The Short Coat

Merry Christmas, if that's your thing. This week, Aline Sandouk, Lisa Wehr, Greg Woods, and Kaci McCleary ponder the prevalence of psychological issues among doctors. It turns out, they're messed up, especially surgeons. Keep away from those guys, unless you need a transplant.

The U.S. has recently (and not-so-recently) been rocked by the killings of black men by police; these events have spawned protests, among them the die-ins at medical schools around the country.  Students Ben Quarshie, Kaci McCleary, Lisa Wehr, Greg Woods, and Aline Sandouk discuss these events, how non-minorities can take part in the conversation without screwing it up, and why these events are important to medical students.

This time, Greg Woods, Aline Sandouk, Ethan Craig, Kaci McCleary, and Cole Cheney talk about the medical student humblebrag, as well as the score-comparison conversations that happen after exams, this despite the common reassurance from administrators and professors that these scores aren't the most important thing about one's medical school experience.

Dr. Denny and nurse Paula Lofstrum's journey together began in the late 1980s, when they embarked on a mission to Guatemala with a team of healthcare professionals.  It was the first of several such trips until, in the early 2000s, they visited Iambi, Tanzania in East Africa. It was there that the Lofstrums would discover a new chapter in their mission work.  In 2006 they formed International Health Partners in the US and Tanzania, which works to improve healthcare for the people of Tanzania.

Happy Thanksgiving! This week, have a heaping slice of Greg Woods, Lisa Wehr, Cole Cheney, and Corbin Weaver who cover the attention Mattel's Barbie is getting for being a shockingly bad computer engineer, and whether and how this sort of bias against the competence of women appears in medical education. We also talk a lot about bacteria studies, for some reason.

The Short Coats opine on one doc's quest to encourage her colleagues to adopt a policy of 'total transparency' with their patients--financial relationships, personal values, the whole shebang--in an effort to increase trust in the doctor/patient relationship. Also, happy World Vasectomy Day, direct brain-to-brain interfaces successfully demonstrated again, a woman has seizures when she hears Ne-Yo sing, and Google's new employee benefit.

The Short Coats talk about Brittany Maynard’s decision to move to Oregon so that she could be in a position to end her suffering from glioblastoma by taking advantage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity law. Also, A 2-foot lungfish is removed from a brazilian man’s intestine, Internet social media disease tracking beats the WHO to the punch on Ebola, and mid-term voting’s effects on health issues around the country are all up for discussion this week.

This week’s show, featuring Cole Cheney, Willis Hong, Lisa Wehr, and Matt Maves, was recorded on Halloween so just pretend it’s a week ago.  Lisa couldn’t stay for the whole thing—she had to leave for a test—and without her moderating influence the show turned into a bro-cast. Cole isn’t happy with Ebola-quarantined Maine nurse Kaci Hickox and her bike rides while quarantined, but Dave argues that perhaps nurses are pushing back against the political maneuverings of certain governors in public health issues, and the blame that the CDC and the media have been putting on them for the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital’s handling of the Eric Duncan’s Ebola fiasco. Also, JAMA Dermatology reports that top colleges and universities feature tanning beds as a lure for students.  Scientists create adorable, tiny stomachs to study the the tummy.  More scientists create less adorable but nevertheless tiny male reproductive organs for rabbit bros, getting us closer to the production of complex solid organs.  CT-scans verify that chronic fatigue syndrome has a basis in the structures of the brain.  Cole’s beard, which is notably full and lush in recent weeks, has been declared ‘not very peaceful’ by his hothouse yoga instructor, who doesn’t understand bros, I guess. And a proposal for the Medicine and Society course’s Wellness Passport component comes from research that bros who have more than 20 partners have reduced risk of prostate cancer. * Prostate cancer risk reduced by sleeping with many women, but increased with many men, study finds * Many U.S. Colleges Have Indoor Tanning Salons On, Near Campus: Study * Tiny human stomachs grown in the lab * MRI identifies brain abnormalities in chronic fatigue syndrome patients Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network. 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.  And for the love of all that is holy, this isn’t medical advice you’re getting, here, people.

This week on The Short Coat Podcast, Lisa Wehr, Cole Cheney, Zhi Xiong, and Greg Woods are back with this week’s completely inadvertent theme: odoriferous treatments.  Also we talk about how medical students do a lot of staring at the bark and missing the trees, and the scandalous and sexist mnemonics used in medical school for all that bark staring.  Dave looks forward to the delivery of his iPad Air 2 and ditching his 2010 iPad 2 because iOS 8 destroyed it.  U2’s Bono reveals that his silly glasses are a treatment for his glaucoma, making everyone feel bad for thinking he was just trying and failing to look cool. There is a evolutionary reason for the thick male skull, which seems to coincide with the appearance of The Three Stooges on the fossil record. Cole reveals he’s a beta male as evidenced by his reaction to blood draws, and how this reaction perpetuates the survival of the species. A British man fakes a 2-year coma to avoid court. Proposals for a robot force to deal with Ebola.  The University of Exeter isolates a compound from the smell of flatulence that they think will treat diseases that are mediated by damage to mitochondria. Researchers peg when adult humans gained lactase and thus the ability to process milk, and as a result we are thankful that Lisa grew up on a dairy farm and explains why and how adults grew to do that.  Scientists discover that our skin contains odor receptors, and a man with a spinal injury gets cells from his olfactory bulb transplanted into his spine and regains motion and sensation. * Big Boobs Matter Most (I swear, that’s the title of the article, don’t fire me) * Headstrong Hominids * UK man faked coma for 2 years to avoid court * Did Nose Cells Help Paralyzed Man Walk? * Archaeology: The milk revolution * Rotten egg gas holds key to healthcare therapies * Here Are Some Robots We Could Use To Fight Ebola in Africa Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

It’s our 50th episode, and students Lisa Wehr, Matt Maves, Greg Woods, Cole Cheney, and Deep Bhat are on hand, and admissions recruiter Amy A’hearn stops by to address a listener’s Moment of Truth: are overseas medical mission trips still a good idea when you’re looking to add a little something to your CV as you prepare to apply to med school? She says, sure, but there are some gotchas you need to know about. Also, Facebook and Apple cover the costs for female employees to freeze their eggs. The first baby born from a transplanted uterus is doing fine. Withdrawal symptoms due to a Google Glass addiction are mistaken for alcohol withdrawal. Breast cancer awareness campaigns—are they trivializing with humor a serious disease? A woman’s “cheese slid off her cracker,” resulting in a fugue state that lasts 2400 miles, but shows that people are still looking out for each other. A berry’s juice, applied to some cancers, make them disappear, but (because Mother Nature hates us) it’s a pretty rare berry. Long Islanders’ are becoming allergic to red meat due to tick bites. We succumb to the Ebola coverage epidemic raging through America. * Silicon Valley Companies Add New Benefit For Women: Egg-Freezing * Womb transplant marks birth of new legal and ethical dilemmas * Man Is Treated in First Case of Google Glass Addiction * When funny business crosses the punch line * ‘God kept me safe,’ says Boise woman mystified by odd trip * Scientists discover cancer-fighting berry on tree that only grows in Far North Queensland

Matt gets in touch with a question:  does a mediocre academic history automatically destroy med school aspirations, or are there ways to fix that?  There are, and Amy A’hearn of our admissions office gives Matt a path to follow.  Lisa Wehr and Matt Maves discuss apps that seek to help poor people, a UK chef creating ‘human meat burgers’ to promote a popular television show (with recipe, so be sure to save this one for your next Walking Dead premiere party), and a special shout out to the first genetically modified babies, who are graduating high school in the coming year.  Please use your superpowers responsibly. * 4 Years Of Lessons Learned About Drugmakers’ Payments To Doctors * Apps for the Poor: They’re Not What You Think * ‘Human Flesh Burgers’ By Chef James Thomlinson Probably Do Taste Like Human * The World’s First Genetically Modified Babies Will Graduate High School This Year Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network. 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.

Having a little trouble with iTunes, so I’m posting this to (try to) make sure listeners get our discussion with Dr. Holt delivered to their iDevices properly. See the previously posted episode description here. I hope this works!

On this week’s show, Dr. Terrence Holt, author of Internal Medicine: A Doctor’s Stories visits with Writing and Humanities Program Director Jason Lewis, and students Cole Cheney, Ethan Forsgren, Aline Sandouk, and a studio audience. Dr. Holt is a geriatrician at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  His book is about residency, and is an exploration of how doctors find the compassion and strength to care about their work and patients.  The first chapter,  “A Sign of Weakness,” takes us through an inexperienced doctor’s confrontation of his own helplessness against the impending death of his patient.  You may want to read it before you listen. (Look for the link below the audio player.)  Dr. Holt has a lot to offer med students in terms of wisdom.  How having a deep and thoughtful appreciation of your own humanity helps If you’re going to practice medicine humanely.  The role doubt plays in the life of a doc, and the fact that If you’re not having doubt multiple times in the course of a day, you’re not paying close enough attention.  The things that keep him going as a doctor and as a writer. How the connection between writer and reader gives writers advantages that other kinds of artists may not have. And using literature as a way of getting the kinds of experience that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Episode 048: A Doctor’s Story with Terrence Holt Excerpt: Internal Medicine: A Doctor’s Stories, “A Sign of Weakness” Excerpted from Internal Medicine: A Doctor’s Stories by Terrence Holt. Copyright © 2014 by Terrence Holt. With permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network. 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.

Keenan Laraway struggles to comprehend the rules on what you can say on a podcast, while the M1s suffer through their Anatomy and Biochem exams.  Also, Matt Maves, Emily Reynolds, and Holly Van Den Beldt discuss the connection between healthcare staff, hand hygiene, and peer pressure; why parents feed their kids unhealthy foods (hint: it’s not because they don’t know what healthy food is); where superbugs may be hiding in hospitals, and what they’re doing while they’re skulking about; and some questionable dreaming research. Episode 046: What Keenan Can’t Say. * Colleagues Not Washing Their Hands? Apply a Little Peer Pressure * The Art & Science of Teaching Kids to Eat Right * Sex in the Sink: Gene-Swapping Bacteria Are Making New Superbugs * http://time.com/3398931/bizarre-dreams/ Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network. 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.

On September 12, the Carver College of Medicine celebrated medical student’s efforts in reseasrch, and what better day than that for a ‘cast featuring student researchers? Cole Cheney hosts David Peters, Ezequiel Brown, Tyler Olson, and Emi Deumic to talk about their efforts in broadening medical knowledge and in learning about the world that researchers inhabit. It’s a fascinating place, and it makes Cole talk funny. Also, are scientists selfish about sharing data? Cornell cancer researcher talk…with patients, a radical new idea. And the hazards to funding posed by the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, and one MD/PhD student’s solution–the liquid nitrogen/dry ice bucket challenge to support NIH funding. Listen: Episode 045: Research Day! Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network. 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.