CMAJ Podcasts

Encounters — A medical student doesn't recognize her own body

In this narrative, Dr. Sumedha Arya reflects back on a time while she was in medical school when her body felt foreign.
Dr. Arya is an internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario.
She wrote a Humanities Encounters article published in CMAJ called "Ego and id."
To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181581
-----------------------------------
Music: Evening Fall Harp by Kevin MacLeod, YouTube audio library
-----------------------------------
For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. shop.cma.ca/products/encounters
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Organ donation after MAiD

In this interview, Dr. James Downar and Dr. Jennifer Hancock take listeners through some of the ethical considerations of having a patient who requests medical assistance in dying (MAiD) or withdrawal of life-sustaining measures (WLSM) and who is also requesting to have his or her organs donated.
Dr. James Downar is head of the division of palliative care at the University of Ottawa and is a critical care physician at The Ottawa Hospital. He is one of the authors of the guidance for policy.
Dr. Jennifer Hancock is an intensive care physician in Halifax and is involved with Nova Scotia's organ donation organization, Legacy of Life. She was also the physician handling organ donation for a patient who underwent MAiD.
A guidance for policy article was published in the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. James Downar is one of the authors. This guidance document was developed on behalf of Canadian Blood Services in collaboration with the Canadian Critical Care Society, the Canadian Society of Transplantation, and the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses.
The guidance for policy is published in CMAJ. Full article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181648
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Doctors Without Borders on winning the Nobel Peace Prize — An interview from our archives

In this interview from our archives, Dr. John Hoey has a fascinating discussion with Dr. James Orbinski. The interview was first published in February of the year 2000. At the time, Dr. John Hoey was editor-in-chief of CMAJ and Dr. James Orbinski was international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF). Dr. Orbinski had just accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of MSF’s pioneering humanitarian work in several countries around the world.
Dr. Orbinski and Dr. Hoey talk about war, humanitarian medicine, refugees, genocide, and more. These themes are just as relevant today as they were 19 years ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This podcast episode is brought to you by Audi Canada.
The Canadian Medical Association has partnered with Audi Canada to offer CMA members a preferred incentive on select vehicle models. Purchase any new qualifying Audi model and receive an additional cash incentive based on the purchase type. Details of the incentive program can be found at www.audiprofessional.ca.
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Encounters — An internist thinks she is delivering good news

In this narrative, the Dr. Ellen Feld reflects back on a patient she encountered many years ago. Dr. Feld delivered what she thought was good news about her diagnosis, but the patient felt otherwise.
Dr. Feld is a general internist, professor, and medical director of the physician assistant program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She wrote a Humanities Encounters article published in CMAJ called "Good news."
To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.190041
-----------------------------------
Music: Impromptu in Quarter, YouTube audio library
-----------------------------------
For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. shop.cma.ca/products/encounters
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Encounters — A physician struggles to thank her neurosurgeon

In this narrative, Dr. Debra Hamer reflects back on brain surgery she had many years ago, before she became a physician and a mother. She tries to find closure and get to a place of gratitude.
Dr. Hamer is an assistant professor and psychiatrist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
She wrote a Humanities Encounters article published in CMAJ called "A letter to my neurosurgeon."
To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181526
-----------------------------------
Music: A Nostalgic Place, YouTube audio library
-----------------------------------
For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. shop.cma.ca/products/encounters
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Encounters — A medical student and a patient help each other hold on just a bit longer

In this narrative, Dr. Calvin Santiago, who was a medical student at Queen’s University at the time, describes an encounter with a patient who was at peace with stopping his treatment. The essay won the 2017 Undergraduate Narrative Award for Palliative Medicine.
Dr. Santiago is now a first-year neurology resident at the University of Toronto.
He wrote a Humanities Encounters article published in CMAJ called "Three."
To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.190091
-----------------------------------
Music: Earnest by Kevin MacLeod, YouTube audio library
-----------------------------------
For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. shop.cma.ca/products/encounters
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Physician suicide

In this interview, Dr. Joy Albuquerque and Dr. Sarah Tulk talk about physician suicide, the only cause of death more common in physicians than the general public. They discuss factors that can lead to suicide and suicidal ideation (such as regulatory complaints, mental illness, culture in medicine), and they talk about what can be done to prevent this occupational health hazard. They also discuss how suicidal physicians face unique barriers to care, including concerns regarding confidentiality and discrimination.
Dr. Joy Albuquerque is a psychiatrist in Toronto and medical director of the Ontario Medical Association’s physician health program.
Dr. Sarah Tulk is a family physician in Milton, Ontario. She has written multiple blogs for CMAJ Blogs, such as https://cmajblogs.com/physician-mental-health-why-we-need-to-share-our-stories-of-struggle-and-success/
They co-authored a practice article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Full article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181687
-----------------------------------
Where to get help:
Provincial physician health program: https://www.cma.ca/provincial-physician-health-program
Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (Phone) | 45645 (Text) | crisisservicescanada.ca (Chat)
In Quebec (French): Association québécoise de prévention du suicide: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553)
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Overincarceration of Indigenous people

In this interview, Dr. Davinder Singh and Dr. Marcia Anderson discuss the problem of racism in the justice system which is in in part responsible for the over-representation of Indigenous people among the those incarcerated in Canada. As a result, Indigenous people lose far more years of life to incarceration than to premature death from many common causes.
Dr. Marcia Anderson is Cree-Anishinaabe, with roots going to the Norway House Cree Nation and Peguis First Nation in Manitoba. She practices both Internal Medicine and Public Health as a Medical Officer of Health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Dr. Davinder Singh is a recent graduate from the Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program at the University of Manitoba and is currently midway through his law degree.
They co-authored a commentary published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Full article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181437
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Philosophers on Medicine — What are diseases, really?

In this podcast, Dr. Jonathan Fuller and Dr. Jeremy Simon discuss disease as a concept. Are diseases part of the natural world, like electrons and photons, or created by humans and their perceptions and interests, like constellations or countries?
Dr. Fuller is a philosophy of medicine postdoctoral fellow and graduating medical student at the University of Toronto. Dr. Simon is an emergency physician and a bioethicist at Columbia University in New York city.
For more philosophical discussions related to medicine, visit www.philosophersonmedicine.com
Full humanities article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181629
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite podcast app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

Med Life with Dr. Horton — Alan Alda and Dr. Deepu Gawda on feeling disconnected from patients

In this next "Med Life with Dr. Horton" podcast, Dr. Jillian Horton talks with both Dr. Deepu Gawda and actor Alan Alda.
In the first segment, Dr. Horton and guest Dr. Deepu Gawda, internist and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University, answer a listener question from a physician who is under so much work pressure that s/he is viewing patients only as units of time. This person wants to get back to connecting with patients in a meaningful way and is looking for advice.
In the second segment, Dr. Horton speaks with award-winning actor Alan Alda, who leads workshops for physicians through the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. They discuss how doctors can focus less on pressure from the "system" to be more time efficient and instead be more present for patients. They also talk about ageism in medicine.
Dr. Jillian Horton is a general internist in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was the associate dean of undergraduate student affairs at the University of Manitoba from 2014–2018 and now directs programs in wellness and medical humanities at the Max Rady College of Medicine.
She writes a column for CMAJ Blogs called Dear Dr. Horton: cmajblogs.com/category/dear-dr-horton/
Send the anonymous questions that keep you up at night to a real former Associate Dean of Medical Student Affairs, Dr. Jillian Horton, and get the perspective you need with no fear of judgment. Submit your questions anonymously through this form, and mention "Dr. Horton Podcast." goo.gl/forms/QFQwqJQRCf4aWlzW2
---------
The opinions stated in this podcast are made in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect those of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
--------
Music: Eternal Hope by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
-----------------------------------
Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.