What Brings You In Today?: Recent Episodes
WBYIT
On What Brings You in Today, we share stories and reflections about studying and working in medicine. WBYIT is a Narrative Medicine podcast produced by medical students at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
On this week's episode Kya and Beth talk to one of their mentors, Dr. Greta Kuphal, about integrative medicine. We discuss Dr. Kuphal's journey within her medical training, the philosophies beneath integrative medicine, and the importance of taking a wholistic approach to patient's, and our own, healing.
On this week's episode, we discuss the topic of loneliness with Calvin Lam, PGY-1 in Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Calvin recently wrote a piece titled 'On Loneliness' for one of his 4th year electives which was published in UW student-run narrative medicine publication, The Script. Calvin shares his inspiration for writing on the topic of loneliness, in addition to reflecting on the impact loneliness as on individuals in terms of their health and wellness.
On this week's episode, in honor of Valentine's Day, we're bringing back a fun-loving episode from last year with a twist: relationships in medical school, but this time, clinical rotations edition. This week, we'll explore the nuances of navigating a romantic relationship while working as a student on the wards. In this episode, we feature Kya's significant other Zach.
On this episode of WBYIT, we are keeping it in the family as Beth and Kya check in with each other now that their first month of rotations is nearly over! We talk about our first days, initial reflections, study schedules, and how we feel compared to our prior episode.
We are back after a much-needed holiday break! We are kicking off the second half of this season talking about growth, an especially pertinent topic as hosts Beth and Kya begin their clerkship rotations. This episode, we bring back the adored Haley Strouf, M4 and prior host of WBYIT to talk about the growth she’s experienced this past year, along with advice before entering clinical rotations.
On this week’s episode, we discuss the topic of disordered thinking with Dr. Mara Esber, clinical psychologist. Beth, Kya, and Dr. Esber discuss how eating disorders are defined, common misconceptions around disordered eating, and some of the treatment types commonly used. We also discuss the topic of disordered eating, which can be a particularly challenging time to find grace and support. ]
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, help is available. Eating Disorder Hope is an online resource that provides information about eating disorders, treatments, support groups, and an eating disorder hotline for crisis situations. For more information, visit:
https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/treatment-for-eating-disorders/eating-disorder-hotlines
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
For our December series, we will be focusing on mental health during the holidays. Our first episode discusses the topic of substance use disorders with Dani Miller and Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar. Beth and Kya chat with Dani and Dr. Salisbury-Afshar about the experiences and challenges of living with a use disorder, along with the cultural perceptions that have shaped our understanding of addiction. We also discuss the role of medicine in use disorders, including how providers can best support their patients in sobriety.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance misuse, help is available. Below are a few resources for more information.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) - online treatment locator and a free, confidential 24/7 treatment referral and information service (English and Spanish): https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline or 1-800-662-4357
The NIAAA alcohol treatment navigator provides information for choosing between various treatment programs and offers advice on getting support: https://alcoholtreatment.niaaa.nih.gov/
To find a local or online support group for alcohol misuse (Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.): https://www.aa.org/find-aa
To find support for prescription or illegal substance misuse: https://www.na.org/meetingsearch/
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Our second episode of our networking series features UW’s very own Academic Career Advising Program (ACAP) mentors, Dr. Cathy Lee-Miller and Dr. Mary Westergaard. Drs. Lee-Miller and Westergaard share their wisdom around the skills of networking, and answer some of Kya and Beth’s most burning (or perhaps, more logistic) questions on building connections and networks for young medical professionals.
The chilly weather kicks off our November series on networking! On this episode, Deejay and Beth chat with Dr. Lisa Whitty-Bradley, plastic surgeon and owner of Chicks with MDs, about the nuances of networking and building our support groups. From challenging the fears of putting yourself out there to the skillset of establishing and maintaining your network, Dr. Whitty-Bradley’s wisdom was such a joy to have.
Dr. Whitty-Bradley’s personal statement course: https://lwbmd.com/courses/personal-statement-power-course/
Discount code: podcast20 at checkout
On this week’s episode, we have a discussion about the world of medical education with Michael Braun and Jeff Amundson from the podcast “Medical Education Matters.” Michael and Jeff pull back the curtain on challenges, discussions, and changes that go into shaping the modern-day and ever evolving curriculum students interact with.
Listen to Michael and Jeff's podcast: https://med-ed-matters.captivate.fm/
On this week's episode, WBYIT sits in on the Gold Humanism Honor Society's Night of Storytelling, an evening celebrating the stories of those within the medical community. Join us as we share in these moments of tragedy and joy, as we bear witness to the lives of those who have touched us the most.
On this week's episode, we continue our conversation on the integration of artificial intelligence in medicine with our guest, Internal Medicine physician, Dr. Peter Kleinschmidt. Is it all just a tech-fad, or is AI the new face of medicine? In this episode, Dr. Kleinshmidt answers all of our burning questions, and shares the truth about what’s in store for the future of medicine and technology.
We’re back!
Kicking off our first episode of the season, we approach the ever-hot topic of artificial intelligence with UW’s very own Sophia Doerr. From the very basics of how machines are trained to the future and potential pitfalls of AI, Sophia opens the year by taking us back to school.
In this episode we continue our exploration of transitions. Recent UWSMPH graduate Megan Murphy-Belcaster joins us to share her views on transitioning from medical school to residency. She reflects on her medical school experience, from her initial reasons for pursuing medicine, to some of the challenges and rewards of medical school, to applying for/getting accepted into a OB-GYN residency.
Spring is a time of growth and transition, and that is true for health professions students too! From incoming M1s deciding on a medical school to graduating M4s preparing to start residency, there are lots of exciting transitions to explore. Members of the WBYIT team were able to meet many incoming medical students at UWMPH’s Second Look weekend and hear their thoughts and questions about starting medical school. In this episode, we spend time exploring the questions posed by some of our soon-to-be classmates!
As the university‘s annual body donor ceremony approaches, we are continuing our exploration of education with body donors in the world of anatomy. In this episode, medical students Jinan Sous, Sami Stroebel, and Zoey Shultz share their reflections on working with body donors and chat with us about what it is like to have such a unique educational opportunity to see the human body as many never get to do.
Every April, the University of Wisconsin - Madison holds a ceremony to honor our first patients as health professional students. These patients, who choose to donate their body to the betterment of medical education upon their death, allow many students to learn the vast intricacies of human anatomy. This month we’re looking more at this event. This episode has us chatting with one of UW’s beloved anatomy professors, Dr. Meghan Cotter, about her role as an anatomist, our first experiences in anatomy lab, and some of her reflections working with the body donor program and ceremony.
As we close out March, we continue to explore the theme of mentorship. We are joined again by guest host Deejay, a first year medical student and member of the Building Equitable Access to Mentorship (BEAM) mentorship program at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In this episode, we chat with Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón, an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and a mentor in the BEAM program. We also had the pleasure of chatting with fourth year medical student Juan Aguirre in the same conversation. Juan is a a member of the inaugural graduating BEAM cohort and one of two mentees within Dr. Téllez-Girón’s mentoring pod. Join us as they discuss the highlights of their experiences as a continuous mentor/mentee pair and the impact of the BEAM program.
This March, we are exploring the theme of mentorship. We are joined by two guest hosts, Deejay and Andrew, who are both first-year medical students and members of the Building Equitable Access to Mentorship (BEAM) program here at UWSMPH. We talk with Dr. Angela Byars-Winston, a tenured faculty member in the Division of Medicine and a leading researcher in advancing diversity goals and mentorship in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. She walks us through the science of mentorship, the history of the BEAM program, and her own experiences with mentorship in her career.
You can find the resources Dr. Byars-Winston discusses at cimerproject.org.
In our second episode exploring the theme of inspiration, we chat with Stanford MD-PhD student Steven Truong. He shares with us his reflections on his father’s passing and the role that grief and relationships have in motivating him both personally and professionally.
We’re kicking off February by exploring the theme of inspiration. What inspires us to pursue careers in medicine? How do we keep going when things get tough? What hopes do we have for the future? In this episode, we chat with Dr. Jasmine Zapata, a pediatrician and public health doctor, about her journey in medicine and where she draws inspiration from.
In this episode we continue our exploration of doing new things by chatting with Sue Yi, an 8th year MD/PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Madison who is completing her final year of medical school. Sue describes her experience starting Ohai nails, a hand painted, luxury custom press-on nails company she started in fall 2022. We talk about challenges that come with starting something new, how she overcame them, and what she looks forward to in the future.
You can find Sue's designs at www.ohainails.com
In our first episodes of 2023, we are exploring the experience of doing new things. January is often a time of change, whether it’s the start of a new semester in school, the beginning of a new project, or new resolutions in general. We chat with Dr. Lisa Barroilhet, a gynecologist-oncologist and principal investigator of a research lab here at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She discusses the transitions she’s gone through in her career over the past few years and how she’s adapted.
This holiday season, we’ve been thinking a lot about our loved ones, and the ways that they support us in our journeys in medicine. So to look more closely at these relationships, members of the WBYIT team are interviewing family members about their experiences with our education and what it’s been like to be with us on this adventure. In this episode, Anqi talks with her sister Annie, and Mayra talks with her siblings Miguel and Gabriella.
This holiday season, we’ve been thinking a lot about our loved ones, and the ways that they support us in our journeys in medicine. So to look more closely at these relationships, members of the WBYIT team are interviewing family members about their experiences with our education and what it’s been like to be with us on this adventure. In this episode we feature Haley and Beth’s significant others, Carrington and Arjun.
We continue our three-part series on advocacy and civic engagement by talking with Wisconsin State Senator Kelda Roys about her views on and experiences with physician advocacy. She provides insight on why it is important for medical professionals to be involved in policy creation, examples of effective advocacy efforts, and advice on how to get involved at any stage of training.
It’s election season, so let's talk about voting! In this episode, we talk with Sam Crowley, MPH, a second year medical student at University of Wisconsin SMPH and student leader of RxCivicHealth. We chat about why voting is so important for physicians and for patients. For more information on the resources discussed in this episode, follow the links below:
VotER: https://vot-er.org/
To register to vote: https://myvote.wi.gov/
In this episode, we continue our celebration of Spooky season by exploring the concept of fear in medicine with Allison Coffelt, an award winning author, poet, and teacher who focuses on narrative medicine. She shares with us her piece titled “Winter of Fear”, a poem published in JAMA in April 2021 about caring for patients during the height of the COVID pandemic and the inevitable feelings of loneliness, uncertainty, and fear that arose. We discuss how poetry offers a unique lens through which we can view and reflect upon the world around us and how it provides a platform to explore word choice intentionality and style variations to capture sentiment.
We’re kicking off spooky season by exploring fear in medicine. In this episode, Dr. Helen Salisbury shares her essay titled “Reasons to be Fearful.” She also talks with us about different sources of fear health care providers face, the many ways in which it presents itself, and what we can do to address it in ourselves and others.
In this episode, we explore extracurriculars in medical school by chatting with leaders of two student organizations at UW SMPH, Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic (SAFE) and PRIDE in Healthcare. We chat about their work, why it’s important to them, and how they balance it with medical education.
To kick off Season 3 of What Brings You In Today, we are exploring hobbies and extracurriculars in medical school. In this episode, we talk to Mallory, Megan, and Sarah about their hobby of rock climbing, and to Sammie about her hobby of painting Disney silhouettes. We discuss the foundations of their hobbies, the challenges of maintaining them throughout their medical training, the fulfillment that they provide, and the connections they inspire.
As we continue to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we are excited to share our second episode this month focusing on gender affirming care with plastic surgeon Dr. Katy Gast. We chat about her role as a surgeon in providing gender affirmation care, advocacy work, and how healthcare professionals and individuals in general can create a more welcoming and easier to navigate system for people seeking gender affirming care.
To learn more about gender affirming care and access available resources/services, check out:
https://queerdoc.com/gender-affirming-surgery/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTKe0ILb3O5deJFZyZN6ClXcpcXskDeg2N4xZhcm0xaubTN1z3KQA8FIUy0DlsHYb-QlwuCvOr-3ESo/pubhtml#
www.witranshealth.org
www.wpath.org
https://www.uwhealth.org/services/gender-services
Happy Pride Month! In this episode, we talk with Micah Larson (they/them), a recently graduated medical student from UWSMPH about their experiences in medical school. We explore the highs and lows of medical school, the challenges and joys of being a queer person in medicine, and hopes for the future.
If you're interested in resources for LGBTQ+ folks both in and outside of medicine, check out:
World Professional Association for Transgender Healthcare (www.wpath.org)
UCSF Transgender Care (www.transcare.ucsf.edu)
Wisconsin Transgender Health Coalition (www.witranshealth.org)
Stories help us better connect with patients, build community with our peers, and process our own experiences in healthcare. In this episode, we continue our exploration of story-telling in medicine by talking with Thor Ringler, a writer who works for the My Life, My Story project at the Madison VA. He discusses the scope and logistics of the program, reflects on the richness these stories provide to patient experiences and care, and even shares two stories from real patients.
Stories are fundamental to what it means to be human and to be human in medicine. Stories help us understand our patients, find community amongst our peers, and make sense of the challenges and joys of being in medicine. A few weeks ago, the power of stories was put on display at the Night of Storytelling, a live storytelling event organized by the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. At this event, we heard compelling stories from six speakers: Dr. Robert Golden, Ben Kannenberg (M4), Ali La Jeunesse (M1), Hasan Nadeem (M4), Olivia Rater (M4), and Dr. Jason Stephenson. We are excited to have hosted this event (our first live event!) and to be able to share it with all of you in this episode. We hope you enjoy!
In our second episode this month, we continue our conversation about alternative career paths in medicine. We had the pleasure of talking with Greg Raupp, a third year medical student at University of Wisconsin SMPH who trained as a social worker and joined the National Guard prior to starting medical school. He discusses his motivations for pursuing medical training, experiences with transitioning back into a student role, and lessons learned along the way. He also reflects on his ideal career and life in the future. If you are interested in learning more about getting involved with the National Guard, check out https://www.nationalguard.com/careers/medical.
In this episode exploring alternative paths in medicine, we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Seema Yasmin, an Emmy-award winning journalist, author, medical doctor, and professor. We discussed her multifaceted career and all the transition points she encountered along the way. She covers her journey from clinical practice, to public health work as an EIS officer, to journalism, authorship, and professorship. We talk about how scary it can be to “step off the conveyor belt” in the world of medical training and forge a new path, as well as the ways different opportunities and interests work together to create a life that is varied, fulfilling, and impactful. She shares lessons learned, career advice, and goals for the future.
From Monday, when students learned if they had matched, to Friday, when they gathered with family, friends, and peers to celebrate where they matched, it was a week full of emotions. In this Post-Match Day episode, Kate, Karina, and Luke return to tell us about their Match Day experience and final thoughts on the excitement and anxieties surrounding this process.
We recognize that people experienced this week in many different ways, but regardless of Match Day results, the WBYIT team wants to congratulate every student who went through the Match process for making it to this point in medical school. We wish you the best in the rest of your journey in medicine!
On Match Day, medical students around the country find out their residency training placements. While Match Day is usually a day full of celebration, it’s preceded by months of application preparation, long interview days, hard decision making, and uncertainty. In this Pre-Match Day episode, we talk to three fourth-year medical students at UWSMPH, Kate Lauer, Karina Barretto, and Luke Richard, about how the last few months leading up to the Match have been for them. Tune back for our next episode in two weeks, where we check in with these students Post-Match!
The Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care is a nationwide celebration organized by the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) that promotes clinician-patient relationships based on caring, personalization, and mutual respect. This year, UWSMPH was one of over 50 medical schools to participate in the week-long celebration. As part of the events, GHHS asked medical students to reflect on what they are grateful for in medical school. From little pleasures like food and music, to the relationships that guide and ground us, we certainly have a lot to be grateful for. We are proud to partner with UWSMPH GHHS to share our classmates’ stories of gratitude!
In this special Valentine’s Day episode, we’re talking about love in medicine! As medical students, we spend so much time and energy focusing on our careers but of equal importance is growing and maintaining relationships outside of the hospital. What is it like to navigate life milestones like getting married or having children while in medical school? In what ways does medicine make relationships more challenging, and in what ways does it make them stronger? What’s it like to have a partner in medical school with you? What’s it like to not?
Listen as two UWSMPH couples, Noah and Meghan Trapp and Kasey Wood and Mario Matabele, share their love stories!
In part 2 of our series "Doctors as Patients," we continue to explore how medical students and residents with chronic illness navigate training within a field that often places value on able-bodiedness. We chat with fourth year medical students and co-founders of the Disability Advocacy Coalition (DAC) student organization at UW SMPH: Wendy Sun, Kimberly Rosenthal, and Athena Wilson. Started in Fall 2021, DAC aims to establish a space for students struggling with medical school to talk about their concerns and offers resources for medical students with disabilities. Listen as Wendy, Kimberly, and Athena describe their individual journeys in medicine so far, frustration with ableism in medicine, and ideas for ways to make medical training more feasible for everyone.
This episode discusses mental health, depression, and suicide.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
In medical training, we are taught how to provide care for others: we learn to communicate clearly, perfect physical exam skills, elicit a thorough history, and more. Far less discussed, though, is how medical trainees navigate their own medical and psychiatric care in an environment where stigma and limited personal time often make asking for help difficult. In the first episode of our series “Doctors as Patients,'' we chat with Dr. Justin Bullock, MD, a PGY3 Internal Medicine resident at University of California, San Francisco about his journey seeking treatment for bipolar disorder, depression, and suicidality throughout medical training. Listen as he reads excerpts from his 2020 NEJM article, “Suicide–Rewriting My Story,” and shares his journey reconciling his mental health care and career in medicine.
Check out Justin’s full article here:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1917203
And for future updates from Justin, follow him on Twitter @jbullockruns.
Our ability to grow and learn from error is as human as the errors themselves. For part 3 of our series on Failure in Medicine, we focus on how medical trainees and professionals can better learn from their mistakes. We talk with Dr. Peter Weir, whose work in health system innovation within the departments of Family & Preventive Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah inspired his piece entitled “How to Learn from Failure” outlining common types of failure medical trainees experience and what each of these can teach us.
Find Dr. Weir's piece here: https://accelerate.uofuhealth.utah.edu/leadership/peter-weir-how-medicine-can-learn-from-failure
And go check out Dr. Weir's podcast, Communivation: https://accelerate.uofuhealth.utah.edu/connect/communivation
While many medical students struggle academically at some point during their training, open conversations about failing exams or courses are few and far between. For part 2 of our series on failure in medicine, we talk with Percy Takyi, a current third year medical student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, who speaks boldly about not passing one his first year medical school courses. Percy's desire to discuss his academic struggles eventually inspired him to create a podcast entitled "Behind the White Coat: Failure and Percyverance" exploring experiences of failure and adversity in medical training. In this episode, Percy shares with us his outlook on challenges as part of his larger journey, the importance of finding joy outside of academic validation, and his commitment to changing the secrecy and shame that often surround failure in medicine.
You can find Percy on instagram at @ipercyvere and can listen to his podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Humanity and human interactions make medicine beautiful, but they also make error and failure inevitable parts of the field. Failures in medicine range from struggles on medical school exams and pimp questions to medical error, and in each of these situations, we benefit ourselves and our patients by treating “failures” as opportunities to learn and grow rather than as shameful secrets. Within a three part series on Failure in Medicine, we explore medicine’s deep-seated discomfort with “failure” and ways we can better manage our mistakes. For part 1 of this series, we talk with Dr. Thalia Krakower, an Internal Medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital about her piece “To Err is Human, To Apologize is Hard” in which she describes her family’s experience suffering from medical error. Dr. Krakower’s story emphasizes the importance of confronting medical mistakes personally, institutionally, and with patients.
Find Dr. Krakower's piece at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2782182.
Technology has changed the way we practice medicine—from electronic medical records and virtual video appointments to social media providing online communities for patients and medical professionals alike. Technology has also changed how medical professionals apply for and complete their medical training. In this episode, we speak with Maggie Waters, a first year medical student at the University of Colorado, about social media’s role in her journey to medicine, and how she now uses Instagram and YouTube to counsel premedical students on navigating the medical school admissions process.
Check out her material here:
Instagram: @itslifebymaggie
YouTube: itslifebymaggie
You can sign up for her courses, including “Road to Acceptance”, on her website, itslifebymaggie.com
As part 1 of a series of episodes exploring the complex roles for technology and social media in medicine, we take a deep dive into a relatively new social media platform: TikTok. TikTok is a video-sharing social media service where users post short videos, either using their own audio or short, popular audio clips. In the last few years, Tik Tok has become an increasingly popular space for medical professionals at various stages of training to share knowledge, humor, and reflections.
We wanted to know: what draws physicians and other health professionals to TikTok? How has TikTok changed the ways in which providers communicate with their patients, their colleagues, and people outside of the medical field? In what ways has TikTok encouraged healthcare providers and trainees to process their experiences in this field? In this episode, we discuss these questions and more with Dr. Alex Hua, an internal medicine resident and digital content creator with a niche in medical humor.
Find Dr. Hua's videos at @Huachata.md on TikTok and @huachata on instagram!
As an internal medicine resident at the University of California, San Fransisco, Dr. Emily Silverman created the Nocturnists, a narrative medicine podcast and live show that strives to use the power of storytelling to cultivate community and improve the field of medicine. The Nocturnists was one of our biggest influences in starting WBYIT, and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Silverman for this episode. Dr. Silverman tells us about her own inspirations for the Nocturnists—a love for the arts and a need to address the tough, existential questions at the core of what it mean to be a physician. She also shares her experience building the Nocturnists organization from the ground up and the backstory behind one of her published pieces, Comic Relief (link below).
Dr. Silverman is an author and Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCSF. Visit www.thenocturnists.com to learn more about Dr. Silverman's work and https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2738556 to read her piece, Comic Relief.
We begin Season 2 by talking with the people at the beginning of their medical school journeys: the new M1s at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The first year of medical school brings excitement, pride, uncertainty, hope, and fear as students explore who they want to be in and outside of medicine. In this episode, you’ll hear from M1s about their first few weeks of school and from several M2s, M3s, and M4s as well as the PedsAdmit team offering advice and best wishes to the Class of 2025.
Find the PedsAdmit podcast wherever you get your podcasts or @pedsadmit on instagram!
To a lot of medical students, the thought of taking an improv class might seem initially terrifying, then intriguing, and then terrifying again. Our guest in this episode, Dr. Amy Zelenski, Assistant Professor within the Department of Internal Medicine at UWSMPH, designed and teaches an elective entitled “Improvisational Theater for Health Professionals” as part of her work developing medical education curricula focused on empathy and storytelling. With a background in acting, Dr. Zelenski combines her love of theater with her research interest in medical education to show health professionals the value and practice of improvisation. Life and medicine are unscripted, and improv helps healthcare students develop their listening skills, hone their empathy, embrace spontaneity, and of course, laugh. For all UWSMPH students, check out the link below for more information about how and when to sign up for Dr. Zelenski’s improv course!
https://www.medicine.wisc.edu/general-internal-medicine/amy-zelenski-medical-education-research-empathy-and-improvisation
P.S. We may or may not have engaged in an impromptu improv session in this episode— listen to find out!
From physician comedians like Ken Jeong and Adam Kay to sitcoms like Scrubs, there’s a long tradition of overlap between the worlds of comedy and medicine. While medical students and professionals take seriously the gravity of caring for patients, comedy writing allows us to capture the fun, goofy, and humorous sides of medicine as parts of the wide array of emotions and experiences that come with this career. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Fredrick Martyn, a current family medicine resident at Western University in Ontario, Canada and a comedy writer whose work has been published on several humor writing platforms including Points in Case and Gomerblog. Dr. Martyn shares with us why he loves finding the humor life and starts off this episode by reading his recently published piece “An Email to the Dean from Jesus Christ, Medical Student.”
Find Dr. Martyn's work on his website fredrickmartyn.weebly.com!
This episode contains content related to mental health and depression.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
While medical students experience high levels of burnout, anxiety, and depression, they are less likely to seek help than their age-matched peers. In this episode, Anqi Gao talks with Lia Warbasse, a psychologist within Mental Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who primarily works with PA, PT, and medical students. Throughout her time working with healthcare students, Dr. Warbasse has noticed common challenges medical students face and delves deep into some of the internal and external factors that contribute to both mental illness and a lack of mental healthcare in this population. She also shares her thoughts on the importance of completing the stress cycle and provides different resources students to access.
This episode contains content related to mental health and depression.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
1 in 4 medical students around the world reports depressive symptoms or depression at some point during medical school. Despite high rates of mental illness amongst medical trainees, students face barriers to care including stigma and lack of access. In her piece “The Gift of Time,” Dr. Priya Roy, an internal medicine resident at the University of Wisconsin, shares her experience seeking mental healthcare in medical school after the death of a loved one. Dr. Roy discusses how her frustrations navigating her school’s mental health services evolved into BereaveMed, a website she co-founded and created to help other medical trainees find resources to deal with grief and loss. You can find the piece Dr. Roy reads in this episode on her website, www.bereavemed.com.
From anatomical drawings to narrative medicine, there’s a long tradition of overlap between medicine and the visual arts—a tradition that Dr. Shirlene Obuobi, an Internal Medicine Resident at the University of Chicago and creator of Shirlywhirlmd, embodies. Dr. Obuobi is both a physician and a graphic artist who uses her love for drawing, comics, and writing to convey her experiences in medicine. Dr. Obuobi shares her comics on her widely popular social media accounts and website (links below), and uses her platform not only for self-expression but to contribute to important conversations on issues within the medical field, namely racism in medicine. Everyone likes to talk about the art of medicine, but in this episode, we had an absolutely amazing time talking with Dr. Obuobi about the roles for art in medicine.
Check out Dr. Obuobi’s work discussed in this episode on @shirlywhirlmd on Twitter and Instagram and https://shirlywhirlmd.com.
From studying powerpoint slides to UWorld questions, healthcare training doesn’t always leave room for creativity—and students notice. In parts 1 and 2 of our series on creativity in medicine, we’ve seen that creativity means something different to everyone, and our individual creativity is by definition unique and personal. For part 3, we wanted to hear how healthcare students specifically stay creative in this field, so we asked our classmates and friends to submit recordings telling or showing us why creativity is important to them. This episode features Andrea Rossman (MS2, Medical College of Wisconsin), Jake Khoussine (MS3, UWSMPH), Claire Beamish (MS3, UWSMPH), Meaghan Kenfield (MS3, UWSMPH), Jonathan Alicea (MS3, University of Puerto Rico), Rashea Minor (VM3, UWSMPH), Quynh Nguyen, (MS1, UWSMPH), Christie Cheng (MS3, UWSMPH), Rufus Sweeney (MS3, UWSMPH), and Nithin Charlly (MS3, UWSMPH) on creativity in healthcare education. Check out our instagram page at @wbyit_uwsmph to see some of the creative works discussed in this episode.
There’s a term in positive psychology called the “flow state” that describes the unique, entrancing feeling of total captivation and absorption in a project or activity. Whether it’s from watching a new movie, writing, painting, or scientific research, in the flow state, we feel energized yet relaxed, hyperfocused yet enjoying every moment, so fully immersed that all sense of time is lost. The day to day realities of medical training often feel incompatible with flow state, but for Dr. Joshua Mezrich, UWSMPH Transplant Surgeon and author of “When Death Becomes Life,” creative endeavors both within and outside of medicine help him find his flow. In part 2 of our series on creativity in medicine, Dr Mezrich shares the many ways he has incorporated creativity into his academic and personal life—including writing a book, running a transplant surgery research lab, creating the MezLight, hosting “The Sett” podcast, performing OR stand-up comedy, AND MORE.
Check out Dr. Mezrich’s book and podcast by visiting the links below.
The Sett: https://www.surgery.wisc.edu/podcast/
"When Death Becomes Life:" https://www.harpercollins.com/products/when-death-becomes-life-joshua-d-mezrich?variant=32207987998754
In medical school school, we get really good at knowing the facts—at answering questions on rounds and picking A instead of B, C, or D. The parts of our brains that love learning new things flourish in med school, but other parts, the parts that are creative and abstract, seem to get pushed to the side. Creativity isn’t generally emphasized in medical training, but the more time we spend in this field, the more apparent it becomes that creativity is essential for dealing with the complex, scientific and human challenges of medicine. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Anne Jacobson, a family medicine physician and UWSMPH alumnus, whose piece published in JAMA, “The Highest Bidder,” inspired our four part series on creativity in medicine and medical training.
Memes may seem like all fun and games, but, like other forms of narrative medicine, medical memes discuss important themes and problems medical students face, revealing the medical student experience in a fun and palatable form. In this episode, we talk with medical anthropologist and psychiatry resident at Duke University, Dr. Yekki Song, who studies the meaning and common threads behind medical memes on Reddit.
This episode continues our conversation with the creator of @Memeology. MD, a popular medical meme page on Instagram, about the world of medical memeing. To see first hand how medical memes are made, we challenged @Memeology.MD to create memes with us on the spot using two surprise images. Check out @wbyit_uwsmph and @Memeology.MD on Instagram to see the memes we came up with!
Featured music: “Music Elevator Ext” by Jay_You on FreeSound.org, licensed under CC BY 3.0 (https://freesound.org/people/Jay_You/sounds/467240/)
From #MedTwitter to Instagram, social media has helped create new ways for medical professionals to share their ideas and stories about studying and working in medicine. Medical memes are one such modem for personal and professional expression. Like all memes, memes about medicine and the medical field are meant to be fun and funny, but they also communicate larger truths about our field. In this episode, we talk with the creator of @memeology.md, a popular meme page on Instagram, about how and why medical students use memes.
In honor of the new year, we asked four UWSMPH medical students to write about their 2020 and hopes for 2021—and they delivered. Our last episode featured an M1 and an M4 at the very beginning and end of their time in medical school. In part 2 of our 'New Year' series, we talk with an M2 and M3 for whom the new year brings added significance of marking the transition to new phases of medical school. Anqi Gao (M2) shares a piece she wrote about the paradoxes of preclinical training just days after her last preclinical exam, and Shruti Rajan (M3) reflects on re-discovering what bought her to medicine after a year of core clinical rotations. From all of us at WBYIT, we wish you a happy and fulfilling 2021!
2021: oh, how we have been waiting for you! The new year is time for reflection and anticipation, so we asked four medical students from UWSMPH—each in a different year of training—to write about their year, their journey through medical school, and their hopes for 2021. In part 1 of our ‘New Year’ series, Leah Gruen, a first year student, and Jose Carrillo, a fourth year student, look back at their time in medical school and forward to a new year. Stay tuned for part 2 with a second and third year student on 1/27/2021!
Stories are powerful. They help us connect, energize, and heal. As a Clinical Social Worker at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center trained in Dignity Therapy, Jean Ligocki uses the power of storytelling as medicine for patients with terminal illness. In this episode, Jean shares some amazing encounters she has had with patients and their families undergoing Dignity Therapy as part of end-of-life care.
We use a lot of euphemisms to talk about dying: "we are at the end" or "there is nothing more we can do." Maybe because talking about death—and even the word itself—often feels taboo. But for Palliative Care physicians, frank conversations about dying help provide people the end to their story they want and deserve. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Liana Eskola, a Palliative Care physician and Director of the UW Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Narrative Medicine Program, about how she approaches end of life discussions and the role of narrative medicine in Palliative Care.
In medical school, we learn about the science of death. We learn about the electrochemical changes in heart cells as EKG waves transition to asystole and the physiology of a failed apnea test in the setting of brain death. But being there in someone’s final moments is something else entirely—something no one teaches us about. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Shoshana Rudin, UWSMPH alumnus and current Emergency Medicine Resident at the University of Michigan, about her first few experiences with death as a medical student.
Compared to other high income countries, the United States pays far more for its healthcare only to suffer worse health outcomes. For health policy experts like Dr. Richard Roberts, working to improve our fragmented healthcare system is a career-long job. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Roberts, a Family Medicine physician and lawyer, about the trials and triumphs of his career in health policy and his vision for the future of the U.S. healthcare system.
Working in the United States healthcare system, we've all seen patients forced to choose between medical care and financial ruin. What toll does the fragmentation and exclusivity of our current healthcare system take on patients? What toll does it take on us? From Obamacare to Bidencare to Medicare For All, how should medical students and physicians begin to think about the future of healthcare reform? Day 1 s/p the 2020 presidential election, we talk with Simon Yadgir, a second year medical student at UWSMPH, about his piece "The U.S. Healthcare System: Designed to Make People Rich, Not Make People Healthy."
Institutional problems like racism in medicine demand swift and decisive institutional efforts aimed at making our educational and patient care systems work for everyone, not just the privileged few. To find out about our medical school's new and ongoing antiracism efforts, we talked with Dr. Tracy Downs, Urologist and UWSMPH Associate Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.
"I can't breathe:" a phrase every healthcare worker knows as a call to action. In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and Ahmaud Arbery, part of that call to action for medical professionals and students includes acknowledging racism and inequity within our own profession's past and present. For our first episode on Racism in Medicine, Ashley Scott, MD/PhD student at UWSMPH and Student National Medical Association representative, shares her experience as a Black woman in academic medicine and her thoughts on how to redefine whoshapes and benefits from our medical systems.
In March 2020, medical schools around the country suspended all in-person teaching and clinical rotations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Glued to the news and Covid-19 case tracking maps, we spent the first few months of the pandemic watching this crisis evolve from within our homes and communities rather than within our hospital and clinics. That perspective enabled one UWSMPH student, Angela Olvera, to identify and address gaps within our country's pandemic response—gaps that disproportionately affect some more than others. In this episode, Angela discusses medical student social responsibility and her work combating heath inequities exacerbated and 'unmasked' by Covid-19.
Fever, cough, shortness of breath: we know the devastating impact of Covid-19 on our patients’ health. More difficult to quantify, however, are the multitude of ways the Covid-19 pandemic has changed peoples' lives beyond our hospital and clinic walls. In this episode, Dr. Christine Seibert, an Internist and Dean of Medical Student Education and Services and UWSMPH, shares the challenges of working as a physician in the time of Covid-19 in her piece, “Ode to My Ladies.”