their ideas to help.  And Jeannet-tello hit us up on our Instagram to find out what she should do about impostor syndrome.

Plus, Dave shares the recent video that UIHC Marketing and Communications unwisely allowed him to be in.

 

This Week in Medical News

Healthcare providers, if you want to take the Surgeon General’s advice and save people from dying of opioid overdoses, you might kiss your ability to get health insurance goodbye.  And a Tennessee physician starts off his new job as a US Representative by promising–for no reason at all–to dig up the dirt the CDC has been hiding about vaccines and autism.  Thank goodness, we’re all saved.

We Want to Hear From You

Are you nervous about starting med school? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Share your fears!

Continue reading The Darkness Without: SAD in Med School

Your Pre-med Clinical Experience Can Cost You Money and Waste Your Time…and Hurt Your Application.

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Photo by mikecogh

Medical school admissions committees look for clinical experiences on applications, so it behooves premeds to seek out ways to get into the clinic as a way of learning about the practice of medicine and to show they are serious about becoming a physician.  But there are clinical experiences that can hurt your application, and the Association of American Medical Colleges want to warn premeds that participation might signal a lack of judgement. Corbin Weaver, Kylie Miller, Teneme Konne, and Levi Endelman give some advice on the ones to avoid.  Meanwhile our president-elect is thinking about creating a ‘commission on autism,’ and may be looking to a well-known anti-vaxxer to head it up.  And a cybersecurity flaw leaves pacemakers and defibrillators wide open to hackers, allowing them to shock patients or drain batteries.  And we find out whether our co-hosts can really understand their patients, even if they speak sdrawkcab.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for a question to consider every week.

Continue reading Your Pre-med Clinical Experience Can Cost You Money and Waste Your Time…and Hurt Your Application.

Sudden Empathy, Too Much Empathy, and A Lack of Empathy

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Poor lister Erin. She writes to let us know she can’t find the first 44 episodes of the show, now that she’s listened to all eighty(!) of those available on iTunes. We explain how she can fill the sad hole in her life this tragedy has left. Dave’s shower thoughts lead Aline Sandouk, Amy Young, Marc Toral and Kaci McCleary to discuss the utility of giving not a single feldercarb what people think of you. On the flip side, an article in the New York Times offers a peek at what can happen if you go from not caring (or even knowing) what people think to caring all too much, when transcranial magnetic stimulation suddenly enables an autistic man to understand what others are thinking of him.
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Things No One Tells You About Med School

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Photo by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

The commitment required for medical school is well known.  But what do you find out about this commitment out only after you’ve begun?  Should you stop untying your shoes to save time?  Will your ethics be challenged during medical school?  Is it best to invest in a crockpot?  Will you doubt your choice to come to medical school?  Find out how Lisa Wehr, Kaci McCleary, and Nick Sparr have dealt with these inevitable questions on this week’s show.  And we announce our voicemail contest, in which you, dear listener, can win a Starbucks gift card.

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Andrew Solomon, and Parents Raising Unexpectedly Different Children

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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.

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

Temple Grandin – My Experience With Autism: A Medical Look at How People with Autism Think

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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

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.