High Impact Medicine Podcast

Max Schons is a clinician-scientist, developer, and entrepreneur. He currently leads the clinical team at the biotechnology startup ⁠Alvea⁠. We discuss: -The importance of showing a proactive mindset and building rapport. -The value of a computer engineering mindset in your mental toolbox. - Max's "buffet of hacks" for young professional, which includes finding kick-ass leadership & utilising our beloved Anki!

Dan Epstein is a Medical Doctor and an academic with a PhD from Monash University’s faculty of public health. His areas of expertise include Decision Making | Behavior Change | Tabletop Game Design | Behavioral Economics | Pandemic Prevention | Forecasting | Philanthropy. His previous lives included being an academic consultant across public and private sectors, a medical educator, amateur forecaster and a high performance athlete. Dan has been designing tabletop games for 10 years and has been playing Dungeons and Dragons since he was 11. At Long Game Project, he is the Director of the core team strategy and game design. 1) Check out: https://www.longgameproject.org/  Get in touch with Dan on twitter

Anna Christina is an ambitious and impact-driven entrepreneur with a commitment to evidence-based decision-making and a passion for improving health and well-being. She first became aware of the impact misinformation has on agency and maternal health in 2016 while researching the socio-cultural barriers to family planning uptake in rural Tanzania and has dedicated her work to solving this problem since. Before starting FEM, she co-founded a health-tech startup developing VR-based phobia treatment and worked as Head of PR at a startup incubator for for-profits aiming to achieve SDGs. Anna Christina studied Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU, where she specialised in computer science, AI, and applied optimisation. 1) Charity Entrepreneurship  2) Family Empowerment Media

Dr Anju Goel is an experienced board-certified internist and public health specialist with MPH. Over 2 years at CDC on COVID-19 response and 10+ years in California public health system addressing communicable disease, health policy, health promotion, disaster preparedness, and correctional health. She's has a strong interest in public health and is an advocate for designing your life to suit your strengths and values.  Some resources from our conversation:  1) The Life for a Child Programme is an international aid program which supports children and young people with diabetes in under-resourced communities by providing them with essential life-saving support and supplies. https://lifeforachild.org/  2) DAFNE is an educational course for managing type 1 diabetes, giving diabetic patients the necessary skills to administer the right amount of insulin for the amount of carbohydrate you choose to eat. DAFNE stands for Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating. https://dafne.nhs.uk/ 3) Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/  4) Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders. https://www.msf.org/ 5) PeaceCorps - Advancing Health Professionals (AHP) program.  https://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/peace-corps-response/advancing-health-professionals/ 6) Operation Smile. https://www.operationsmile.org.uk/   7) "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans  - https://designingyour.life/  8) "Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work " book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans  

Today’s conversation is with Nadia Montazeri, who completed her medical school in Bonn, after which she worked as a psychiatry resident in Bern, Switzerland. Subsequently, she held the role of program director at Effective Altruism Switzerland. Effective Altruism (EA) is an organisation that uses evidence and reason to figure out how to most effectively make the world a better place. As part of her role, she coordinated the strategy for EA movement building in Switzerland. We discuss: - the transferable skills she got from her medical training; - the intricacies of community building; and   - the importance of finding a topic area (or aptitude) about which you develop shower thoughts.  I really enjoyed this conversation, so I hope you do too. Show notes:  1) Scott Alexander - "SHOULD YOU REVERSE ANY ADVICE YOU HEAR?"  2) Holden Karnofsky - "My current impression on career choice for longtermists" 

After finishing medical school in New Zealand, David Basset shifted his career towards consulting, with roles at EY and BCG, before returning to train in radiology.  He shares some advice that would be useful for doctors and medical students, who are trying to figure out whether consulting would be a good fit for them. We discuss the benefits of combining business experience with clinic expertise.  Resources 80,000 Hours Career Guide - find out more here Recommendations "Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation", Book by Marc Cosentino

Today’s conversation is with Hunter Lau, who is an emergency medicine resident at Strong Memorial Hospital, and the group founder for Effective Altruism Medicine. We discuss some interesting points; for example, how focusing on impact can lead to unhappiness, the consequences of sub-optimal incentives in the medical education and the ways in which the typical medical student can stay resilient in working towards their long term goals. I hope you enjoy. Resources "Medicine + Effective Altruism How can we do good, better?" webinar hosted by Giving What We Can - watch it at this link  Recommendations Books by Atul Gawande

Dr Akhil Bansal is a doctor who has worked with mental health NGOs, as a research fellow at Stanford Existential Risk Initiative and has recently joined Charity Entrepreneurship as an analyst. He is passionate about doing research that makes a difference and is developing his career to include both policy and clinical practice.  We discuss his experience with:  • building resilience into healthcare systems; • developing a network and seeking valuable conversations; • being a conduit between policy makers and clinicians on the ground; • and much more! Links: https://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/ 

Dr Jake Mann is a clinical paediatrics registrar with research specialisation in metabolism and liver disease. He studied at Birmingham medical school and currently trains in Cambridge where he is a Wellcome Trust clinical fellow. He has a strong interest in clinical research and high impact research focuses for doctors and we were really excited to chat to him about his work as well as balancing clinical work with research.  Resources Effective Altruism - a social movement and philosophy focused on maximising the good you can do in your career, projects, and other life decisions - find out more here  Giving What We Can - a community of effective givers - find out more here  Recommendations  Review Articles e.g. Nature, Journal of Clinical Investigation  Books by Ben Goldacre

Dr Henry Howard is a junior doctor in Australia who donated 50% of his income in 2021 to charity. He has pledged to give 10% of his income to effective charities forever having taken the Giving What We Can Pledge. He’s also really interested in Medtech and entrepreneurship. We’ve really enjoyed talking to him about his career, effective giving and his thoughts on doctors' ability to do a huge amount of good through donating to charity.  Resources and referenced materials  Giving What We Can - Organisation  - see here Drowning Child Thought Experiment - Peter Singer - see here for a summary written by The Life You Can Save  How Rich Am I Calculator - resource from GWWC - see here to try it  GiveWell - organisation - see here  The Life You Can Save - organisation - see here (and you can find out more about the book by Peter Singer at the same link)