In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Ben Strong, MD about teleradiology and medical malpractice. They discuss RadNet’s database on major misses and lawsuits as well as how tort law varies state-by-state. Who is Ben Strong? Dr. Strong is the Chief Medical Officer at vRad and head clinical content creator and curator of vRad Radiology Education. Dr. Strong is an AIRP Lecturer and a contributor to vRad’s popular free radiology educational content. Support the show Foll...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Steven Hollon, PhD about the evolutionary roots of unipolar depression, its prevalence, as well as current treatment options. They discuss Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy (CBT), before diving into the potential adaptive origins of depression, rumination, and how cognitive behavior therapy works. Finally, they touch on whether combining CBT and medication actually decreases relapse rates more than CBT or medication alo...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Eliot Siegel, MD about developing the first filmless healthcare enterprise at the Baltimore, VA in 1993 which revolutionized the practice of medicine. They discuss the challenges of this innovation, including the costs of computing, the difficulties of imaging compression and data management. They touch on theragnostics, a novel subspecialty in nuclear medicine, which utilizes molecular treatments to target cancer. Who is Eliot Siegel?...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Marc Gosselin, MD about his journey to radiology, being a radiology program director, dealing with burnout, transitioning from academics to private practice, and overdiagnosis in radiology. They discuss in situ thrombosis versus pulmonary emboli, whether medical evidence should have an expiration date, and why physicians should admit fault when they are wrong. Who is Marc Gosselin? Dr. Marc Gosselin is the head of cardiopulmonary ima...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Hussam Alkaissi, MD about his journey in medicine, experience with populations with high consanguinity, and uncovering of rare diseases. They touch on several unusual cases Hussam has solved including one of CHILD syndrome, homocystinuria, and acute hypercalcemia. Who is Hussam Alkaissi? Dr. Hussam Alkaissi is an Endocrinology Clinical Fellow at the NIH/NIDDK. He has an interest in diabetes, glucose metabolism, insulin signaling, and i...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Bryan Carmody, MD, about physician shortages, resident unionization, and the OB/GYN ERAS divorce. They discuss the recent changes to legislation in Tennessee which allows international medical graduates to bypass the US residency system. They also touch on the Weisman versus Barnes Jewish Hospital court case. If you missed the initial episode with Bryan Carmody Episode #6, be sure to check that out. Who is Bryan Carmody? Dr. Bryan Ca...
In this episode, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Joann Elmore, MD, about screening mammography. Dr. Elmore shares insights on the USPSTF's new draft mammography recommendations, which lowers the breast cancer screening age from 50 to 40. They discuss the difference in American and European call back rates for biopsy and whether mammography screening programs have substantially improved breast cancer mortality rates or if improvements are primarily due to enhanced treatment methods. T...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist Dan Morgan, MD, about infection prevention, diagnostic stewardship, diagnostic reasoning, and medical overuse. They discuss regional differences in medical use and delve into a cluster-randomized controlled trial of contact precautions in ICU patients to evaluate whether this prevents C. Diff, MRSA, and VRE. They also touch on AI's potential role in clinical decision support, and th...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Robin Hanson, PhD, about healthcare and medicine. They discuss three randomized controlled trials on the population-wide benefits of medicine (RAND health insurance experiment, Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, and the Karnataka Hospital Insurance Experiment), which do not demonstrate benefit for more medical care. They talk about the conspicuous caring hypothesis put forward in Robin's book The Elephant in the Brain. Other topi...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Simon Whitney, MD, JD, about his book From Oversight to Overkill. They discuss the history of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), including ethically questionable experiments such as Chester Southam's cancer cell injections, the Willowbrook experiment, as well as the US Public Health Service Syphilis Study (AKA Tuskegee experiment). They then discuss Peter Buxton, Henry Beecher, James Shannon, and the congressional oversight of fe...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview John Ayers, PhD about ChatGPT and its potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. We delve into his recent JAMA internal medicine study, which evaluated ChatGPT answers to questions posed on the subreddit r/AskDocs. We also touch on responses to his article discussed on a recent Sensible Medicine Podcast. Finally, we discuss Dr. Ayer's previous work on e-cigarettes, cannabis, and the sociology of suicide. Who is John Ayer...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Andrew Foy, MD, about evidence-based medicine, applying Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) to hospitalized patients, and evaluating aggressive versus conservative blood pressure goals in patients with comorbitidies. They discuss Dr. Foy's article on Hayek, critical appraisal of the medical literature, medical conservatism, and his skepticism around Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography as compared to Functional Stress Te...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Parker Rogers about his recent job-market paper "Regulating the Innovators: Approval Costs and Innovation in Medical Technologies" which examines the impact of FDA regulation on innovation, market structure, and product safety. They discuss the FDA's medical device risk classification and his analysis of down-classification events (from higher to lower risk categories), which shows deregulation has a positive impact on innovation,...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Ross Levine, MD, PhD about Acute Myeloid Leukemia and its treatment. They discuss the different types of leukemias, the history of AML treatment, including chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation. They touch on Graft vs Host Disease, treatment after relapse, and open questions in leukemia, including future trials, and further investigation of ven/aza (Azacitidine/venetoclax). Who is Ross Levine? Dr. Ross Levine of the Memorial ...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Adam J Brown, MD about the field of Rheumatology, autoimmune diseases, and his podcast Rheuminations. They discuss the history of gout, plaquenil, the relationship between infectious diseases and rheumatologic conditions, the inflammasome, autoinflammatory disorders, vasculitis, fibromyalgia, Covid, and much more. Who is Adam J Brown? Dr. Adam J. Brown is a Rheumatologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Brown is the author of the boo...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Saloni Dattani about the genetics of psychiatric disorders and how to improve science. They discuss the lack of division of labor in academia, the history of peer review, ways to improve peer review, human challenge trials, and much more. Who is Saloni Dattani? Saloni Dattani is a PhD student at King’s College London. She is the founding editor of the online magazine Works in Progress. She is also an editor at Stripe Press and a r...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Polly Matzinger, PhD, about her model of immunology, which she calls 'The Danger Model'. They discuss how The Danger Model helps explain aspects of immunology ignored by the self/non-self model, including why mothers don't reject their fetuses, autoimmune diseases, organ transplant rejection, cancer surveillance, allergy and more. Who is Polly Matzinger? Polly Matzinger received her PhD in Biology from UCSD before completing a p...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Derek Lowe, PhD, about drug discovery, clinical trials, drug patents, Alzheimer’s disease, the FDA, and his blog “In The Pipeline”. They discuss the potential role for machine learning in pharmaceutical development, whether Big Pharma spends excessively on marketing, and much much more. Who is Derek Lowe? Derek Lowe, PhD, is a medicinal chemist who works in preclinical drug discovery. He received a PhD in organic chemistry f...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Jean Hébert, PhD about aging, brain plasticity, and progressive neocortical replacement. They discuss one hallmark of aging—extracellular matrix damage—as well as how tissue replacement is a possible solution to aging. In addition, they explore the practicalities of progressive neocortex replacement, dopaminergic neuron transplants in Parkinson's patients, and Professor Hébert's work on stroke. Who is Jean Hébert? Jean Hebert, PhD...
In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Paul Offit, MD about his book You Bet Your Life, how banning DDT caused increased deaths from malaria, and the data regarding the bivalent booster as of October 2022. They discuss the human price paid for medical advances, sins of commission versus sins of omission, which populations should get bivalent boosters, short versus long incubation period viruses, and vaccine-related myocarditis. Who is Paul Offit? Dr. Offit is the Direc...