The Podcast by KevinMD

"That year, 2020, Uğur told the crowd, would be the year BioNTech proved the doubters wrong. There was no time to lose. Soon after he'd finished his talk, Uğur hopped on a plane to Seattle, where he met with a team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which had recently signed a $100 million agreement with BioNTech to develop a slew of new drugs. Hours later, he moved on to Boston, to stop by a small cancer immunotherapy company that BioNTech was about to purchase in a $67 million deal. The purpose of the visit was to reassure staff that he, a fellow scientist, was interested in advancing their innovations and was not a vulture disguised in a lab coat who had come to gut the firm and slim down its workforce. At this point, Uğur was still fairly oblivious to events in Wuhan. He walked around the biotech firm's foyer, introducing himself to dozens of soon-to-be employees, shaking each of them vigorously by the hand." Joe Miller is a journalist. He shares his story and discusses the book, The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic. Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"America's health care workers are on the brink of collapse. If we want them to hold on and be there for us when we are too sick to walk, stand or breathe, we must act now. Cast aside political opinions. Follow CDC guidelines. Wear masks when you are in a group of people. Remain properly vaccinated. Maintain social distances. And please extend extra consideration to health care workers. Is that too much to ask to do for someone trying to save your life or the life of your loved one?" Julie Collins is a cardiovascular perfusionist. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Support desperate health care workers now, before your life counts on them." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"As a doctor, it is pretty humbling to reflect on the fairly minimal impact our health care system has on individuals' overall health. One study I find particularly intriguing shows that socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and income), and physical environment (e.g., security and safety at home and reliable access to transportation), affect a person's health outcomes just as much as their behaviors (e.g., mental health, diet, and physical activity) and the clinical care they receive. The data indicates an even, 50/50 split. I suspect that many people view such data as interesting—but not exactly surprising. We have always known that sometimes there is little we can do medically to help a person until we have attended to their so-called social determinants of health (SDOH). Concerns about money, transportation, food security, housing uncertainty, and other socioeconomic factors nearly always prevent people from concentrating on their health." Joe Nicholson is a health care executive. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "It is time to make a dent in social determinants of health." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"Pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, woman, mother, wife, friend, mentor. I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to "work smarter, not harder" to get it all done and feel good about myself, only to begin climbing the mountain with a fresh list the next day. My goals were simple: peace of mind and a sense that I was in control of my life and doing a good job for all the people who needed me. Just a little more effort, better organization, and I would be there. As a physician coach, I find that the topic of work-life integration is always at or near the top of the list of issues for clients. Reading Oliver Burkeman's excellent book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals made me do some critical thinking. Although we act as if time is a commodity, it has no tangible essence. It can't be owned. And though we constantly behave as if it's unlimited, we know better, especially as physicians. All we really have is the present moment. What is it we're really trying to manage? And, equally importantly, what sense of failure do we inflict on ourselves with our continuing unsuccessful attempts to fit more than 24 hours of activities into each day?" Laura Berenstain is a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and physician coach. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "The new rules of time management." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"Knowing that an important number of Latinx are not yet fully vaccinated and understanding the health care gaps and social disparities that affect this group, it is reasonable to assume that the Latinx community will be disproportionately affected by the pain and sorrow of the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. More efforts and resources need to be designated to continue educating and empowering the Latinx community to comply with vaccination and other well-proven preventive measures that will protect them from COVID-19 and its devastating consequences now and in the future. In addition, medical schools, societies, and other related health care institutions need to become more socially and culturally aware and advocate for a diverse, inclusive health care system that promotes equity and reduces disparities." Miriam Zylberglait Lisigurski is an internal medicine physician. Ricardo Correa is an endocrinologist. They share their stories and discuss the KevinMD article, "COVID-19 vaccination: the Latinx experience." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 Americans as an inherited genetic disorder with intermittent exacerbations requiring hospitalization. SCD is also a painful and complicated disease with no single physician specialist that can provide pain relief. While SCD pain is similar in severity to cancer pain, patients struggle to find adequate pain relief because they are often labeled as 'doesn't appear in pain' as the imaging scans may not show actual pathology. Some palliative colleagues draw the comparison that cancer is visible in scans and SCD is not, which gives mental ease to clinicians as cancer patients' pain is easier to believe and treat appropriately. However, the source of SCD pain is typically micro-vascular because the disease generates pain due to occlusion in the micro-vascular. It can't be "seen" on scans except when worse complications like acute chest syndrome or avascular necrosis of a bigger joint are present." Ramandeep Kaur is a palliative medicine physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Patients need palliative care to manage the pain of sickle cell disease." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"We know regulators can move quickly to confront a health crisis because we have seen it in action. During COVID, the nation eased regulatory burdens at all levels of government to help health systems and doctors leverage technology and change the way they deliver care and to drive vaccine innovation. During the AIDS epidemic, we saw how effectively we could mobilize across the public and private sector to really change the course of the fight. Now is the time to harness the same energy for the opioid crisis. When you begin multiplying the number of those who have died from overdoses by the number of friends and loved ones who cared about each person and are now experiencing life-altering losses, there are fewer and fewer Americans unaffected by this crisis. The status quo is not only failing people with opioid use disorder, it's failing all of us." Arthur Robin Williams is a psychiatrist. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "The status quo is failing people with opioid use disorder." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"Their absence makes me feel sad, I look around at my peers, envious and curious, Obsessing over when they will show up. When they do, they never seem to live up to expectations, Too small, too uneven, but what's sure is it's a sign I'm no longer a child. It adds to my wardrobe in a hushed way, I don't know whether to be proud or embarrassed that they're finally here. I look at magazines; should I display them more? Or will my whole essence be reduced to how big they appear under my shirt. I'm confused but feel alone with no one to talk to about these new guests." Poonam Merai is an internal medicine physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "There is no other body part that has filled me with such a roller coaster of emotion." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

"I understand that the biggest fear you have about going through chemotherapy is losing your hair. I just want to tell you. You will be fine. Trust me. I know it's barbaric. Why don't we have medicines to treat cancer that will not make you lose your hair in this day and age? Strange, right? But science has its limits. Work is being done on finding such drugs, but we are not there yet. If you Google "forced standing," a black and white picture of a girl from a couple of hundred years ago pops up who is being forced to stand, by tying her neck and arms with ropes to the ceiling and walls. Her head is slightly slumped over to one side as if she does not want to stand. The caption will inform you that this is actually how clinical depression was treated at that time. Perhaps if someone is depressed and is lying in bed all day, forcing them to stand up would somehow cure depression. When we look at that picture today, it seems like a scene out of a horror movie. Whoever I have shown that picture to has gasped. But at that time, this treatment was likely endorsed by some, if not all, psychiatrist societies of the world. Human history, after all, has no deficit of theories and rituals that were popular at the time but later considered abhorrent.' Farhan S. Imran is a hematology-oncology physician who blogs at Did I Ask? He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "To my patient who is going to lose her hair from chemotherapy." Did you enjoy today's episode? Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out. Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode. Also available in Category 1 CME bundles. Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

Joan Nadorf, an emergency physician and author, offers practical guidance on clinician–patient interactions. She explores why clinicians label patients as difficult and the common fears driving patient behavior. Listeners hear strategies to reframe assumptions, seek common ground, and ask curious questions to improve encounters.