Tag Archives: tony rosenberg

Bonus Episode! Palliative Care: A Perspective from A Land Where It Barely Exists, ft. Dr. MR Rajagopal

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Palliative care is not a thing in India, mostly.

In most of India, palliative care–a medical specialty focused on improving the quality of life of people with life-limiting or disabling diseases–is available to only 1% of people who need it.  But in Kerala, one organization is making lots of headway in promoting this vital specialty.  In this episode, Pallium India’s founder, chairman, and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. MR Rajagopal visited the University of Iowa College of Medicine to talk about their efforts to introduce to Indian providers a new way of thinking about pain and other symptoms by providing emotional, social and spiritual support.

As you might expect from such a practitioner, Dr. Rajagopal is an extraordinarily thoughtful man with a kind, quiet voice that belies what must be an extraordinary force of will needed to accomplish his goals.  Tony Rosenberg, Ellie Ginn, Rachel Schenkel, and Jayden Bowen discussed how he began his journey, what his fellow Indian providers made of these ideas, and what his hopes are for the future of palliative medicine around the world.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you or anyone in your family have experience with palliative care? Tell us about it at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  We’d love to hear from you!

Continue reading Bonus Episode! Palliative Care: A Perspective from A Land Where It Barely Exists, ft. Dr. MR Rajagopal

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

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!

Continue reading Routines, Right To Try, and Reviews

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

Taking Advice is Hard To Do

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Giving advice is easy.  Taking it?  Not so much.

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Photo by Maurits Verbiest

Listener Arman calls back to thank us for some good advice we gave him on continuing his hobbies and interests outside medical school!  Nevertheless, he notes how difficult it often is to take advice, even when we want it, and wonders if we know why?  Of course we do, and Levi Endelman, Tony Rosenberg, Mark Moubarek, and Rob Humble are willing to advise him.  And Samuel paints doctors with a broad brush when he writes to tell us his worries about the kinds of people who go to medical school and the sorts of things they do when they get those precious letters after their names and the prestige to go with them.

This Week in Medical News

The WHO and others are ready to add ‘gaming disorder‘ to the International Classification of Diseases, to the dismay of many experts (and little ol’ us).  And researchers in India are taking a 2014 internet hoax to its logical conclusion and trying to decide if ‘selfitis‘ (the obsessive taking of selfies) is a real concern, as well as how people use them to prop themselves up.

We Want to Hear From You

Wanna show us your best duck-lips selfie?  Need some advice that you won’t take? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  Do all three!

Continue reading Taking Advice is Hard To Do

Careless (and Repulsive) Whispers

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Photo by Yogesh Mhatre

Fresh from winter break, Kaci McCleary, Tony Rosenberg, Mark Moubarek, and new co-host Teneme Konne bring us up to date on their activities during their time off.  We hear from co-host Amy Young as she sends in her (surprising?) thoughts on the Grand Canyon.  Meanwhile, the good old mesentery might get a well deserved promotion, from fatty membrane that gets in the way during abdominal surgery but conveniently holds your spleen to full blown organ…so long as you’re an Irish researcher.  Sadly, recent extra-legal efforts to replace fatally flawed mitochondria in human ova with healthy ones might prove to be worthless (and worse).  France declares everyone an organ donor, unless you opt out (you jerk).  And Dave takes everyone on a tour of the murky world of autonomous sensory meridian response on YouTube.  Will we jump on the ASMR bandwagon, or wipe the warm condensation off our ears and sit this one out?

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 Careless (and Repulsive) Whispers

The Fellowship of the Mic

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Left to right, Rob Humble, Sean Astin, and Doug Russo being awesome.

This week, Dave, Aline Sandouk, John Pienta, Doug Russo, and Tony Rosenberg reflect upon the joy that podcasting brings, as we were recording the show on International Podcasting Day (Sept. 30).  Something else to celebrate: Doug (and Rob Humble) got to chill with an actual hobbit.  Or maybe it was Sean Astin, it isn’t entirely clear. But whoever it was, Samwise was in Iowa stumping for Hillary Clinton. Hobbitses are very liberal, what with their hairy feet and pipeweed. Meanwhile, Doug was listening to the recent show in which Mark Moubarek discussed Rhoto eye drops, and bought some for us to “do.” After the burning subsides, we discuss the advice from an attending overheard recently: should everyone really try to know everything?

Continue reading The Fellowship of the Mic

The Doctor Is In: Ryan Gray Lifts Up the Next Generation of Medical Students

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gray2Ryan Gray, MD,  was a physician in the Air Force. He’d planned all along to be an orthopaedic surgeon…but the military had other plans for him: aerospace medicine.  Later, when a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis forced him to give up flying, his career plans changed once again, and he decided to set aside the practice of medicine to focus his growing business as the proprietor of MedicalSchoolHQ.net where he advises pre-medical students on their efforts to get into medical school. He’s also a podcaster in that vein, as the host of The Premed Years podcast, the OldPreMeds Podcast, and The MCAT Podcast. As Dave, Nicole Morrow, Amy Hansen, Alex Volkmar, and Tony Rosenberg found, not only is Dr. Gray a thoughtful adviser, but he’s a lot of fun to talk to.  His thoughts on being a non-traditional medical student (he was one himself), the efforts of some schools to create competency- and systems-based curricula instead of exam-based curricula, and the types of students admissions committees are most interested in are definitely worth knowing.  And check out Dr. Gray’s new book, The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Interview. Continue reading The Doctor Is In: Ryan Gray Lifts Up the Next Generation of Medical Students

Recess Rehash: Snapchat, Psychiatry, Femininity, and Savory Toothpastes

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Photo by Ty Nigh

With Dave on vacation, we’re taking a break this week.  Enjoy this rerun!

Corbin Weaver, Cole Cheney, Taz Khalid and Tony Rosenberg educate Dave on Snapchat.  Technology: scary!  We confront the limits and future of antibiotics as we hear about the new E. coli bug that’s immune from all of them.  We discuss how YOU can set up your own medical office, and get all your equipment from good ol’ Amazon. Corbin is on her psychiatry rotation, and it’s turning out to be a reflective time for her, especially as it relates to how we treat people with psychiatric disorders.

Continue reading Recess Rehash: Snapchat, Psychiatry, Femininity, and Savory Toothpastes

The World is Burning

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Photo by egevad, per

Dave’s feeling a bit concerned for the future of the world these days. As a consumer of science fiction movies and books, he’s long noticed a theme therein: that of the old people holding on to the reigns of power, both economic and political, while the young people struggle for a foothold.  As society continues to skew older–with medicine becoming better and better at keeping the elderly healthy longer–will the youngsters lose whatever agency they have?  John Pienta, Nick Sparr, Tony Rosenberg and Taz Khalid humor Dave by talking about it.  Also, since Tony’s here, there is  somehow more talk of poop.

Continue reading The World is Burning