Short Coat Podcast

Medical Education’s Underrepresented Minorities Challenge

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Most Med Schools Prize Minorities…but they can be hard to find.

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Photo by creativedc

This week, Teneme Konne introduced Dave to some students participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/AAMC venture, the Summer Health Professions Education Program, which has as it’s aim to strengthen the academic proficiency and career development of minorities and prepare them to apply, matriculate, and succeed in healthcare professional education.  Yasmine Rose, Kristine Pham, Gil Osuna-Leon and Martin Rosenfeld talk about how students of ethnicities underrepresented in medicine need this kind of mentorship from people who have faced, fought, and vanquished the same challenges they’ll face on their path to medical school.

This Week’s Medical News

Of particular relevance to this week’s topic: even in Canada, some folks just can’t wrap their tiny heads around the existence of black doctors.  And while it’s tempting to take heart in the outrage expressed by many after a woman refused to have her child looked at by a black physician, our guests point out why that would be a mistake.

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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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Short Coat Podcast

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?

We want to hear from you

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.

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Short Coat Podcast

Your Gap Year Job Doesn’t Matter

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Listeners ask, we answer.

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Mind the Gap Year? Photo by Quaisoir @ Lil Miss QQ

A flood of listener questions this week!  It’s probably due in part to medical school application season has begun, which means medical school applicants are trying to figure out if they have what it takes…on paper.  For instance, an anonymous listener (“Meldor”) called in to find out what kinds of gap year jobs Liza Mann, Elizabeth Shirazi, Kelsey Adler, and Teneme Konne thought would allow her to keep connected to the world of medicine while she’s applying.  Of course, a gap year job like that isn’t hard to find…but is that really necessary?  We play a game to find out who can best spin any gap year job to an admissions interviewer.

Also, listener Mike returns to let us know more exactly what he was concerned about in our long-past episode in which we spoke of gun violence.  And Andrea wants to know more about what medical students learn about health disparities; given that much of human disease is about societal influences, including economic and racial divides, it turns out the answer is quite a lot.

Lastly, after hearing our recent discussion on food deserts, Erica let us  know about an organization at her alma mater, the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Brightside Produce is devoted to generating scientific results that increase yields and reduce environmental impacts of small-scale agriculture in cities.  Basically, they’re fighting inner-city hunger using science to enable urban farmers.

We want to hear from you

Hearing from Mike, Andrea, Erica, and Meldor only whets our appetite for more listener contact.  Thank you, everyone!  If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Recess Rehash: Gap Years, Disguised Blessings, and Forbidden Words

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Photo by Lonewolf_

Listener T’keyah sends Cole Cheney, Aline Sandouk, and John Pienta a question on gap years, which boils down to what kinds of gaps are okay according to admissions committees?  Cole reveals his post-med school podcasting plans, and he and John discuss how not getting your residency match can be a GOOD thing…after one is done crying.  And at T’Keyah’s suggestion, we try to offer sex education to each other without using words or concepts banned by state boards of education. Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Recess Rehash: Gap Years, Disguised Blessings, and Forbidden Words →

Short Coat Podcast

Medical School Secondary Applications: What Do They Want?

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How to Think About Medical School Secondary Applications

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Good lord, she wore him out. Photo by Doug Kline

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?

Meanwhile, a startup in (where else) California wants to charge $8000 to give old people young blood, because we need more dystopian sci-fi concepts.

And a discussion on the problems people can experience surrounding orgasms reveals something about Kylie that would have made Jim Henson blush.

We want to hear from you

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.

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Short Coat Podcast

Bandwagons, Bicarb, and Broca’s Bitty Bulb

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The Baby Bed Box Bandwagon.

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Cutting edge baby sleep technology Photo by myglesias

What is it about public health issues that lends itself to bandwagons? John Pienta, Levi Endelman, Hillary O’Brien, Issac Schwantes, and Jason Lewis discuss Finland’s contribution to parenting, the cardboard box in which babies sleep.  This year, hundreds of thousands of boxes will be given to new parents by US states in an attempt to improve infant mortality rates.  Is that at all helpful, or are we ignoring other causes of death among infants?

This week in science and medicine news

You know things are weird in healthcare when baking soda is in such short supply that hospitals start cutting back on open-heart surgery. And thanks to a certain 19th neuroanatomist’s ideas about the relative sizes of the frontal lobe and the olfactory bulb, we decided that humans have crappy senses of smell…a ‘fact’ that turns out was never tested and is probably not at all true!

We want to hear from you

We also heard from listener Mike, who we offended 70 episodes ago.  We’re not entirely sure what we said, exactly, that made Mike give us up after listening to roughly 80 hours of our half-baked opinions, but we always count ourselves fortunate to hear specific negative feedback (and hey, positive feedback is nice, too).  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Short Coat Podcast

You can buy that on Amazon?

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All work and no play…is not what we do.

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If you’re buying this on the internet, you have a job planning for disasters, or there is something wrong with you. There are no in-betweens. Photo by CocteauBoy

Sometimes you’re having so much fun that the time flies by and you forget that you have other important things to do.  That’s what happened on this week’s show, in which Dave brings Aditi Patel, Aline Sandouk, Kylie Miller and Irene Morcuende along for a trip through the medical supplies section of Amazon.  Can they guess what the medical device is based on the reviews alone?

This week in science and medicine news

We did get to talk about one bit of medical news, pointed out to us on twitter by AJtha808Scientist: the fact that Iowa made national news by forcing the closure of 1/4 of its Planned Parenthood clinics.  Thanks for the tip!

We want to hear from you

We also heard from Hannah of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  She wrote in to let us know why, according to the study we discussed in our last show about longevity in US counties, her beautiful corner of the country is so damn healthy.  Spoiler: it doesn’t involve sitting on the couch and eating chips like Dave was hoping.  Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Short Coat Podcast

Premeds Can Be Science Podcasters, ft. Terel Jackson

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Medical and Premedical students should definitely podcast

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Pre-med Podcaster Terel Jackson

An unstated goal of ours is to show medical learners that podcasting is a beneficial experience for both listeners and hosts,  and we’re always banging on about the need for better science communicators.  So Erin Pazaski, Levi Endelman, Kylie Miller, and Irene Morcuende were recently excited to get an email from Terel Jackson, an OSU premed who said she had gotten the message and started her podcast!  Her show, Health Science (For The Rest of Us), takes “a super practical look at the body, its shenanigans, and the world of fascinating ways we try to keep it healthy.”  Of course, we had to have her on the show to tell us all about her adventures in radiation, body odor, neti pots, and more.  She also has some tips for people who want to make podcasting a part of their journey to medical school and beyond.

This week in science and medicine news

Also, we discuss new research showing how Americans’ lifespans vary widely by up to 20 years from county to county. Plus, the unusual prescription one PA hospital writes to save diabetic patients an average of $24,000 a year.

We want to hear from you

Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Short Coat Podcast

Gap Years, Disguised Blessings, and Forbidden Words

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Photo by Lonewolf_

Listener T’keyah sends Cole Cheney, Aline Sandouk, and John Pienta a question on gap years, which boils down to what kinds of gaps are okay according to admissions committees?  Cole reveals his post-med school podcasting plans, and he and John discuss how not getting your residency match can be a GOOD thing…after one is done crying.  And at T’Keyah’s suggestion, we try to offer sex education to each other without using words or concepts banned by state boards of education. Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Gap Years, Disguised Blessings, and Forbidden Words →

Short Coat Podcast

Self-Doubt and Riding the Ethical Railroad

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Photo by SMU Central University Libraries
One of our podcasting goals is to encourage others to create their own shows, especially medical learners.  So John Pienta, Irisa Mahaparn, Adam Erwood, and Erin Pazaski were pleased to hear from listener Terel, who got it and launched a podcast of her own!  Go, Terel!  Although perhaps she and her fellow pre-meds should (not) consider the path taken by another undergrad, who decided to skip all the pesky applying and test taking and just declare herself a medical student so she could jump right in and start seeing patients.  On the other hand, if you worked hard getting your MD, and made all the sacrifices medical education requires, then getting married to your degree may be something to think about.   As often happens to medical students, Irisa confesses she’s having to learn what to think about herself when she doesn’t get tippy-top grades in her classes…and she worries that if she had to help someone give birth on a train, surely no one aboard would survive.  And Dave offers his co-hosts some practice at answering health questions they might really hear someday, which he pulled from the saddest place on the internet: Yahoo! Answers.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Self-Doubt and Riding the Ethical Railroad →

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