Vital Times: The CSA Podcast

<p>Dive into a world of insightful and engaging content with the California Society of Anesthesiologists' podcast, Vital Times! Tune in every second Tuesday of the month with your hosts Ludwig Lin, MD, and Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP, FASA, to explore a variety of topics that are not only educational and experiential but also inspirational and entertaining. Whether you're looking to stay informed on the latest in anesthesia, learn from experts in the field, or simply enjoy some captivating stories, Vital Times is your go-to source. Join our community of listeners and enrich your knowledge and experience with every episode!  <br /><br />*<em>Views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual guests and hosts. </em></p>

Global Health Leadership with Dr. Ana Maria Crawford

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! The CSA and the Vital Times podcast are proud to recognize Dr. Ana Maria Crawford of Stanford University, recipient of the 2025 ASA Nicholas Greene, MD Award for Outstanding Humanitarian Contribution. In this episode, host Dr. Ludwig Lin speaks with Dr. Crawford about her decades-long commitment to advancing global health. To learn more about opportunities to get involved in global health initiatives and participate in Dr. Crawford’s...

10-10
37:49

The Art of Healing: Dr. Adjoa Boateng Evans on Humanities in Medicine

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Dr. Ludwig Lin of the CSA Vital Times Podcast sits down with Dr. Adjoa Boateng Evans, a former Stanford ICU and anesthesia attending and now faculty at Duke University School of Medicine to discuss her pioneering work in bringing Humanities and personal expression into academic anesthesiology. She shares how this approach can help healthcare professionals navigate the stresses of our profession and build resilience. What inspired her...

09-09
44:05

Pivoting Within Healthcare: From ER Charge Nurse to Quadruple-Boarded Anesthesiologist

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Dr. Jason Leong began his career as a night-shift nurse in the emergency department, quickly advancing to the role of charge nurse. Determined to further his impact in patient care, he went on to attend medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He then completed a combined Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology residency at Stanford University, followed by advanced training in Critical Care Medicine and Cardiac...

08-12
43:09

Beyond the OR: The Role of Mentoring in Early Career Development

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Welcome to another episode of Vital Times, the CSA podcast! I'm your host, Dr. Rita Agarwal, and today we’re revisiting an important topic: mentorship. We've discussed mentoring before, but its significance in the lives and careers of anesthesiologists makes it worth exploring again. Strong mentorship can have a transformative impact, especially for early career anesthesiologists. Yet, despite its many benefits, building effective m...

07-08
50:49

Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants: Expanding the Care Team in California

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! In this episode of the CSA Vital Times podcast, host Dr. Ludwig Lin explores the role of Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants (CAAs). He speaks with anesthesiologists who have experience working alongside CAAs and navigating the legislative efforts to establish a CAA system in clinical practice. The episode also features a CAA who is a leader in education and practice management. This introductory conversation aims to familiarize Ca...

06-17
46:49

Origin Stories: How Drs. Rita Agarwal and Ludwig Lin Came to Be!

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Catch this episode where *both* of the Vital Times podcast hosts, Drs. Rita Agarwal and Ludwig Lin, show up, and discuss how they fell in love with Anesthesiology, and podcasting.

04-29
30:00

Low Back Pain and the Murder of an Insurance Company CEO

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! We were all shocked by the murder of Brian Thompson the United Health Care CEO in early December. What was just as surprising was the comments deny, delay and depose written on the bullets. Once the alleged shooter was arrested, information started to trickle out that he suffered from low back pain and spondylisthesis. Speculation ran rampant that the problems with his back, inadequate treatment, or repeated insurance denials were in...

03-11
44:41

An Interview with Dr. Marilyn Hill Harper, One of the First Black Woman Anesthesiologists at UCSF

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! For Black History Month, Dr. Ludwig Lin is honored to speak with someone who’s been through all of it. Dr. Marilyn Hill Harper, raised in the South, educated at a HBCU and then training in the Midwest, joined the prestigious UCSF faculty in the 1970s, at a time when both women and Black physicians were rare. Her story is ever relevant. To read the UCSF profile on Dr. Harper, click here.

02-18
31:02

Revolutionizing Pain Care: Suzetrigine and Other Innovations in Analgesia

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Host: Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP, FASA Guests: Rakhi Dayal, MD, and Amber Borucki, MD Welcome to another episode of Vital Times, the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Podcast with your host Dr. Rita Agarwal. Pain is the most common reason that people seek medical care and since the beginning of time, we have searched for better ways to treat pain. For many years opium and its derivatives were the mainstay of pain management, with ...

02-11
23:54

Pushing the Limits in the Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! There have been a lot of questions recently regarding the appropriateness of patients scheduled for care in an ambulatory surgical center (ASCs). It appears that sicker and more complex patients are being scheduled for care in an ASC, and many anesthesiologists are increasingly concerned about the safety of anesthetizing these patients in locations that may lack resources to escalate care if needed. In today’s episode we are going to...

01-14
01:03:23

Building Collegiality: An Inter-Disciplinary and Institutional Approach

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Drs. Charles Hummel and Jason Cheng explain the origin story behind their involvement in founding the drive toward collegiality for a major healthcare system in California, Kaiser Permanente. Take a listen and be inspired by the immense possibilities when physicians join forces in the name of empathy and humanity.

12-10
44:32

IUD Insertion Pain and Techniques to Improve Pain

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Your host Dr. Rita Agarwal is joined today by two outstanding guests who have an interest in preventing and treating women’s pain. Drs. Anita Gupta and Stephanie Cizek. At the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Annual Meeting in Anaheim, in April 2024, there were several posters authored by Dr. Anita Gupta looking at the literature surrounding IUD insertion pain and potential treatments for that pain. Several months late...

11-12
45:54

What Anesthesiologists can do about Climate Change

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Your host Dr. Rita Agarwal is joined by two wonderful guests to talk about climate change and what anesthesiologists can do about it. Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time with far reaching implications. There is evidence of the increasing numbers of deaths directly related to heat in the USA, but even more across the rest of the world. This doesn’t include deaths related to the consequences of climate change s...

10-08
52:58

Patient Safety: The State of Ketamine Use, a Conversation with Californian Anesthesiologists and Pain Specialists

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! With ketamine being very prominent in the news recently, lots of questions arise about its use. Is it safe enough to be used the way it is? Why are patients being prescribed it? What are the safety guidelines, and are they being met? The California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Vital Times Podcast talks with anesthesiologists and pain specialists Drs. Amber Borucki, Rakhi Dayal and Rita Agarwal to talk this over. This is a must-liste...

09-10
34:08

Cryoneurolysis: An Up and Coming Regional Anesthetic Technology. What is it, and What’s Next?

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Cryoneurolysis has rapidly evolved and refined itself as a viable technology for postoperative and chronic pain. Its specifications mean greater efficacy for certain scenarios, and active research means its application is about to enter warp-speed. In this episode of Vital Times, we speak with Dr. John Finneran, of UCSD, who is actively conducting research trials with this technique. Get up to date and get inspired.

08-13
51:54

Difficult Airway Challenges

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Welcome to another episode of Vital Times the CSA Podcast. I am your host, Rita Agarwal. For this episode we went back to the basics and talked about something that all anesthesiologists care deeply about – managing the challenging airway. Joining me is a former colleague and friend who is an attending anesthesiologist at one of the busiest trauma centers in the country - Denver Health Medical Center. Dr. Alma Juels is an Assoc...

07-16
56:14

Pride Month Bonus Episode!

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Dr. Ludwig Lin has a blast discussing LGBTQ and its impact on various anesthesiologist leaders within academia and politics; drop in and listen to them discuss how this one element of their lives adds meaning and purpose to all of their pursuits. This episode features Travis Reece-Nguyen, MD, Arthur Chyan, DO, and Maricela Sanchez, MD.

06-26
44:22

The Scoop About Research Data Integrity: How to Navigate the Minefield

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! There has been much noise about famous scientists reckoning with past publications with data integrity issues. The pressures of “publish or perish”, and the need for oversight of a busy lab, are tricky. Dr. Lin talks with Harriet Hopf, MD, FASA, and Elizabeth Whitlock, MD - two lauded NIH-funded anesthesiologists-scientists to get the scoop.

06-11
57:52

How to Start a Mentorship Program in Both Academic and Private Practice

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! Mentorship has long been recognized as a crucial component of training physicians. Benefits of mentorship in medicine include increased productivity, improved career satisfaction, expansion of professional networks, reduction in stress, and better work-life balance. Mentorship has also been shown to aid recruitment and retention of a diverse physician workforce. The establishment of mentorship programs has been proposed as a mechanis...

05-14
01:07:46

The Evolution of the Academic Anesthesiology Department Chair Job Description: Adapting to Headwinds

if you have any feedback, please send us a text! Thank you! CSA Vital Times tracked down some of the chairs running some elite Anesthesiology Departments - they just happen to be in California! They have survived and thrived the seismic changes occurring across all academic medical institutions, ie the increase in clinical need, with huge growths in anesthetic opportunities (and locations - see #NORA), the competition with community hospitals, and resulting impact on their staff. Dr. Michael ...

04-02
01:19:36

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