The Accelerators Podcast

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The Accelerators (Drs. Matt Spraker and Simul Parikh) host radiation oncology resident physician and writer, Dr. Matt Farrell, to discuss narrative medicine.

We review his recent JCO publication "First Cousin Once Removed". In this piece, Matt describes his experience with a family meeting at the end of life for his cousin John, an actor and patient living with HIV and AIDS prior to the release of HAART. 

Matt's work sparks a discussion of family dynamics surrounding the death of a loved one, the language we use in medicine, and Matt's plans to keep writing a significant part of his life as a physician. 

Plus, book recommendations! 

Here are some things we discussed during the show:

• VVPN Reflections on Pandemics
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 
• Thrillville, USA by Taylor Koekkoek
• Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
• The Combative Language of Cancer: A Plea for an Armistice by Dr. Matt Farrell

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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Accelerator Dr. Matt Spraker hosts the first ever live #RadOnc podcast!

Drs. Todd Scarborough, Emma Fields, and Alexis Schutz join for this very special episode, recorded from the #ACRO2023 Afterparty in Orlando, Florida. We first discussed our love of ACRO, informal and collegial poster sessions, and our favorite parts of day 1 of the conference.

Then, we explored the elephant in the room, the radiation oncology workforce and job market. Todd reveals himself as part of Graypeace, authors of An Inconvenient Truth, a narrative that likens workforce trends in radiation oncology to global warming. We find that, recently, graduating residents are perceiving a strong job market. But is this just a cold day masking a larger trend of global warming?

Emma shares her thoughts on how the 2018 ABR initial certifying exam debacle may have initiated concerns that are driving decreased numbers of medical student applications to our field. Will programs commitment to cleaning without soap correct forecasts of radiation oncologist oversupply? 

We close our session with Q&A and, of course, a discussion of our favorite radiation oncologists.

We would like to extend a special thanks to the American College of Radiation Oncology for allowing us to record during their event and supporting our quest to produce balanced editorial content about the field of radiation oncology. Check out the ACROPOLIS Content Channel to check out all their supported digital properties. 

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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Accelerator Dr. Simul Parikh and Dr. Jason Beckta of the out.of.the.basement / radiation.medicine podcast team up to "simul-cast" their reaction to the radiation oncology workforce study commissioned by ASTRO and completed by Health Management Associates.

Simul and Jason are joined by friend of the show and #RadOnc workforce guru Dr. Todd Scarborough. They discuss the "supply side" of the model, hiring consultants, and the folly of forecasting the past.

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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School is in session! The Accelerators (Drs. Anna Brown, Matt Spraker, and Simul Parikh) sit down for a radiation oncologist and colorectal specialist Dr. Nina Sanford for an informal lesson on the state of radiotherapy for rectal cancer in 2023. 
 
We work our way through an informal discussion of total neoadjuvant therapy, sequencing of therapies, radiotherapy techniques, and my favorite new #RadOnc concept, PULSAR. 

We close the show by peer reviewing Simul's case and discussing the finer points of rectal cancer contouring.

Here are other some things we discussed during the show:

• We talked about a lot of rectal studies, just check out Rad Onc Tables GI Tab
• Todd's Twitter poll on IMRT for rectal cancer 
• Bob Timmerman's excellent editorial about his SBRT constraints
• Tzeng sarcoma study referenced for bowel constraints
• The Janus Study
• Wax Lips and Fun Dip Candy

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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The Accelerators (Drs. Anna Brown, Matt Spraker, and Simul Parikh) are back with Drs. Alison Tree (The Royal Marsden NHS, UK), Vedang Murthy (Tata Memorial Centre Mumbai, India), and Himanshu Nagar (New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell and Brooklyn Methodist, NYC).

We pick up our international discussion of prostate cancer by further discussing Radiation Oncology training and research in India, the UK, and the US.

Then we move to discuss more practical matters, such as the remarkable variation in prostate SBRT techniques across the world. We also discuss the future.

We close this episode with a discussion of our favorite Indian dishes. 

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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The Accelerators (Drs. Anna Brown, Matt Spraker, and Simul Parikh) have gone global!

We host Drs. Alison Tree (The Royal Marsden NHS, UK), Vedang Murthy (Tata Memorial Centre Mumbai, India), and Himanshu Nagar (New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell and Brooklyn Methodist, NYC) for a two-part exploration of prostate cancer care around the world!

In part 1, we discuss PSA screening, costs of care, selection of radiotherapy treatment techniques and androgen deprivation therapies, and the radiotherapy research efforts of the UK, India, and the US. 

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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Accelerators co-host Dr. Simul Parikh takes a very special trip to India and visits Tata Memorial Hospital! 

In this episode, he shares his experiences in their radiation oncology clinics as well as thoughts on patient care, clinical trials, education, and more.
 
Here are some papers from Tata Memorial that were mentioned during the show:

• The POP-RT Trial 
• Phase III trial of docetaxel for advanced head and neck cancer
• Contouring guidelines for penile cancer

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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The Accelerators (Dr. Anna Brown, Matt Spraker, and Simul Parikh) host radiation oncologist Dr. Amar Kishan and Brett Sloman, Product Sales Director at Viewray, Inc.

On this episode, we discussed the newly resulted MIRAGE trial, a single-center phase III study of prostate target reduction using MR-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) versus standard CT-guided SBRT.

Amar kicks off this in depth interview by reviewing the results, then we cover a range of topics and critiques that arose on the release of this trial.

What is the impact of industry influence? Can we shrink prostate target size using other technologies? Given that the outcomes included quality of life measures, should this have been a blinded study? 

Are commutes in LA really easier if you listen to The Accelerators Podcast? 

Here are some things that were mentioned during the show:

• Siva et al. editorial on the MIRAGE Trial
• The SMART Trial for locally advanced pancreas cancer
• Parikh et al. SMART Trial ASCO results
• Viewray multi-center LAP-ABLATE trial for locally advanced pancreas cancer

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

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Accelerators co-host Dr. Simul Parikh invites Dr. Todd Scarbrough for a #MedEd special on the once controversial topic of adjuvant radiotherapy for resected N2 non-small lung cancer. Should we listen to the science or is  it an... ART?

Here are some papers that were discussed during the show:

• Lally et al. SEER study
• PORT Meta-analysis 
• ANITA PORT sub-study
• The LungART trial 
• The PORT-C trial

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production. 

Send us Fan Mail

Accelerators co-host Simul Parikh records a solo podcast about clinical dogma, gate keeping, and other... things.

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

The Accelerators Podcast is a Photon Media production.