Tag Archives: Ig Nobel Prizes

Med-Techbros, Shortage Woes, and Ig Nobel Probes

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  • As another physician shortage looms, M2s Jeff and Olivia and M1 Fallon look at the reasons–the market forces, political issues, and the missing incentives. There is some good news–a shortage of physicians means that residents get a ton of solicitations for post-training jobs.
  • Elon Musk’s Neuralink might be bad for monkeys, but the FDA has cleared the way for human trials to begin. What place do techbros–who have a rep for “moving fast and breaking things”– have in medicine where lives are at stake?
  • And Dave gives a pop quiz on this year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners.

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The Obscure Document Residency Programs Use to Decide If You’re Worthy

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The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (or dean’s letter) will be sent to all your potential employers. Let’s talk about what’s in it!

TL;DR

  • You may have heard of the dean’s letter. It’s sent to all residency programs, one of the things they’ll use to choose who to invite for an interview. But do you know what’s in it…and that it’s creation begins on your first day of med school?
  • YouTube announces blanket ban on vaccine misinformation, and axes the biggest misinformation peddlers.
  • Can The Short Coats pass the 2021 IgNobel Prize Winners Quiz?

Today’s episode is sponsored by Panacea Financial, a division of Primis, Member FDIC. Check out their PRN Personal Loans to help cover board exams or application costs, with decisions in as little as 24 hours and great interest rates!

To Dave, it sometimes feels like the process of medical education is as complex and opaque as the actual medical knowledge it works to impart to students. In this elaborate system, absolute transparency is difficult to achieve, but there’s one thing Dave thinks students should keep in the backs of their heads from day one: the medical student performance evaluation (MSPE, or ‘dean’s letter’). That’s because this document will be sent to all their future employers, including their residency programs. And those programs will use it (and other data applicants and colleges supply) to decide whether to invite you for an interview. Yet Dave has the impression that many don’t even know what’s in this important document–which includes comments from residents and attendings on their personal qualities and performance–until just before they begin to apply for residency! That’s a problem for some students who, upon reading it for the first time, find that there’s a pattern of behavior that they should have addressed long ago. Dave discusses what all students need to know about this important document.

Also, the 2021 IgNobel Prizes for improbable research have been awarded; YouTube bans all vaccine misinformation and the peddlers of bogus vax claims; and California begins using a controversial–but effective!–technique to help people who use drugs kick the habit: paying them to stay sober.

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Recess Rehash: Choose a Specialty, Choose a Lifestyle: Factors We Consider

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writer photo[Happy Holidays!  Dave is on vacation, but here’s a re-run to tide you over.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting 1/16] 

Short Coat Scribbleson Wordsonpaper (not his real name) wrote a paper for one of his classes, and was told it’d be worth putting it out there for publication.  But where, and how?  So we asked Writing and Humanities Program Director (and SCP exec producer) Cate Dicharry to give some guidance.  Scribbleson’s second question, about the lifestyle factors that medical students weigh when making a specialty choice, was a great one for co-hosts Mackenzie Walhof, Miranda Schene, and Abby Fyfe to dig into.

And Dave puts on his ten-gallon perfesser hat, offering up a pop quiz on the 2019 Ig Nobel prize winners.


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This Week in Medical News

what happens when you want to study pregnancy and other women’s health issues?  Yeah, your research proposal gets rejected because you didn’t include men among your subjects.  And an Oregon doctor finds out that he has 17 kids he didn’t know about from his time in medical school.

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What factors are you weighing to make your specialty choice? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

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Choose a Specialty, Choose a Lifestyle: Factors We Consider

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writer photoShort Coat Scribbleson Wordsonpaper (not his real name) wrote a paper for one of his classes, and was told it’d be worth putting it out there for publication.  But where, and how?  So we asked Writing and Humanities Program Director (and SCP exec producer) Cate Dicharry to give some guidance.  Scribbleson’s second question, about the lifestyle factors that medical students weigh when making a specialty choice, was a great one for co-hosts Mackenzie Walhof, Miranda Schene, and Abby Fyfe to dig into.

And Dave puts on his ten-gallon perfesser hat, offering up a pop quiz on the 2019 Ig Nobel prize winners.


Buy Our Merch and Give At The Same Time

You care about others, or you wouldn’t be into this medicine thing. Our #merchforgood program lets you to give to our charity of the semester and get something for yourself at the same time!

This Week in Medical News

what happens when you want to study pregnancy and other women’s health issues?  Yeah, your research proposal gets rejected because you didn’t include men among your subjects.  And an Oregon doctor finds out that he has 17 kids he didn’t know about from his time in medical school.

We Want to Hear From You

What factors are you weighing to make your specialty choice? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Choose a Specialty, Choose a Lifestyle: Factors We Consider

A Tasty Treat

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popDave rewards his podcasters with a tasty treat. Though this may be a new definition of the words ‘tasty’ and ‘treat’ of which Marc Toral, Dylan Todd, Emily White, and newbie Alex Volkmar were previously unaware. And as a special bonus, we offer lots of lovely lip smacking sounds for our listeners.
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