Medfluencers and Patient Education: Helpful or Risky? (Recess Rehash)

Share

How future doctors are navigating social media’s impact on public education.

[We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you missed it!]

How can a well-meaning medfluencer be sure they’re actually helping? M1 Zach Grissom, M2 Fallon Jung, M3 Jeff Goddard, and M4 Matt Engelken sit down with third-year DO student Nik Bletnitsky to discuss the role of social media in medical education. Current and Future doctors are increasingly using these platforms to share medical knowledge—but, even if you’re careful to offer the best information, what are the hidden dangers?

The conversation covers the sometimes blurry line between education, misinformation, and contradicting someone’s doctor’s advice. How disclaimers work (or don’t), and why the Dunning-Kruger effect can turn a curious patient into an overconfident self-diagnoser.

Should doctors be influencers? Can patients trust what they see online? And is it possible to make medical knowledge accessible without accidentally making things worse?

More about our guest:

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Medfluencers and Patient Education: Helpful or Risky? (Recess Rehash)

She Got Into Med School… But Now She’s Not Sure (Recess Rehash)

Share

Turning down that med school acceptance might cost more than you think.

[We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you missed it!]

Listener “ARM” got into medical school—cue the confetti—but now that reality’s set in, she’s not feeling great about her only acceptance. The school is small, expensive, and far from home. Should she go anyway or risk reapplying in hopes of a better fit next year? MD/PhD students Michael Arrington, Shruthi Kondaboina, Jessica Smith, and M1 Maria Schapfel weigh the real costs of walking away from an acceptance, from the red flags admissions committees look for to the gamble of getting in again. They get honest about finances, family, and the very unsexy truth about how much the campus “vibe” actually matters. Plus, what to say if you do it anyway.

Bonus: the MD/PhD students dish about why they took that road, while Maria counters with why MD is better for her.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading She Got Into Med School… But Now She’s Not Sure (Recess Rehash)

Sheriff of Sodium: AI Will Replace Doctors (Reality Check!)

Share

Docs are in denial, but the economic incentives make it inevitable

You’re working hard to be (or become) a doctor — now a bot might take your place? The Sheriff of Sodium, Dr. Brian Carmody, is back on the Short Coat to say what nobody wants to hear but might need to: yes, AI in medicine is real, and the value proposition makes docs’ replacement inevitable. From primary care AI to image-heavy fields like pathology, we’re talking actual use cases.

We break down physician automation, the AMA’s waning influence, and why corporations – and even patients – might be the real force behind AI-driven doctor job loss. If you thought medical school guaranteed career security, this might shake your certainty. But there are specialties and human-only qualities that you can lean into for a bright future amidst the bots.

Then the Sheriff, M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD Miranda Schene, M2s Sarah Lowenberg and Taryn O’Brien pivot to a deeply personal listener question: should a pre-med student push through to med school while struggling with mental health, like her parents want her to? Or take time off to regroup?

Episode credits:

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Sheriff of Sodium: AI Will Replace Doctors (Reality Check!)

How a Walk in the Park Sparked a Health Movement, ft. David Sabgir, MD

Share

A cardiologist ditched the standard lecture and took a walk with his patients. You can too!

Cardiologist David Sabgir was tired of telling patients to exercise, so he did something ridiculous…and it spawned a movement. Walk With A Doc began with a simple idea: don’t just recommend lifestyle changes—live them, with your patients, in the wild. In this episode, we unpack the surprising power of walking with a community instead of talking at patients about exercise, and how a one-mile stroll has turned into an international public health initiative. Co-hosts M3 Jeff Goddard, and M1s Sydney Skuodas, Michael Arrington, and Zach Grissom are also asking: what happens when docs and med students bring their kids, their real lives, and their full humanity into community care? For some, it could be a real antidote to burnout, and the solution might be hiding in the park—with some sneakers and your neighbors. The cardiologist that stared it all shares how failing at patient motivation led to something wildly more effective.

This episode is your unofficial permission slip to stop recommending change and start doing it.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Jeff Goddard
  • Co-hosts: Zach Grissom, Michael Arrington, Sydney Skuodas
  • Guest: David Sabgir, MD

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading How a Walk in the Park Sparked a Health Movement, ft. David Sabgir, MD

AI in Med School: Helpful Tool or Total Crutch?

Share

MD and PA students reflect on what AI gets right—and what still makes them nervous.

“How are you using AI in med school?” That’s the question Dave posed to his co-hosts this week. Near-M3s Fallon Jung and Amanda Litka and almost-PA3 Julie Vuong discuss AI-fueled study sessions, and Dave points out a Google tool that turns docs into knowledge. They talk about what helps, what haunts, and what might accidentally erase their clinical instincts. Meanwhile, Fallon admits to looking to a robot to plan a bachelorette party. Amanda wants to ditch the white coat. And strong mints and clementines are the secret to surviving 3AM bowel resections. Also on the docket: what they’ve learned in their first few months seeing patients, OB night shift scaries, and which specialist they’d rather be stranded on an island with.

Listeners: do you use AI to get you through school? How? Sound off at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus!

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: PA2 Julie Vuong, M2 Fallon Jung, M2 Amanda Litka

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading AI in Med School: Helpful Tool or Total Crutch?

Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)

Share

The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy

Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe…something that could never happen today. This week, we’re calling out the slow, tangled mess that is academic science. Why do some of the best ideas never leave a lab notebook? Why are 20-somethings with world-changing potential still spending 8 years writing theses that probably won’t be read? And why does grant funding seem allergic to risk?

MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush is juggling frustration, big ideas, and the reality of PhD science, and M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD student Jess Smith, and M1 Sarah Lowenberg question whether Einstein would even make it today. Should the NIH institute a funding lottery? Jeff thinks Dave’s ringtone means he needs to grow up. And we finish strong by turning a stack of random medical words into fake personal statements.

It’s messy, it’s a little salty, and it’ll make you wonder how anything changes in medicine or science.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Jeff Goddard, Sarah Lowenberg, Riley Behan-Bush, Jess Smith

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)

The One Truth Linking Medicine, Mortality, and Meltdown

Share

Are things getting better or worse?

What if your a career in medicine, the collapse of civilization, and the maternal mortality crisis all shared one uncomfortable truth–progress doesn’t guarantee clarity, balance, or justice? In this episode, M3 Zay Edgren confesses he’s feeling a bit doomy about humanity’s chances, and M2 Taryn O’Brian feels frustrated with medicine’s successes with acute care while primary care languishes. But M3 Jeff Goddard (and Dave) are more optimistic, at least on the grand scale. What every future healthcare worker needs to ask is, “What does helping actually mean when the system is stacked with trade-offs? You’ll get insight into how real medical students think through messy, high-stakes issues—like why we’re amazing at keeping preemies alive but failing mothers, or why primary care is where the real impact happens but nobody wants to do it.

We explore what career indecision really looks like when you’re smart, driven, and yet unsure. You’ll also hear honest takes on burnout, idealism, and what med students actually think about the world they’re about to inherit—and remake.

If you’re staring down the med school track wondering what’s waiting for you on the other side, this episode hands you the context no class will. You’ll leave smarter, more grounded—and possibly nervous, but in a productive way.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Taryn O’Brian, Jeff Goddard, and Zay Edgren

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading The One Truth Linking Medicine, Mortality, and Meltdown

Free Lunch, Headaches, and Holding Hearts

Share

How friendships, food, and failing forward gets med students through the first year.

No one tells you how much of med school is powered by free pizza and shared panic. As M1s Alexis Baker, Samantha Gardner, Raegen Abbey, and Zach Grissom wrap up their first year at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, we talk about what actually got them through M1: strategic free food hunting, skipping lectures for sanity, and learning to live with the sound of your own stomach during exams. This raw and ridiculous reflection features stories of biochem-induced breakdowns, unexpected weight loss, and vacation cruises gone very wrong. We also play “Vibey,” a game that perfectly captures med student emotional trauma. Bonus topics: marriage math, spring break disasters, moldy mugs, and the shock of learning how people die for credit.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Zach Grissom, Samantha Gardner, Raegen Abbey, Alexis Baker

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Free Lunch, Headaches, and Holding Hearts

The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors

Share

Clinical students are sometimes the only ones who have time to listen

In the clinic, med students can feel like bystanders, but they can make all the difference for patients. M3 Jeff Goddard, M3 Tracy Chen, M2 Alex Nigg, and M4 Matt Engelken recount stories of the patients that stuck with them—some painful, some beautiful, and some just plain awkward. From OB-GYN to peds to the ER, they share how student doctors—who can often feel like tagalongs—can often be the ones offering emotional support, catching critical miscommunications, or just being the one person with time to care. We reflect on the pressure to look competent, the sting of lukewarm evaluations, and how one med student realized a patient wasn’t constipated—just heartbroken.

Also in this episode: talking to dying patients, babies are scary, and what not to say when to overwhelmed family.

A med student comforts a patient. Concerned family are dimly seen in the background.  Text: "No One Else Noticed:

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Matt Engelken, M4; Jeff Goddard, M3; Tracy Chen, M3; Alex Nigg, M2

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors

From Broke to Bulletproof: The White Coat Investor’s Advice

Share

Don’t be the doctor making $400k with $0 in the bank.

You risk your financial future by ignoring this ER doc’s advice — and Dr. Jim Dahle should know. The emergency physician and founder of The White Coat Investor joins M1s Luke Geis, Zach Grissom, Hunter Fisher, and Katherine Yu to share how he got burned early in his career — and what he did to fix it. From why disability insurance should top your post-grad checklist, to how physicians get targeted by shady financial “advisors,” to why home ownership in residency might not be the best idea — Dr. Dahle walks us through real, usable advice. He breaks down the cost of a good financial advisor, explains why index funds beat stock-picking 95% of the time, and why you should aim to be more than just an employee in medicine. We also get into financial planning for med students with kids, and why chasing hot stocks is a losing strategy, and how disability insurance can save your bacon.

Credits

  • Co-producers: Luke Geis and Hunter Fischer
  • Co-hosts: Zach Grissom and Katherine Yu
  • Guest: Jim Dahle, whitecoatinvestor.com

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading From Broke to Bulletproof: The White Coat Investor’s Advice

An honest guide to the amazing and intense world of medical school.