This Medical Life

And that’s another year done. A huge thank you to all of our guest speakers who have been generous with their time and expertise. We would also like to thank our listeners and hope you enjoyed the episodes.

This episode is a mini reflection on this year’s episodes, a link to one of Steve’s favourite podcasts, some TML clips, and an embarrassing memory lapse on my behalf…thanks for keeping that part in Steve & Tim. 

Random acts of Medicine on EconTalk podcast: https://www.econtalk.org/anupam-bapu-jena-on-random-acts-of-medicine/

This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and Spotify.

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During the mid-twentieth century, menopause was touted as a severe disease that destroyed women’s femininity and was a burden to their husbands. Thankfully, today we recognise menopause as a natural part of ageing and conversations about it are happening more and more.

In this episode, we have four special guests:

• Niki Bezzant: award-winning writer, author, journalist and media personality from New Zealand who has written the book ‘This Changes Everything: the Honest Guide to Menopause and Perimenopause’.
•  Dr Carmel Reynolds: General practitioner and SA/NT board member on the Australian Menopause Society
• Dr Angelique Swart: Obstetrician & Gynaecologist with an interest in post-menopausal bleeding
• Dr Ashley Winter: Urologist and Sexual health specialist

Australasian Menopause Society

This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and on Spotify

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In July 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic, we released our first episode called ‘What is pathology?’ with This Pathological Life podcast. We hoped to create something that would entertain and education the audiencem and shed light on to some of the amazing stories and characters in medicine.

In creating these podcasts, I am always thankful and appreciative to our guests who willingly give their time and expertise. If there is anyone who has excited our audience, been an inspiring teacher and a fantastic storyteller, it is Professor Graeme Suthers. He has been involved in the following episodes over the last four years:

This Medical Life podcast:

• Ep 40 Carrier screening
• Ep 30 BRCA (Part 1)
• Ep 21 Marfan syndrome
• Ep 15 Lynch syndrome
• Ep 10 Familial Hypercholesterolaemia

This Pathological Life podcast:

• Ep 45 Pharmacogenetics
• Ep 44 PKU and Cystic Fibrosis
• Ep 33 Fragile X
• Ep 13 Trisomy / Chromosomal abnormalities

On the 30th of June 2023, Professor Graeme Suthers retired and we wanted to take some time to thank him, but also ask him some questions and reflect on his career.

This is the story of Professor Graeme Suthers.

This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and Spotify.

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On the 1st of November 2023, the Australian Government will release new guidelines for screening prostate cancer with the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. These guidelines are based upon the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) published in 2016 with new items to be included in the Medicare schedule. These items are based upon the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Cancer Council of Australia guidelines that have been endorsed by the NHMRC, RACGP, and USANZ. We speak to Professor Ken Sikaris who has been at the forefront of these new recommendations.

Our special guest is Professor Ken Sikaris who is a chemical pathologist and Director of Chemical Pathology at Melbourne Pathology.

This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and Spotify.

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We continue the second episode of this two part series on breast screening and mammograms focusing on the future.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of breast density as a new risk factor, personalised breast cancer risk assessment (iPrevent developed by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre https://www.petermac.org/iprevent), and discuss a personal account with Dr Sandy Minck.

Special guests:

• Associate Professor Michelle Reintals is the Director of BreastScreen South Australia and an Australian trained radiologist with extensive and international experience in breast screening and mammography.
• Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips is a medical oncologist who cares for breast cancer patients and is a researcher at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre that is internationally recognised in breast cancer genetics and treatment.
• Doctor Sandy Minck is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and an advocate for breast density awareness and personalised risk assessments. She has personal experience in this area as both a doctor and a patient.

This Medical Life podcast is freely available on all podcasting services and Spotify.

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A critical tool in the fight against breast cancer is population screening. Early detection, surgical intervention +/- further treatment has dramatically reduced advanced disease and mortality rates but it still remains the most common cancer worldwide.

In this episode, we focus on the history of breast cancer, the development of mammograms and early detection with our understanding of the underlying pathology. Our special guests include:

Associate Professor Michelle Reintals is the Director of BreastScreen South Australia and an Australian trained radiologist with extensive and international experience in breast screening and mammography.

Associate Professor Wendy Raymond is a histopathologist who has specialised in breast pathology and cytology. A/Professor Raymond is a past president of the Australian Society of Breast Disease and co-edited the IAC Yokohama system for reporting breast FNA biopsies.

This is the first part of a two-part series on breast screening, focusing on the present. The second part (coming soon) will focus on the future.

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Our understanding of the world today is constantly changing. What was once considered truths and facts can, in hindsight, be seen as misguided or wrong. It may be challenging to accept but becomes evident over time that the things we learn today may become irrelevant or superseded in the future and this is particularly relevant to medicine.

Scientometrics is the quantitative study of science and the rate at which change occurs. Today, we discuss this topic with scientist and author Sam Arbesman, to ask the following question: what is the rate of change of facts in the field of medicine?

Our special guest is Sam Arbesman who is a scientist and author of Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension and The Half-Life of Facts.

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Vitamin D has been a controversial topic in recent times with the debate continuing over appropriate testing, adequate levels, and the evidence for treatment. We discussed the appropriateness of testing and chemical pathology component with Professor Ken Sikaris (Episode 25), but what does the research tell us about diseases associated with Vitamin D and the utility of replacement? We discuss this with Professor Scott Byrne from The University of Sydney.

Our special guest is Professor Scott Byrne from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. Professor Byrne is also Co-director of the Centre for Immunology and Allergy Research and Head of the Cellular Photo-immunology Group in the School of Medical Sciences at Sydney University.

This is the second chapter in the story of Vitamin D.

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Professor Peter Doherty trained as a veterinarian before venturing into immunology research. Professor Doherty travelled extensively throughout his career and has undertaken numerous research posts around the world. The achievement that he is most noted for is he was able to demonstrate how the body distinguished between virus-infected cells from non-infected cells and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1996. However, there is far more that he has achieved throughout his career.

Professor Doherty has been a strong advocate for science communication to the general public at large. He has written numerous books, commented extensively on environmental sustainability and climate change, as well as an active participant and medical voice to the public during the recent Covid-19 pandemic.

Our special guest is Professor Peter Doherty, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine 1996, Author, Science commentator, and Professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Melbourne.

This is the story of Professor Peter Doherty.

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The double helix structure of DNA was the discovery of the century. However, the story about the discovery is mired in controversy as one of the major contributors, Rosalind Franklin, was conspicuously absent from acknowledgements and died (and subsequently not named) before the Nobel Prize was awarded.

In 1968, James Watson wrote the book ‘The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA’ and reads more like a fictional detective novel than an autobiographical account with the portrayal of Franklin as a forceful, gruff and confrontational. Recently, an article in Nature shows an unpublished news article from 1953 (at the time of the discovery) that Franklin’s contribution was crucial to uncovering the structure of DNA.

Today, we talk to one of the authors of the article in Nature, Nathaniel Comfort, who is Professor of the History of Medicine at John Hopkins University. Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5

Our special guest is Professor Nathaniel Comfort from the John Hopkins University. His interest lies in the histories of genetics, eugenics, genomics and biomedicine. He has authored two books (The Tangled Field and The Science of Human Perfection), written for Nature, The Atlantic, The Nature as well as appeared on PBS, National Public Radio and the BBC.

This is the story of the DNA double helix.

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