In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk

In this episode, we’re breaking down the electrocardiogram—ECG or EKG (same thing). This should be simple. It is. And it isn’t. And it matters more than people think. This is one of the most commonly used tools in medicine, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood when it comes to fundamentals. We’ll cover: * What an ECG actually measures * What all the “squiggly lines” represent * The basic co...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Jakrin “Joe” Kewcharoen, a Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology fellow at UCSF to explore the journey of becoming a heart rhythm specialist and the important role fellows play in patient care at academic medical centers. Dr. Kewcharoen shares his unique path from Thailand to the United States and explains how international medical graduates navigate the U.S. trai...

⚠️ This episode contains discussion of cancer treatment, radiation, and survivorship anxiety. Welcome back to In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk! If you listened to Episode 10, you remember when Nick shared his rare cancer diagnosis. That episode held a lot of uncertainty. We didn’t know exactly how treatment would unfold. We just knew life had changed. In today’s episode our conversation feels differ...

The holidays are supposed to be festive, but for your heart’s electrical system, they can be a little chaotic. More drinks, less sleep, travel days, salty food, and stress. It’s the kind of combination that can make even a normally well-behaved heart act up. In today’s episode of In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk, we’re talking about holiday heart syndrome, that spike in arrhythmias, most commonly at...

Welcome back to In The Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk. Today, we’re diving into something I see nearly every day in practice, pacemakers, the small life-changing devices that keep the heart beating in rhythm when its natural electrical system can’t keep up. Whether it’s from age-related conduction disease, sinus node dysfunction, or for atrial fibrillation, pacemakers can restore energy, prevent fainting...

Welcome back to In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk. Today’s episode is deeply personal. My guests are my oldest daughter, Lydia, and her partner, Nick, a 35-year-old musician with the rock-and-roll (very bluesy) band Honey Hounds , who was recently diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive cancer (sinonasal teratocarcinosarcoma). What started as a stubborn sinus infection quickly became something far...

Welcome back to In The Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk. In this episode, we are diving into a rhythm that affects millions of people worldwide, atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem that we see. In the United States alone, more than 5 million people are living with it, and that number is expected to double or even triple by 2050. It accounts for a huge...

Welcome back to In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk , where we break down important healthcare topics to keep you informed and empowered. Today’s episode is one that’s both professional and deeply personal for me—we’re talking about preeclampsia . I’ve experienced it twice during my own pregnancies, and while I was fortunate to have good outcomes, I wasn’t told at the time about the increased risk for...

Welcome back to In the Loop with Nadja Wlasiuk, where we make sense of the heart's most curious rhythms, one beat at a time. Today's episode is a special one because we're talking about a device that's not only central to my everyday clinical practice, but also part of the inspiration behind the name of this show, the Implantable Loop Recorder. That's right- I literally put people “in the loop.” O...

In today's episode, we're diving into the world of adult congenital heart disease, or ACHD, a field that's growing as more and more children with congenital heart defects are surviving and thriving into adulthood. But living with a heart that was structurally different from birth brings lifelong considerations. And not all adult cardiology teams are equipped to manage these unique patients. To hel...

Imagine you're caring for a patient who’s been short of breath for months. Their echocardiogram shows right heart strain, but they’re young, with no obvious cardiac disease. You’re thinking: What am I missing? In today’s episode, we’re taking a closer look at pulmonary hypertension—a condition that’s often misdiagnosed or missed entirely until it’s advanced. It can mimic more common conditions lik...

In today's episode, I wanted to do things a little bit differently. I've asked my friend and colleague, Joan, to interview me. I wanted to give you an opportunity to learn more about my story, the experiences that shaped my career, and my passion for making healthcare knowledge more approachable. If you'd like to get to know me better, this episode is a great start. You can also check out the show...

The motivation behind today’s episode comes from frequent interactions with patients asking for advice on weight loss, nutrition, and fitness. All three of these are really important modifiable lifestyle factors that I speak to every day, but don’t have the bandwidth to address in depth during a brief 30 minute follow up. I personally feel that as healthcare providers, many, if not most of us, are...

In today’s episode I have the honor of sharing the microphone with one of the founders (or godfathers if you will) of cardiac electrophysiology, Dr. Melvin Scheinman. Dr. Scheinman is originally from the northeast- growing up in Brooklyn New York. He was awarded a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University where he graduated first in his class. He attended medical school at the Albert Einstein Colleg...

In today’s episode I’m joined by my friend Carlo Piscitello to discuss the AppleWatch and atrial fibrillation. Carlo is a process engineer and athlete who was in his normal state of health with no past cardiac history when he was notified by his AppleWatch that he was in atrial fibrillation. As you know, I am an electrophysiology nurse practitioner. I specialize in cardiac arrhythmia. In my clinic...