This is another exciting conversation with a physician who is following a non-traditional career path!

Dr. Arup Roy-Burman

Dr. Roy-Burman is a pediatric intensivist (aka pediatric critical care specialist) and former Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Dr. Roy-Burman is now the CEO of Elemeno Health, which he cofounded in 2016.

Dr. Roy-Burman completed his undergraduate degree at UC Berkley in 1989; completed his medical degree at UCSF in 1994; completed his residency in pediatrics at Stanford in 1997; and then returned to UCSF for a fellowship in pediatrics critical care (aka PICU fellowship), which he completed in 2000.

After his fellowship, Dr. Roy-Burman took his first attending job at the Children's Hospital of Oakland eventually crossing the Bay to fill the role of Medical Director of the PICU at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in 2011, where he was also the Director of Transport, Access and Outreach. In this dual role of Medical Director of the PICU and Director of Transport, Access, and Outreach allowed Dr. Roy-Burman to interact with large swaths of the healthcare system from inpatient to outpatient and with all sub-specialities who consult in the PICU. With this experience of the inter-workings of the hospital system combined with his clinical understanding of patient care and provider pain points, he decided to co-found Elemeno Health, which received backing from famed accelerator and venture capital firm, Y Combinator. At a high-level, Elemeno Health is a SAAS (software as a service) company whose software aims to help push best-practices to front-line providers as well as capture feedback from these front-liners, thereby closing the "knowledge-practice gap."

***Medical students, residents and all interested parties:*** If interested in joining the Elemeno Health team, Dr. Roy-Burman would love to hear from you at info@elemenohealth.com!

Please enjoy with Dr. Roy-Burman!

P.S. We recorded this one in Dr. Roy-Burman's car on his drive from an investor meeting in Palo Alto back to his startup digs in Oakland, which makes for an interesting listen! Try to get through the first 5 minutes--the audio gets much better.

This is an exciting interview with Dr. Marty Makary, a New York Times bestselling author and Johns Hopkins surgeon, who talks about what he calls the "hybrid specialist" and the importance of non-traditional careers in medicine.

Get a free audiobook along with a free 30-day Audible trial membership at www.audibletrial.com/TUMS

Dr. Marty Makary

Dr. Makary is a New York Times bestselling author and Johns Hopkins general surgeon and Professor of Health Policy. His book The Price We Pay (book trailer below) takes on surprise medical bills and reveals how individuals and businesses can lower their health care costs. Described as “a must-read for every American” by Steve Forbes and a “deep dive into the real issues driving up the cost of health care” by Dr. Don Berwick, The Price We Pay is the “The Big Short” of American Medicine. Makary is a frequent medical guest on NBC and FOX News and a leading voice for physicians, writing for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Dr. Makary serves as executive director of Improving Wisely, a national physician collaboration to reduce unnecessary medical care and lower health care costs.  He is also the founder of Restoring Medicine, an advocacy effort to help people who can’t afford their medical bills. His current research focuses on the appropriateness of medical care, administrative waste, price and quality transparency, and the impact of health care costs on low-income populations.

Dr. Makary was the lead author of the original articles on the Surgical Checklist and later served in leadership with Atul Gawande on the World Health Organization Surgery Checklist project. Makary has published more than 250 scientific articles, including articles on payment reform, vulnerable populations, and opioid prescribing guidelines. He is also an advocate for treating medical conditions when possible with healthy foods and lifestyle medicine.  Dr. Makary has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and named one of America’s 20 most influential people in health care by Health Leaders magazine.

Lastly, his book Unaccountable was adapted for television into the hit medical series The Resident. His newest book, The Price We Pay, now available for order online and in stores on September 10, 2019, tells the stories of health care’s disruptive innovators and the new movement to restore medicine to its mission.

Get a free audiobook along with a free 30-day Audible trial membership at www.audibletrial.com/TUMS

Dr. Tamar Shafran

Dr. Shafran is an attending general and pediatric ophthalmologist in Cleveland, OH.

Dr. Shafran received her medical degree from the Sackler School of Medicine in 2010; completed residency training in Ophthalmology at University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 2014, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology at Rainbow Babies & Children’s (also here at Case Western) in 2015.

Dr. Shafran now practices both general and Pediatric Ophthalmology. She is also a diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology and a published author in medical literature with a strong background in teaching. She is married to a pediatrician, Dr. David Shafran, Dean of the Physician Assistant Program at Case Western, and resides in the Cleveland area with her children.

Please enjoy with Dr. Tamar Shafran!

The topic of today’s show is not a specialty, but rather a new podcast that I am very excited to help introduce to the world called All Access: Med School Admissions, and the person here to tell us about it is its creator and host, Christian Essman, the Director of Admissions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

From the All Access website:

Applying to medical school can be a very complex and confusing process! On top of that, finding reliable and accurate information about the application process can be even more challenging. With nearly 15 years of admissions experience, Christian Essman of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, gives the listener a unique view into the medical school admissions world through a series of revealing interviews with key admissions figures from around the country.

All Access: Med School Admissions brings the listeners into informative and entertaining conversations between admissions colleagues. Listeners will learn about a variety of medical schools, what makes their programs unique, and what they are looking for in their prospective students. Most importantly, Christian will lead the discussion on a variety of medical school admissions-related topics where you will get insight directly from the most authoritative sources out there - his admissions friends.

Subscribe on iTunes and Spotify. Email Director Essman at allaccess@case.edu.

This episode is sponsored by Audible! Head over to www.audibletrial.com/TUMS for a free audiobook when you sign up for a free 30 day trial membership!

Check out the TUMS Resources page for a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show (as well as other goodies).

Dr. Janani Krishnaswami

Dr. Krishnaswami is the Program Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency at the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Dr. Krishnaswami received her medical degree from the University of Michigan in 2008; completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente, as well as completed a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of California –Berkeley all by 2012, eventually taking the job as Program Director in 2015.

Since completing her training, Dr. Krishnaswami’s research has center on the cultural context of wellness and measuring “best practices” of community engaged programs focusing on preventing sedentary behavior and obesity. In support of this effort, Dr. Krishnaswami’s has focused on building health “outside the hospital” by engaging students, community members and trainees in community-based, participatory efforts to promote wellness, prevent chronic disease, and sustain health. Prior to her role as Program Director at Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Krishnaswami served as the Associate Program Director for Preventive Medicine at the University of California – Los Angeles, where she led curriculum development on community engagement and quality improvement. In addition, she developed and taught a novel health policy curriculum for the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Internal Medicine residency program, and mentored Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residents through the program’s first community-engaged research elective. Based on her work in curriculum design and medical education, she was invited to serve on the national steering committee directing the creation of a novel inter-residency health policy fellowship, led by George Washington University and Kaiser Permanente.

Importantly, this work led Dr. Krishnaswami to establish the Preventive Medicine program at Rio Grande Valley as the first ACGME-accredited residency based on the “Community-Engaged Lifestyle Medicine” curriculum, which aims to build health equity and local health in the training of residents.

In her spare time, Dr. Krishnaswami tends to her own wellness through her hobbies of writing, singing and fitness, and spending time with her husband and young son.

Please enjoy with Dr. Janani Krishnaswami!

See below for time stamps.

This episode is sponsored by OnlineMedEd!

• Use this link to sign up for a free account.
  • Then come back and use this link to get $80 off their annual premium subscription!

Check out the TUMS Resources page for a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show (as well as other goodies).

If you would like to support the show, use the TUMS Amazon link to make all your normal Amazon purchases! You get all your things in usual 2 days, and TUMS gets a little sumin' sumin' at no extra cost to you.

Show notes for this episode can be found here.

Dr. Emily Silverman

Dr. Silverman is an academic hospitalist at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Silverman completed her undergraduate degree at Brown University in 2009 where she majored in History of Art and Architecture, briefly flirting with a career in the art world before heading down the pre-med path. She then completed her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University in 2014, followed by her residency in internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2017.

In addition to practicing hospitalist medicine, Dr. Silverman is the host and creator of The Nocturists, a live medical storytelling event and podcast for physicians and other healthcare providers. You can think of it as medicine’s version of the Moth. She is also the author of a series of prose poems about her experiences as a medical resident, many of which are published in the The Examined Life Journal of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Her writing is animated by a deep-seated curiosity about science, human nature, and what it means to live and die well.

In addition to her podcast’s website at thenocturnists.com, Dr. Silverman can be found at her personal website at emilysilverman.com, as well as on twitter as @ESilvermanMD

Please enjoy with Dr. Emily Silverman!

Time Stamps

• Intro to Dr. Silverman + intro to storytelling [3:36]
• Part 1: “Tell us about your specialty” [22:25]
  • Routines, patients and outcomes [30:50]
  • Biggest challenges / prediction for the next 10-20 years [58:18]
  • Most exciting / most mundane [1:04:04]
  • One thing you wish you had known [1:14:29]
  • One thing to consider in earnest [1:16:37]
  • Specific questions about academic hospital medicine [1:18:33]
  • Resources [1:22:29]
• Part 2: “Tell us about how you decided your specialty was right for you“ [1:24:04]
• Part 3: “Give us advice for long-term career planning irrespective of your choice of specialty” [1:31:58]
• Book recommendations [1:39:44]

See below for time stamps.

This episode is sponsored by OnlineMedEd!

• Use this link to sign up for a free account.
  • Then come back and use this link to get $80 off their annual premium subscription!

Check out the TUMS Resources page for a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show (as well as other goodies).

Show notes for this episode can be found here.

Dr. Mark Rockoff 

Dr. Rockoff is a Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital.

A native of New Jersey, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1973.  He then completed residencies in both pediatrics and anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship in neuroanesthesiology at the University of California at San Diego.  After leaving San Diego, he was on staff at MGH for two years when he moved to Boston Children’s Hospital where he has been since 1981.

Dr. Rockoff is board-certified in pediatrics, anesthesiology, pediatric anesthesiology, and critical care medicine.  He has been a member of the Residency Review Committee for Anesthesiology of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and is a Past-President of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the American Board of Anesthesiology.  He is Chairman of the Archives Committee at Boston Children’s Hospital and has had a longstanding interest in American and medical history. Importantly, Dr. Rockoff is seen by many as the father of combined pediatric-anesthesiology training spearheading the founding of the first combined residency program in Boston. He and his wife have three children and two grandchildren and reside in Hingham, MA.

Please enjoy with Dr. Mark Rockoff!

Time Stamps

• Part 1: “Tell us about your specialty” [10:54]
  • Routines, patients and outcomes [19:13]
  • Most exciting / most mundane [44:50]
  • One thing you wish you had known [48:43]
  • One thing to consider in earnest [58:52]
  • How practice changes depending on setting [59:44]
  • Specific questions about combined peds-anesthesia [1:08:17]
  • Biggest challenges / prediction for the next 10-20 years [1:17:56]
  • Resources [1:22:46]
• Part 2: “Tell us about how you decided your specialty was right for you“ [1:24:54]
• Part 3: “Give us advice for long-term career planning irrespective of your choice of specialty” [1:42:43]
• Book recommendations [2:02:44]

See below for time stamps.

Confused about 4th year? This episode is for you! Newly matched 4th year med students Roy Swanson (ophthalmology), Marco Swanson (plastic surgery), and Dana Canfield (obstetrics and gynecology) school Ian on the ins and outs of 4th year of medical school.

Show notes can be found here.

This is a wide ranging conversation that starts at the end of 3rd year and takes the listener through the completion of 4th year. A complete list of discussion topics for this episode can be found here, but includes:

• Introductions [2:44]
• Start 4th year discussion [15:32]
• Acting internships (+ away rotations) [26:01]
• Away rotations [1:04:25]
• Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS) --> now the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) [1:12:47]
• Letters of recommendation [1:15:05]
• Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and personal statements [1:38:00]
• The Step 2s (Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Skills) [2:02:24]
• Residency interviews [2:34:20]
• The rank list and the Matching algorithm [3:07:35]
• The Match and Match week [3:24:49]
• Supplemental Offer of Acceptance Program (SOAP) aka "the scramble" [3:26:40]
• Life post-Match [3:33:49]
• Final comments from the gang [3:43:37]

Special thank you to Katie Bedard, MD; Alice Yu, MD; Gary Parizher, MD; Kelly Manger, MD; and Karishma Habbu, MD for their help in formulating the discussion topics.

And an extra special thank you to Kristol Das, MD for sitting patiently through a dry run of the interview to identify missing topics and to make sure the 4th Year Episode would flow properly :)

Please enjoy with Roy, Marco, and Dana!

This episode is sponsored by OnlineMedEd!

• Use this link to sign up for a free account.
  • Then come back and use this link to get $80 off their annual premium subscription!

Check out the TUMS Resources page, which includes a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show!

Confused about 4th year? This is your episode! Newly matched 4th year med students Maggie Knisley (pediatrics), Dan Binder (family medicine), and Steve Bigach (orthopedics) school Ian on the ins and outs of 4th year of medical school.

Show notes can be found here.

This is a wide ranging conversation that starts at the end of 3rd year and takes the listener through the completion of 4th year. A complete list of discussion topics for this episode can be found here, but includes:

• Acting internships
• Away rotations
• Letters of recommendation
• Residency applications and ERAS
• The Step 2s (CK and CS)
• Residency interviews
• The rank list
• The Match
• SOAP aka "the scramble"
• Life post-match

Special thank you to Katie Bedard, MD; Alice Yu, MD; Gary Parizher, MD; Kelly Manger, MD; and Karishma Habbu, MD for their help in formulating the discussion topics.

And an extra special thank you to Kristol Das, MD for sitting patiently through a dry run of the interview to identify missing topics and to make sure the 4th Year Episode would flow properly :)

Please enjoy with Maggie, Dan, and Steve!

Check out the TUMS Resources page, which includes a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show.

Help Ian interview all *190+* specialties! www.undifferentiatedmedicalstudent.com/suggestions

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Become a TUMS patron!

Show notes for this episode can be found here. 

Dr. Aaron Leetch

Dr. Leetch is the Program Director of the Combined Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at the University of Arizona Tucson

Dr. Leetch completed his undergraduate degree in 2004, his medical degree in 2008 and then his Emergency Medicine and Pediatric Combined training in 2013 all The University of Arizona.

Dr. Leetch is an Arizona native and has completed both medical school and residency at the University of Arizona. Dr. Leetch holds a dual appointment with the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics. He is currently the Program Director of the Combined Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics Residency.

His academic interests include medical education, simulation medicine and pediatric critical care and the recognition of sick children. Teaching is his passion. Having started as a high school science teacher, he now enjoys teaching medical students, residents, nurses and pre-hospital providers locally, regionally and nationally about pediatric emergency recognition. As the host of the AZEMCast podcast, he produces a monthly peer-reviewed emergency podcast complete with in-audio citations delineating evidence-based from opinion. Ultimately, his goal in medical education is to make kids less scary to providers and to provide practical approaches to emergency care.

Please enjoy with Dr. Aaron Leetch!