Listener Hannah wrote in after shadowing physicians, noting that many of the morbidly obese patients she observed resisted their doctors’ advice to lose weight. Is there any hope that doctors can treat this intractable illness when patients don’t “want” to do the work? Aline Sandouk, Claire Casteneda, Kylie Miller, and newbie Ali Hassan offer their views and what they’ve learned so far about treating this difficult disease.
Also, in Dave’s constant quest to ‘contribute’ to his co-hosts clinical skills, we visit the saddest place on the Internet, Yahoo! Answers, so they can practice their patient education techniques.
This Week in Medical News
Congratulations, Sperm Donor #2757! You’re the father of 45 girls and boys between the ages of 1 to 21 years old, and your generosity has made things very weird! And we discuss yet another questionable beauty practice, the vampire facial, which OH COME ON NOW, HOW IS THIS EVEN A THING?
We Want to Hear From You
What are your views on the obesity epidemic…is it hopeless? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. Do all three!
A live stage show featuring the stories of healthcare providers is now a podcast you’ll love.
Dr. Silverman is an academic hospitalist at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where she seeks out projects that resurrect the narrative soul of medicine. (Photo: http://thenocturnists.com/team/)
The day-to-day of internship, residency, and an MD career doesn’t allow much time to process the effect it’s having on the practitioner. Rushing from one patient to the next, putting out the fires even while drinking from the firehose, and being selfless in service to the patients’ needs means that one’s own stories are buried, neglected. More and more, however, medicine is acknowledging the need for practitioners to examine and tell their stories so that they can learn from them, teach their lessons to others, and show colleagues that they are not alone. In 2015 Dr. Emily Silverman was in her second year of her internal medicine residency at UCSF. She found herself with a little more time following her frenetic intern year, and with her own stories that had gone untold and unexamined. She started to write, first in a blog she called The Nocturnists. Then, in 2016 she organized the first live storytelling session with her colleagues.
Now, in 2018, those live sessions–held in theaters with fun music and a bar, but most importantly, distant from the hospital– are playing to sellout crowds. Not only do the shows allow for catharsis, but for community. And because Dr. Silverman isn’t ready to allow The University of Iowa to be a satellite venue (and believe us, we asked), we’re grateful that The Nocturnists is also a podcast! Each episode feature a piece from the live show, followed by a relaxed, thoughtful discussion between Dr. Silverman and the storyteller. Her email to Dave earlier this spring to tell The Short Coats about The Nocturnists was a wonderful break from the usual pitches for Caribbean med schools and Ivy League pay-to-play programs; and it gave Kylie Miller, Brendan George, Marisa Evers, and Sanjeeva Weerasinghe a great opportunity to discuss what it is The Nocturnists are thinking about.
We Want to Hear From You
If you could get up on stage and tell your story, what would you say? Well, we have a stage! Tell the world–call 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
We love when listeners get in touch, which is why Dave was glad to hear from Adil who, after listening to our discussion of the new national Right-To-Try legislation, sent us a paper he wrote on the subject the year before. It really helped clear some things up that we weren’t sure of. Like the fact that it doesn’t actually do anything to help patients get faster access to experimental drugs, has a kind of informed consent problem, allows patients to further conflate research with therapy, and more.
And with thousands of new medical students poised to matriculate this fall, Dave and co-hosts Aline Sandouk, Kylie Miller, and Amy Hanson try out a new awkward icebreaker activity to see if it has some utility for new student orientations.
This Week in Medical News
The Trump administration walks back their recent decision to claw back money earmarked for fighting epidemics around the world. Back home, St. Louis University opens an influenza hotel. And the function of REM sleep finally revealed…maybe.
We Want to Hear From You
What do you most want to find out during your upcoming med school orientation? Are you nervous? Are you excited? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
A live stage show featuring the stories of healthcare providers is now a podcast you’ll love.
Dr. Silverman is an academic hospitalist at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where she seeks out projects that resurrect the narrative soul of medicine. (Photo: http://thenocturnists.com/team/)
The day-to-day of internship, residency, and an MD career doesn’t allow much time to process the effect it’s having on the practitioner. Rushing from one patient to the next, putting out the fires even while drinking from the firehose, and being selfless in service to the patients’ needs means that one’s own stories are buried, neglected. More and more, however, medicine is acknowledging the need for practitioners to examine and tell their stories so that they can learn from them, teach their lessons to others, and show colleagues that they are not alone. In 2015 Dr. Emily Silverman was in her second year of her internal medicine residency at UCSF. She found herself with a little more time following her frenetic intern year, and with her own stories that had gone untold and unexamined. She started to write, first in a blog she called The Nocturnists. Then, in 2016 she organized the first live storytelling session with her colleagues.
Now, in 2018, those live sessions–held in theaters with fun music and a bar, but most importantly, distant from the hospital– are playing to sellout crowds. Not only do the shows allow for catharsis, but for community. And because Dr. Silverman isn’t ready to allow The University of Iowa to be a satellite venue (and believe us, we asked), we’re grateful that The Nocturnists is also a podcast! Each episode feature a piece from the live show, followed by a relaxed, thoughtful discussion between Dr. Silverman and the storyteller. Her email to Dave earlier this spring to tell The Short Coats about The Nocturnists was a wonderful break from the usual pitches for Caribbean med schools and Ivy League pay-to-play programs; and it gave Kylie Miller, Brendan George, Marisa Evers, and Sanjeeva Weerasinghe a great opportunity to discuss what it is The Nocturnists are thinking about.
We Want to Hear From You
If you could get up on stage and tell your story, what would you say? Well, we have a stage! Tell the world–call 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
[Dave had the flu on recording day, so we’re posting this awesome episode from the recent past. Enjoy!]
Dave found himself hosting with another group of women, so what better time to talk about #MeToo and the powerful people being taken down by their sexual harassment and abuse of their less-powerful victims? Erin Pazaski, Hillary O’Brien, Laura Quast, and Liza Mann weigh in on why this seems to have staying power in the news cycle, and why it seems to destroy some powerful men and not others. Plus, since this is a group of friends who, through med school, have come to know each other well, Dave challenges each to answer questions as their friends would.
This Week in Medical News
Speaking of creepy, The University of Miami has a problem on its hands with a medical student who’s been posting other students’ social media pics of their car selfies and beach photos on websites where other folks are excited by such things. A New Hampshire doc loses her license after refusing to use an EHR because she’d rather practice ‘medical art’ (and not properly tracking her prescribing practices). And more medical schools want to hear from premeds what they think about the national debate on the ACA and the individual insurance mandate.
Kylie Miller and Issac Schwantes take a break from their fairly new clinical duties to let Gabe Conley and Erik Kneller know how it’s going working with actual patients. What unexpected things have they learned? Were their professors really correct when the said that arcane bit of information would actually be useful in the real world? Were their fears (whatever they were) realized? Would they rather grandma puke every time they broke wind, or have a shingles outbreak whenever they get a passing grade or better in medical school? Dave assures them: these are the questions listeners want answers to.
What are your fears for starting the next phase of your education? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
The second-year students are moving from the pre-clinical curriculum to the clerkships this week. This transition is exciting–after all, seeing patients is what they’ve come to medical school to do, and now it’s finally happening.
Pat Brau, Kylie MIller, Brady Campbell, and Levi Endelman discuss some of the things they’ve learned in their Transition to Clerkships week, and Dave has some advice for them on how to get the most out of clerkships and how to get good evaluations for their ‘dean’s letter’ that will make them shine for future residency directors.
This Week in Medical News
Of course, one thing that is helpful if you’re seeing a patient is being able to tell if they’re truly sick. That becomes second nature at some point, but even lay people can do it. That skill will come in handy for those in California who subscribe to the idea that raw water is a good idea.
We Want to Hear From You
Transitions are exciting and tough…what makes changes easy or harder for you? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
Dave found himself hosting with another group of women, so what better time to talk about #MeToo and the powerful people being taken down by their sexual harassment and abuse of their less-powerful victims? Erin Pazaski, Hillary O’Brien, Laura Quast, and Liza Mann weigh in on why this seems to have staying power in the news cycle, and why it seems to destroy some powerful men and not others. Plus, since this is a group of friends who, through med school, have come to know each other well, Dave challenges each to answer questions as their friends would.
This Week in Medical News
Speaking of creepy, The University of Miami has a problem on its hands with a medical student who’s been posting other students’ social media pics of their car selfies and beach photos on websites where other folks are excited by such things. A New Hampshire doc loses her license after refusing to use an EHR because she’d rather practice ‘medical art’ (and not properly tracking her prescribing practices). And more medical schools want to hear from premeds what they think about the national debate on the ACA and the individual insurance mandate.
Our recent episode on mental illness in medical school generated some listener feedback. K wrote to say thanks for the honest discussion (our pleasure!), and wondered how open she should be on her medical school application about her journey to sobriety and how it led her to find a love for community service. Dave’s six (!) co-hosts this week–Kalyn Campbell, Kylie Miller, Levi Endelman, Irene Morcuende, Kaci McCleary, and Laura Quast–agree that it’s a tough question with two answers…the one we’d like to be able to give, and the perhaps more realistic one that acknowledges human nature.
Listener Erica called in wondering how students cope with the challenges of medical school and residency, especially in the context of a mental illness. And Terel dropped us a line to ask the differences between a hospitalist and an internist.
This Week in Medical News
Groundbreaking research from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that alternative medicine is a crappy option for cancer patients‘ survival rates…except for prostate cancer. And a Chinese startup publishes a study in which CRISPR knocks out pig PERVs. That’s Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses, silly, and it means if you need an organ transplant one day, you might have to thank a pig for that heart.
We want to hear from you.
Are you ready for your future pig heart? Who would win in an alpha-gal fight, Kylie or Kalyn? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
A listener wants to know more about how best to approach medical school secondary applications. Given the the turnaround time often recommended (a week), how important are they? Do they need to be as well crafted as your personal statement? What do schools get out of them? And are they just a way for schools to extract more money from applicants? We asked our medical school’s admissions staff for answers to these questions so you can get on with crafting your best possible application. And JC writes in to say nice things, including that he wants to start his own show when he matriculates this fall. Go, JC, GO!
This week in science and medicine news
One major destination for patients’ medical dollars is the emergency room visit. One recent study asks what do docs know about the costs of caring for some common complaints they see in the ER? Turns out, not much…but when doctors are in charge of knowing the costs of care, is the patient really helped?
We LOVE hearing from you, and we really try to answer your questions. If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.
[Dave had the flu on recording day, so we’re posting this awesome episode from the recent past. Enjoy!]
