Infectious Diseases

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO

Guest: Todd Askew

What’s being done to address the range of issues like the PPE shortage, lack of testing, and financial shortfalls encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic? Here to share his team’s advocacy efforts to help tackle these and other challenges is Todd Askew, the American Medical Association's Senior Vice President of Advocacy.

Guest: John Russell, MD

Could immunization techniques of the past help us in our current hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine? To find out, Dr. John Russell reviews the history of immunizations going all the way back to the 1100s.

Published May 29, 2020

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

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

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

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

Guest: Mangala Narasimhan, DO, FCCP

Managing COVID-19 continues to be a work in progress as healthcare systems struggle to prepare for high volumes of patients in such a quick time. To help address this, Dr. Mangala Narasimhan shares her experiences and the importance of planning for double during this outbreak.

Published March 16, 2020