Tag Archives: Aline Sandouk

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Med School Youtubers, Pre-Med Experiences, and Overcoming Shyness

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So many listener questions!

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Photo by ♥S♥M♥C♥A♥V♥Z♥

Listener Amari returns to ask Aline Sandouk, Jayden Bowen, Tony Rosenberg and Mark Moubarek–what do they think of med school YouTubers?  Is it advisable to broadcast your life during med school in an age when everything you do online has a permanent risk associated with it?  Of course, there are some recommendations for residency program directors in searching social media for candidates’ info.

Next up, Jordan is looking for advice on great pre-med activities that will teach him as well as look great on his application.  And Richard is both shy and working in a lab, and he’s worried that it will be difficult for him to make connections with doctors for things like shadowing.

We Want to Hear From You

Have you ever regretted your social media footprint professionally? What pre-med activities would you recommend to Jordan?  How can Richard break out of his shell?  Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

Continue reading Med School Youtubers, Pre-Med Experiences, and Overcoming Shyness →

Short Coat Podcast, Uncategorized

Why You Might Want to Wait to Apply to Medschool

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Your Med School Application is Too Important to Rush

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Don’t look for a reason this image is here. I just liked it. Photo by Dominic’s pics

Listener Hanna wrote in to ask an important question: is it better to apply this year despite possibly ending up in the second tier of applicants due to a late MCAT score, or should she just wait until next year?  Good question, Hannah!  Aline Sandouk, Irisa Mahaparn, Tony Rosenberg, and admissions counselor Dan Schnall (in absentia) have the answer.

Another listener, Amari (and we hope we’ve spelled that right), phoned in to the Short Coats Hotline to find out if there is a medical school equivalent to the infamous Freshman 15 many undergrads suffer through, and if so, what she could do about it when she starts her journey in medical education.

Med students aren’t, in general, known for being good liars; they tend to be a pretty ethical bunch.  But perhaps they suspend their morality enough to fool each other with lies about their time in medical school.  We’ll see about that, as they play Two Truths and a Lie.

We’re still giving away keyfobs if you post a review somewhere and send a screenshot to theshortcoats@gmail.com, and we’ve begun collecting recipes for our future Recipes for Med School Success cookbook.

This Week in Medical News

Researchers discover what might be a vaccine to treat diabetes…and it’s already in use around the world, though not in the US.  And the US Supreme Court ‘s decision  to uphold the most recent version of Trump’s travel ban won’t hurt patients seeking medical attention at all, unless they need a geriatrician, nephrologist, cardiologist, internist, critical care specialist, nurse, medical technician…hmm, that seems like rather a lot.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you need advice?  Do you have questions about medical school?  Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Why You Might Want to Wait to Apply to Medschool →

Short Coat Podcast

Hotel Influenza, Confirming Right-to-Try Problems, REM Sleep Revealed

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Photo by Mark Turnauckas

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.

Continue reading Hotel Influenza, Confirming Right-to-Try Problems, REM Sleep Revealed →

Short Coat Podcast

Routines, Right To Try, and Reviews

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What Routines Do Medical Students Find Helpful When Drinking from the Firehose?

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From her perch among the clouds of medical school, Yolanda stared longingly at the residency program of her dreams, knowing deep down inside that her inability to establish a study routine would doom her to a life of *shudder* psychiatry.

Listener Meghan is about to start med school in the fall, and is thinking about what sort of regular habits medical students like Aline Sandouk, Tony Rosenberg, and new co-host Jayden Bowen use to keep them on track.  Not only do we look at some routines they use (and debate whether they’re even helpful), but we also have a suggested routine for the new student.

What Every New Medical Student Needs to Know about The ‘Dean’s Letter.’

And Dave, who’s begun writing dean’s letters (or ‘Medical Student Performance Evaluations’) for students who will be looking for jobs this year, has some sobering news for his co-hosts: they are, themselves, already writing them.  Dave thinks most first-year medical students have never heard of this important document, nor do they know what will be in it…and how it could help or hinder their efforts to land that plum residency.

This Week in Medical News

Dermatologists are less accurate in diagnosing melanomas than the stupidest artificial intelligence…but don’t cancel your derm dreams yet.  Meanwhile, patients get the ‘right to try‘ from the Trump administration…but is bypassing the slow FDA approval process almost completely a good idea, or will the bad actors in medicine end up lining their pockets on the hopes of their desperately ill patients?

We Want to Hear From You

What are your med school routines?  Did your school read you in on the MSPE when you started?  Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

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Relax or Prepare? Advice for Incoming Med Students

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Spoiler alert:  don’t “prepare” during the summer before you arrive at medical school.

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What incoming med students should be doing before med school starts. Photo by Janitors

Listener Amanda is like many medical students–anxious and worried. In her case, she wonders if she won’t be as prepared for med school as her classmates when she starts in the fall, because they are “ahead” of her due to their experience and former careers.  We’ve got you, Amanda:  Aline Sandouk, Hillary O’brien, Erik Kneller, and Sanjeeva Weerasinghe are here to help.

Also, which of our hosts are on team Yannie or Laurel?  It doesn’t matter, because Dave did some sophisticated analysis and discovered something about the morphing audio clip that has the internet arguing again.

This Week in Medical News

The netflix series 13 Reasons Why returns for season 2 today as we record this, and Netflix has announced it’s response to mental health professionals’ concerns with the content.  Speaking of mental illness, Blue Cross Blue Shield has released a new study that says diagnoses of major depression are on the rise.  Henrietta Lacks–who was the unconsenting donor of the amazing HeLa cell line used for just about every kind of study of every kind of disease these days and whose descendents we spoke with in 2013—now has a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you have a question we can help answer?  Do you need advice?  We’re giving away answers for free (along with SCP key fobs)!  Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Relax or Prepare? Advice for Incoming Med Students →

Short Coat Podcast

Family Strife, Chuck’s Pro-Life, & the Ebola Bureaucracy Knife

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Our Short Coat Podcast keyfob giveaway is still happening!  Post the show somewhere on the internet where pre-med and med students hang out, and email a screenshot to theshortcoats@gmail.com, and we’ll send you one with our thanks!

Our own Claire Castaneda won first place in the Carver College of Medicine’s Carol A. Bowman Creative Writing Contest for Medical Students, and her piece caught Dave’s eyes and heart.  She talks with Aline Sandouk, Melissa Chan, and Tony Rosenberg about the dynamics of family strife and the pressure they can exert to follow one career path over another.  Meanwhile, Aline expresses her feelings on being left behind by her original classmates as she continues her MD/PhD studies.

And considering that most doctors still don’t (and mostly, can’t) know much about how medical marijuana should be prescribed, Dave subjects his co-hosts to a pop quiz.

This Week in Medical News

NYU Langone Medical School lost two of their community to suicide in one week, in the ongoing tragedy of physician and student suicide.  What Maryland doctors could face as the bar for juries to decide medical malpractice is lowered.  Is Iowa’s US Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, trying to pressure Supreme Court judges to retire in order to one day secure a Roe v. Wade busting win for pro-life conservatives?  Ebola is back, just in time for the Trump administration to dissolve the office responsible for preparing for pandemics.

We Want to Hear From You

Med school interview season is coming!  Can we help you with your med school admissions question? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

Continue reading Family Strife, Chuck’s Pro-Life, & the Ebola Bureaucracy Knife →

Short Coat Podcast

The Truth About “Primary Care” Statistics

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How to Think About Med Schools’ Primary Care Statistics

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Doug E Fresh Photo by Jason Persse

Listener Lavender BloodPoison (not their real name) sent us a message saying they were impressed by CCOM’s Primary Care residency match statistics.  And while many schools that serve states like ours do love primary care, “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics,” as the saying goes.  How should one interpret match statistics in light of the fact that many who appear to match in primary care will go on to specialize after their first year residency?  Lisa Wehr, Teneme Konne, Aline Sandouk, Amy Young, and Kaci McCleary are here to drop some truths about the so-called “Dean’s Lie” (less a lie as much as it is a truth that doesn’t tell the whole story).

Also, Meldor returns to give us an update (congratulations, Meldor!), though we mourn losing her to another school.  So we console ourselves by dishing on the medical scientist training program lifestyle.

This Week in Medical News

A program that uses hip hop to educate black youth and their parents on stroke is showing some successes.  The new CDC director has a shady research past.  Surgery centers are getting some attention as  risky places to get surgery.  And as promised, we go over some Match 2018 statistics.

We Want to Hear From You

Why is primary care or specializing attractive to you? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  We love your comments and questions!

Continue reading The Truth About “Primary Care” Statistics →

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Winter Break, Guts and Brains, and Yahoo! Answers

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And all through the house…

answers photoIt’s winter break at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.  For most people, that means there are a couple weeks to relax and rejuvenate their minds, bodies, and familial relations.  Despite a lack of available co-hosts, The Short Coats never take a break, which is why Dave had to invite fellow student affairs staffers Chris Roling (Financial Services) and Kate McKenzie (Admissions) to  join MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk and physician assistant student and noob co-host Paul Kretkowski on this week’s show.  To give Chris and Kate the full experience, we visit with the fine patients at the Yahoo! Answers Doctor’s Office to hear and answer their questions on concussions, nail gun injuries and impressive DIY treatments, and the potential dangers of floor pizza.

This Week in Medical News

Our humble state of Iowa is home to a new effort to create nanovaccines for influenza which promise to eliminate many of the current vaccine’s downsides while increasing its effectiveness.  More evidence that the gut and brain are intimately linked. And the scandal of the CDC’s banned words might have been a trifle overblown.

We Want to Hear From You

Have something you want us to talk about on the show? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

Continue reading Winter Break, Guts and Brains, and Yahoo! Answers →

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Recess Rehash: You can buy that on Amazon?

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[Dave’s on vacation, so enjoy this re-run while he eats seafood and catches some rays on the beach]

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.

Continue reading Recess Rehash: You can buy that on Amazon? →

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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 →