Mt. Everest, part of the Himalayan Mountain range is the highest mountain on the planet.  Those who attempt to climb to the 29,000-foot-high peak are a pretty hardy bunch; past 26,246 feet, climbers are challenged not just to climb but to survive.  Exhaustion can occur just from the effort of breathing, never mind the dangers associated with lack of oxygen, extreme cold, and falling off the mountain.  Climbers who die near the top are most often entombed there, because to bring their bodies back would entail too great a risk for other climbers.

Iowa City emergency medicine physician Chuck Huss is a veteran mountaineer who has participated in expeditions to high peaks across the globe, including four expeditions to Mt. Everest.  He has served as expedition physician on several trips, and has an incredible wealth of knowledge on international travel, mountaineering, and global medicine.  He sat down recently with med student Asitha Jayawardena to talk about his experiences in the wilderness.

Listen: Episode 015: Chuck Huss and Wilderness Medicine

Recently, the University of Iowa was lucky enough to get a visit from Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician, is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international nonprofit organization that provides direct health care services and has undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and the United Nations deputy special envoy for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

Farmer and his colleagues in the United States and in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho and Malawi have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings.

The medical students were able to get some time with Dr. Farmer for a little Q&A on the challenges he and Partners in Health face when working in such settings.

Listen:  Delivering High-Quality Healthcare in Poor Countries, With Dr. Paul Farmer

The Short Coat presents The Short Couch with Natalie:

Med school is a challenge, a character building exercise, and sometimes, just a 4-year suck-filled existence. Whatever you wanna call it, it’s definitely not a time to go it alone. My friends, this is when we outta call in the reserves. The generations of med students and fully pimped doctors who’ve already made their way to residency somehow. So, don’t reinvent the wheel! Send the Short Couch your problems, and we will get you solutions! Or at least some decently thought-out suggestions from those who have been there.

But seriously, we welcome your questions, problems, or whatever you’ve got concerning life in medical school. Not just academics, but all of it. Want to see how others have handled serious long distance relationships or coming to terms with “just passing”? Well, call us at (347) SHORT-CT (that’s (347) 746 7828)—and if you want us to obfuscate your voice we can do that if you tell us to—or email us at theshortcoats@gmail.com, or come yell it at Jason and David in 1193 MERF. We’ll find people to talk. We have our ways.