Show Notes
On this episode of The Life Medical, we see the pandemic’s effect on medical care through the eyes of “emergentologist” Dr. Calvin Sun, as he works shifts in emergency rooms and urgent care centers across New York City. He discovers anti-vaxers getting vaccinated in secret, discusses the future of emergency medicine, and describes the travels that have taken him to over 190 countries in the last decade. We then continue our conversation with pioneering neuroscientist, Dr. Adam Gazzaley in our recurring segment Citizen Science. He charts how his team took the idea of a therapeutic video game from the lab to FDA approval to clinical use. And stay tuned for upcoming episodes of the podcast, where we explore the Dr. Death case from the neurosurgeons’ perspective.
More from The Life Medical
In this latest episode of The Life Medical podcast, I spoke with the great Todd Berland, Professor of Vascular Surgery at NYU. His interviewing prowess teased out my neurosurgery origin story and predictions for the future of the field, as well as a deep dive into the passion project that is Discogen. A pilot clinical study at Columbia began this year to test the treatment our company has developed to repair spinal disc disease noninvasively.
This week, we kick off an exciting new segment, Anatomy of a Case, where doctors share their most difficult and unusual clinical challenges. We begin with Dr. Katherine Teter, a vascular surgeon at NYU, describing her first night on-call as an attending. She was asked to manage an uncontrolled hemorrhage resulting from another doctor’s procedural complication. We hear the initial details in her own words, and she leaves us with a cliffhanger before heading to the operating room . My cohost Todd Berland - clinical professor and host of the Vascular Surgery show on SiriusXM Doctor Radio - and I do not know the outcome of the case, but we make some educated guesses before Katherine joins us and reveals the outcome. It’s a gripping yarn!
Frank Veith has had a remarkable seventy-year career in vascular surgery, pioneering techniques that transformed the field from Frank Veith has had a remarkable seventy-year career in vascular surgery, pioneering techniques that transformed the field from open to endovascular procedures. His book, The Medical Jungle, details the genesis of these innovations, while candidly describing his battles with an establishment that sought to either block or take credit for his progress. His story will motivate anyone who has faced adversity to stand up - to be radical - even when it is unpopular.
Neurosurgeon Nicholas Theodore opens the episode by taking us through the decision calculus of spinal cord decompression surgery. We then inaugurate our Life Medical Book Club with two distinguished physician authors. The first is Malcolm Ogborn, whose book Sudden Leadership is subtitled A Survival Guide for Physicians. Then Michael Zema, the author of Modern Healthcare Delivery - Deliverance or Debacle, gives us a a view from the inside out of the history of the modern medical system in the United States.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. For perspective, we talk with Dr. Mario Ramirez, an emergency room physician whose varied career has included a stint as Acting Director of the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We also revisit the caselog of our friend, neurosurgeon Dr. Martin Lazar, who brings us into a nail-biter of a spinal tumor case. We share his operative video, with permission, on our website and all our social channels. The picture is truly worth a thousand words, on the latest episode of The Life Medical podcast.