Tag Archives: Patrick Brau

Admissions Bias Against Alternative Medicine?

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For medical school admissions, package study of alternative medicine carefully

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Photo by showbizsuperstar

Chrissa wrote in to say that she believes that complementary and alternative medicine systems should be more important to mainstream, Western medicine.  In fact, she’s studying Ayurvedic medicine, and she wants to know if she should talk about it in her future medical school admissions applications and interviews.  Gabe Conley, Patrick Brau, Elizabeth Shirazi, and Derek Bradley (along with several other co-hosts I put the question to) offer their advice to Chrissa, which is, sure, but be careful how you do it.  And we find out just how much our crew knows about Ayurvedic medicine with a little pop quiz.

This Week in Medical News

Researchers publish results that show bacteria may have been busy developing resistance to Ampicillin even before it was made available for prescription in 1962.  Modern Americans are preparing for bloody combat by learning battlefield medicine.  And we consider evidence that surgical patients may be more aware of pain than Dave is real comfortable with.

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Did Dave offend you with his jokes about CAM? Are you studying CAM or have an interest in using it in your practice some day? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Rejection Happens

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“When you’re following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam at first.”
― Kelly Cutrone

reject photoEuthalia (not her actual name, though it probably should be. Feel free to take that name, anonymous caller) called us at 347-SHORTCT to express her sadness that she didn’t get a secondary interview at Iowa.  Which sucks for Iowa because…well, we might not get to meet Euthalia.  Of course, she knows rejection is not the end of the road for her dream. Brett Hanson, Tony Mai, Patrick Brau, and Levi Endelman share some things she needs to do now to deal with it, and to prepare her for the next time she applies.

Euthalia might be feeling anxious, a good bet because just about everyone we know has anxiety up the wazoo.  Luckily, Dave heard about a study in which subjects were able to decrease their anxiety by talking to themselves in the third person.  This seemed like a good idea, so we gave it a try.  Warning: you might want to turn down the volume.  Or unsubscribe.

This Week in Medical News

The Endocrine Society has new guidelines for how young transgender kids can begin hormone therapy.  And, to the surprise of no nurses at all, nurses in some places have more dangerous jobs than prison guards and police officers.  Be kind to the nurses, doctors.

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What are your rejection stories? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

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Crushing It with Mental Illness During Med School

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[We’re re-releasing this episode because when it was first posted the file was screwed up.  Enjoy!]

Much like America, doctors are afraid of mental illness.

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Photo by darcyadelaide

Physicians are no better than the rest of us at dealing with mental illness, even as they work valiantly to get their patients to recognize and get treatment for their conditions. As society becomes more open about ‘mood disorders,’  it is still common for MDs to reject treatment for depression, substance abuse disorders, anxiety, and more…and physicians and medical students are literally killing themselves–America loses 300 to 400 doctors every year to suicide.  Our co-hosts this week, Zeynep Demir, Innie Kim, Jason Lewis, and Kaci McCleary all have experienced their own disorders, and have formed a CCOM chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  Still in it’s infancy, they’ll be working to destigmatize mental illness among physicians, residents, and medical students in the hope that those who suffer can be saved and become what they always wanted to be: effective, compassionate, and healthy physicians.

We want to hear from you.

Do you suffer from a mental illness, and worry about your future as a physician? We’d love to hear your story, anonymously if that’s what you’d prefer.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Sacrifice It All to be A Med Student? Don’t Do It!

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Med School Requires Sacrifice…but not of everything.

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Photo by Andrew Turner

Listener Arman  is starting school this fall, and is feeling something many do at the start of this journey: that in order to succeed, he’ll have to do nothing but study.  Will he’ll have to sacrifice his outside interests to succeed? Kylie Miller, Matt Wilson, Teneme Konne and Patrick Brau admit that medical students love to talk about how hard it is and how much time they give to their new lives.  To be sure, sacrifice is a part of learning to be a doctor.  But they do have reassuring words for those who worry their identities are about to be ransacked.  Plus, Yahoo! Answers leave us with more questions than we started with…like, did the fruit fly regain consciousness?

This Week’s Medical News…

We also discuss a study from Sweden that looks at whether drones can deliver life-saving automatic emergency defibrillators to heart attack victims faster than EMS can get to them.  And we explore the power of names to get you to eat your vegetables.

We want to hear from you.

If you have fears to be assuaged, and think we are the best people to do so, give us a call! Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Harry Potter and the Suddenly Bald Litigant

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What do you do when you’re pulled in too many directions?

Yer a wizard, ‘arry!

The world of work, and medical school, is often about adjusting for a number of “top” priorities.   Dave’s been having one of those weeks where his work is pulling him in several directions at once, and thought to ask his co-hosts Erin Pasaski, Patrick Brau, Elizabeth Shirazi, and Kaci McCleary what techniques they use when they, inevitably, find themselves struggling to manage all of the important tasks med school throws at them.

Also, since the CCOM Writing and Humanities Program exists to bring art into the lives of busy med students, Dave went out and bought playdough so his co-hosts could flex their sculpting skills on common patient complaints.  Visit our Facebook page for the gallery!

This Week’s Medical News…

Speaking of priorities, Ars Technica takes note of the FDA’s somewhat lackadaisical interest in surveilling the cosmetics and hair care industry, and why that should probably change.  Will flu shots (and other vaccination injections) soon be replaced by a tiny bed of nails?  And Dave warns medical students not to study with their phones in the same room.

We want to hear from you.

If you have something to say or a question to ask, and think we are the best people to do so, who are we to question your judgement? Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Which is More Important: the MCAT or Your Job?

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Should you put your life on hold for the MCAT?

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Photo by Gene Hunt

As a planned parenthood sex educator, listener T’keyah wants to know what medical schools teach about meeting the needs of LGBTQIA+ patients.  Amy Young, Patrick Brau, Liza Mann, and Teneme Konne can’t, of course speak for all medical schools, but they can speak about what they are learning: quite a lot, not least because we have an LGBTQ clinic they can rotate on!  T’keyah snuck a second question in, too: she loves her job, and it’s important work.  So, is the advice she’s gotten to stop working while studying for the MCAT valid?

This Week’s Medical News

A study out of the UK says that men of advanced paternal age (ahem, forty or older) tend to father geekier boys: smart, focused, and unconcerned about what people think of them.  And we took note of an column this week on why doctors swear so much.  Hint: it’s not all sunshine and roses, being a physician.  With this in mind it is only logical that, in the name of science, Dave has his co-hosts stick their hands in ice water and recite Dr. Seuss.  Will they be able to withstand the ethically induced pain?

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Thank you, T’keyah for your question!  If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Which is More Important: the MCAT or Your Job?