Author: sdas

The Future of Medicine

You can hear a clip from this episode on our BEST OF SEASON ONE file, available as a free podcast download on iTunes.

In this flagship episode of Radio Rounds, we were honored to welcome Dr. Gary LeRoy, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. Dr. LeRoy was recognized as one of America’s 50 Most Positive Physicians, as the Miami Valley Family Physician of the Year, and is listed in the National Registry of Who’s Who in America. He has received the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine award, among many other recognitions.

Conversation in this episode ranges from issues such as the future of primary care in the current political climate… to what it’s like to receive a “pie in the face.” Also featured are two current medical students — Susan Conrad, who discusses the recent Match Day ceremonies for fourth year students, and Stephen Zitelli, who describes the life of a third year medical student.

Women in Medicine

You can hear a clip from this episode on our BEST OF SEASON ONE file, available as a free podcast download on iTunes.

Thanks to the AMWA (American Medical Women’s Association) chapter at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, the Radio Rounds team hosted a Mother’s Day lunch event in the WWSU radio station!

Dr. Amy Reed is a vascular surgeon at the University of Cincinnati — one of less than 200 female vascular surgeons in the United States. She spoke to us about her decision to become a surgeon, her experience during her training, and her ability to balance her family with a demanding professional career. We were also joined by Dr. Sheela Barhan, an OB/GYN in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Barhan is also the Director of the Boonshoft School of Medicine’s “Women in Medicine” elective course, and she spoke to us about the benefits of that course.

Our other guests on this episode included Joanna Hurrell (accompanied by her mother; second year student and President of AMWA at Wright State), Michelle Kline and Nicole Majoras (first year students who took the aforementioned “Women in Medicine” elective course this year), and Laura Previll (a second year student who joined us on air and read a moving poem dedicated to her mother).

The Gift of Life

You can hear a clip from this episode on our BEST OF SEASON ONE file, available as a free podcast download on iTunes.

This week, we were joined in the studio by Dr. Thav Thambi-Pillai, a transplant surgeon, and Dr. John Donnelly, a family physician who received a life-changing pancreas transplant in 2004. Dr. Thambi-Pillai and Dr. Donnelly talked with us about organ donation, the transplant process, and the personal side to the field of organ transplantation.

Particularly memorable in this episode is Dr. Donnelly’s vivid recollection of the process he underwent many years ago in order to receive a life-saving pancreas transplant.

A Real WHO’s Who

The free podcast of this episode, which aired on August 30, 2009, is available on our iTunes page!

This episode features regular CNN medical correspondent Dr. Martin Makary (left), the Chair of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Surgical Outcomes Research. He speaks with the Radio Rounds hosts about the work he has done with the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), with regard to maximizing patient safety and quality of care.

Dr. Makary has in fact authored a number of books about those topics and public health and offers some great insight into the work he does — including the importance of a simple (but potentially life-saving) “checklist” used in surgeries.

The Human Journalist

The free podcast of this episode is available on our iTunes page!

This episode features an interview with Dr. Elissa Ely (left) — a psychiatrist in Boston, MA and an accomplished journalist, contributing regular Op-Ed pieces to The New York Times and The Boston Globe. As she mentions when asked about medical journalism, she considers herself not necessarily to be a medical journalist but to be a “human journalist.”

Dr. Ely talks about the human interactions that can be so fleeting yet profound; these are interactions that underlie not just medicine but everyday life. She also discusses the concept of “caring too much” for a patient, as well as the options for physicians who themselves deal with psychiatric issues on their own.

Conrad Fischer Part I – The Best Time to be in Medicine

The free podcast of this episode is available on our iTunes page!

In October 2009, the Radio Rounds crew visited Mt. Carmel Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and met Dr. Conrad Fischer — author of Routine Miracles: Restoring Faith and Hope in Medicine, Chair of Medicine for Kaplan Medical and Director of Educational Development for Nassau University Medical Center in New York.

That afternoon, hosts Avash Kalra, Lakshman Swamy, and Shamie Das sat down with Dr. Fischer and conversed about a variety of topics — the miracles of modern medicine, the heroic culture that should be instilled in physicians and medical schools, and the motivation that leads many of us to this profession in the first place. This episode features Part I of that conversation — without a doubt one of the most inspiring and dynamic interviews ever featured on Radio Rounds.

The dynamic Dr. Fischer challenges the notion that the practice of medicine was somehow “better” 25 years ago, and he proclaims a call to action for all medical students and physicians. As he says, we should want to go “cure a disease before lunchtime!”

Also in this episode, we hear from Dr. Larry Lawhorne (Chair of Geriatrics at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine) and Beth Delaney (Program Manager of Palliative Care at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio). As part of a special tribute to Veterans Day, we discuss with Beth and Dr. Lawhorne a unique “Honor Flight” program, as well as unique health care issues related to veterans (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder).

You’re a Logical Doc

The free podcast of this episode is available on our iTunes page!

This episode features an interview with Dr. Dan Miller, a urologist in Dayton, Ohio (now… think about the episode title) and Clinical Professor for the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. Dr. Miller speaks with the ‘Rounds’ hosts about the high level of professional and personal satisfaction that he gains in the field of urology — a specialty that has become highly sought after by medical students for its lifestyle. Dr. Miller also discusses a unique aspect of urology — that, despite being a surgical specialty, it remains one that has a great amount of patient contact and one that can allow a physician to help patients in a short amount of time. As Dr. Miller says, he’s a “fix-it guy.” We also enjoy a discussion about Dr. Miller’s other interests — which ranged from running marathons to dressing up as a mummy on Halloween!

During this episode, we also recap our recent weekend in Chicago, where the Radio Rounds crew attended the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) Regional Conference. Hosts Avash Kalra, Lakshman Swamy, and Shamie Das interviewed Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky for a live-audience show at the conference.

Revisiting The House of God

On October 25, 2009, while the Radio Rounds crew was in Chicago, we concluded our three-week Experience of Residency series, and the free podcast is available on our iTunes page here!

Our special guest in this episode is Samuel Shem — which is the pen-name for Harvard psychiatrist and former Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Stephen Bergman. Shem is the author of the famous novel The House of God, which was published over 30 years ago but remains one of the greatest works ever written about the medical profession. The House of God was in fact named by the British medical journal The Lancet as one of the two most important American medical novels of the 20th century, alongside Sinclair Lewis’ Arrowsmith.

In the episode, Shem talks about why he thinks The House of God is so well-received, even today — and how the perception of the novel has changed since its time of publication. We also discuss Shem’s latest book, The Spirit of the Place and about “how to stay human in medicine.” We encourage you to listen to the podcast of this episode, and of each episode in our Experience of Residency series! To recap, our special guests for the series were:

Part I (Episode 210): Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, Author of Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation
Part II (Episode 211): Dr. Michael Collins, Author of Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs and Hot Lights, Cold Steel
Part III (Episode 212): Samuel Shem (Dr. Stephen Bergman), Author of The House of God and The Spirit of the Place

Want to hear more from Samuel Shem? Visit his website to listen to his 2009 Harvard Medical School commencement speech.

Blue Collar, Cold Steel

The free podcast of this episode is available on our iTunes page!

In this episode, the Radio Rounds team speaks with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Michael Collins, author of and Hot Lights, Cold Steel and Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs.

This episode was also Part II of our three-week “Experience of Residency” series that we aired in October, 2009. In Part I (Episode 210), we spoke with Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, author of Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation. The series concludes with Episode 212, featuring renowned author Samuel Shem (The House of God).

In this interview with Dr. Collins in Part II, we discuss his intriguing path to medicine — which included working as a construction worker and cab driver before deciding to go to medical school. Upon graduating and entering residency, Dr. Collins found himself thrown under the hot lights… on the cold steel of the operating room. And of course his intern year is the subject of Hot Lights, Cold Steel.

The humor and emotion of the book certainly come through in this conversation with Dr. Collins, and we encourage you to listen if you get the chance. This episode also features one of the more light-hearted moments in Radio Rounds history, as Dr. Collins discusses his favorite beers.

National Child Health Day

The free podcast of this episode is available on our iTunes page!

Radio Rounds recognizes National Child Health Day — which falls by tradition on the first Monday of October every year — with this special episode focusing on the field of pediatrics.

This childhood health episode naturally features a pair of interviews with pediatricians. In the first, the Radio Rounds team speaks with Dr. Joel Fein, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an Attending Physician in the Emergency Department at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Dr. Fein discusses his interests regarding mental health screening and violence prevention, and as the conversation progressed, it becomes evident that working in a major urban pediatric emergency department is far from — shall we say — child’s play. One study he discusses involved the use of an interactive voice response tool to followup with patients, and right on cue, the results from that study were published the week of this episode, in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. You can find that published paper at this link on PubMed.

Also featured in this episode is Dr. Shalini Forbis from the Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Forbis highlights the aspects of pediatrics that make it so worthwhile for her and her colleagues — the ability to positively impact the health of young individuals for life and the benefit of health education and health literacy for patients and their families.