Heart of Medicine

Can you believe that the  election is under 2 months away? Have you thought about what the most controversial healthcare related topics will be and where you stand on them? 

In this election-focused episode of HeART of Medicine, Cardiologist and TV personality Dr. Payal Kohli and Vascular Surgeon Dr. Omid Jazaeri discuss the hottest and most polarizing public health topics in the upcoming election, including reproductive rights for women, gun control, climate change and healthcare for migrants. They share where the candidates stand on each of these issues and debate whether some of these issues are medical issues or policy issues. Dr. Kohli and Dr. Jazaeri even disagree on whether states should have their own rules for abortion or these should be regulated uniformly under federal law. (Have you thought about YOUR take on this?)

For anyone getting ready to cast their vote in November, this episode perfectly crystallizes some critical public health controversies and will definitely get you  thinking… not just about where the candidates stand on these issues, but more importantly… where YOU stand! Don’t miss this episode!

The whole world has an opinion on whether President Biden (or any older Presidential candidate) should be required to have mandatory cognitive testing… what’s yours?

In this episode of HeART of Medicine, Dr. Payal Kohli and special guest Dr. Scott Humphreys, who is a psychiatrist and a medical director at Colorado Physician Health Program, debate whether doctors should have mandatory, scheduled cognitive testing to be allowed to practice medicine. After all, being a doctor is also a profession where (literally) another person’s life is in your hands!

They also debate the pros and the cons of mandatory retirement, “quitting while you’re up” and whether doctors should be held to a different standard than other professions. For example, it may be ok for someone who works at a desk job, but would it ok for a surgeon to have “normal” age-related left-right confusion? Or slower response times? They discuss the challenges (and the hefty price tag) of comprehensive cognitive testing and implementation in medicine and how medicine creates an environment where cognitive issues are exacerbated. Finally, they touch on what happens when someone fails the cognitive test - how do you take away their ability to practice medicine while still preserving their identity as a doctor?

This episode humanizes the figure in the white coat and asks “Is Mandatory Retirement Just What The Doctor Ordered?”

You won’t want to miss the extra “spicy” episode of HeART of Medicine, where Dr. Payal Kohli and Dr. Omid Jazaeri discuss “cancel culture” and “feedback ninjas” in medicine.

Has fear of “cancel culture” created an environment where doctors are afraid to speak up when trainees need feedback to grow and most people just end up looking the other way? Is the feedback process being “weaponized” by medical trainees and is this a generational issue? And does being fearful of giving open feedback whether to trainees or hospital systems cause harm to our patients? Have we taken it too far?

In this heated episode, Dr. Payal Kohli shares her personal experience and both doctors discuss how “cancel culture” in medicine could pose a serious harm to the care of patients, to communication and to the growth of medical trainees.

The last time you went to the emergency room or to a doctor’s office, were you surprised to be seen by a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistants/Associate only rather than a physician or a team of people? Does it seem like there are more and more of these types of encounters in medicine, where the doctor isn’t even part of the visit? Historically, the role of a NP and PA had been developed to improve access to healthcare and offload physicians from more of the straightforward patient care tasks in medicine. However, more recently the role of these types of providers, called APPs, has evolved into becoming specialists, addressing new problems independently, managing complex patients and even performing complicated surgical procedures. The APPs can even switch specialities without having to train the way a physician would to switch and in many states, don’t need physician supervision to practice.

So where does this leave us… Has this has impacted the care of patients? The trust patients have in the medical system? The cost of care? The access to care? And, is this “fair” to our APPs to expect them to take on so much more their training allowed for - to literally, throw them in the deep end with a “sink or swim” mentality?

In this episode, Dr. Kohli and Dr. Jazaeri tackle these difficult question and many more. And… spoiler alert… they even discuss the question at the end of “Why would anyone want to be a physician rather than an NP or PA?” 

This is HeART of Medicine episode you won’t want to miss!

In this emotionally-charged episode, Dr. Payal Kohli discusses the latest medical-legal-political decisions with her recurring guest Dr. Jazaeri. 

Whether it is banning abortions, classifying embryos as children or the safety and efficacy of masking and the COVID vaccines, a series of recent health policy issues have changed the way physicians practice at the bedside. These stones have been thrown into the pond of medicine by politicians and lawyers. But the ripples that have been created have impacted doctors and patients everywhere. Most shocking of all is how these ripples may actually be compromising the credibility of the physician. Dr. Kohli asks the difficult question “When It Comes to Health Policy…Are Doctors Irrelevant?”

HeART of Medicine host Dr. Kohli kicks off the new year with an episode about something nearly every patient and healthcare provider will struggle with (if he/she hasn't already) - navigating the complex world of health insurance! This is especially relevant in January, when it is the most expensive time to consume healthcare, and ironically - many of us consume more healthcare, especially preventive care, at this time due to our New Year’s Resolutions. 

In this riveting episode, Drs. Kohli and her recurring guest Dr. Jazaeri highlight the challenges of health insurance and how it directly impacts the health outcomes of patients. They discuss lack of cost transparency in healthcare – how we know exactly what we pay for a box of Cheerios at the grocery store but are left wondering what your doctor’s visit or blood draw or Xray would cost you. And how two doctors giving the exact same care can be reimbursed very differently - a concept that is fundamentally in conflict with a capitalistic society! They have a frank discussion about how patients and healthcare providers are both victims and collateral damage when it comes to healthcare insurance and how we even got here. 

This is an episode that elucidates so much about health insurance and its current and future challenges that it is one you will not want to miss!

In this special holiday edition of HeART of Medicine, Dr. Payal Kohli and guest Dr. Jazaeri discuss how a doctor can never really be “out of office”?  And should they be? Or does the profession have a higher calling that requires this type of dedication?  Is this constant sacrifice of being away from our family and friends and working on holidays an expected part of the job or is it a recipe for burnout? Does the system “have our back” or are we left to take care of the ever growing conveyor belt of demands placed on us?

Whether you are a physician or a patient, this episode is one that really highlights how physicians constantly walk the tightrope between being doctors and being people. A great holiday listen for anyone as we all reflect upon the year behind us and gear up for the next ahead of us.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has infiltrated almost all aspects of our lives, from how we shop to who we follow on social media to the television shows we watch. But how will this AI technology impact the practice and delivery of medicine?  

In this thought-provoking episode of HeART of Medicine, host Dr. Payal Kohli sits down with Vascular Surgeon Dr. Omid Jazaeri to ask some difficult questions about AI in Medicine.

Is AI going to replace your doctor? Are computers better and faster at doing what doctors do? What about when it comes to procedures or surgery? What happens when AI makes a mistake? Who is liable? And what about patient privacy - how does AI ensure protection of patient information, which would otherwise be only between the patient and his/her clinician? And are the AI algorithms biased or do they fairly represent diverse populations? Can AI reduce healthcare costs and make research more efficient?

This fascinating episode and discussion takes you down the “rabbit hole” of the applications of AI in medicine and it’s future potential - it’s a must not miss!

In this emotional episode of HeART of Medicine, Drs. Kohli, Baron and Naidu open up about death and their grief. They share stories of the patients they have lost and how they have coped with the pain. They reflect on how such conversations are taboo in medicine… how doctors don’t talk about death of patients and the expectation is for stoicism and moving on. The hosts discuss how death can shake up their confidence as physicians and as people. Dr. Baron says, “I burst into tears… it was too much!”

Because doctors literally fight against disease and death every single day, a patient death can feel like a loss. After all, even doctors are human and death moves them too… but at the same time, there is this impossible expectation that they need to become accustomed to death and compartmentalize their emotions so they can be immediately ready and present for the next patient. 

This episode of HeART of Medicine is incredibly emotional and will really move you if you have ever coped with grief or loss.

In this episode of HeART of Medicine, Drs. Kohli, Baron and Naidu talk about current physician compensation and its impact on health care costs. 

They discuss how training, medical school debt as well as the demands of the job all play into how much they feel is fair for a physician to make. As physicians, they address how they deal with the criticism that doctors make too much and that is the main driver for healthcare costs. has  the compensation for the level of work has actually gone down for physicians over the years, rather than increasing commensurate with inflation and how that has fed the cultural mis-perpection that “doctors make too much money”?  The hosts also tackle head-on the controversial topics of “gender pay gap” and why female physicians continue to make less and have smaller bonuses than their male counterparts; and how advanced practice practitioners are being hired as physician replacements due to cost.

You won’t want to miss this episode - it will be utterly eye-opening about how we pay our modern day physicians and whether your doctor is truly “overpriced”?