Gunners and Slackers

December 5, 2012 Dave Etler 2 Comments

Regular Miriam Weiner.

It’s a well-known fact that medical students fall into two broad categories: the gunners and the slackers. A panel of students, including students Willis Hong, Mgbechi Erondu, Zeynep Demir, Cameron Crockett, Kat Hu, Miriam Weiner, Tyler Bertroche and Tony Cyr have fun exploring these two groups’ styles, motivations, and the effect they can have on their peers. So much fun, in fact, that we must say: The opinions expressed belong only to those who voiced them, and are not the opinions of the University of Iowa or the Carver College of Medicine.

Listen–Episode 019: Gunners and Slackers

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.

Short Coat Podcast

David Oshinksy, PhD, and Polio: An American Story

October 5, 2012 Dave Etler

Polio patients in iron lungs in 1952. Photo: Wikipedia

Today Natalie Ramirez, Zhi Xiong, Mgbechi Erondu and Dave Etler got to hang out with a real Pulitzer winner (!) and a nice man, David Oshinsky, PhD. He is the author of Polio: An American Story. From the papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin, and other key players, Dr. Oshinsky records the U.S. public health crisis of polio and the search for a cure in the early 1950s, a frightening time for all Americans.
Dr. Oshinsky taught 20th century U.S. political and cultural history at Rutgers University before moving to the University of Texas at Austin. His other works include A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy and Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.

He has a lot to say about one of the greatest public health threats of the 20th Century, what it took to bring it down, and why the fight isn’t over.

Listen to Episode 018: David Oshinksy and Polio: An American Story

Special thanks to Michael Welsh, MD, and the members of the 2012 Distinguished Mentor Award committee for the opportunity!

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.

Uncategorized

Dealing with Med Student Stress

August 24, 2012 Dave Etler

A 2006 review of studies on medical student psychological distress suggests that its common for medical students to experience depression and anxiety, more so than in the general population or those in the later years of medical training. Hello, Captain Obvious. As our new medical students finish up their first full week of medical school, student Natalie Ramirez and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics psychiatrist Jodi Tate join us to talk about the stress that medical students face as they begin medical school, and what they can do to take the edge off.

Listen: The Short Couch: Dealing with Medical Student Stress

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.

Short Coat Podcast

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

July 30, 2012 Dave Etler

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Chuck Huss and Wilderness Medicine

April 5, 2012 Dave Etler

Mt. Everest, part of the Himalayan Mountain range is the highest mountain on the planet. Those who attempt to climb to the 29,000-foot-high peak are a pretty hardy bunch; past 26,246 feet, climbers are challenged not just to climb but to survive. Exhaustion can occur just from the effort of breathing, never mind the dangers associated with lack of oxygen, extreme cold, and falling off the mountain. Climbers who die near the top are most often entombed there, because to bring their bodies back would entail too great a risk for other climbers.

Iowa City emergency medicine physician Chuck Huss is a veteran mountaineer who has participated in expeditions to high peaks across the globe, including four expeditions to Mt. Everest. He has served as expedition physician on several trips, and has an incredible wealth of knowledge on international travel, mountaineering, and global medicine. He sat down recently with med student Asitha Jayawardena to talk about his experiences in the wilderness.

Listen: Episode 015: Chuck Huss and Wilderness Medicine

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Doctors Without Borders, Part 2

March 1, 2012 Dave Etler

Welcome back for Part 2 of Dr. John Lawrence’s discussion on Doctors Without Borders (here’s Part 1).

In 1971, a group of doctors and journalists in France got together to create Medecins Sans Frontieres. Today, MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, boasts more than 27,000 committed individuals representing dozens of nationalities who provide assistance to people caught in crises around the world. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals and others who work in more than 60 countries helping people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. They also bring attention to neglected crises, challenge inadequacies or abuses of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In the second part of this two-part episode of The Short Coat, Dr. John Lawrence, formerly associate professor of surgery at the University of Iowa and now at the University of Vermont, continues to discuss his work in Doctors Without Borders.

Special thanks to the Carver College of Medicine’s Global Programs department, and to Mo Yacoub for production assistance!

Listen: Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders, Part 2
Or, start with Part 1.

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Doctors Without Borders, Part 1

February 16, 2012 Dave Etler

In this two-part episode of The Short Coat, Dr. John Lawrence, formerly associate professor of surgery at the University of Iowa and now at the University of Vermont, returns to the Carver College of Medicine to discuss his work in Doctors Without Borders.

Special thanks to the Carver College of Medicine’s Global Programs department, and to Mo Yacoub for production assistance!

Listen: Episode 014: Doctors Without Borders

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Rising From the Ashes

November 28, 2011 Dave Etler

Failure is a difficult topic for medical students. It’s not something they’re used to, after earning undergrad degrees near the tops of their classes, and generally being the smartest people they know. But science is all about failure. Scientific experiments, part of the foundation upon which evidence-based medicine rests, fail again and again before they make the discoveries that change our understanding of the world in which we live.

Doctors must make their peace with failure. Even the best cannot always help those counting on them. This time on the Short Coat, we got a group of students together to discuss their experiences with failure and what they learned from it.

Given the sensitive nature of the discussion, everyone was given the opportunity to remain anonymous, and they were cautioned to speak only of their own experiences. Officials of the Carver College of Medicine reviewed the recording before it was released to ensure that no student’s right to confidentiality was violated.

Listen: Episode 013: Rising From The Ashes

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Dr. Mansoor Ali Khan, Clubfoot, and The Ponseti Method

October 27, 2011 Dave Etler 2 Comments

Clubfoot is a congenital deformity of the foot, and affects between 150,000 and 200,000 babies each year worldwide. Extensive surgery was once the standard of care for clubfoot, improving the appearance of the foot but resulting in poor mobility and pain in midlife. Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, a Univeristy of Iowa Physician, pioneered what has become known as the Ponseti method. It involves manipulation of the newborn’s feet via casting and splinting, and has replaced surgery as the standard of care.
While the Ponseti Method doesn’t involve expensive surgeries or equipment, it does require detailed knowledge of both the anatomy of the foot and the method itself. In the case of clubfoot, the key to a cure is the education of physicians. Easy enough in the US and other developed countries. But 80% of cases occur in the developing nations, and most babies are left untreated or receive substandard care. it is difficult for physicians there to get the information they need to perform the method correctly.

To date, spreading the Ponseti Method involved visits by physicians from the developed world to the developing world to teach and perform the method. But Carver College of Medicine student Asitha Jayawardena’shealthcare experiences in South America lead him to the notion that educating one leader on the topic would allow them to spread the method among his colleagues in a culturally appropriate manner. At his urging, The American Medical Student Association created the Ponseti Scholairship to help spread the technique.

Recently, Asitha sat down with Dr. Mansoor Ali Khan, an orthopaedic surgeon from The Indus Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, and the Ponseti Scholarship’s first beneficiary, to talk about Khan’s experiences at the University of Iowa as he learns more about the Ponseti Method.

Listen: Dr. Mansoor Ali Khan, Clubfoot, and The Ponseti Method

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.

Short Coat Podcast

Medical Student Syndrome

September 26, 2011 Dave Etler

Medical Student Syndrome is a common problem for students. In 1998 Howes and Salkovskis noted that “medical students frequently develop fears and symptoms of illness. This has been termed medical student’s disease, nosophobia, hypochondriasis of medical students, and medicalstudentitis.” They cited older studies which concluded that 70% of med students have ‘groundless medical fears’ during their training, and that 78% had a history of medical student disease. They surveyed students at Oxford University and found that medical students were less aware of bodily sensations or changes and experienced a lower perception of the risk of illness. They also were more likely to think that treatment for their illnesses would be effective.

Nevertheless, medical student syndrome is something that students do experience. We got together with a group of students to talk about their own health anxieties.

Listen: Medical Student Syndrome

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.