The Short Coat: An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

The Sheriff of Sodium investigates the state and future of medical training. If you’ve wondered how well the system that trains future doctors works, or about what factors really determine which medical students get into the most competitive residency programs, this episode is for you. M1 Fallon Jung, M2 Jeff Goddard, and M4 AJ Chowdhury get deep into these issues with a very special guest – Dr. B...

An alumni of CCOM and SCP returns to prove: you can do it! MD/PhD student Miranda Schene, M2 Jeff Goddard, and M1 Fallon Jung visit with alumni Teneme Konne, MD, now a second-year resident. They start by smacking their foreheads over AI-generated images in a recent medical journal, unpacking the rigorous demands of peer review and its pivotal role in scientific accuracy. The conversation then shif...

Understanding others begins with asking questions. M3 Jacob Hansen, and M1s Taryn O’Brien, Alex Nigg, and Fallon Jung consider recent studies highlighting the ineffectiveness of traditional implicit bias training and the disparities in medical care for children of color. Jacob successfully finished Step 1 and the co-hosts tap him for some of his insights from clinical rotations, particularly learn...

In the world of medicine, finding time for love is both an art and a science. Happy Valentines Day! MD/PhD student Faith Prochaska, and M1s Taryn O’Brien and Fallon Jung share how they navigate relationships amidst their hectic schedules. With quizmaster Jeff Emrich from student financial services, they play The Just Married Game and discuss their personal plans, the balance between work and perso...

“I honestly have had the most relaxing time I’ve had in forever, and for anybody who’s like, that’s ridiculous, just wait.” The most charitable definition of a hot take is a position taken in order to generate conversation. The more usual definition is a position taken to create controversy (and clicks). Dave asked his co-hosts to come with some hot takes, and it’s up to you to decide which defini...

“A nice re-imagining of how healthcare could be delivered.” It’s another sleeper specialty episode! This time we’re visiting with Andrea Weber, MD, MME. Herself a graduate of the Carver College of Medicine, she is now assistant director of Addiction Medicine and associate program director of the Internal Medicine and Psychiatry residency program. M4s AJ Chowdury and Nabeel Baig, M1 Fallon Jung, an...

Preventing disease and injury in life, the skies, and at work. It’s another sleeper specialty episode! This time we’re talking about a really low-key one: Preventive Medicine. M2 Jeff Goddard asked Dr. Silvia Caswell of Loma Linda University to join us to talk about her work in one aspect of prev med: lifestyle medicine. There are others under the prev-med umbrella, too, including occupational med...

A relatively uncommon specialty can help move kids with childhood diseases to adult care. In another in our series on “sleeper specialties,” we visit with Internal Medicine-Pediatrics (med-peds) doc Brittany Bettendorf. M1 Alex Nigg and M2 Madeline Ungs learn about this lesser known specialty that combines the detective work of internal medicine with a focus on kids with childhood diseases, includ...

They may not help us pass our exams…but they definitely have upsides A common question new medical students have is whether they should get a pet. Will they feel neglected when I have to be at the hospital or the library? Will they be too expensive for a poor med student? Will they be too much work? The answer to those questions can be answered by realizing that PLENTY of us do own pets, and we al...

These might be very bad ideas…but we’ll talk about them anyway. Riley leads a discussion with Jeff, Levi, and Katie of unpopular opinions about medicine and medical education. Anki sucks! Gap years should be mandatory! All clerkships should be optional! 8th graders should review scientific papers! We don’t know about you, listeners, but the co-hosts enjoyed this discussion so much you can look for...

Faith is an important part of the human condition–let’s explore that. M1 Hend invited David Kozishek, a chaplain at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, to talk with M3 AJ, M1 Jeff and new co-host M1 Ervina to talk about the role of chaplains on the healthcare team. David also helps the co-hosts discuss the role that religion may play in their lives as future physicians, the tensions and...

What the first semester of medical school is actually like! Short Coat co-hosts Brian Young (M1), Jeff Goddard (M2), and Fallon Jung (M1) discussed the challenges and experiences of medical school, including personal anecdotes about coping with stress, the demands of the curriculum, maintaining emotional well-being, the significance of peer support, and the importance of learning from both academi...

Bringing the healthcare pieces together. Dr. Ilana Yurkiewicz, co-director of Stanford University’s Primary Care for Cancer Survivorship Program, author, and science journalist, returns to continue our discussion from November 9 about our fragmented health system and what can be done about it. M2 Jeff Goddard, M1s Fallon Jung and Alex Nigg, and MD/PhD student Jacqueline Nielson talk with her about...

What you get away with as an undergrad won’t serve you in med school. M2s Jacob and Maddie, M4 Mason and new co-host PA2 Mark take us through how they changed their study habits from undergrad through the clinical years. Dave reads an old German folktale about how to become a doctor. Hint: it’s harder today, and involves much less mansplaining, but there’s at least one feature that still exists fr...

Democracy is messy! Dave declared this recording day to be “Effort Free Friday,” as it was officially Thanksgiving Break! That didn’t stop M1 Jeff Goddard from describing a recent meeting of the AMA Students Section that offered an object lesson on how policy is (or in this case, isn’t) made. Among many other topics, some students wanted the AMA to declare a position on the current Israel-Hamas wa...

The Critical Qualities to Ace Residency Interviews and Thrive in Medical Careers. A recent MedPage Today editorial shines a light on four traits that are crucial for every resident. These elements aren’t traditionally taught, but are key for future doctors. They encompass selflessness, optimism, personal responsibility, and a hunger for personal meaning. M4 Alex Belzer, who’s currently interviewin...

Medicine, Work-Life Balance, and Physics, together at last. Dr. Michael Graham, a seasoned Nuclear Medicine practitioner and professor at the University of Iowa, reached out to us recently because at a national level his specialty is experiencing a shortage of new residents. The reasons for this include a less-than-perfect fit with the way it’s traditionally been lumped into radiology, a field wit...

We have GOT to get it together. What’s the best way to navigate a fragmented healthcare system? How are patients both the victims and unwitting custodians of their own medical stories? And can primary care address gaps in long-term cancer treatment? We had a fun conversation with Dr. Ilana Yurkiewicz, the author of ‘Fragmented, A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Healthcare.’ Jeff, Fallon,...

Dave’s been seeing a lot of videos on social media that suggest “You might have {insert condition} if you {insert experience or behavior that most people have or do to some degree}. Which is great–it’s always nice to know that you are not alone, that your experience is not unique. But how should physicians work with a social media self-diagnosis? There may some day be a vaccine against fentanyl, m...

Do docs and patients mean the same thing when they talk about ‘health?’ Fallon, Sri, Radha, and Kait discuss the concept of ‘health.’ What does healthy mean to our patients? What does it mean to physicians? The definition has changed over time–from freedom from disease to a more self-actualizing concept of thriving in one’s circumstances. Even the normal body te...

What it takes to make changes in medicine As tuberculosis is on the rise once again in this country, it remains *the* cause of death around the world. But thanks to fans of the famous vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, the world has some additional tools to fight a disease which we’ve been able to cure for decades, lacking only the will to do it. And Dave tells what he learned this week abou...

As another physician shortage looms, M2s Jeff and Olivia and M1 Fallon look at the reasons–the market forces, political issues, and the missing incentives. There is some good news–a shortage of physicians means that residents get a ton of solicitations for post-training jobs. Elon Musk’s Neuralink might be bad for monkeys, but the FDA has cleared the way for human trials to begin. What place do te...

Physician Associate (formerly Physician Assistant) students learn the preclinical curriculum right along side their Doctor of Medicine colleagues here at Iowa. Of course, that means they learn the same things, but also the level of trust and mutual understanding between the two professions is that much more explicit. October 6 to 12 is Physician Associates Week, and PA1 producer Noah Vasquez round...

The beginning of the 20th century brought huge changes to medicine; we’re still trying to cope with them. Special guest, Dr. Adam Rodman, visits with M1s Jeff, Faith, and Linda and PA 1 Kelsey, to talk about “path dependency,” the idea that a complex system (like medical education) is almost impossible to change without starting over. The path we have taken to today constrains what we can do tomor...

[Content warning: this episode contains discussions of maternal mortality.] Maternal mortality doubled in the 21st Century. Motherhood is a revered institution in many cultures, but in the good old US of A there’s one area where mothers are being failed: medicine. Maternal mortality continues to increase to alarming levels, especially among people of color. We explore our thoughts on why, and what...