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I’m currently a CA-2 resident in the department of anesthesiology, critical care, and pain medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. As a medical student, I was the general manager of a local pizzeria and ate pizza and pasta every day for two years straight. I spend a lot of time outside the hospital doing “sports” and a lot of time inside the hospital limping from injuries.
Depth of Anesthesia is a podcast with residents and attendings at the Massachusetts General Hospital that critically explores our clinical practices.
Medicine is full of claims and anesthesia is no exception. A claim is a practice decision that we either believe is true or is something we default to. I believe that for every claim, we should strive to know what is supported or refuted by evidence and what claims have no evidence but “stand to reason”. The Depth of Anesthesia podcast is an exploration of these claims.
My program director here at Mass General, Dr. Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, started a series at our Grand Rounds earlier this year in which he explored the evidence behind common claims in anesthesia. I thought that this was exactly the type of content that would not only suit a podcast but have the potential to advance knowledge in our field.
Comprehensive literature review is exceptionally time-consuming, especially for controversial topics, and I strongly believe that understanding the literature or lack thereof is the right thing for our patients. Through this podcast, we hope to familiarize our listeners with the literature and to inspire people to question their own practices.
As the landscape of medical education continues to change, I think that new forms of media including podcasts will find more and more roles. Dr. Wolpaw’s ACCRAC has paved the way in showing that podcasts are a popular tool for medical education and we hope to continue to expand the availability of anesthesia educational materials.
A childhood friend of mine and I just piloted a health literacy translation service called Entendere. Throughout my medical training, I’ve found myself constantly deciphering medical jargon for friends and family. I quickly realized that the vast majority of patients do not have access to resources to understand medical documents and the implications of poor health literacy are serious. Entendere is a 100% free service in which we translate documents into understandable language to help patients better understand the care that they are receiving. We are always looking for people to help with translation and would love to have you on the team.
I have plans to pursue a fellowship in chronic pain management but beyond that, it’s all up in the air. I saw a quote the other day in Dr. Hadzic’s Textbook of Regional Anesthesia though that I buy into.
If you have any claims that you think would be worth investigating, email us at [email protected] or tweet us @DepthAnesthesia. We’re always looking for new topics and guests for the show.
“The most dangerous risk of all is the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet that you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”
