Stimulus - Learn Tools to Crush It in Your Medical Career

In this episode, Dr. Jaime Hope discusses the power of cognitive reframing and how it can help in difficult situations. Topics include reframing interactions with hostile patients, discussing comfort measures with dying patients' families, and dealing with dramatic patients. Dr. Hope also explores addiction and promoting compassion as well as the impact of reframing oneself and their job for increased job satisfaction. Great advice is shared for first-year medical students on listening to patients and the importance of empathy.

Vinay Prasad pulls no punches in this wide ranging conversation about the realities (and delusions) about chemotherapy research, principle centered social media engagement, flipping votes, the FDA drug approval process, the importance of early palliative care, the dangers of embellishing therapeutic benefit, medical reversals, effective vs efficacious, and trade offs in decision making. Guest Bio: Dr Vinay Prasad is a practicing hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco.  He studies cancer drugs, health policy, clinical trials and better decision making. He is author of over 250 academic articles, and the books Ending Medical Reversal (2015), and Malignant (2020).  He hosts the oncology podcast Plenary Session. Follow Vinay on Twitter.Episode Sponsor: This podcast is also brought to you by Panacea Financial, a financial services company created for doctors, by doctors -- aiming to improve the lives of physicians and physicians in training with products and services tailored to the medical community.  Spotlighted in this episode is the Panacea Financial Foundation which provides grants to underrepresented minorities in medicine. Panacea Financial is a Division of Sonabank, Member FDIC.Awake + Aware | Our 2026 RetreatJoin us at Awake and Aware, our 3-day retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. March 1-4, 2026. Space is limited.Learn More Here🎓 P.S. This is a CME event.The Flameproof CourseThe hidden anti-burnout curriculum we all should have learned in training. Cohort 3 begins Sept 10, 2024. Get the deets For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast websiteWe discuss:The realities of the dissemination of scientific information on Twitter [05:12];Vinay’s intent when he posts a controversial tweet [09:00];Why he’s an outlier in the cancer drug policy circle [16:15];A recent JAMA article which raises the question:  Do we have a collective delusion about the potential benefits of chemotherapy? [18:20];The FDA drug approval process [20:25];The discrepancy between what's measured in cancer clinical trials and what actually would matter to cancer patients [22:38];Questions to ask when being offered treatment options for cancer [24:30];The importance of having rich discussion with patients about treatment side effects and potential toxicities [28:30];The value of early palliative care and a common cognitive pitfall in oncology [31:25];The dangers of empathy and the better alternative:  compassion [35:00];Why embellishing the benefit of a treatment is the wrong thing to do [39:20];Prasad’s book Ending Medical Reversal and the potential harms of sudden flip-flopping of standards of care in medicine [44:00];The difference between ‘effective’ and ‘efficacious’ as it relates to public health and policy [47:46];Prasad’s thoughts on the language surrounding masks vs. the data surrounding masks [54:40];How not wearing a mask might be the product of a lot of long-standing failures in American economic policy and upward mobility [01:02:00];A deficiency of the pandemic which is to not thoroughly consider the trade-offs of the decisions we make [01:06:24];What the data tells us about the risk of COVID transmission in schools [01:08:34];And more.

In this podcast, master meditation teacher Robert Beatty discusses the basics of meditation, starting a meditation practice, mindfulness principles, and healthy coping mechanisms. He also explores the paradoxes of meditation and shares personal insights gained from long-term practice. The podcast delves into the concepts of impermanence, compassion, self-hatred, and self-acceptance. The speakers emphasize the importance of living in the present moment, finding balance and gratitude, and turning towards difficult emotions with the help of meditation.

Join Dr. Jason Hine, a community emergency medicine physician and Medical Director of Education, as he dives into stress inoculation strategies. He shares gripping stories, including a critical airway emergency that calls for swift action. Jason breaks down high-acuity, low-opportunity procedures and reveals three innovative techniques: timing yourself for urgency, using audio cues to enhance arousal, and practicing in front of an audience to simulate real pressure. These insights promise to elevate performance in critical medical scenarios.

Guest Christiaan Maurer MD, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, discusses what terminal illness taught him about time and what people with cancer do and don't need. They also talk about preparing your family for a future without you, the most/least admirable traits in physicians, and the secret of life.

The historical effects of acetaminophen and sleep on vaccine antibody response. Awake + Aware | Our 2026 RetreatJoin us at Awake and Aware, our 3-day retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. March 1-4, 2026. Space is limited.Learn More Here🎓 P.S. This is a CME event.The Flameproof CourseThe hidden anti-burnout curriculum we all should have learned in training. Cohort 3 begins Sept 10, 2024. Get the deets For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast websiteWe Discuss:Listener questions about ERcast and how an mRNA vaccine works [0:00:30];COVID mutations in Europe may increase transmissibility [00:04:40];Recently published side effects and adverse reactions of Pfizer COVID vaccine [00:06:05]Impact of acetaminophen and ibuprofen on vaccine antibody response [00:10:13];How sleep impacts vaccine antibody response [00:16:19]

Most of us have habits we'd like to change -- both getting rid of bad ones and adopting good ones. It's easier said than done! Habits by nature are hardwired and happen without much activation energy. In this episode, Christina Shenvi MD, PhD breaks down the nature of willpower, how knowing it's a limited resource can play to our advantage, strategies for getting out of bad habits, and how to adopt the ones you want.Guest Bio: Christina Shenvi MD, PhD is an emergency physician at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where she is the director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence. A frequent guest on Stimulus, she has now started coaching and teaching more broadly on time management. Her goal is to help busy professionals find more peace with their schedules, feel less stressed, and use their time more effectively. Dr. Shenvi blogs at: www.timeforyourlife.org, and offers workshops on time management.Episode Sponsor: Panacea Financial is a financial services company created for doctors, by doctors -- aiming to improve the lives of physicians and physicians in training with products and services tailored to the medical community.  Whether it's scheduling residency interviews, trying to buy a house during training, or looking for ways to fund your practice, Panacea Financial was created to remove the unique financial hurdles of physicians and allow you to better serve your communities. Panacea Financial is a Division of Sonabank, Member FDIC.Awake + Aware | Our 2026 RetreatJoin us at Awake and Aware, our 3-day retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. March 1-4, 2026. Space is limited.Learn More Here🎓 P.S. This is a CME event.The Flameproof CourseThe hidden anti-burnout curriculum we all should have learned in training. Cohort 3 begins Sept 10, 2024. Get the deets For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast websiteWe discuss:Self-regulation and how it relates to willpower [06:00];How willpower is a limited resource [08:00];Tricks for building up your willpower muscle [14:45];The habit cycle, and why we need to understand how habits work before we can change them [20:25];Breaking bad habits using mental contrasting with implementation intention [24:55];The process of strategic automatism, where you're strategically forming a habit so that you do it automatically [28:50];Why it helps to think about the identity you want to have when you’re working on improving your habits [29:30];Habit stacking [36:30];And more.

A discussion with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s personal physician Barry Kerzin, MD on: how he came to his unique job, why compassion might be better than empathy in healthcare, simple ways to develop compassion towards both others and yourself, the cure for jealousy, lessening the impact of errors, and a prescription for longevity in medicine and life. Guest Bio:  Barry Kerzin, MD is a US born and trained family physician who for the past several decades has resided a monk in Dharamshala, India -- home of the Tibetan community in exile. In addition to serving as H.H. the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, Dr. Kerzin is the founder of the Altruism in Medicine Institute, whose mission is to increase compassion and resilience among healthcare professionals and extended professional groups, such as police officers, first responders, teachers and leaders.Self described as “...a doctor, a monk, a teacher, a lazy man. All of these things, yet none of these things,” you can follow Dr. Kerzin on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram or learn more about his story here.Awake + Aware | Our 2026 RetreatJoin us at Awake and Aware, our 3-day retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. March 1-4, 2026. Space is limited.Learn More Here🎓 P.S. This is a CME event.The Flameproof CourseThe hidden anti-burnout curriculum we all should have learned in training. Cohort 3 begins Sept 10, 2024. Get the deets For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast website   We discuss:   How Barry Kerzin got the job of being the Dalai Lama’s personal physician [07:15]; Why allopathic medical providers shouldn’t discount traditional health care systems [18:20]; Advice Dr. Kerzin would give to his younger self upon graduation from family medicine residency in the late 1980s [24:25]; The dangers of too much empathy [27:00]; Compassion, which is just about a half step back from empathy [29:15]; Methods of teaching compassion on a curricular level [33:20]; The Buddhist practice of unconditional compassion [39:45]; The importance of mutual respect, even in the face of difference [43:35]; Replacing jealousy with rejoicing [46:00]; The pillars of self-compassion [49:48]; Lessening the impact of an error [56:15]; Bodhisattvas -- people who have universal compassion that excludes no one [56:15]; What it’s like to live in Dharamshala and to be the Dalai Lama’s physician for the past 15 years [59:20]; Dr. Kerzin’s prescription for longevity in medicine [01:07:45]; And more.

Effective (and ineffective) leadership comes in many flavors, but there is an underlying quality to any good leadership that you know when you see it. In this episode, Colonel Jim Czarnik, MD and Josh Bucher, MD break down the lessons they’ve learned leading in both the military and civilian worlds of medicine and crisis situations. My favorite quote from this episode: “Purpose is embraced, not imposed.”  Guest Bios:Colonel Jim Czarnik, MD  is the Deputy Chief Of Staff, Surgeon United States Army Special Operations Command. He has previously served as Command Surgeon for US Army Africa and was instrumental in coordinating the multinational response to the recent western Africa Ebola outbreak. Josh Bucher, MD.is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers- RWJMS. He is EMS-fellowship trained and currently holds the position of associate EMS Medical Director for RWJ-Barnabas MHS. An expert in tactical emergency medicine, he is medical director of the Middlesex and Somerset County SWAT team. Awake + Aware | Our 2026 RetreatJoin us at Awake and Aware, our 3-day retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. March 1-4, 2026. Space is limited.Learn More Here🎓 P.S. This is a CME event.  The Flameproof CourseThe hidden anti-burnout curriculum we all should have learned in training. Cohort 3 begins Sept 10, 2024. Get the deets For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast websiteWe discuss:What it means to be a leader and why leadership is a state of mind [03:15];The culture that you want to create in your professional environment [04:10];The ERO relationship (Event + Response= Outcome) [06:20];Why self-motivation is so important for success in the emergency department [09:00];How teamwork is directly related to your mission: a good patient outcome [10:40]; Keys to success when you transition to a position of leadership [13:40]; Mistakes young leaders or people newly in leadership positions commonly make [20:15];The right mix of being respected and being liked [22:30];Czarnik’s special skill for being able to start conversations with anybody, no matter who they are [27:25];How Czarnik manages email [31:15];Czarnik’s personal philosophy and approach to life [33:00];  Czarnik’s ask for the world of medicine and something he’d like to see change [34:10]; And more.

In an insightful discussion with Gail Gazelle, a former hospice physician and Master Certified Coach, listeners learn about overcoming challenges in the medical profession. Gail dives into the psychology of burnout and imposter syndrome, emphasizing resilience and emotional intelligence. She talks about the importance of mindfulness, particularly the 'purposeful pause,' to ease anxiety in high-pressure situations. A compelling exploration of how healthcare professionals can navigate the complexities of their roles while maintaining balance and well-being awaits!