Tag Archives: alternative medicine

Podcasting from A (social) distance

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Photo by Laura-Del

(For the first time ever, we did the show with all five hosts in different places,  and it shows.  Forgive the scratchy audio in some places. We’re working on it, and hope you can look past it this time.)

In this time of social distancing, The Short Coats reluctantly step back from their education and research.   New co-hosts M1s Ananya Munjal and Claire Carmichael, along with MD/PhD students Aline Sandouk and Miranda Schene, discuss the national residency Match statistics, what their lives look like as they distance themselves from other humans.


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This Week in Medical News

A 3D printing company comes to Italy’s rescue, making ventilator parts, then gets sued for patent infringement for their trouble.  Flattening the curve may look more like flattening many curves.  And some believers in Indian traditional medicine suggest drinking cow urine will fight COVID-19.

We Want to Hear From You

Have you joined any efforts to help your community amid social distancing? Tell us about it at 347-SHORTCT or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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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.

We Want to Hear From You

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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Open on Applications about New-Found Sobriety?

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Should a Medical School Applicant Open Up About a Successful Journey to Sobriety?

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Our recent episode on mental illness in medical school generated some listener feedback.  K wrote to say thanks for the honest discussion (our pleasure!), and wondered how open she should be on her medical school application about her journey to sobriety and how it led her to find a love for community service.  Dave’s six (!) co-hosts this week–Kalyn Campbell, Kylie Miller, Levi Endelman, Irene Morcuende, Kaci McCleary, and Laura Quast–agree that it’s a tough question with two answers…the one we’d like to be able to give, and the perhaps more realistic one that acknowledges human nature.

Listener Erica called in wondering how students cope with the challenges of medical school and residency, especially in the context of a mental illness.  And Terel dropped us a line to ask the differences between a hospitalist and an internist.

This Week in Medical News

Groundbreaking research from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that alternative medicine is a crappy option for cancer patients‘ survival rates…except for prostate cancer.  And a Chinese startup publishes a study in which CRISPR knocks out pig PERVs.  That’s Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses, silly, and it means if you need an organ transplant one day, you might have to thank a pig for that heart.

We want to hear from you.

Are you ready for your future pig heart?  Who would win in an alpha-gal fight, Kylie or Kalyn? We’d love to hear your thoughts.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Open on Applications about New-Found Sobriety?

Magical Mystery Medicine

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I’m coming to peer-bond with you!Photo by mark sebastian

Dylan Todd joins the team, along with Aline Sandouk, Marc Toral, and Cory Christensen to talk about magic. Specifically, whether there is a role for it in medicine. How far should we go in accepting the unknown as valid in treating sick people and in medical research? Complementary medicine, the placebo effects, cochlear implants, many drugs…all (maybe? usually? not always?) work but we don’t always know why or how.
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Freestyling in McCowen

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We’re trying something new with the podcast. It’s been a while between episodes, and your erstwhile executive producer hasn’t had a lot of time to arrange for great interviewees or topics.  So, I thought, let’s get together and just…talk.  Freestyle, as it were.  We talk with med students Tim Bahr, Pat Hussey, Elizabeth Dupic, and Rhonda Endecott about their highs and lows of the past week, CCOM Match Day results, and whatever crossed our minds, basically.

And there were some news stories that caught my eye recently including infection rates at hospitals according to the CDC (hint: I’d rather drive recklessly than get admitted); and Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales says “Uh, no” to alt-med champions because he’d rather the site feature actually credible medical info (which is good news for basic science course directors, eh?).

Listen to Episode 030: Freestyling in McCowen.

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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.