Succeed in Medicine

I’m re-releasing this episode because of how critical it is. In my quest to be taught how best to have a fruitful discussion with those hesitant about the vaccine, I interviewed two science communicators, a social engineer, a lawyer, an expert in cognitive biases, and a motivational interview and of all of those, the last one was the most powerful tool for moving the needle on those hesitant to get the vaccine.  Motivational interviewing comes from addiction medicine, but using it for vaccine hesitancy actually precedes the COVID pandemic. It is used for new parents who are considering forgoing their newborns' vaccines. Mandates are going to get some to get the vaccine, but for others, a conversation with their trusted physician can be a powerful thing. Dr. Joseph Weiner teaches us how to use it to help our patients with vaccination and other decisions.  Dr. Joseph Weiner is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Medicine and Science Education at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, where he co-directs the four-year curriculum in Physician-Patient Communication and Interpersonal Skills. Thinking and writing about how patients and clinicians communicate with each other has been a major interest in his career. This episode is sponsored by CompHealth Just head to financialresidency.com/comphealth and see what locums can do for you financially. This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Last month marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Two weeks after that tragic day, The Onion, the famed comedy newspaper, put out an issue with jokes about 9/11. How did they do that? Scott Dikkers, one of The Onion’s founders teaches us how. His rule is that comedy is meant to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” That’s why they put out that issue. To comfort the afflicted. As physicians, that’s what we do! How can we be funny, even in the face of tragedy? Mr. Dikkers teaches comedy writing and has turned what seems unteachable into a science. He has described funny filters and all comedy fits into one of those filters. He teaches us which are the best for the exam room, how to recover from a failed joke, how to work humor into our office visits and lectures, and what jokes comedians can’t use, but we can!   Scott Dikkers founded the world’s first humor website, TheOnion.com, in 1996. A few years earlier he helped found the original Onion newspaper. He’s served as The Onion’s owner and editor-in-chief, on and off, for much of the last quarter century.  He led The Onion’s rise from small, unknown college humor publication to internationally respected comedy brand.  He is also a New York Times best seller, and Peabody Award winner.  He documented his process for creating humor in his book, How to Write Funny, and the second in the series, How to Write Funnier, and next on the way, How to Write Funniest, which are the basis of the Writing with The Onion program he created and teaches at The Second City Training Center in Chicago. Scott offers other courses and free resources for comedy writers on the How to Write Funny website. Today's sponsor is CompHealth. To find out more visit financialresidency.com/comphealth  This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

This was one of my favorite interviews. I was a fledgling podcaster at the time when I interviewed Dr. Stephanie Sogg, a clinical psychologist at the Harvard Weight Center. She had been quoted in an article in the Huffington Post that lambasted physicians for not knowing how to talk to our patients about their weight. Interviews like this were the reason why I started podcasting. I emailed her and asked her if she could teach us the right way to have these discussions and she agreed! Talking to patients about their weight is fraught with landmines created by inordinately complex psychosocial issues. It is very easy to alienate a patient. Dr. Sogg teaches us the power of language and this has come up in other interviews since. Changing racial language from minority to minoritize and slave to enslaved changes the perspective of the listener. It subtly influences how that person is perceived. The same applies to discussing weight; when we change our language about body habitus to be less stigmatizing, it subtly influences the listener, be it our patients, students or colleagues. We also need to change the way we talk about food. According to Dr. Sogg, the only bad food has gone bad, tastes bad or is poisonous. Dr. Stephanie Sogg is a clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. She has treated patients with obesity at the MGH Weight Center since 2003. Dr. Sogg earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Rutgers University in 1998, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Harvard Medical School. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Sogg conducts research on obesity and bariatric surgery, and the intersection between obesity and addiction, and has published widely on obesity and related topics. She is an author of the Boston Interview for Bariatric Surgery, and of the official ASMBS Recommendations for the Pre-Surgical Psychosocial Evaluation of Bariatric Surgery Patients. She is the director of the Weight Center rotation for Behavioral Medicine psychology interns, and is active in national and international scientific obesity and weight loss surgery societies. She is currently serving as a member-at-large on the Integrated Health Executive Council for the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Today’s sponsor is Locumstory. You can find out more by visiting: www.locumstory.com  This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

This episode is going to flip the script. I’m going to be the one interviewed. I was interviewed by Dr. Indu Partha, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tuscon, on her podcast, The Ajo Way, Primary Care Pearls from South Campus. We talked about dizziness. If you are an otolaryngologist like me, you can stop listening now, but for everyone else who finds dizziness to be mystifying, this will be a good primer to understanding otologic causes of dizziness. We aren’t getting granular here; no need to differentiate the saccule from the utricle. You’re getting lost in the weeds. If you have trouble differentiating postural dizziness from positional vertigo, this episode is for you.  This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Dr. Junaid Niazi is a board-certified internist and pediatrician who works as a primary care physician for a large healthcare organization in the upper Midwest by day and by night he’s known as Prosperous Life MD. He is a physician life coach and he blogs and coaches physicians on all things wellness, productivity, finances, and careers. He also has a group coaching program to help physicians complete their charting at work and that’s why he’s on the show today. His interest in charting also landed him as an Information Services Medical Director, where he optimizes the EHR for physician use and patient care.   He is going to help you conquer your charts and go home on time! How? By standing over you and forcing you to finish the chart before moving on to the next patient! How? By convincing you that whatever you can do with that extra time is going to be more rewarding than whatever it is you’re doing to waste your time instead of charting.  Are my kids more fun than scrolling on Twitter? Usually. What’s your reward? Finish your charts!!! We also talk about Parkinson’s Law, why it isn’t some forgotten formula from physics class or your neurology rotation, and how realizing its truth will help you get stuff done. He’s also anti-To-Do list? Why are to-do lists the devil and make you feel like garbage and ultimately less productive?   Dr. Niazi completed his undergraduate studies at Rice University, medical school at Baylor College of Medicine, and residency at the University of Minnesota. He is married to a pediatrician and has two rambunctious toddlers. Today's sponsor for the podcast is Locumstory. To find out more visit - doctorpodcastnetwork.com/locumstory This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Dr. Linda Street is a board-certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist and Life Coach who focuses specifically on Physician Negotiations. She is the Founder & CEO of Simply Street MD Negotiation Coaching where she helps female physicians take charge of their lives and negotiate for the salary they deserve. She lives and breathes to close the gender gap, starting with you! She also hosts the Simply Worth It podcast where she discusses physician contract negotiations. Find her at www.simplystreetmd.com We start out discussing how it is critical to change your mindset when you finish your training. You have been the toilet paper on someone’s shoe for the last decade and now you’re the prize, so negotiate like it. One of her main points is that you’ll never know what you can get unless you ask. Negotiation isn’t a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser, so there is no reason for it to be an adversarial relationship. It is about finding a way to work together. And think about your priorities – it isn’t just about money. Are you burned out and need a change of pace? or looking to supplement your income? Then maybe locum tenens is for you. Reach out to www.doctorpodcastnetwork.com/locumstory to learn more. This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Jen Barna, MD, is a board-certified practicing radiologist, and founder and CEO of DocWorking, a company that helps physicians achieve their best in life and medicine by providing expert coaching, courses, and other resources in the form of a subscription called DocWorking THRIVE. Jen and the two lead coaches at DocWorking, Gabriella Dennery, MD, and Master Certified Coach Jill Farmer, started DocWorking: The Whole Physician Podcast in February 2021, now ranked as a top physician podcast. I’ve had a few physician coaches on in the past, and she has come the closest to convincing me to actually get a coach myself. We discuss why she decided to start a business that revolves around coaching physicians, without actually being the coach herself, and how she got it started, her other business ventures, including Qelse (https://www.qelse.shop) an e-commerce boutique that creates designer walker/mobility bags, stroller bags and caddies. We also discuss some of her most valuable takeaways from having been coached and why an outside coach should be part of residency training. Dr. Barna’s subspecialty is breast imaging, and she practices in the northeastern US since 2006. She earned her medical degree and completed her Diagnostic Radiology residency at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine. She earned a masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her undergraduate degree from Stony Brook University in New York. Try the Deputy app for free by visiting -doctorpodcastnetwork.com/deputy This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Dr. Sarah Smith is a family physician and charting coach. She specializes in helping physicians with our charting backlog so we can get home on time without the looming cloud of unfinished charts and callbacks.  We discuss how to add efficiency to your day by making sure you are laser focused on your patient and you aren’t finished until that chart is closed. This frees up mental space for the next patient, making that visit a bit more efficient. By the end of your morning, have a plan for how you are going to tackle callbacks. We also discuss dictation, scribes, templates, and how this is all easier said than done. She went to medical school at the University of Western Australia and has worked in primarily rural communities as a family physician, and is now in Edson, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Smith is a certified life coach and knows firsthand the experience of never being done and having unfinished charts and inboxes begging for your attention.  She has hundreds of hours of experience coaching many physicians in the outpatient setting with improving their office and workplace efficiency and finding solutions to getting their work done during their clinical day. You can find her at chartingcoach.ca.   To learn more — and try Deputy out for free — go to www.doctorpodcastnetwork.com/deputy This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Michael Reddington, CFI is a certified forensic interviewer and the President of InQuasive, Inc., a company that integrates the key components of effective non-confrontational interview techniques with current business research for executives. Using his background in forensics, and his understanding of human behavior through interrogation, Reddington teaches businesses to use the truth to their advantage. And now he’s teaching it to physicians. We first learn what a forensic interviewer is and why there should be more in the world. We talk about trust, how to gain it, keep it, and avoid losing it, mostly through how we demonstrate how we’ve been listening. Patient diagnoses are sometimes part of their identity; we talk about an approach that can help if you are about to change a long-held diagnosis and how to interrupt a patient without alienating them. Reddington received his bachelor's degree in business administration and management from Southern New Hampshire University, and received additional education on negotiation and a leadership degree from Harvard University. He has led over one thousand programs and educated over ten thousand participants from companies, government agencies and executive groups across the world. Find him at InQuasive.com.   The sponsor for this week's episode is Vive Funds. Reach out to Veena and her team at Vive Funds to find out how you can be a successful investor too! Vive Funds creates opportunities for you to build your portfolio. You can find out more by visiting: www.doctorpodcastnetwork.com/vivefunds  This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.

Jonathan Howard, MD, is double boarded in Neurology and Psychiatry and as he puts it in his Twitter profile, the author of several non-bestselling neurology textbooks. That’s not why he’s being interviewed. H wrote his own book on fallacy and errors in medicine entitled, Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes: A Case-Based Guide to Critical Thinking in Medicine. I keep trying to interview him about the book and he keeps changing the subject! In the last interview, we discussed cognitive biases in vaccine hesitancy and used by antivaxxers and this time we talk about how biases influence how we perceive the danger that covid-19 poses to children. He teaches us about the contrast effect and why it can be used to dangerously minimize the impact of COVID on children, but how we also need to use contrast as a frame of reference when determining risk. Dr. Howard did his residency and fellowship at NYU, where he is now an associate Professor of  Neurology and Psychiatry, specializing in Multiple Sclerosis. He is the neurology clerkship director and director of neurology at Bellevue. He can be found on Twitter at @JHowardBrainMD and blog articles on sciencebasedmedicine.org.  If you want to boost efficiency across your practice and make staff scheduling easier, try the Deputy app. You can try this award-winning technology for free by going to www.doctorpodcastnetwork.com/deputy  This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let’s grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.