Humans of Medicine

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

This conversation is with Max, an Adelaide-born ANU graduate, cricket fanatic and passionate researcher who’s also headed to Oxford later this year as a Rhodes Scholar. I currently work with Max in a research lab at USyd - as well as being a great human and research buddy, he’s also extremely passionate and goes deep into areas he cares about - which is why I’m particularly keen to share this conversation.

We talked about his journey, and how different mentors have guided him, what he’ll be working on in his computational neuroscience PhD, and his perspective on all the exciting developments around “AI”. Hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions for Max, send him a message on Linkedin.

Timestamps:

0:44 Why medicine and research?

3:50 Paradigm-shifts: From bench to bedside, explore vs exploit

7:58 The value of hard work and being kind

10:26 Max’s PhD: Information representation in the brain

15:35 Research experiences and great supervisors

17:58 Challenges in Immunology and Psychiatric Disorders

23:20 Generative AI and its potential understanding the brain

26:39 Overhyped and Underhyped AI applications

29:18 Attention spans and content mediums in the age of AI

36:07 Advice for undergraduates

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

Today we’ve got an international episode with Andrew, an American-Korean living in New York! After graduating from Johns Hopkins majoring in neuroscience and public health, he’s currently a first year studying a dual MD and Masters of public health at Mt Sinai. Having explored clinical research, and public health neurology, he’s currently interested in the pathway of the clinician-public health researcher.

We talked about how he came into his niche of neurology and public health, the journey of moving from Chicago to NY, and his experiences at John Hopkins, World Neurology Foundation, and World Relief. Hope you enjoy!

Timestamps:

0:48 The domino effect into medicine

5:33 1st year and exploring identity in NYC

8:10 Moving into the big city

11:14 Schizophrenia interests to multiple sclerosis research

17:08 Neurology in third world countries

22:05 World Relief and supporting migrants

26:23 Exploring your unique intersection

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

Today we’ve got Izzy, a kiwi doctor turned startup enthusiast, and all-round legend. After 2 years as a house officer, Izzy pivoted to learn about startups and work as a platform manager at Blackbird, an Aussie-to-NZ venture capital firm. Among other experiences, which we’ll go into more detail in the pod, she’s also building a newsletter called Bootstrapped - giving a fortnightly lowdown on NZ startups.

We chatted about her journey in figuring out what she’s passionate about, learning to take a risk on yourself, her experiences as a house officer, and the NZ startup ecosystem. Hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact her at [email protected].

Timestamps:

0:44 Positive impact: From medicine to startups

7:18 The Dark Ages (House Officer Years)

9:02 Obstetrics, and the importance of patient education

13:19 Rockstar hobbies

15:20 Universal healthcare

16:16 Retaining future kiwi doctors

21:02 The growing NZ startup ecosystem

22:29 Cleantech

23:47 What’s missing in the NZ startup ecosystem?

25:11 Building Bootstrapped

27:04 Inspiration and passion

29:29 Understanding yourself and your assumptions

If you’re a medical student who’s starting to have a medical identity crisis, or want some advice on figuring out how the heck specialties and research work, this is a good episode.

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

Today we’ve got two very lovely, and very laughy, medical interns, Tina and Charlotte. They both graduated from USyd with Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees - Tina having done computer science, and Charlotte having done biochemistry. They’ve also got a bunch of diverse experiences… From consulting at McKinsey, performing benchtop lab research, and engineering things at Canva - and they’ve now happily come to pursue medicine and more.

This was a really fun chat - and I think, tackles a lot of topics that are difficult to figure out sometimes, especially as an outsider to medicine. Stay tuned for lots of laughs, stories, and practical advice. Hope you enjoy!

If you'd like to contact them or follow up with more questions, flick me an email at: [email protected].

0:57 What brought you to medicine?

4:47 Sticking through medicine

10:30 Balancing medical interning with dance and travel

12:44 Hybrid Careers: Clinician-scientists and teachers

16:38 How does research fit into medical careers?

19:41 How do specialties work? (OBGYN, Anaesthetics)

25:15 Should I be researching in med school?

29:13 Medicine Quick Fires! (Questions from my USyd cohort)

29:41 Which year was the hardest?

30:20 How did you keep things going with times were tough?

31:07 How are you treated as interns?

32:15 How do you make the most of your hospital time?

35:05 How do you ask for advice from doctors?

37:00 Tips for your first clinical exam?

38:29 Advice for first years - Travel to NZ and be open-minded

40:24 Bonus story!

If you’re a medical student who’s thinking about research, and curious about how to choose the right lab and supervisor - this episode’s a good one for you.

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

Today we’ve got DJ, a final year med student at UNSW. He’s a research intern at the Kolling Institute, having worked on cardiology projects for the past few years (leading to some fun conference trips overseas). He’s also previously helped out with startup called Vantari VR, (which seeks to use VR in medical education) as well as tutoring at UNSW.

We chatted about the importance of research in medicine, three key tips for new researchers, and his diverse interests in public health, technology, and importantly, human connection. Hope you enjoy.

If you'd like to get in touch, feel free to message him on Linkedin!

0:48 Connecting with patients

2:30 Final year of med school

3:14 Changing curriculums and adapting to AI

7:03 The value of research as a clinician

9:30 Research highlights: People, culture, and learning about possibility

12:07 Frontier research vs Improvement research

14:52 Improving the outcomes of the many

16:23 Early Career Research 101: Key advice for newbies

21:15 Reflecting in Medicine: The story of “Timothy”

23:12 Doctor-writers

25:20 Vantari VR and Startups

28:12 The many paths of medicine

This is Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

If you’ve ever looked up at the night sky and had the really specific thought of - hey, I want to be a doctor and go to space! This is the episode for you.

I chatted with Henry, a 3rd year MD student at the University of Sydney. He’ll explain his journey a bit more in the pod, but Henry’s an Aussie that went to the states to study a mix of science and arts at Duke and Columbia University. Mixed in with all this is his passion for space and the beyond, which has given him a fascinating list of experiences from interning at NASA, researching tissue regeneration, and organising Australian space-biology conferences.

We chatted about his journey so far, some exciting current developments in space medicine, and why now is a good time for all those future doctor-astronauts to start thinking about the field! Hope you enjoy.

He’s also got a podcast called Medicine Among the Stars (find it on insta: @amongthestars.podcast or Spotify), and is building a space-medicine interest group; if you’re interested, find him on Linkedin or contact him here: [email protected]

Timestamps:

0:57 Journeying into space/medicine

6:00 Origins of the passion for space

8:20 The Doctor-Astronaut Phenotype

9:54 Challenges of keeping humans alive in space

15:28 Space commercialisation and the future

17:10 “New space” and public-private partnerships

19:09 Australia’s space innovation landscape

21:17 Colonising mars and why now is the right time

23:08 Flight surgeons: The “space GPs”

25:25 The NASA Experience

28:42 The importance of open-mindedness

This is Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research.

Today’s conversation is interesting if you’re curious about how another student is thinking about balancing alternate careers alongside being a doctor.

I chatted with Helena, a 3rd year MD student at the University of Melbourne. Whilst being a gun in medicine, a part of the General Practice Students Network and Melbourne’s Surgical Society teams, she’s also got an alter ego - exploring the Venture Capital and startup world at the firm Rampersand.

As two early, career-curious med students, we had fun chatting about her experiences through medicine, how she hopes to combine general practice with venture capital in the future, and cool startups looking to change healthcare like harrison.ai and mindset health. Hope you enjoy!

If you'd like to reach out, feel free to message her on Linkedin or email her at [email protected].

00:51 Why medicine?

1:50 Experiences in Melbourne University

4:30 Specialties and variety in medicine

5:40 Fitting Venture Capital with General Practice

6:50 What is a VC?

7:33 Harrison.ai and Mindset Health: Medtech Startups

11:14 Medicine and other careers

13:05 Why VC?

16:25 Medicine in the future

18:40 80/20 and Efficiency

”The most intimate of details for the patient, become common knowledge for us.” - Dom

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine! This started off as an idea to get advice, learnings, and yarns from a range of medical students later on in their degrees, to help new students get acquainted with what’s to come.

In this conversation I chatted with Domenic Marrocco, a 3rd year student at the University of Sydney, placed at Nepean hospital. He comes from a less traditional background, graduating from a Science/Law degree and having worked as a lawyer.

We talk about his career shift, the privilege of perspective that medicine comes with, inspiring junior doctors and their hidden roles, and how to keep following your why. If you'd like to ask him any questions, flick him an email at [email protected].

This is a longer chat - so if you’d like to hop around, check out the time stamps below. Hope you enjoy!

00:47 What brings you to medicine?

01:55 Life experiences from law

06:16 Sticking to your why

11:56 Comparing medicine to other career paths

14:13 The privilege of perspective

20:28 Inspiring junior doctors and their hidden roles

26:00 What doctors to look up to

31:59 Gravitating towards interests (i.e. Orthopaedics)

38:45 Tips for the MD project

41:44 Advice for first years

“I really recommend using external resources! Maybe to supplement - maybe to replace - SMP resources.”

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine! This started off as an idea to get advice, learnings, and yarns from a range of medical students later on in their degrees, to help new students get acquainted with what’s to come.

Jess and Leon are both 2nd year students placed at Royal North Shore Hospital. They come from opposite ends of the undergrad spectrum; Jess started off with English in a Bachelor of Arts, and Leon studied computer science with his Science degree - but they’re both incredibly intelligent and great fun to chat to!

In this conversation, we start off learning a bit about their motivations in medicine, veer off track to talk about Netflix and gymming, academic goals and opposing study habits, learning to cram, and advice for our first KAT coming up.

On the transition to 3rd year clinical: “You don’t have a purpose - you have to make your own.”

On neurosurgery: “I haven’t seen my kid since Sunday - and it was Wednesday.”

On choosing a specialty: “There’s a difference between liking the content versus liking the job.”

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine! This started off as an idea to get advice, learnings, and yarns from a range of medical students later on in their degrees, to help new students get acquainted with what’s to come.

This second conversation is with Henry, a 3rd year placed at Westmead. He’s another friendly kiwi who’s always been up for a candid chat about life.

We talk about being realistic with specialties, the journey of learning how to balance medicine with your life, some study tips, and how to not go insane during the grind. Hope you enjoy!

If you want to get in contact with Henry, you can contact him at [email protected].

Timestamps

00:34 3rd Year so Far

03:42 Overtime

04:40 ED and Mental Health

07:06 “Bestmead” and Westmead-specific tips

10:15 Physician vs Surgeon, and choosing a specialty

14:04 Transitioning from Foundations to MSK

15:25 Studying efficiently

17:11 “High Yield vs Low Yield”

20:14 Free time

22:04 Burnout and giving up