TarHeal Wellness: A Podcast for Residents

We continue our series on parenting during residency with a conversation between host, Dr. Sara Helvey, and Dr. James Frisbie, a urology resident at UNC. James shares his journey to urology and becoming a parent at the end of his intern year. The two explore the challenges of managing time and responsibilities as both a resident and a parent with his wife, who is also in the medical field, emphasi...

This episode launches a new series of conversations with physicians who have navigated the rigors of residency or fellowship training while also balancing parenthood. In this inaugural episode, host, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with Dr. Hagar Elgendy, a resident in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation program at UNC. Dr. Elgendy had an illustrious career as a swimmer, earning 7 National Championshi...

In this episode, host Dr. Robert Rowe welcomes back Dr. Karen Bluth, a leading expert in mindfulness and self-compassion at UNC, for a follow-up conversation two years in the making. Robert recaps their first conversation from Episode 4 (1:42) and Dr. Bluth discusses exciting updates on her research with healthcare professionals, including the transformative impact of self-compassion training on s...

In this episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala sits down with Dr. Adam Brown, a practicing emergency physician, founder of ABIG Health, and Chief Medical Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Radiant Healthcare. Dr. Brown brings a wealth of experience, having climbed the ranks at Envision Healthcare, where he served as national President of Emergency Medicine and later as Chief Impact Officer, leading the co...

In this two-part episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala sits down with Dr. Yolanda Gomez, a Board-Certified Pediatrician with an impressive career in both clinical practice and medical education leadership. Dr. Gomez earned her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in San Juan before launching her career as a general pediatrician in private practice. After taking a year off to f...

In this two-part episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala sits down with Dr. Yolanda Gomez, a Board-Certified Pediatrician with an impressive career in both clinical practice and medical education leadership. Dr. Gomez earned her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in San Juan before launching her career as a general pediatrician in private practice. After taking a year off to f...

In this episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr. Karen Studer, Program Director of the Public Health and General Preventive Medicine residency at Loma Linda University Health and Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health. Dr. Studer is a clinician at an FQHC, teaching residents and medical students at her women’s lifestyle medicine clinic. She holds an MBA in healthcare administration,...

In this episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr. Andrea Otero Rios. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dr. Otero Rios is a first-generation doctor and has been part of several events in Puerto Rico, including Hurricane Maria, the 2021 earthquake, and COVID-19 relief efforts with the Puerto Rico National Guard.  After finishing medical school Dr. Otero Rios became a Neurology Pre-Resident Int...

In this episode Dr Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr. Christina Metzler Miller. Dr Miller is a graduate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and obtained her MPH in Population Medicine at Loma Linda University, where she also completed a Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine Residency. While she was a resident, she founded and led a nonprofit free clinic in the city of San Bernardino.  She...

In this episode, Dr Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr. Michael Baca-Atlas. Dr. Baca-Atlas is originally from Baltimore, MD. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park and medical school at University of Maryland in Baltimore. He completed his Family Medicine residency at UNC and an Addiction Medicine fellowship at UNC in the Department of Psychiatry. He serves as th...

In this episode, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with Dr. Disha Spath, also known as The Frugal Physician.  Dr. Spath is a board-certified Internal Medicine Physician, educated at the University of Georgia Honors Program, the Medical College of Georgia, and The University of Tennessee-Nashville Internal Medicine residency program. She is the founder and CEO of The Frugal Physician, which has been recognize...

In this episode, Dr Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr David Barra. Dr Barra went to Northeastern University for his undergraduate degree while simultaneously being in the ROTC military program. He went to Tufts University School of Medicine under a health professional scholarship program, before completing his anesthesia residency at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He is currently complet...

In this episode, Dr Rui Ariyapala speaks with Dr Mark Martinez, who is a native New Yorker practicing Emergency Medicine at Baptist Health South Florida in Miami. He attended medical school at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn before completing his residency in Emergency Medicine at Albert Einstein/Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Martinez recently graduated with a Maste...

New doctors at UNC Health and across the US are starting their residency training programs. In this special episode of TarHeal Wellness, show creator, Dr. Robert Rowe, narrates as physicians of diverse backgrounds and specialties share stories and lessons learned from their first days of medical training. Join us as we explore the challenges, triumphs, and enduring advice that helped shape the car...

Did you know that the wellness app, Headspace, is available for free to UNC Health employees, including medical trainees? In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe speaks with Sandra Kuhn, LCSW, as they take a deeper dive into how the wellness app can help medical residents and the science behind it. We end with a real mindfulness meditation.

Did you know that the wellness app, Headspace, is available for free to UNC Health employees, including medical trainees? In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe speaks with Rachel Schenkemeyer, Strategic Client Account Executive with Headspace, to discuss what Headspace is, the partnership that makes its availability possible, why the app works well for healthcare providers, how they are using it, and h...

In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe continues the riveting conversation with Erin Allman Updyke, MD, PhD, and Erin Welsh, PhD, scientific communicators and co-hosts of the popular science podcast This Podcast Will Kill You. They discuss the differences between how we learn information as training physicians and scientists, and how we convey that information to others, including our patients (1:37). T...

In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe speaks with Erin Allman Updyke, MD, PhD, and Erin Welsh, PhD, scientific communicators and co-hosts of the popular science podcast This Podcast Will Kill You. We start off with how we connected (2:40). Then the Erins reflect on the beginnings of their podcast (4:25), supporting and keeping each other accountable (9:00), and their thoughts on being scientific commun...

In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe continues his conversation with Dr. Erin Allman Updyke, MD, PhD, family medicine resident, scientific communicator, and co-host of the popular science podcast This Podcast Will Kill You (TPWKY). Erin expounds upon challenges she has experienced during her medical training, including the differences between pregnancy as medical student and as a resident (1:30), how...

In this episode, Dr. Robert Rowe speaks with Dr. Erin Allman Updyke, MD, PhD, family medicine resident, scientific communicator, and co-host of the popular science podcast This Podcast Will Kill You. Erin reflects on her unpredictable path from aquatic biology and entomology to medicine (2:30), how hosting the podcast has shaped her residency experience (15:17), and some of the challenges of balan...

In this episode, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with Dr. Nirav Shah, Neurologist, entrepreneur, and partner at Physician on FIRE.  Dr. Shah started his career in medicine specializing in neurology, stroke, and neuroimaging before starting and successfully funding a startup called Alertive Healthcare, a company that went on to pioneer the use of digital health sensors to monitor patients’ cardiac health us...

In this episode, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with Dr. Nirav Shah, Neurologist, entrepreneur, and partner at Physician on FIRE.  Dr. Shah started his career in medicine specializing in neurology, stroke, and neuroimaging before starting and successfully funding a startup called Alertive Healthcare, a company that went on to pioneer the use of digital health sensors to monitor patients’ cardiac health us...

In this episode, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with David McSwain, MD, MPH.  Dr. McSwain is the system Chief Medicine Informatics Officer for UNC Health and Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UNC Children’s Hospital.  Dr. McSwain completed his MD, MPH in Health Policy and Administration, and a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UNC Chapel Hill.  He also completed a fe...

In this episode, Dr. Sara Helvey speaks with David McSwain, MD, MPH.  Dr. McSwain is the system Chief Medicine Informatics Officer for UNC Health and Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UNC Children’s Hospital.  Dr. McSwain completed his MD, MPH in Health Policy and Administration, and a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UNC Chapel Hill.  He also completed a fe...

In this episode, Dr. Rui Ariyapala speaks with Julie McNamara.  Julie McNamara, MS, is a Certified Professional Coach and Certified Health and Well-being Coach with 22 years of experience in fitness and wellness. She has spent the majority of her career in hospital-affiliated fitness centers, developing programs such as Strength Training for Women and the 5-week Well-being Reboot, coaching individ...