Real MD

In this episode, medical students, Payton Erickson and Brooke Austin talk about their leadership roles as House Representatives, what it is like building out a house community, and creating meaningful events. We also talk about what leadership opportunities are worthwhile and how making sure the things you spend your time on have direct connection to your purpose. This is an important habit to for...

Brooke Johnston is a pediatric palliative care physician. She also serves as a house director for little wild horse and a Faculty Co-Director of Coaching in PIF (Professional Identity Formation). Brooke also plays the banjo, writes songs and loves doing improv. In this episode, we reflect on her journey into academic medicine, living by her values, and her passion for helping people develop. For B...

For Shi and Cecilia Liang, maintaining a strong connection as a family is the goal but it is not easy. They have 2 young kids and are both building out their careers. I think it’s important to remember there is no perfect template when navigating the messiness of life and at the end of the day supporting each other and staying connected is all that matters. What I liked about this conversation is...

Elise Vandamme is a first year medical student who is on a mission to normalize the challenges associated with getting into medical school. We talk about overcoming the dark days when she didn’t get into medical school the first time around and how she has turned that into a desire to help premed students with their personal statements. The reality is that in our professional pursuits, things rare...

Dr. Mary Murphy started out in Emergency Medicine and is now practicing Hospice and Palliative Care. Her professional journey involves threading life’s experiences together in unexpected ways. In this episode, we talk about how her husband started medical school as she started residency and how their lives turned upside down when they lost their daughter. During their most dire moments, a caring t...

For a few years, The Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine has hosted storytelling events with students, staff and faculty. We do this because it helps us grow together as a community. Each event starts with dinner, stories, and some live music in between stories. Last spring, we held an event at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and the theme was about intersections. Intersections represent a c...

The topic of this episode is to discuss what support looks like during medical school. Specifically, how do people in committed relationships get through the medical journey and come out the other side, it does take a village of support. Caden Snow and Trevor Ence were kind enough to talk about what it is like to be in a supportive role with their spouses while they are in medical school. But we a...

In our career pursuits, sometimes we think we need stay in one lane but doing so doesn't provide variety. Yes, we need certain experiences to pursue medicine but not at the expense of the freedom to explore interests regardless of where they come from. Dr. Brian Good is a pediatric hospitalist at the University of Utah and also the Phase II Director; having launched a new way of clinical train...

This past November at the AAMC‘s national conference in Atlanta, I had a chance to facilitate a student and resident panel about leadership development programs. It was great to hear directly from learners about what they want, what is working, and what they feel like they still need. In this episode, we kept the conversation going at the University of Utah Health booth at the conference. You’re g...

Dr. Wayne Samuelson is the former Dean of the medical school and alum graduated in 1980. He retired in 2023 and is currently serving a mission for his church with his wife Marianne in Ghana. I have wanted to capture this moment as he looks back a his career and time as leader. In this episode, Wayne talks about what drives a career forward. His reflections are all relational in nature - lead with...

Maria Poluch came to medicine after pivoting from a promising career as an engineer. Underneath the surface, her desire to serve people and her underlying interest in medicine could not be denied. So she made the jump to medicine and with it a commitment to be honest with herself throughout out the process. Honest about the struggle, honest about what where to find joy, honest about when to take a...

Dr. Morton is a distinguished anatomy and neurobiology professor at SFESOM. In addition to his celebrity presence as The Noted Anatomist on YouTube, Dr. Morton became a Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy in 2021 and has been awarded numerous teaching awards — the UU Distinguished Teaching Award among them.

Tracy Bumsted specialized in pediatrics and currently serves as Associate Dean for the MD program Oregon Health and Sciences University. In this episode we talk about the moments when she stepped out into the unknown, tried something new, and risked failure to do the work she believes she is here to do. Tracy talks about how this cycle has played out multiple times in her career and I think we nee...

According to Dr. David Morton, the greatest moment for growth is following a setback. In a recent RealMD lunch session with students, rather than talk about successes, he shared his “CV of failures.” Because for him, that is where the most valuable lessons are. But more than just accepting failure, what do you do after the fact? You fell on your face, you weren’t expecting to and now what?! Dr. Mo...

Sri Radhakrishnan matched into general surgery last March. We had an opportunity, post Match Day celebrating, to talk about his identity as a leader and how it informed his specialty choice. A core aspect of Sri’s leadership style is the desire to create and support community. He talks about realizing a need for deep connection when his class started medical school during the pandemic. To me, Sri...

Adam Sharp is CEO of Galvan Health and his journey to this point is uniquely his own. His path started out as a business undergrad, playing on the U of U basketball team, and an unexpected pivot to medical school. Residency led to a surprising interest in research coupled with a desire to change the way patients access and use data to better inform their decisions. Adam’s journey reminds us that t...

Dr. Brian Stagg is an Ophthalmologist and clinician scientist. In this episode, we talk about his experience during residency, feeling happy with his specialty, and still burning out. Brian talks about how in that moment, he started asking himself important questions that led to a life changing self-reflection process. This conversation reminded me how important it is to remember and hold onto you...

Sadie Robinson is in her second year of emergency medicine residency, she is a former RealMD facilitator, and U of U Alum. In this episode we look back at her time in medical school, the process of choosing her specialty, and formative experiences that helped her grow. We also look forward to her current role and the things that bring her meaning. Throughout Sadie’s journey she has noticed the val...

Dr. Beth Vukin has spent the last 20 years as a pediatric hospitalist in an academic setting. Her medicine, as she puts it, is talking to people and listening to the words they use. Lately, this has translated into her own podcast called Real Talk with Kid Docs. We had such a great conversation and I was struck by her story of being undiagnosed while practicing medicine. She went from having a cle...

Eli Bunzel is a fourth year orthopedic resident who helped start the RealMD program. It is so great to stay connected to former students who made RealMD possible. In this episode, we reminisce about the early days and also how the program impacted his own journey. Eli talks about navigating the hurdles of medical school by remembering his strengths and nurturing deep relationships with mentors who...

Mike Aldred is one of our House Advisors and a long time member of the Student Affairs Team. One thing is for certain, Mike loves working with medical students. In this episode he talks about the process of finding yourself. Both in the context of his own journey into education and his work helping students find their own career path. For Mike, it always comes down to knowing and applying your str...

I have been cheering on the side lines for Maci Winn ever since she started medical school (I of course cheer for all our students.) I love Maci’s story, she is an MDPhD student and competitive weightlifter. I have been inspired by her ability to pursue two things she loves and how she is willing to both try and accept failure in order to do so. In a profession like medicine, we need more of this...

For this week’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Gretchen Case. Her career is fascinating and shows us there are more opportunities and pathways than we think there are, if we can broaden our thinking. She is committed to an interdisciplinary education through her work as Director of the Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities, as a faculty member in internal medicine, and t...

Dr. Andy Smith is a clinical care pediatrician, faculty member, and course director at the U. He is also a great, authentic human who you won’t forget after meeting. In this episode, we talk about how he built his career but I think curated is a better word. He did this through a variety of experiences as an EMT in Chicago before medical school as well as helping Aids patients in Malawi and amazin...

This episode of the RealMD podcast took place at the AAMC national Learn Serve Lead conference in Seattle this past November. I get to talk to one of my greatest collaborators, colleagues, and friends, Shira Kaplan who is the Director of Leadership Programs at the AAMC. We discuss why leadership development is so important during medical school and how institutions can get started. This episode is...