The Short Coat

A flood of listener questions this week! It's probably due in part to medical school application season has begun, which means medical school applicants are trying to figure out if they have what it takes...on paper. For instance, an anonymous listener ("Meldor") called in to find out what kinds of gap year jobs Liza Mann, Elizabeth Shirazi, Kelsey Adler, and Teneme Konne thought would allow her to keep connected to the world of medicine while she's applying. Of course, there are lots of jobs like that...but is it really necessary? We play a game to find out who can best spin any gap year job to an admissions interviewer. Also, listener Mike returns to let us know more exactly what he was concerned about in our long-past episode in which we spoke of gun violence. Meanwhile, Andrea wants to know more about what medical students learn about health disparities; given that much of human disease is about societal influences, including economic and racial divides, it turns out the answer is quite a lot. Lastly, after hearing our recent discussion on food deserts, Erica let us know about an organization at her alma mater, the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Brightside Produce is devoted to generating scientific results that increase yields and reduce environmental impacts of small-scale agriculture in cities. Basically, they're fighting inner-city hunger using science to enable urban farmers.

Listener T'keyah sends Cole Cheney, Aline Sandouk, and John Pienta a question on gap years, which boils down to what kinds of gaps are okay according to admissions committees? Cole reveals his post-med school podcasting plans, and he and John discuss how not getting your residency match can be a GOOD thing...after one is done crying. And at T'Keyah's suggestion, we try to offer sex education to each other without using words or concepts banned by state boards of education. Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

A listener wants to know more about the secondary application. Given the the turnaround time often recommended (a week), how important are they? Do they need to be as well crafted as your personal statement? What do schools get out of them? And are they just a way for schools to extract more money from applicants? We asked our medical school's admissions staff for answers to these questions so you can get on with crafting your best possible application. In science and medicine news, one major destination for patients' medical dollars is the emergency room visit. One recent study asks what do docs know about the costs of caring for some common complaints they see in the ER? Turns out, not much...but when doctors are in charge of knowing the costs of care, is the patient really helped? Meanwhile, a startup in (where else) California wants to charge $8000 to give old people young blood, because we need more dystopian sci-fi concepts. And a discussion on the problems people can experience surrounding orgasms reveals something about Kylie that would have made Jim Henson blush. We LOVE hearing from listeners, and we really work hard to answer your questions. If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

What is it about public health issues that lends itself to bandwagons? John Pienta, Levi Endelman, Hillary O'Brien, Issac Schwantes, and Jason Lewis discuss Finland's contribution to parenting, the cardboard box in which babies sleep. This year, hundreds of thousands of boxes will be given to new parents by US states in an attempt to improve infant mortality rates. Is that at all helpful, or are we ignoring other causes of death among infants? You know things are weird in healthcare when baking soda is in such short supply that hospitals start cutting back on open-heart surgery. And thanks to a certain 19th neuroanatomist's ideas about the relative sizes of the frontal lobe and the olfactory bulb, we decided that humans have crappy senses of smell...a 'fact' that turns out was never tested and is probably not at all true! We also heard from listener Mike, who we offended 70 episodes ago. We're not entirely sure what we said, exactly, that made Mike give us up after listening to roughly 80 hours of our half-baked opinions, but we always count ourselves fortunate to hear specific negative feedback (and hey, positive feedback is nice, too). Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

All work and no play…is not what we do. Sometimes you’re having so much fun that the time flies by and you forget that you have other important things to do.  That’s what happened on this week’s show, in which Dave brings Aditi Patel, Aline Sandouk, Kylie Miller and Irene Morcuende along for a trip through the medical supplies section of Amazon.  Can they guess what the medical device is based on the reviews alone? This week in science and medicine news We did get to talk about one bit of medical news, pointed out to us on twitter by AJtha808Scientist: the fact that Iowa made national news by forcing the closure of 1/4 of its Planned Parenthood clinics.  Thanks for the tip! We want to hear from you We also heard from Hannah of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  She wrote in to let us know why, according to the study we discussed in our last show about longevity in US counties, her beautiful corner of the country is so damn healthy.  Spoiler: it doesn’t involve sitting on the couch and eating chips like Dave was hoping.  Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com. We need validation. Leave a review: iTunes [huge_it_gallery id=”126″] The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; nor do they reflect the views of anyone other than the people who expressed them.  If you have feedback on anything you hear on the show, positive or not, let us know.

It's a more-or-less unstated goal of ours to show medical learners that podcasting can be a beneficial experience both for the host and for listeners. And we're always banging on about the need for better science communicators. So Erin Pazaski, Levi Endelman, Kylie Miller, and Irene Morcuende were recently excited to get an email from Terel Jackson, a premed at OSU who said she had gotten the message! She started her own show, Health Science (For The Rest of Us), which takes "a super practical look at the body, its shenanigans, and the world of fascinating ways we try to keep it healthy." Of course, we had to have her on the show to tell us all about her adventures in radiation, body odor, neti pots, and more. Also, how Americans' lifespans vary widely by county, and the unusual prescription one PA hospital is giving their patients. Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Listener T'keyah sends Cole Cheney, Aline Sandouk, and John Pienta a question on gap years, which boils down to what kinds of gaps are okay according to admissions committees? Cole reveals his post-med school podcasting plans, and he and John discuss how not getting your residency match can be a GOOD thing...after one is done crying. And at T'Keyah's suggestion, we try to offer sex education to each other without using words or concepts banned by state boards of education. Listeners, share your suggestions with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

One of our podcasting goals is to encourage others to create their own shows, especially medical learners. So John Pienta, Irisa Mahaparn, Adam Erwood, and Erin Pazaski were pleased to hear from listener Terel, who got it and launched a podcast of her own! Go, Terel! Although perhaps she and her fellow pre-meds should (not) consider the path taken by another undergrad, who decided to skip all that pesky applying and test taking and just declare herself a medical student so she could jump right in and start seeing patients. On the other hand, if you worked hard getting your MD, then getting married to it may be something to consider. And Dave offers his co-hosts some practice at answering health questions they might really hear someday, which he pulled from the saddest place on the internet: Yahoo! Answers. Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Improvisational acting is a greater part of medical school than one might expect. Between pretending to be doctors for one's simulated patients, or acting like you know what you're doing when you're not entirely sure, a big part of med ed is faking it until you make it. So Dave, in his never ending quest to offer (ahem) valuable teaching moments, asks Mark Moubarek, Irisa Mahaparn, Kaci McCleary, and newcomer Johnny Henstrom to put on their masks once again for a game of General Haze-pital. Will Johnny be cured by the dashing doctor Dr. Mark and his two eager med students, Kaci and Irisa? Tune in to find out. Also, we discuss the recent trend of trying to cure public health issues by using market forces, including the recent proposal to tax prescription opioid manufacturers a penny per milligram to fund addiction treatment and prevention. And an Indian medical student turns to Whatsapp to deliver a baby on a train...thus fulfilling a heroic daydream we've all had about saving the day in dire circumstances. Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, or send your greetings to us at theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We've got a crowd of M1s in the house rapidly approaching the end of their first year. This past week, Kylie Jade Miller, Levi Endelman, Adam Erwood, and new co-host Irene Morcuende took their physical exam skills practical exam; and they discussed some research they did at the intersections of medical and society--the public health implications of the American-as-apple-pie cycle of incarceration, the effects of Medicare expansion have had on access to mental healthcare, what happens when substance abuse sufferers are offered clean needle and Narcan, and whether taxing sugary drinks have an effect on obesity. Dave, seeing an opportunity to torture his co-hosts, put them through a Pop Quiz: can they discern if the research he presents to them is real or from the depths of Dave's mind? Kylie uses the occasion to let her secret gunner out. Listeners, we offer free advice! Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, or email us at theshortoats@gmail.com.

Dave is no scientist, but he is 'science-adjacent.' This week, after having read of research involving the benefits to brain function conferred by Marmite consumption, he conducts his own experiment on SCP hosts John Pienta, Kaci McCleary, Aline Sandouk, and Nathan Miller. Will they be able to use their new Marmite-based powers to pass Dave's Pop Quiz and identify actual Amazing Health Products You Can Get? Listener Hannah wants to know all about the medical science training program lifestyle, and how it differs from the MD student experience, and since Aline is an MSTP student herself, Hannah's in luck. And 23andMe has finally received approval from the FDA to offer genetic screenings for defects that either one already knows about or that knowing about might do more harm than good. Listeners, if you like what you hear today, please leave us a review on iTunes!

Among the topics we Short Coats often ruminate on is the lack of basic science literacy in the public and press...and among politicians. How did we get to this place when science is so mistrusted? So when Dave put out the call for co-hosts to talk with this week's guest, Kelsy Adler, Levi Endelman, Lisa Wehr, Marc Toral, and Laura Quast were only too happy to oblige. Shaughnessy Naughton is the founder of 314 Action, an organization that seeks to address dearth of science knowledge among politicians directly by encouraging and financing the election of people with STEM backgrounds to public office at all levels. Shaughnessy Naughton is the founder of 314 Action, which "champions electing more leaders to the U.S. Senate, House, State Executive and Legislative offices who come from STEM backgrounds." her organization seeks to change are politicians' active resistance to the acquisition of data on things like gun violence and climate change, and ignorance of the evidence that already exists on vaccinations and evolution. Among the challenges they face is the perception that science is above politics; the task of creating and financing a network of donors and supporters; understanding and effectively countering the politician's biases toward reflecting certainty instead of nuance. And they're addressing the need for training people of science to move beyond simple advocacy so that they can engage with the political process and change the system's anti-science biases from within. Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for occasional Live shows in which you can participate.

Sometimes, Dave has ideas. This time Dave's idea was to get his long-suffering co-hosts to enjoy the YouTube beauty treatment known as The Black Mask. Because, dermatology! Which is better, the DIY treatment or the store-bought version? Kaci McCleary, John Pienta, Adam Erwood, and Lisa Wehr will try to suss it out so you don' t have to. Also, we discuss Iowa's shortcomings with respect to mental health--its recent closures of state mental health hospitals and the reduction of psych beds across the state--as well as Iowa's recent moves counter to the trend--adding hospital beds and even residency programs! Meanwhile, is the anesthetic ketamine poised to revolutionize emergency treatment for suicidal depression? It's been many years since we had a new class of drugs to treat depression, but as always there are risks and doubts to be considered. On a related note, Dave attended a meeting of CCOM's new chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and John reviews briefly the College's new class "The Thriving Physician," both meant as antidotes for medical education's deleterious effects on mental health. Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page where we often broadcast our recording sessions live so you can join in on Fridays.

This episode is all about false dichotomies--situations or ideas that seem like dilemmas (and thus require a difficult choice to be made) but which really aren't. Much of the public discussions of things like the hours that residents work, the funding for medical research, the lifestyles that residents are forced to lead, the choices that prospective medical students make are couched in terms of either/or choices. Corbin Weaver, Matt Wilson, John Pienta, and Kaci McCleary discuss the alleged dilemmas that we encounter in medicine and medical education, and conclude that these choices are often not mutually exclusive. It is possible to have both shorter hours and safer patient handoffs and quality education, despite rules that seem to indicate otherwise. It is possible to adequately fund basic science research and fund a sensible national defense, despite presidential budgets that slash NIH funding. And should listener Justin study during the summer prior to med school to begin medical school on the right foot, or will he struggle if he takes a break to live a little? Listeners, share your thoughts and questions with us each week. Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time.

Statistics on human trafficking vary, but Dr. Shannon Findlay, an Emergency Medicine resident at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, offers some sobering information. It is believed that 21 million people worldwide are affected by human trafficking, and perhaps 18,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year in forced labor or sex work. It’s not just people being brought into the country against their will, either, or even moved across state lines.  Even people within their home towns can be victims. Recognizing that someone is a victim of human trafficking is difficult, as there are so many variables and misunderstandings to overcome.  Physicians may be running across victims and not realizing it, even if something doesn’t seem right about a patient interaction.  Corbin Weaver, Tarek Karam, and Kylie Miller join Dr. Shannon to discuss the problem, how physicians can recognize potential victims, and what they can do about it.  And with Match Day around the corner, Dr. Findlay also recalls her match experience as well as offers advice to new residents in their intern year.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page where we record Live to include your questions and comments in the show. We need validation. Leave a review: iTunes Your Hosts This Week: [huge_it_gallery id=”116″] The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; nor do they reflect the views of anyone other than the pe...