On The Wards: On The Pods Medical Podcast for Doctors

James talks to Anastasia Volovets about liver transplantation, a final treatment option for patients who would otherwise die of their liver disease.

Summary Writer:  Claudia Hurwitz

Script Writer:  Anastasia Volovets

Editor:  Anastasia Volovets

Interviewee:  Anastasia Volovets

About Dr Anastasia Volovets

Dr Anastasia Volovets is a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist. After completing her advanced training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, she took off for the green pastures of Edinburgh in Scotland to complete a fellowship in advanced liver disease and liver transplantation. On return she did some more liver transplantology as a consultant before settling into a part-time staff specialist duties at RPA as well as some private practice locally.

Anastasia loves teaching patients, nurses, medical students and other doctors almost as much as she loves the liver. She is currently involved in developing a statewide curriculum on gastrostomy feeding in her spare time and can often be found wandering the hospital with a cup of coffee and a toxicology textbook.

Dr Joanna Dargan, a Urology Trainee, talks to James about working up a patient with lower urinary tract symptoms.

Joanna Dargan is currently working in New South Wales and interested in medical education and training.

Script Writer: Joanna Dargan

Editor:  Joanna Dargan

Interviewee: Joanna Dargan

James talks to Dr Anastasia Volovets about upper GI bleeding.

Summary Writer:  Jeffrey Duncan

Script Writer:  Anastasia Volovets

Editor:  Anastasia Volovets

Interviewee:  Anastasia Volovets

About Dr Anastasia Volovets

Dr Anastasia Volovets is a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist. After completing her advanced training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, she took off for the green pastures of Edinburgh in Scotland to complete a fellowship in advanced liver disease and liver transplantation. On return, she did some more liver transplantology as a consultant before settling into a part-time staff specialist duties at RPA as well as some private practice locally.

Anastasia loves teaching patients, nurses, medical students and other doctors almost as much as she loves the liver. She is currently involved in developing a statewide curriculum on gastrostomy feeding in her spare time and can often be found wandering the hospital with a cup of coffee and a toxicology textbook.

James talks to Georgie Haysom about mandatory reporting, including what it is and how mandatory reporting works in practice.

Interviewee:  Georgie Haysom

About Georgie Haysom

Georgie Haysom (BSC, LLB (Hons), LLM (Bioethics) is the Head of Advocacy at Avant, Australia’s largest medical defence organisation. In this role, Georgie works to improve the legislative and regulatory environment for members and the healthcare system as a whole.

She has worked in health law for nearly 25 years, assisting and advising doctors on a wide range of medicolegal issues, including several years representing doctors in medical negligence litigation.

She has a long-standing interest in the interaction between law, medicine, and ethics, and the way in which the law impacts on medical practice.

Georgie has a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology), Bachelor of Laws (Hons 1) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Laws specialising in bioethics from McGill University.

"Medicine is tough, work is hard, the hours are long, you have to be stoical under pressure, compassionate when required but most of all, you have to work and don’t complain. That doesn’t fit with a history of anxiety, depression or substance abuse". In this podcast, Gavin Andrews discusses the rates of anxiety and depression in medical students and the reasons underlying it; and provides information about 'MED - THIS WAY UP', an online mental health service that has a specific site for medical students and junior doctors.

Interviewee: Gavin Andrews

About Professor Gavin Andrews

Professor Gavin Andrews, AO, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales at St Vincent’s Hospital, where he heads the Anxiety and Depression Clinic, and the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression. He has a 15-year track record in web-based treatments for anxiety and depression, a 40-year track record of treating anxiety and depression using CBT.

Gavin has published more than 600 papers and books. In April 2017 his Hirsch index was 100 and he is on the ISI Most Highly Cited list for psychology and psychiatry with more than 40,000 citations to his work.

Gavin Andrews's research interests began with stuttering, a neurodevelopmental disorder, extended to depression, epidemiology, treatment of common mental disorders, classification of mental disorders, cost-effectiveness, and Internet treatment of internalising disorders.

James talks to Claire Hooker about Grace Under Pressure, a play weaving together the experiences of health professionals.  Medicine and nursing are often referred to as “caring” professions, yet bullying, harassment and “teaching by humiliation” are a common experience in hospitals, particularly for students and interns. Grace Under Pressure is based on hours of interviews with doctors and nurses about their experiences training and working in hospitals.

Interviewee:  Claire Hooker

About Dr Claire Hooker

Dr Claire Hooker is Coordinator of the Health and Medical Humanities program at the University of Sydney, located in Sydney Health Ethics, School of Public Health. Over the past few years, Claire has been quietly building capacity in theory and evidence for arts and health. She teaches a course on Arts and Health every year.

Claire and her research students and colleagues focus their own research and practice in a few key domains.

These include: the qualities and nuances of quotidian clinical communication; changing healthcare workplace cultures; ethical and theoretical frameworks for arts and health; the experiences, qualities, integrity and behaviour of doctors (including an innovative project using acting skills workshops to prevent bullying and harassment in healthcare workplaces); and the qualities of illness experience. Claire’s research also extends into other areas – risk communication, critical evaluations of health policy – useful for making connections across different health fields.

Claire’s research and open access publications can be found at Dr Claire Hooker.

Dr Joanna Dargan, a Urology Registrar, talks to James about haematuria. Haematuria is a common call junior doctors are asked to assess on the wards. Joanna is currently working in New South Wales and interested in medical education and training.

Summary Writer:  Rose McCarthy

Script Writer:  Joanna Dargan

Editor:  Joanna Dargan

Interviewee:  Joanna Dargan

In this medical podcast, James talks to Dr Erin Vaughan about an approach to the unwell kidney transplant patient who requires a clinical review on the wards.

Summary Writer:  Cynthia Yang

Script Writer:  Erin Vaughan

Editor:  Erin Vaughan

Interviewee:  Erin Vaughan

About Dr Erin Vaughan

Erin Vaughan is a second-year Advanced Trainee in Nephrology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She completed her Basic Physician Training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and internship and residency at Royal North Shore Hospital. Erin’s interests include general nephrology, dialysis and transplantation, junior doctor education and wellbeing.

This is Part 5 of a series of 5 podcasts on diagnostic error. In Part 5 we discuss learning and teaching about diagnostic error.

Listen to the other parts here:

Diagnostic Error (Part 1) - An overview

Diagnostic Error (Part 2) - Decision-making and bias

Diagnostic Error (Part 3) - Preventing Diagnostic Error

Diagnostic Error (Part 4) - Responding to Diagnostic Error

Summary Writer:  Nicholas Malouf

Script Writer: Mark Graber, Owen Bradfield, James Edwards

Editor:  Amanda Walker

Interviewee: Mark Graber, Owen Bradfield, James Edwards

About Dr Mark Graber

Dr Mark Graber is a Senior Fellow at RTI International and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has an extensive background in biomedical and health services research, with over 70 peer-reviewed publications. Mark is a national leader in the field of patient safety and originated Patient Safety Awareness Week in 2002, an event now recognised internationally. Mark has also been a pioneer in efforts to address diagnostic errors in medicine, and his research in this area has been supported by the National Patient Safety Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In 2008, he convened and chaired the first Diagnostic Error in Medicine conference. In 2011, Mark founded the new Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and serves as President of SIDM.

About Dr Owen Bradfield

Dr Owen Bradfield is a Senior Claims Manager, Medical Advisor and Medico-Legal Advisor at Avant. Owen graduated with First Class Honours in 2003 from Monash University’s unique combined Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Laws program. He was awarded the Ebsworth & Ebsworth Prize for Medical Law and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine Prize. Owen is a qualified medical practitioner and lawyer. He completed his internship at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and later completed his articles of clerkship at Slater & Gordon Lawyers. He also has experience in health services management and completed an MBA at Monash University, where he was awarded the prize for the top graduating student. In addition to his work at Avant, Owen also works as a part-time General Practitioner, is Deputy Chair of the Patient Review Panel and Chair of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Health Law Committee.

In Part 4 of a series of 5 podcasts on diagnostic error, James talks to Mark Graber and Owen Bradfield about responding to diagnostic error.

Listen to the other parts here:

Diagnostic Error (Part 1) - An overview

Diagnostic Error (Part 2) - Decision-making and bias

Diagnostic Error (Part 3) - Preventing Diagnostic Error

Diagnostic Error (Part 5) - Learning and teaching about Diagnostic Error

Summary Writer:  Emily Nash

Script writer:  Mark Graber, Owen Bradfield, James Edwards

Editor:  Amanda Walker

Interviewee:  Mark Graber, Owen Bradfield, James Edwards

About Dr Mark Graber

Dr Mark Graber is a Senior Fellow at RTI International and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has an extensive background in biomedical and health services research, with over 70 peer-reviewed publications. Mark is a national leader in the field of patient safety and originated Patient Safety Awareness Week in 2002, an event now recognised internationally. Mark has also been a pioneer in efforts to address diagnostic errors in medicine, and his research in this area has been supported by the National Patient Safety Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In 2008, he convened and chaired the first Diagnostic Error in Medicine conference. In 2011, Mark founded the new Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and serves as President of SIDM.

About Dr Owen Bradfield

Dr Owen Bradfield is a Senior Claims Manager, Medical Advisor and Medico-Legal Advisor at Avant. Owen graduated with First Class Honours in 2003 from Monash University’s unique combined Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Laws program. He was awarded the Ebsworth & Ebsworth Prize for Medical Law and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine Prize. Owen is a qualified medical practitioner and lawyer. He completed his internship at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and later completed his articles of clerkship at Slater & Gordon Lawyers. He also has experience in health services management and completed an MBA at Monash University, where he was awarded the prize for the top graduating student. In addition to his work at Avant, Owen also works as a part-time General Practitioner, is Deputy Chair of the Patient Review Panel and Chair of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Health Law Committee.