Ep. 108 The Testing Cartel Retreats on Step 1: What Next for Medical Students?
Under pressure from a grassroots campaign, the monopolistic National Board of Medical Examiners has made a significant concession in the way it administers Step 1 of the US Medical Licensing Examination. Our guest, Bryan Carmody, was among the most vocal participants in that campaign. He returns to the show to give us an update and to share his thoughts on what might happen next.
GUEST:
Bryan Carmody, MD: Twitter and Website
RELATED EPISODES:
Ep. 72 Taking the USMLE to Task (with guest Bryan Carmody)
WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel
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Ep. 107 Independent NPs: Public Health Threat or Libertarian Step Forward?
Hordes of independent nurse practitioners are on the horizon. Many physicians are raising the alarm bell, but our guest views things differently.
GUEST:
John Mandrola, MD: Twitter and Website
LINKS:
Independent Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants: A Doc’s View (Medscape)
RELATED EPISODES:
Ep. 69 MD vs. NP: Patient Protection or Turf War? (with guest Rebekah Bernard)
Ep. 72 Taking the USMLE to Task (with guest Bryan Carmody)
WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel
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Make a small donation on our Patreon page on and join our discussion group or receive a free book.
Ep. 106 Geoffrey Rose’s Untenable Theory of Population Health
Geoffrey Rose published The Strategy of Preventive Medicine in 1992 and thus gave birth to the “Population Health” movement. This podcast episode critically examines Rose’s influential ideas.
LINKS:
Geoffrey Rose The Strategy of Preventive Medicine (Amazon)
Geoffrey Rose. Sick Individuals and Sick Population. Reprinted in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (open access)
Michel Accad Moving Mountains: A Socratic Challenge to the Theory and Practice of Population Medicine (Book website)
Slide deck for the talk presented at the 2018 AAPS meeting. The talk is available on YouTube here.
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Ep. 105 Privatizing the NHS: Who Profits?
Our guest is Dr. Bob Gill, producer of the documentary The Great NHS Heist. We discuss what life in the NHS is like, how it differs from practice in the United States, and most importantly, Dr. Gill’s fears of what is undermining the mission of the NHS – a hostile takeover by American corporate interests.
GUEST:
Dr. Bob Gill: Twitter
LINKS:
WATCH ON Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thegreatnhsheist
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Make a small donation on our Patreon page on and join our discussion group or receive a free book.
Ep. 104 Physician-Assisted Suicide: Why and Why Not
Many physicians feel ambivalent about assisted suicide and neither endorse the practice nor outright condemn it. As a result, they also avoid discussing the topic altogether. Our guest is Dr. Adam Cifu, who kindly agreed to engage in a conversation on this difficult question.
GUEST:
Adam Cifu, MD: University of Chicago website and Twitter
Books by Adam Cifu: Ending Medical Reversal and Symptom to Diagnosis
LINKS:
FREE e-Book: “A Deadly Choice for the Medical Profession“
WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel.
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Ep. 103 Ok, dinosaur: Skeptical Scalpel on the State of Surgical Education
Our guest is the highly successful and widely respected blogger who writes anonymously under the pen name “Skeptical Scalpel.” He is a former Chairman of Surgery at an academic institution and we conversed about the state of surgical education and its present-day challenges.
GUEST:
Twitter, blog, and author page at Physician’s Weekly
LINKS:
- Mass. General Hospital on the Hot Seat
- State rules surgeon whereabouts must be documented
- What were attrition rates in surgical residency programs 25 years ago?
- Problems with surgical residents and continuity of care
- Board passage rates and residency program quality
- Three more papers document the decline of resident education
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Ep. 102 Curriculum Subverted: An Academic Leader Pushes Back Against ‘Woke’ Medical Education
Should the medical school curriculum include health inequity, climate change, and gun control? Our guest is Professor Stanley Goldfarb, author of a recent and controversial op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the politicization of medical education.
GUEST:
Stanley Goldfarb, MD: Professional website
LINKS:
“Take Two Aspirins and Call Me by My Pronouns” (WSJ, Sep 12, 2019)
“An Open Letter to Our Former Dean, Stanley Goldfarb” (Medscape, Sep 20, 2019)
“Social Justice and Educating Our Physicians” (WSJ, Editorial Board, Sep 19, 2019)
RELATED EPISODES:
Ep. 43 Doctors and Guns: Where Is the Lane? (with guest Pradheep Shanker, MD)
Ep. 75 Bridging Health and Community (with guest Pritpal Tamber, MBChB)
Ep. 58 The Rise and Fall of the American Medical School (with guest Milton Packer, MD)
Ep. 46 Reforming Medical Education: Beyond the Usual Platitudes (with guest Adam Cifu, MD)
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WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
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Ep. 101 A Tougher Pill to Swallow: Roundtable on Generic Drugs
Swapnil Hiremath, MD John Tucker, PhD
As a follow-up to our podcast on the Ranbaxy Scandal, we are joined by medicinal chemist John Tucker, PhD and hypertension specialist Swapnil Hiremath, MD. Our distinguished guests share with us their perspectives and impressions on the unsettling question of generic drugs.
GUESTS:
John Tucker, PhD: Twitter
Swapnil Hiremath, MD: Twitter and Professional website
RELATED EPISODE:
Ep. 100 Can We Trust Generic Drugs? The Ranbaxy Whistleblower Narrates the Pharma Scandal of the Century (with guest Dinesh Thakur)
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WATCH THE SHOW:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel
Ep. 100 Can We Trust Generic Drugs? The Ranbaxy Whistleblower Narrates the Pharma Scandal of the Century
Dinesh Thakur
Generic drugs represent 90% of the pharmaceutical market. Their use has been encouraged through decades of favorable legislation and subsidies, with authorities claiming they are as safe and effective as brand name drugs. Yet generic preparations tainted with impurities are being reported with increasing frequency. What should doctors and the public know about generic drug manufacture? Our guest is the chemist who was at the center of the most important scandal to rock the global pharmaceutical industry in decades.
GUEST:
Dinesh Thakur Twitter and Website
LINKS:
Bottles of Lies by Katherine Eban
RELATED EPISODES:
Ep. 15 Lethal Regulation: The 1962 FDA Amendments (with guest Mary Ruwart)
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Ep. 99 Health Policy Should Focus on Choice
David Balat
A health policy of choice—not of constraints—is what we need, says our guest David Balat. He is currently the Director of the Right on Healthcare initiative with Texas Public Policy Foundation. He has a broad base of experience throughout the healthcare spectrum with special expertise in healthcare finance. He is a former Congressional candidate in Texas’ 2nd Congressional District and a seasoned hospital executive with more than 20 years of healthcare industry leadership and executive management experience.
David is focused on education and advocacy in an effort to simplify coverage that is too expensive, complicated, and untrustworthy. He is an ardent advocate of Physicians and believes the restoration of the Physician/Patient relationship is critical to fixing our dysfunctional system. He often volunteers of his time to help families navigate their bills and how to understand their benefits.
GUEST:
David Balat: Twitter and Webpage at the Texas Public Policy Foundation
LINKS:
“Uninsured by Choice or by Circumstances?” (from The Hill, September 2019)
RELATED EPISODE:
Ep. 64 Cost Sharing: Paying for Health Care in an Ethical and Sustainable Way (with guest Dale Bellis)
SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Make a small donation on our Patreon page and join our discussion group or receive a free book.
WATCH THE SHOW:
Watch the episode on our YouTube Channel