In medical school, the real lessons come at the bedside, and the most important of those come not from residents or attending physicians, but from patients themselves.

Episode 2: Patient Lessons

We may think of medicine as a highly tech-centric profession, but  physicians can be highly resistant to change. Sometimes they need a little push from the outside--or a little push from physicians-in-training. We'll hear about the democratization of health care technology in this episode of AMSA ad lib.

Episode 3: Training with Tech, part 1

MCAT 2015 took effect in April nearly doubling the total exam time and adding questions on biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. In this episode, we will hear from premedical students about lessons they’ve learned while preparing for the MCAT as well as their experience taking the new MCAT, the old MCAT, or both.

Episode 8: MCAT Old and New

Turning passion into motivation is a critical skill that keeps medical students and premeds on the track to becoming practicing physicians. Sometimes the dream of becoming a physician and advocate for health is a literal one. Sometimes a particular interest may call you to stray from the path to medicine briefly.

Episode 10: Turning Passion Into Motivation

In this episode we learn about the TenOne movement promoting Medicare for all. We'll also hear about the Medicare for All Act, a day of advocacy and action, and where the single-payer movement stands today after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Episode 15: The Student Voice on the TenOne Day of Action

Finding the right residency program is a journey that starts well before the fourth-year interview trail. In this episode, AMSA ad lib's Rachel Glassford talks to AMSA's immediate past president, Dr. Britani Kessler, about what factors she considered while weighing programs and preparing for interviews.

Ep. 18: Choosing Your Residency Program

The health effects of climate change are already showing up in the clinic. How will you address it as a physician? Here are selections from a webinar given by Dr. Jerome Paulson on the front-line role of physicians in communicating with patients about the environment. 

Besides practicing and teaching pediatrics for more than 30 years, Dr. Paulson is professor emeritus of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Ep. 19: What is the physician's role in climate change?

Think the playing field is level when it comes to medical school admissions? Student Editor Joey Johnson talks about his feature story on discrimination and bias in the October 2015 issue of The New Physician magazine.

Ep. 21: Admissions Barriers: Interview with Joey Johnson

This week we hear a story from the University of North Carolina (UNC) - Chapel Hill School of Medicine Story Slam, themed "Idio-path: Stories of Personal Journeys." The winner that night was Brittany Papworth, a second year medical student at the time. She shared her story titled "Don't Put My Pants In the Dryer" in which she made a fitting realization that would improve her life as a medical student and that she hopes will improve her relationships with her patients.

Ep. 22: "Don't Put My Pants in the Dryer," Brittany Papworth's Story Slam

Crowdsourcing diagnosis. Bringing the patient into the physician's notes. These are all challenges and opportunities the incoming generation of physicians will face. Jumping off a theme from one of AMSA's upcoming Fall Conferences, Dr. Jeff Koetje dives into the digitized black bag of the future.

Ep. 23: Ethics, Tech and the Dreaded EHR

Recent strides to improve care for LGBT patients haven't been universal. Even as large medical groups develop curricula for training students, there is tremendous variation in how med schools and teaching hospitals approach those topics. For students whose schools fall short in terms of training or support--or even those whose administration could be hostile--Dr. Carl Streed, Jr. has advice. (Have a question for Dr. Streed? Email him at cjstreed@gmail.com.)

Ep. 25: Med Student Experiences, Training in LGBT Care

To get the most out of an international training experience, future physicians have to appreciate both difference and similarity in other systems. Otherwise, there's a risk that those differences will simply reinforce biases, even unintentional ones. Pavitra Krishnamani talks us through some steps to avoid the "us vs. them" divide, as well as how to deal with typical ethical conflicts on the ground.

Ep. 27: How to end your "Us vs. Them" attitude in global medicine

Med school admissions isn't just about GPA and MCAT scores. Applicants have to explain how medicine is a good fit for them, and vice versa. But how do they convey that in their application? We talk to admissions expert Dr. Gary Rose.

Ep. 30: Stand out with med schools: define your personal mission

Have you thought about what makes medical school worth the effort? What story do you tell people when they ask? In this two-part episode, we hear one student explain her very personal motivation, and Perry Tsai explains how his storytelling sessions work.

Ep. 34: Story Slam: "Speed Bumps" and the secret recipe

Learn how to be a effective leader. We've all heard that leaders aren't born, they are made. But who "makes" them, and how? In this episode, Drs. Deborah Hall and Suzanne Rose explore the importance of medical leadership, starting in medical school, and how med students can improve their leadership skills.

Ep. 38: Leadership is learned. Here's how

Are team members in your small group lifting each other up, or holding each other back? So much of medical training is individual study, but medicine has a growing appreciation for teamwork in health care, and that may reflected at your medical school. Some schools do more group work than others, but you may find yourself on a small group project or even in an informal study group where team dynamics are holding everyone back. What's your role in keeping the group together and on track? What can you do if things start to fall apart?

42. Team angst. Overcome conflict in group work

Biases in medical training are affecting medical students, but many--including you--may not appreciate that it’s happening. Fixing the problem won’t be easy, but some trainees themselves are working to address pervasive bias in medicine from the ground up. For the students trying to intervene, the first step in addressing bias in medical training is getting everyone to recognize how deeply--and sometimes subtly--ingrained it can be. Medical students Tehreem Rehman and Jes Minor started the Systemic Disease project. Among other goals, the project aims to gather stories from those exposed to or victimized by bias in medicine to start a conversation and increase awareness. To learn more about the Systemic Disease project, visit their website at www.systemicdisease.com or follow @systemicdisease on Twitter. You can also find Tehreem (@tehreemrehman) and Jes (@jes_minor) on Twitter as well.

45. Fighting bias with storytelling

As a physician, you won’t be able to solve all of your patients’ problems. Some of those problems, especially systemic ones, will remain just out of a doctor’s reach. In this episode, we learn how to extend that reach. 
When it seems like medicine isn’t enough, that caring for patients goes beyond the scope of your abilities as solitary provider, or that the problems facing your patients are deeper and more entrenched than medicine can possibly address, those thoughts can be demoralizing. It may even make you question medicine as a career choice. 
But you aren’t the first to come to that realization, and today we have some concrete advice for you from Dr. Leana Wen, commissioner of health for the city of Baltimore.

69. Advice for when medicine falls short

Balancing medical school and advocacy work is difficult--how can you find the time to change the world when you're busy making your clinical rounds or studying for the USMLE?

AMSA's Chief Executive Officer Joshua Caulfield spoke with AMSA National President Dr. Kelly Thibert about things you can do and ways you can make a difference, all while keeping a successful balance between your medical school workload and your extracurricular activities.

70. Balancing med school with advocacy

Medical training and practice will be hard on you, and on your peers. Surviving the stress takes preparation and awareness. 

We'll hear how one medical student used self-care to prepare for her transition to medical school, and AMSA's Rebekah Apple explains the importance of resilience and some steps for building it up.

78. How to strengthen your resilience, get ready for residency

You’ll hear about the classes, the professors. You’ll hear horror stories about particular rotations. Friends and other med students will tell you all about exams. But when it comes to looking at the big picture of being a med student, they may be leaving out the social and emotional sides. Here are five true things no one will tell you about medical school.

66. Five things no one ever tells you about med school

It’s a ritual so common among medical students that it would be cliche--if it weren’t so solemn. 

For some medical students, the experience of anatomy lab--when the medical student first pulls back the shroud on a body donated for study--marks the boundary that separates physicians from lay persons. For some medical students, it’s their first tactile exposure to the magical inner workings of the human body. For some, it’s a first shared team experience, working together with colleagues just met.

Though much of the experience of anatomy lab is relatively similar across medical schools, for each individual, that first moment is a unique one.

79. The gateway to med school: anatomy lab

The ACGME voted this year to change the rules on work hour restrictions, allowing interns to work up to 24 hour shifts with an additional four hours of transitions in care--an increase from the 16 hour shift restriction that was previously in place. How can you stay resilient going into your intern year with this change?

81. Residency work hour limits: How to deal with the increase

38. Leadership is learned. Here's how

Leaving your personal statement to the last minute will lead to a frantic search for the right topic and in turn, not your best work. Many of the timelines you’ll see out there place preparing for your residency application in your third year of medical school. But waiting to think about starting on your application materials until then, could mean you’re missing out on getting the most out of a meaningful experience that took place in your earlier years.

77. What you should talk about in your personal statement

What's it like to interview for a residency position in neurosurgery? How does it compare to interviewing in other specialties? In this episode, medical students share their experiences and questions, including tackling rumors about the neurosurgery interview process.

20. Residency interview questions and prep

Even as the definition of a “nontraditional” med student has shifted, there are outliers. Elaine Luther is one such outlier. But medical school isn't just about the medical career that follows. It is itself an accomplishment—and a statement.
Here's Elaine's story about what stood in her way, and the night that refocused her on a dream she'd been denied.

48. Story Slam: Reaching med school at 60

What have you heard about primary care? That there's "too much paperwork?" Or that you're "too smart" to go into it? Or, paradoxically, that "there's too much to learn"? In the spirit of National Primary Care Week, let's talk about the so-called stigma of primary care, and its effect on med students' career choices. Dr. Wanda Filer, a former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, addresses the "stigma" head on--and touches on the joy a family physician can find in life-long care of patients.

58. The stigma and paradox of family medicine and primary care

Med students get pretty serious about the resources they use to study. What goes into making some of these tools? In this episode, med student Sarah Smith spoke with the founders of OnlineMedEd, Dr. Dustyn Williams and Jamie Fitch, about the videos and other resources they put together to help medical students.

85. Behind the scenes with OnlineMedEd

You’ve spent months on a complex research project, from conception to designing your study, to collecting data and coming to your conclusions. It’s all enormously complicated—now, explain the whole thing in 60 seconds.  In the 2016 Match, fourth-year M.D. match applicants in the U.S. listed 4.7 presentations, abstracts or publications in their professional profile on average. Though the importance of those experiences may vary by specialty or even residency program, the ability to boil your project down to a quick explanation tailored to your audience is critical.

60. Present your research right

Are you being taught how to help patients understand all of the overwhelming medical messaging they’re getting? Though the way that medical students are taught has changed gradually over the past century, the way patients learn has lurched forward. Arguably, the modern physician’s job has changed accordingly. The question is whether the physician will be ready for that job. Dr. Rishi Desai found himself on the leading edge of creating useful health information for patients and future physicians alike. Today, he’s the chief medical officer of Osmosis, a learning platform for medical students, where he is one of the people outside traditional medical education helping to shape the way medical students actually learn.

54. Beyond soundbites and snack tips: Today's patient and health literacy

Have you ever advised a patient to eat healthy and exercise, then hit up the McDonald's drive-through on the way home from work? Maybe it’s time for a wake-up call. Hear from one student who had a wake-up call while driving down the highway with a cup of curly fries, and how she made a fitting realization that would improve her life as a med student and she hopes will improve her relationships with patients.

22. Don't put my pants in the dryer

It no longer seems impossible, or even unlikely: What happens if your medical center itself comes under attack? Have you thought about your role? What would you do? What should you do? Would you have time in the moment itself to weigh ethical considerations, personal safety and protocol? Probably not. In this episode, we get an inside look at a training exercise preparing health care providers for an attack on their own institution, and learn about the bioethics of just such a situation.

50. Shots fired: Rehearsing for disaster

69. What to do when medicine falls short

Biases in medical training are affecting medical students, but many--including you--may not appreciate that it’s happening. Fixing the problem won’t be easy, but some trainees themselves are working to address pervasive bias in medicine from the ground up. For the students trying to intervene, the first step in addressing bias in medical training is getting everyone to recognize how deeply--and sometimes subtly--ingrained it can be. Medical students Tehreem Rehman and Jes Minor started the Systemic Disease project. Among other goals, the project aims to gather stories from those exposed to or victimized by bias in medicine to start a conversation and increase awareness. To learn more about the Systemic Disease project, visit their website at http://www.systemicdisease.com or follow @systemicdisease on Twitter. You can also find Tehreem (@tehreemrehman) and Jes (@jes_minor) on Twitter as well.

AMSA ad lib is the American Medical Student Association's podcast, bringing together the intimate perspectives of medical students and experts on topics ranging from specialty selection and personal finance to technological developments in medicine's near future.

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