DON'T BLINK! -- www.radiorounds.org !

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Recap of Episode 215: Conrad Fischer Part I -- The BEST Time to be in Medicine

The free podcast download of our latest episode, featuring Dr. Conrad Fischer, is now available on our iTunes page!


In October, 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. In this episode, we aired Part I of that conversation, and we hope you get a chance to hear it. This was without a doubt one of the most inspiring and dynamic interviews we have 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 spoke to 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 discussed 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).

UP NEXT: Next Sunday (November 22), tune in to live streaming audio here on the blog at 12 p.m. ET to hear the second part of our conversation with Dr. Conrad Fischer.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2009 at 3:29 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Meet the Hosts

Avash Kalra is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University, where he majored in Psychology. Before starting medical school, Avash worked for one year at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland, where he conducted research on lifespan extension. He then worked for one year as a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Avash was born in England and lived there for 11 years. He spends his free time working as a staff writer for an NCAA hockey website. Over time, he has developed unhealthy obsessions with college hockey, poker, and the Dave Matthews Band. His favorite television shows include Lost, 24, Dexter, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He is now an avid reader... of medical textbooks. He frequently points out that he has "the perfect face for radio." And -- as you'll discover -- he likes puns.

Lakshman Swamy is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, where he self-designed the Neuroscience major. Before joining medical school, Lakshman worked for two years in the Trapp lab at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation as a lab technician working with multiple sclerosis.

Lakshman is a young gentleman in the MD/MBA program at Wright State, and accordingly, his favorite character on Scrubs is Dr. Kelso. He has an eclectic taste in music, loves audiobooks -- especially mysteries -- and watches 24, M*A*S*H, and Battlestar Galactica. Yes, two of those shows have run their final season -- he is also constantly behind the times. He has NO idea what he wants to do with his life, but he is sure it will involve turning down the position of Surgeon General for bigger and better things.

Shamie Das is an MD/MBA dual degree student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He graduated from Emory University in 2004 as a dual major in Biology and Sociology. He went on to earn his Masters Degree in Public Health in 2007 from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. As a graduate student, he also performed bench research in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Emory University School of Medicine. In his free time during college, Shamie volunteered as an EMT-Intermediate and went on to become certified as a Paramedic.

Shamie was born in England and soon after moved to the US. In his free time he enjoys photography, traveling and fine cuisine. A few of his life goals are to visit every continent and climb Everest. An avid extremist, Shamie enjoys leaping out of perfectly good airplanes, white water rafting and jumping headfirst into gorges. Recently engaged, he also spends countless hours on the phone with his fiancée. His favorite authors include Hemingway, Frost, and Crichton (and of course Robbins). Television is a thing of the past in his current life, but occasionally he still watches PBS and listens to NPR and (of course) Radio Rounds.