Tag Archives: surgery

Dr. Bruce Campbell, and a Fullness of Uncertain Significance

Share

A cancer surgeon’s stories offer lessons of humility and grace

TL;DR

  • Medicine is filled with both the momentous and the prosaic.  Yet every interaction is a chance to process and understand the impact one person can both have and be subject to.
  • Dr. Campbell suggests students start journaling their experiences early.  Not only might this lead to a lovely book of essays near the end of a career, but it’s also a great tool to track the fleeting experiences that will much sooner make a great personal statement!
reject photo

In this episode, M2s Nicole Hines, AJ Chowdhury, Sarah Costello and M1 Zach Shepard visit with the author of a new book, A Fullness of Uncertain Significance: Stories of Surgery, Clarity, & Grace.  Dr. Bruce Campbell is also a head and neck cancer surgeon at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  The book is a series of short vignettes from Dr. Campbell’s life in medicine from as far back as his first experiences as a nursing assistant in 1973.  A blend of the momentous and prosaic, they offer the medical learner a glimpse of what a veteran doctor has seen, and the conclusions he’s drawn from his privileged window into the lives of the people he’s met over nearly 50 years.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Continue reading Dr. Bruce Campbell, and a Fullness of Uncertain Significance

Freezing Development to Help Care for the Disabled (ft. Dr. Ryan Gray)

Share

The amazing Dr. Ryan Gray, host of quite a few of the pre-med focused podcasts over at mededmedia.com (of which we, of course, are a member), joins Maddie Mix, Hillary O’Brien, Nick Lind, and Kyle Kinder as guest co-host!   Which is good, because we start with a rather difficult topic: should the parents of a profoundly disabled child–who will never be able to care for herself in even the most basic of ways–be allowed to ‘freeze’ her development so that she remains physically six years old if it will enable them care for her at home?

Plus, with the news from our own University of Iowa that surgeons often prepare for surgery by watching YouTube, Dave subjects Dr. Gray and his co-hosts to a YouTube-based health topics pop quiz.


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

The decline of rural emergency rooms has gone so far as to create a new kind of telemedicine.  Crazymothers (no, that’s not a slur, that’s what they call themselves) want us to stop calling them anti-vaxxers.  And month-long birth control may become achievable if you can swallow a six-pointed star about 2 inches in diameter.

We Want to Hear From You

So, what’s up with you? Tell (or ask) us anything at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Freezing Development to Help Care for the Disabled (ft. Dr. Ryan Gray)

More Surgery for Better Global Health: Dr. Mark Shrime

Share

Is surgery too expensive for global health?

expensive photo
Is surgery ‘too expensive’ for global health?

Mark Shrime is an otolaryngologist (and American Ninja Warrior competitor) who may just be on the leading edge of change in the way global health sees surgery.  In this conversation with Tony Mai, Amanda Manorot, Brian Wall, and Hadeal Ayoub, Dr. Shrime argues that the way surgery is used in international development to date–surgeons fly in for two weeks, do their thing, and fly back out–doesn’t do much to allow their host countries to develop their own surgery skills.  For his part, he’s managed to arrange his work at Harvard to allow him two months abroad helping to strengthen health systems in countries like Congo, Haiti, Cameroon, and Madagascar.

The problem is, policy-makers see surgery as ‘too expensive,’ disregarding it as a tool for global health intervention.  Ebola and Zika therefore get all the attention.  But analysis of the cost-effectiveness of surgery as a tool in global health efforts belies this view, and shows the burden of surgical diseases may be as high as a third of the global total.  Fortunately, Dr. Shrime has good advice for future surgeons who face a system that embraces Relative Value Units as a measure of physician performance, and yet want to pursue work outside their hospitals to effect global healthcare change.

We Want to Hear From You

What are your thoughts on the effort to elevate surgery as a global health intervention? Any thoughts on who we should interview next? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com to share your ideas.

Continue reading More Surgery for Better Global Health: Dr. Mark Shrime

Re-doin’ the Drops, a Clash of Wits, and Snapchat Surgery

Share

sauron photo
Uh, oh. Sauron’s been doin’ the drops again. Photo by Dustin Ginetz

We tried Roto Z eye drops in the past, and were unimpressed.  But thanks to Doug Russo, who secured the real deal–Roto Z Pro eye drops–Kaci McCleary and newbies Matt Wilson, Jenna Schade and Elizabeth Shirazi felt the burn.  Now that they’re suitably refreshed, Dave must do his part to help med students keep their wits about them by playing a game of MegaClash!  Listener and ortho resident Emily calls in to say hello and express concern that med students are forced to choose specialties based on shallow exposures.  We address a worrying sentiment Dave noticed popping up a lot this week: that “if you can see yourself doing anything else besides being a doctor, do that instead.”  But it’s cool, because the National Academy of Medicine has formed a coalition of organizations to address burnout and suicide in medicine and medical education.  And a UK surgeon offers his students a way to observe surgery without all the boring bits, leveraging Snapchat Spectacles.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for a question to consider every Monday.

Continue reading Re-doin’ the Drops, a Clash of Wits, and Snapchat Surgery

The Magic Ch-chingdom.

Share
We need validation. Leave a review: iTunes | Stitcher

Addled by food and centrifugal force, Dave loses touch with reality
Addled by food and centrifugal force, Dave loses touch with reality

Dave returns from his vacation at Disney World in sunny Florida, and recaps for Senuri Jayatilleka, John Pienta, and Cole Cheney his fascination with how Disney takes your money and makes you love it.  How does that relate to medicine?  Who cares, it’s fun! And Suri is puzzled by her surgery shelf exam, which seemed to have few questions on actual surgery.  Continue reading The Magic Ch-chingdom.