General Medicine and Primary Care

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Host: Stephanie Desmon

Guest: James Robert Ficke, M.D.

The Joint Hopkins Maryland Federal Medical Station, a 250-bed unit inside Baltimore’s convention center, opened on April 27 for non-critical patients recovering from COVID-19. Dr. James Ficke, the Station’s Director, talks with Stephanie Desmon about how his experience standing up combat hospitals in northern Iraq prepared him, the influx of patients they’re seeing, and what it takes to set up a fully operational contingency hospital with food, bathrooms, showers, and even its own pharmacy.

Published May 19, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Host: Stephanie Desmon

Guest: Barri Yanowitz

Guest: Carlos Raba

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan ordered restaurants and bars to end in-house dining back in March. Two people from Baltimore’s restaurant community—Barri Yanowitz, a bartender at Brewer’s Art, and Carlos Raba, a co-owner of Clavel—talk with Stephanie Desmon about how each outlet has addressed the mandate, what this has meant for business and their community, and what they anticipate in the coming weeks and months.

Published May 18, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Amesh Adalja, MD, FIDSA

When can I see my family again if I have been quarantining? Does a person’s blood type affect how severely ill they might become? Are women taking oral contraceptive pills more at risk from blood clots from COVID-19? Can you get COVID-19 from second-hand smoke? What is social distancing fatigue and what can we do to address it?

Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security addresses these and other questions submitted.

Published May 15, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Elizabeth J. Letourneau, PhD

Responses to COVID-19 such as school closures and shelter-at-home orders may inadvertently raise the risks of child sexual abuse. Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau, Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about risks, prevention strategies, and a new online resource for parents, caregivers, and people at risk of offending.

Published May 14, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Host: Stephanie Desmon

Guest: Albert Wu, MD

It’s been a few months since COVID-19 first arrived in the US, so what have we learned? Dr. Albert Wu returns to the podcast with Stephanie Desmon to discuss social distancing fatigue, new symptoms and disease observations, hopes for treatment, and what we should expect in the coming months in terms of a “return to normal.”

Published May 13, 2020

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Emeran Mayer, MD, PhD

There’s no organ in the body that has such close connections with the brain as the gut, which can often result in pain for many of our patients with IBD. Listen in as Dr. Emeran Mayer joins Dr. Matt Birnholz to explain this mind-gut connection, why patients with IBD experience pain, and how providers can manage patients who experience pain when inflammation is and isn't present.

Guest: Martha Billings, MD, MSc

Guest: Renea Jablonski, MD

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have quickly transitioned to telemedicine. To give us a better idea of what that transition has looked like in practice, Dr. Martha Billings and Dr. Renea Jablonski share their experiences in a pulmonary clinic setting.

Published March 19, 2020

Host: Victor Test, MD, FCCP

Guest: Andrew Klein, MS, RT

Tune in as Andrew Klein, a clinical nurse specialist in respiratory therapy, discusses his experiences caring for COVID-19 patients in a teamwork environment. Through these collaborations, the best care can be made available during this pandemic.

Published March 26, 2020

Host: Michael D. Christian MD

Triage focuses on doing the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Dr. Mike Christian from the Task Force for Mass Critical Care explores the why, when, and ethics of triage to aid the imbalance of supply and demand in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published April 16, 2020

Host: Steven Simpson, MD, FCCP

Tune in as Dr. Steven Simpson speaks with a clinician on the frontlines of COVID-19 who shares her experience managing a COVID-19 case that was caught days after the patient was admitted to the hospital.

Published May 19, 2020