Dr Tisdall Unfiltered

One of the most common questions I'm asked is why so many capable medical students struggle despite studying harder than ever. In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I share my perspective after decades of teaching pathophysiology and clinical reasoning. We explore why memorization alone isn't enough, how to build an understanding of disease from first principles, and what I believe is...

In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I discuss one of the biggest questions facing medical education today: can artificial intelligence actually help medical students learn medicine, or does it risk making superficial learning even easier? I’m Dr. Philip Tisdall, a physician, pathologist, textbook author, and medical educator with decades of experience teaching students how to understand dis...

In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I sit down to discuss one of the biggest problems in modern medical education: why so many intelligent, hardworking medical students continue to struggle despite putting in enormous amounts of time and effort. As a pathologist, medical educator, and author of Clinical Pathophysiology, I've spent decades teaching students, residents, and physicians how...

I’m building out our community where I will be teaching live online. For more information, head over to ⁠drphiliptisdall.com⁠ In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I sit down to discuss one of the biggest problems in modern medical education: why so many intelligent, hardworking medical students still struggle to truly understand medicine. We dive into the growing disconnect between learning...

Most medical students are overwhelmed because they’re trying to learn medicine as if every fact carries the same weight. In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I break down why that approach fails and explain how I teach students to organize medicine in a clinically meaningful way. I discuss the difference between foundational diseases, major diseases, and minor diseases, and why understanding...

In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered, I sit down with Dr. Alyssa Makowski, a newly matched emergency medicine resident whose journey through medical school was anything but straightforward.  Alyssa was one of the strongest students I had ever worked with, yet she repeatedly struggled to cross the exam threshold required to move forward toward Step 1. What followed became one of the most remar...

In this episode of  Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down with Dr. Nancy Selfridge and Dr. Eric Neilson to have an honest conversation about what’s really happening in medical education—and why so many capable students struggle when it comes time to apply what they’ve learned. Together, Dr. Selfridge, Dr. Neilson and I worked to build and implement a new approach to teaching medicine—one that moves...

In this episode of Dr Tisdall Unfiltered, I explore one of the most important insights I’ve had in decades of teaching medicine: there is no single “right” way to learn clinical reasoning. I’m joined in conversation with my producer and collaborator, Ali Tisdall, as we unpack a powerful real-world example that challenges traditional medical education. I share the story of a former student with aph...

In this episode of  Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down with Dr. Eric Nielson—an experienced medical educator and simulation specialist I’ve worked closely with over the years—to explore a fundamental shift in how medicine should be learned and practiced. Together, we break down why true clinical reasoning doesn’t start with memorization or isolated facts, but with understanding organ system failu...

In this episode of  Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down with returning guest  Dr. Nancy Selfridge  for a thoughtful discussion about how physicians actually learn to think clinically. Too often in medical education, students are pushed toward memorization of facts and algorithms rather than developing the deeper reasoning skills required to diagnose and treat real patients. In this conversation, w...

In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for a candid conversation about one of the biggest problems in medical education today: the way pathology is taught—and the way students are studying it. I discuss why relying solely on popular resources like Pathoma and Robbins can leave students memorizing facts without truly developing clinical reasoning, and why that disconnect shows up on...

In this solo episode of Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I explain exactly how to use my textbook the way it was designed to be used — not as a passive reading exercise, but as a structured system for developing real clinical reasoning. I walk through why medical students struggle when they learn anatomy and physiology in isolation, why everything must begin with the chief complaint, and how to build a usa...

In this episode of Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for an in-depth conversation about what modern medical education gets wrong—and what it should be doing instead. This is a thoughtful discussion on why content overload isn’t the real problem in medicine, how clinical reasoning has been displaced by rote memorization, and why speed, pattern recognition, and storytelling are essential to thinkin...

In this episode, I unpack one of the most damaging myths in medical education: the idea that success on exams requires memorizing everything. I’m Dr. Philip Tisdall, a medical educator with decades of experience as a practicing pathologist and teaching students how to think clinically rather than chase isolated facts. In this conversation, I explain what medical exams are actually testing, why exc...

In this episode of Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for a candid conversation about one of the most misunderstood problems in medical education: anxiety. Not anxiety as an emotion, but anxiety as a cognitive failure that disrupts clinical reasoning, blocks pattern recognition, and causes students to freeze during exams. I explain why traditional coping rituals often make things worse, how panic...

In this episode of  Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for a solo podcast to unpack one of the biggest problems in modern medical education: the false belief that memorization leads to mastery. I explore why today’s medical students feel overwhelmed, anxious, and frustrated despite studying harder than ever. We walk through how the Clinical Pathologic Correlation (CPC) method reframes learning aro...

In this episode of  Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for a candid conversation about one of the most misunderstood parts of medical education: why learning medicine feels so uncomfortable. Many students assume that anxiety, embarrassment, or frustration means they’re doing something wrong. In reality, those feelings are often signs that real learning is happening. I break down why learning physi...

In this episode of  Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I take a direct look at one of the most persistent problems in modern medical education: how we test future physicians. I break down the three types of testing commonly used in medicine—motivational testing, mastery testing, and ranking—and explain why only mastery-based assessment actually correlates with safe, competent patient care. We discuss why mul...

In this episode of  Dr Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down for a candid conversation about the structural problems facing modern medical education—and why teaching clinical thinking at scale remains one of the system’s greatest challenges. Rather than focusing on study tactics or exam tricks, this discussion examines how medical students are trained, why memorization has crowded out judgment, and what...

In this episode, I’m joined by  Nancy Selfridge , a physician, educator, and longtime leader in medical education, for an in-depth discussion on how medical students actually learn—and why so many struggle despite working hard. Drawing from decades of experience in both clinical practice and academic medicine, Dr. Selfridge shares insights into standards, assessment, student culture, and the criti...

In this interview-style episode of the  Dr. Tisdall Unfiltered , I sit down with  Dr. Anthony Colón , a board-certified plastic surgeon whose career path challenges one of the most persistent myths in medicine: that you must start at the “right” school, with the “right” grades, or the “right” story to succeed. Dr. Colón began his medical training at a Caribbean medical school and went on to comple...