Podcast
Ep 12
33 min
November 3, 2023
Anatomy of a Case
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We kick off an exciting new segment, Anatomy of a Case, where doctors share their most difficult and unusual clinical challenges. We begin with Dr. Katherine Teter, a vascular surgeon at NYU, describing her first night on-call as an attending. She was asked to manage an uncontrolled hemorrhage resulting from another doctor’s procedural complication. We hear the initial details in her own words, and she leaves us with a cliffhanger before heading to the operating room. My cohost Todd Berland - clinical professor and host of the Vascular Surgery show on SiriusXM Doctor Radio - and I do not know the outcome of the case, but we make some educated guesses before Katherine joins us and reveals the outcome. It’s a gripping yarn! If you’re a physician with a case you’d like to share, please email me at: peter@thelifemedicalpodcast.com
Podcast
Ep 11
54 min
September 19, 2023
Dr. Frank Veith and the Medical Mafia
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Frank Veith has had a remarkable seventy-year career in vascular surgery, pioneering techniques that transformed the field from open surgery to endovascular procedures. His book, The Medical Jungle, details the genesis of these innovations, while candidly describing his battles with an establishment that sought to either block or take credit for his progress. His story will motivate anyone who faces adversity to stand up - to be radical - even when it is unpopular.
Podcast
Ep 10
48 min
June 20, 2023
The Life Medical Book Club
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Neurosurgeon Nicholas Theodore opens the episode by taking us through the decision calculus of spinal cord decompression surgery. We then inaugurate our Life Medical Book Club with two distinguished physician authors. The first is Malcolm Ogborn, whose book Sudden Leadership is subtitled A Survival Guide for Physicians. Then Michael Zema, the author of Modern Healthcare Delivery - Deliverance or Debacle, gives us a a view from the inside out of the history of the modern medical system in the United States.
Podcast
Ep 09
51 min
May 11, 2023
Government and Military Service in Medicine
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Last week, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. For perspective, we talk with Dr. Mario Ramirez, an emergency room physician whose varied career has included a stint as Acting Director of the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We also revisit the caselog of our friend, neurosurgeon Dr. Martin Lazar, who brings us into a nail-biter of a spinal tumor case. We share his operative video, with permission, on our website and all our social channels. The picture is truly worth a thousand words, on the latest episode of The Life Medical.
Podcast
Ep 07
1 hr 57 min
June 21, 2022
Citizen Science Series - Interview with Dr. Adam Gazzaley
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This week, we take an epic deep dive into the life and work of Dr. Adam Gazzaley, professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. Adam is helping usher in a future where video games will be prescribed like medicine, the Star Trek holodeck will be across the threshold, and psychedelic agents will help treat depression, addiction and other mental illnesses, at less cost and with less reliance on chronic medications. You can learn more about his research at: https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/
We begin with memories of high school science fairs, and end with his globetrotting work as an academic polymath. Our conversations took place over the past year, and we have included prior segments into this inaugural Citizen Science program.
Podcast
Ep 06
1 hr 23 min
March 16, 2022
Inside Dr. Death - Part 2
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The Dr. Death case exposed faults in the medical system that have yet to be repaired. We conclude our special two-part episode of The Life Medical podcast by meeting a group of medicolegal advocates who were instrumental in helping to convict Christopher Duntsch.
Podcast
Ep 08
1 hr 14 min
December 11, 2022
The Doctor's Journey with Danielle Ofri and Martin Lazar
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Imagine you’re a medical student choosing between a career in medicine or surgery. Your teachers and mentors can be crucial to your choice. In this episode, we highlight two fine exemplars of both disciplines. Internist Danielle Ofri describes the journey that led her to become an attending at Bellevue Hospital, a widely-published author who writes movingly about the doctor-patient relationship, and a founder of the Bellevue Literary Review. Neurosurgeon Martin Lazar takes us back to the beginning of the modern neurosurgical era. He details his efforts to save the life of a young patient with impaired circulation to the brain, performing one of the first extracranial-intracranial bypass cases for Moyamoya disease in the United States. Please spend some time with two of the most accomplished and thoughtful physicians we have met, in this long-awaited episode.
Podcast
Ep 05
1 hr 09 min
February 8, 2022
Inside Dr. Death - Part 1
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We begin a special two-part episode of The Life Medical by examining the case of Christopher Duntsch, a.k.a. Dr. Death, the subject of the wildly popular podcast and recent docudrama on the Peacock streaming service.
Podcast
Ep 04
50 min 4 sec
September 27, 2021
Journeys
Outward and Inward
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On this episode of The Life Medical, we see the pandemic’s effect on medical care through the eyes of “emergentologist” Dr. Calvin Sun, as he works shifts in emergency rooms and urgent care centers across New York City.
Podcast
Ep 03
155 min 4 sec
July 12, 2021
Going Home
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In this double-length episode, we follow Dr. Yasmin Meah on her home visits in East Harlem NYC from the height of the pandemic to the present.
Podcast
Ep 02
1 hr 09 min
May 31, 2021
Honoring National Nurses' Month
BattleFields Past and Present
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The Life Medical marks National Nurses' Month by speaking with two nurses who have served in intensive care units since the start of the pandemic. Their emotional stories highlight the personal cost of this demanding work.
Podcast
Ep 01
47 min 50 sec
January 31, 2021
Into The Fray
Saving Lives and Facing Pandemics
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In March of 2020, The Life Medical Podcast began recording Season One with doctors, nurses, and hospitals across the East Coast of the United States. It just so happened that this was also the moment that COVID-19 hit America.