Peerspectrum

Today's episode is about money, specifically your money. Now, if we're going to take a break from interviewing astronauts, Navy SEAL's, NFL surgeons and cutting edge researchers to do an episode on investing, you can bet we we have a very specific reason for doing so. You can also bet we have a rare and unique guest. That guest is renowned Economist, Burton Malkiel. You can google him later but here's a quick CV highlight reel: PhD from Princeton, Harvard MBA, author of 12 books and more than 150 articles, dean of the Yale School of Management, member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, corporate board memberships including Prudential Financial , the American Stock Exchange, and the Vanguard Group. At 86 years of age he isn't stopping and currently serves as chief investment officer at Weathfront. All very impressive you say, but what does this have to do with me? Well, Burton is also the author of one the most influential investment books of all time. First published over 45 years ago, “A

Clinical research with Psychedelic compounds like psilocybin, LSD and MDMA have gotten a lot of press recently. Major institutions such as Johns Hopkins, UCLA and Yale are leading the charge with dramatic results in drug addiction, PTSD, end of life care, depression and other mental illness that is simply breathtaking. When we think back to the psychedelic sixties, it’s hard to imagine that legitimate clinical research was taking place with psychedelics then, too; although much of it (think Timothy Leary) wouldn’t pass even the most lenient institutional review boards today. Much of this early research in the US came to a screeching halt with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Only now are we beginning to reawaken to the incredible healing and trans-formative effects these compounds can offer. Today it’s our distinct privilege to speak with the researcher who carried the torch through a time when psychedelic research was nearly non-existent. When it comes to the mechanisms of action, bio

On this episode's release, we find ourselves in week 3 of the 2018 NFL season. So what could be a better time than now to talk with a surgeon who's spine practice has treated more NFL, and other professional athletes, than any in the world. Patients such as Dan Marino, Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, Wayne Gretzky, Reggie Jackson and Rob Gronkowski, just to name a few. If you like stats, check out this patient roster: 173 NFL players, 21 Superbowl Champions, 43 NBA players, 60 Pro Hockey Players, 8 Stanley Cup Champions, 112 Major League Baseball players, 30 World Series Champions, 12 Olympic Gold Medalists...and the list goes on and on. Today's guest is Orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Robert Watkins, IV. Along with his father, Dr. Robert Watkins, III and their partner, Dr. David Chang; they together run the world renowned Watkins Spine Center in Marina Del Rey, California. We'll go behind the scenes to discover what's involved with the treatment of these elite high profile athletes. We'll separate what really happens

All right, welcome back. Steve Jobs once said,"If Henry Ford had asked his customers what they want, they would have said a faster horse...[you see, he said] It's not the customer's job to know what they want." When you create a trillion dollar company and the iPhone, you get to say stuff like that. How would your life be different if Steve Jobs designed your EHR? Could a dream team from Apple design a perfect hospital without any input from the physicians and nurses who will work there? What if they said,” it's not the doctors job to know what they want because we know what's best for them.” Yeah, probably not. Medical space design is something we take for granted everyday, often only crossing our minds when we're frustrated about it. And sometimes it's really frustrating. Much of this frustration originates from the gulf between those who design these spaces and those of us who actually work in them. It effects our work, our mood and as research is now showing even patient outcomes. As a trained phys

Name: Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD Specialty: Pediatrician and public health advocate Location: Hurley Medical Center: Flint, MI Today it's our distinct privilege to have Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on the show. Before her best selling book, her countless TV interviews, before Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, "Dr. Mona" (as she is known) was just another pediatrician taking care of children in one of the poorest cities in the country. If you're like us, you probably think you know the Flint story pretty well. This episode may change your mind. Here's some things we didn't know: Flint Michigan was once one of America's most prosperous cities. Many historians say the middle class was born there. The crisis began when the city switched its water source to the Flint river. This river was once so polluted it caught on fire twice. The entire crisis was completely avoidable, like 80 bucks a day avoidable! Lead poisoning may be one of the largest threats to American children to

The opening you just heard was the actual footage of STS- 133, the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, and the second to last launch of the US space shuttle program. One of the astronauts aboard that day was Dr. Michael Barratt: A career astronaut, a physician by training and today's guest on the podcast. I can't even begin to tell you how excited we were to do this interview. NASA gets literally thousands of requests every year for astronaut interviews, speaking engagements and visits. They can only accept so many. Thanks to the growing popularity of our podcast, and to all of you who are listening, we're now getting more opportunities like this to speak with some really unique and incredible people. Put yourself in our shoes for a minute. Michael Barratt someone who's been to space twice, lived on the International Space Station for 200 hundred days, conducted two space walks (EVA's), he's one of the world's experts in space and aviation medicine, and we got to sit down with him for over an hour a

If you fly often, it's only a matter of time before you hear those not so welcome words over the intercom: "Is there a doctor or medical professional aboard?" So, do you hit your flight attendant button, or wait for someone else to do it first? When you're stuck at 30,000 feet, options are limited. You might even feel a little like our past guest, Dr. Gavin Francis, serving as the only doctor available in a remote Antarctic research base. So what are your options? Who can you call for assistance? Is there medical equipment available? What are your legal risks and ethical responsibilities? How often does this stuff actually happen? Today we're going behind the scenes with Dr. Paulo Alves, global medical director for Medaire, a company contracted with most the world's commercial airlines to provide real-time medical assistance from their emergency command center in Phoenix, Arizona. If that's not exciting enough, they also specialize in emergency medical evacuations, crew training, and medical and security

All right, welcome back for round two with former Navy SEAL, Dr. Robert Adams. If you missed part one, go back and check it out. In Part II we move forward to Bob's career as an army physician. We're going to learn what it's like being a physician attached to the Army's elite counter terrorism and hostage rescue unit, known as Delta Force. A unit so secretive that even family members of Delta operators are treated by separate physicians. Next we'll move to post-invasion Iraq and Bob's early efforts to train and equip Iraqi physicians who, because of Saddam Hussein's onerous travel restrictions, were practicing medicine in a virtual time capsule, unchanged over the previous twenty five years. We'll discover a close call that nearly ended the lives of 700 Iraqi physicians, in a terrorist plot uncovered just in the nick of time. It's an incredible conversation for part II of our series. With that said, let's get started....

Today we’ve got a pretty awesome guest for you. What was once a secret, and very much unknown group of elite US military soldiers, has now become a virtual household name inspiring countless books, news stories and even movies. While all of you have certainly heard of Navy SEAL’s, very few of you have likely met one. They’re a small, select and rare group. Even rarer are the handful of Navy Seals who have gone on become physicians. Today’s guest is one of these few. To become a SEAL requires one to pass one of (if not the) most difficult, grueling and selective training processes in the world. This includes a crucible called Hell Week where recruits face six torturous days of physical tests, no sleep, freezing cold water, hazardous elements and (for those who make it through) watching each day as most of your fellow classmates ultimately quit the process. The stresses and physiological impacts to the human body are very real, leaving many graduates presenting with the same signs and symptoms seen in POWs, o

Welcome back. During our last episode we had an incredible conversation with the founders of Experiment.com, a very novel and exciting platform for crowd funding scientific research. If you missed this episode, definitely check it out. Keith and I came away so impressed with their venture, we decided to take a deeper look at some of the current research. One experiment really jumped out, so we invited the lead researcher to join us. That researcher is today's guest, Dr. Susan Culican, professor of Ophthalmology and residency directory at the Washington University School of Medicine, and the St. Louis Children's Hospital. We covered a lot of ground in this episode: alternatives to traditional grant funding, resident education and best of all... Susan's current research that ...get ready... actually challenges the long held assumption that only surgeons have the expertise to reliably assess surgical skill. Her experiment seeks to prove that non-clinicians (i.e. the public) while viewing surgical videos can ass

How do you feel about funding scientific research, particularly medical research? How efficient, effective and fair is the grant system in deploying billions of taxpayer dollars? Are funds targeted towards diseases proportional to their occurrence in patient populations? Are the influences of disease specific non-profit groups helpful or hurtful? Are the interests and activities of biomedical companies aligned with the needs of you, and your patients? Well, if you think there's room for some serious improvement, today's episode is for you. Cindy Wu was a young undergraduate student at the University of Washington, working on a way to modify an enzyme treatment for anthrax, using a videogame. (which, by the way, is a heck of a lot more than I was doing in college) Eager to find funding for her idea, Cindy approached her professor. “Cindy, [he responded] the system doesn’t fund people like you...It only funds tenured professors.” Although he ended up helping her by sharing money from one of his own research g

Today we're exploring the future of PA's and NP's. Many of you listening work very closely with them, and in-fact many of you listening are PA's and NP's. As the roles, responsibilities and autonomy of PA's and NP's continue to grow, an interesting question comes up. Can we actually compare the effectiveness of PA's and NP's to doctors? To help us tackle this question is today's guest, Dr. Ellen Kurtzman. Ellen is a professor of nursing at George Washington University and she has made nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants a major focus of her research. She's held several senior leadership roles in organizations such as the American Health Care Association, American Red Cross, and The Partnership for Behavioral Healthcare. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Ellen's recently published research compares the practice patterns and quality of care of NP's/PA's vs. family physicians, in a very specific setting. As you'll see, this paper is just the beginning of some really inte

All right, welcome back. Imagine a world where patients can access their medical records anytime, anywhere with immutable security. Imagine every instance along a patient's continuum of care recorded and easily searchable. Imagine the opportunity to meta search millions of health records and data points, and even outcomes, without compromising an individual patient's personal identity. Imagine patients using these resources to evaluate and choose their hospitals, and even you. Folks, this isn't science fiction or wishful thinking. It's a technology called block-chain and if you've heard of bitcoin, you've heard of block-chain. Today we have Dr. William Gordon with us to unpack this technology and help us separate the hype from the real (and very exciting) promise. While in Medical School at Cornell, Will also had a side gig as a software developer. Will became involved with several technology start ups, including serving as director of clinical products at one after residency. Today Will is a clinical infor

Name: Alan Levinovitz, PhD Location: James Madison University: Harrisburg, VA Specialty: Professor of Religion and Philosophy “Although scientific training can inoculate against the power of nutritional myths, by no means does it guarantee immunity.” -Alan Levinovitz, “The Gluten Lie” All right, welcome back. Do a quick search on Amazon for books about gluten and over three thousand results show up. Everything from cooks books, diet guides and even childrens' books show up. If you're a listener to this podcast, and you don't have celiac disease, these are not the books likely found in your home library. Happily there's one book, on the first page of results, that you should own though. Called “The Gluten Lie”, it's well researched, backed up with peer-reviewed data and it's about much more than just Gluten. Who wrote this book you ask? An MD out there who was fed up with latest irrational diet craze. No, this book was written by our guest today, Alan Levinovitz, a professor of Religion and Philosophy at

Name: Gavin Francis, MD Location: Edinburgh Scotland Specialty: General Practitioner, Emergency Medicine Dr. Gavin Francis is a general practitioner based in Edinburgh Scotland. He's also a prolific traveler and an incredibly talented writer. Today we're going the explore the 15 months Gavin served as the sole physician at Halley, the British research station in Antarctica. Gavin was it. With no medical team, no back up and pretty limited equipment, Gavin had to be ready for any medical emergency, large or small. During the winter months, Halley is completely cut off from the rest of the world. Ships can't enter, planes can't land and you won't see the sun until spring. It's hard to imagine being farther off the grid than this. Even the international space station has a Soyuz spacecraft ready for an emergency escape. His book, “Empire Antarctica” is an account of those 15 months spent at Halley. It's a fascinating story, and a beautifully written book for which he received the prestigious Scottish natio

Norman Beck has been profiled in the New Yorker, he's shared his story on the stage of TED, he has breakfast with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates every year, and yet, there's a good chance you've never heard of him...until today. Norman Beck searches for data in hard to reach places. Because he looks where no one else looks, he knows what no one else knows. Norman's experience and skills were put to the test one day in a doctors office, when he found himself on the receiving end of a life threatening diagnosis. He knew his life depended on the answer to a very serious question: “who is the best surgeon I can find?” The answer to that question saved Norman's life, and led to his wildly popular Ted Talk. It's what leads him here today. With that said, let's get started...

Today we're going to take a brief departure from our normal routine for a smaller, mini episode. In just one week, the moon's shadow will be passing over the continental US . If you've never seen a solar eclipse, and you're still not sure if it's worth all the hype, stay tuned. Our guest, Dr. Gordon Telepun is a plastic surgeon in Decatur Alabama. That's his day job. Gordon is also a passionate amateur astronomer. He's traveled to the middle of the ocean, and as far as the plains of southern Africa to see a solar eclipse. His knowledge of eclipses would probably give Neil deGrasse Tyson a run for his money. Gordon has even developed a geo-location app (for viewing the eclipse) that's being used by NASA next week at two of their observation sites. This episode was fascinating and lot of fun. With that said, let's get started...

How many of you feel like your patients consider you the 2nd opinion after first consulting Dr. Google? How much of your time is spent fighting through a jungle of pseudo science and misinformation just to reach your patients? Why is it so hard to earn their trust? With all the talk today of fake news, the erosion of journalism and the shallow miasma of modern media things look pretty grim. But this is Peerspectrum. Lamenting over the state of affairs is not what we do here. Despite the circumstances, there are some out there (particularly physicians) engaging these problems head on. Today's guest is one of them. Dr. Alok Patel is a Pediatrician and associate professor at Columbia University, in New York City. He's also rising voice among physicians using modern media to defend and advance medicine. Alok is a regular contributor to Medscape, and he has recurring segment on ABC News. While he rubs shoulders with people like Katie Couric and Whoopi Goldberg, he's not afraid to get his hand dirty, even dodg

So, where do the Air Force's elite bomber crews, fighter jet pilots and even drone navigators go when they need to see a doctor? They go see a guy like today's guest, Dr. Ryan Gray. Ryan is an aerospace medicine physician, also known as a flight surgeon. As a flight surgeon, Ryan treated some Air-force's most elite fliers. He was also responsible for evaluating their flight readiness, sometimes having to ground pilots and crew members who were not medically cleared to fly. As you can imagine, not everyone was eager to find themselves in Ryan's clinic, fearing a medical disqualification that could literally ground their careers. We're going to learn how Ryan navigated this challenging dynamic, and the tactics he used to build trust with his patients. We're also going to learn how a young airman's question sparked a new mission for Ryan, the mission he now pursues as an educator and physician entrepreneur. Today, Ryan is the founder and CEO of the MedicalSchool Headquarters, an incredibly successful enterpris

Imagine yourself as a patient, free to schedule visits any time you wish. During those visits, you can expect to spend an average of 45 minutes, face to face with your doctor. You can also call your doctor anytime, even on nights and weekends. Now imagine yourself as that doctor. Today, the average family physician sees 35-40 patients a day, averaging only seven minutes with each. It's no surprise that many GPs today report feeling over worked, underpaid and even burned out. But not you. You enjoy an average of 45 minutes with each of your patients. You see, at most, five or six patients per day. Your patients can call you anytime, but surprising they rarely do. You love your job and your lifestyle. You know your patients and they know you. Your practice model enables huge health-care cost savings but your income still matches or exceeds that of your traditional family practice colleagues. So what's the catch? Is this a concierge practice limited to wealthy patients? A Utopian practice model existing only i