In today's episode, we mark the 6 month anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine by speaking to Elise West, the Executive Officer of the Medical Association for Prevention of War. We discuss the impact of this war on the healthcare system in Ukraine, as well as Elise's career in medical activism.
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@mapw_australia
Hi there from Niveditha and Divay! We will be your hosts for the 2022 season of the AMSA Ampoule. Get ready for another year of in-depth conversations with new and exciting guests. Look forward to monthly episodes starting soon!
In this episode, Jess Gregory talks about her experiences with medicine, discusses how young doctors are leading the culture of collaborative care and highlights the importance of supporting medical students and junior doctors with chronic illnesses.
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Jess is a 27 year old Australian living with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, Fibromyalgia, PMDD, Migraine with Aura, and Sinus Tachycardia. She has memories of chronic pain, fatigue, and joint dislocations from the age of 12, but after her and her parents’ concerns were dismissed by multiple doctors, she felt she had no choice but to compartmentalise what was happening to her body and focus solely on her goal of pursuing a career in music.
Jess’ health declined significantly at the end of 2019 after a particularly nasty sinus infection. Despite this, she optimistically proceeded with her plans to move to Belgium, believing that she could “push through” and undertake her Master’s Degree there. In a turn of events that will surprise absolutely no one, wilfully ignoring her symptoms lead Jess to become severely unwell and bed bound for over a year.
During this time, Jess pushed for the more rigorous clinical evaluation that lead to her eventual diagnoses. She was then admitted to a specialised hospital rehabilitation program and she realised that she had an opportunity to change her life for the better. She could either keep living a lie and pretending that she was able bodied, or she could create a new life in which she worked with her body rather than against it.
She now runs Delicate Little Petal, a website where she writes about physical and mental health issues and hopes to help others avoid the same cycle of shame and isolation by opening up about her own messy journey to diagnosis.
She is particularly passionate about advocating for the normalisation of mobility aids and tackling the harmful systemic issues that delay the diagnosis of “invisible disabilities” like her own. She is also an ambassador of Healp.Co, a social networking site that also provides crowd sourced health information to those with chronic conditions.
Jess continues to live in Belgium with her fiancé Haydn, and their child cat, Adora. In her spare time she enjoys vintage fashion and makeup, pilates, swimming, and unapologetically consuming terrible reality TV!
You can find Jess on Instagram and Facebook at @delicatelittlepetal or on www.delicatelittlepetal.com.
Joining us today, we have Mr Phillip Antippa who is the director of the Lung Tumour Stream and director of Melbourne-based doctor's orchestra, Corpus Medicorum. In this episode we explore questions on the relationships between music and surgery, the use of performance enhancer in music and explore the potential of performance enhancers in surgery and medical training.
Remember to seek a doctor’s advice before trying any new medication. To find out more, please subscribe to the podcast on your preferred streaming platform, and follow us on the “AMSA Ampoule” Facebook page.
Have you ever thought about starting a family while in medicine? 😃
AMSA AMPOULE is here to share with you an exciting interview with Dr Sarah Syed (Geriatrics physician trainee) and Rami Dawood (final year student doctor). They are a beautiful couple, both in medicine, who have recently had a baby girl, Safiya!! In this episode, Rami & Sarah will share their experience with parenthood and provide amazing advice to those considering starting a family 😍
Dr David Juurlink is a Canadian pharmacologist, toxicologist and internal medicine doctor. He is known for researching adverse effects caused by drug interactions, as well as an entertaining but informative presence on twitter. Notably, David has been publicly critical of regular prescribing of dangerous opioids like Tramadol and fentanyl.
In this episode, Dr Juurlink walks me through the basics of opioids and the origin of the opioid epidemic. In doing so, we speak about how doctors can fall into the trap of overprescribing and what we can do to prevent that.
In this episode, Liam is kind enough to share his story with bone marrow donation and leukaemia. Liam is currently running a fundraiser for the leukaemia foundation and he speaks to me about some the great stuff they did for him and his family. Their publications taught lil' Liam what leukaemia was (and how to spell it), put a roof over Liam's family's heads for 6 months in the Brisbane CBD, and gave them Christmas presents to top it all off. Liam has some entertaining but informative stories centered around the good that comes about from bone marrow donation and donation in general. We have a pretty lengthy chat about the state of Liam’s head, having grown out his hair for the fundraiser, and finish up by debunking some of the myths associated with marrow donation.
If you would like to donate to Liam's fundraiser, please click on the following link or find it on Liam's facebook page (Liam Virtue): https://secure.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?RegistrationID=793367&fbclid=IwAR2WkUnBJ0TpEye7-WFimetTj-Z2HVPT5ZoiBBhGfsllEFAulwv1pKmOW4M
Travis lines is a soon to be graduated MD/MPH student and our very own National Policy Officer for 2020. Travis is easily spotted in public, wearing at least one akubra and donning a pair of RMs at all times. Some say he even wears them swimming.
This episode serves as a great introduction to all things AMSA for the uninitiated and offers insight into what thoughts are generated under that red hair and great mane. We begin with discussion about xiao long bao and then transition into the process of policy making from its inception to its implementation. We cap off the episode with a heated debate regarding the proper use of the term 'footy' as well as some armchair epidemiology.
Dinesh Palipana OAM is an Australian doctor, legal professional and disability advocate. During medical school Dinesh was involved in a car accident and suffered a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia. That didn’t stop him though - Dinesh went on to finish medical school and became the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland. Since then, Dinesh became the team doctor for the Gold Coast Titans Physical Disability Rugby League team and became a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia.
In this episode I chat to Dinesh about his journey through medicine and the massive hurdles he managed to overcome. We go on to speak about some of his advocacy work for Doctors with Disabilities Australia and finish on a conversation about how to approach life's challenges
Nick Earls writes long, short and medium-sized fiction, so far tallying 27 books for adults, teenagers and children. In addition to being a prolific Brisbane author, he is a University of Queensland Medical School Alumni and worked as a GP for 10 years. After leaving medicine for writing, Nick went full circle and is now teaching a creative writing course to second year medical students at UQ. Nick is full of anecdotes and never fails to entertain.
In this episode, we chat about Nick's transition from medicine into writing and how fiction can inform empathy in practice along with several hilarious insights into the life of an author.
In the final episode of the Mel2.0 podcast series we have double the Mel! Our team member Mel sits down with Dr. Mellissa Naidoo who in this episode discusses how her career in medicine evolved from being a budding paediatrician, to then discovering a passion for medical leadership and advocacy, for not just women in medicine but also diversity in medicine. She emphasises the importance of knowing when to say yes to opportunities, but also the importance of saying no. With the unique perspective of medicine as both a doctor and patient she reflects on how important it is to keep things in perspective and take care of yourself in order to take care of your patients.
Dr. Armando Faigl, or as you may know him, Armando Hasudungan from Armando Hasudungan Medicine and Biology Videos, is a successful online educator and doctor currently undertaking his Basic Physician Training. Since 2011, Armando has amassed a cult-like following of over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube for his unique illustrations that simplify even the most elusive concepts, not to mention his other social media outlets. In this episode, Armando generously sat down with our academic officer, Liss, to discuss his experience as a Science Communicator, YouTube sensation and doctor. Armando provided some incredibly practical tips on communicating complex concepts, creating educational resources and how to both give and receive feedback. Armando also provided incredible insight on how to become, as well as what life is like as a BPT. You can find out more about Armando’s content on his YouTube channel and Instagram, as well as find his t-shirts here!
Eating disorders can be terribly debilitating conditions that isolate people with them in shame and secrecy. But they are also very much at the intersection of various aspects of society, from the medical field, to cultural trends. Join our guests Dr Kieran Kennedy and Ms Janet Lowndes with M2.0 team member Daryl, as we bite back, and talk about what all medical students should know about eating disorders, and how we can shape our culture and communities to have a healthier relationship with food and eating.
Dr. Renee Lim is an incredible woman who wears many hats, as a doctor, educator and performer. In this episode, Renee sat down with our Academic Officer, Liss, to discuss her most recent project, Grace Under Pressure. This verbatim project explored the juxtaposition that is the expectations put on healthcare workers and the reality of the day to day experience, and how this impacts the culture of our workplaces, and the mental health of those who work within them. Renee shares an incredibly honest account of her own experience of mental health and how she faced the experience of miscarrying whilst mourning the death of her partner. Renee provides some incredible tips on how we can work on not only our own mental health, but how we can support each other to improve the culture of medicine and in turn the mental health of our peers and ourselves. You can get in contact with Renee here!
Trigger warning: This episode explicitly discusses miscarriage, bereavement and suicide attempts. If these topics cause you distress, please consider listening up until 27:30, from 46:30-58:15, as well as from 1:00:50 as Renee provides some incredible practical tips on how we can to continue to improve the culture of medicine as well as the mental health of ourselves and our peers.
If you find this episode distressing and would like some support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
In this episode, our team member Angela sat down with Christopher Edwards, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and self-taught sculptor. Join us as we explore Christopher's belief that some exposure to art and the humanities is of great benefit to the practice of medicine and surgery, as they greatly improve a doctor’s powers of observation!
In this episode, our team member Caitlin sat down with an expert panel, including Mimi Zilliacus from the Victorian Rural Generalist Program (VRGP), along with rural generalists and VRGP clinical leads Dr. Angela Stratton and Dr. Ian Wilson and three lovely rural generalists in training Dr. Sarah Lim, Dr. Louise Manning and Dr. Dan Wilson. Our speakers explore the highs and lows of being a rural generalist, and describe how students can become a rural generalist in the future!
Dr. David Griffin currently works as an Infectious Diseases Fellow at the Alfred Hospital, where he is actively involved in the COVID-19 response. David is a medical graduate of the University of Queensland, where he was awarded the Karl Kessler Memorial Prize for Infectious Diseases. After working in Queensland, David returned to Melbourne to complete his physician training, and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians in Infectious Diseases, in 2020. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney in communicable diseases. While his interests in infectious diseases and healthcare are broad, his current research is centred around COVID-19, HIV and transplant infectious diseases. There is no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most pivotal events we have encountered in recent history, and in this episode David sits down with our team member Ray to discuss the pandemic from a doctor's perspective, as well as the progression and likely future of the virus in Australia.
In this episode our team member Melinda sat down with Dr. Peter Brukner, a world renowned specialist sports and exercise physician who played a key role in establishing sports medicine as a medical specialty in Australia. We spoke about his experiences working with various sporting teams including the Australian Cricket Club and Liverpool Football Club and sportspeople such as Cathy Freeman, Phil Hughes and Luis Suarez. Peter also shared advice for budding sports physicians-to-be on how to get involved and gain valuable experiences.
Dr. Bradley Frew is a General Practitioner in Hastings, Victoria and a medical educator for the Monash University Peninsula Clinical School. He served as a Medical Officer in the Royal Australian Navy for several years following the undergraduate sponsorship scheme. In this episode, Brad sat down with our team member Caitlin to discuss his time in the Navy. Like the highs and lows of the tide, Brad's experience in the Navy had its ups and downs. He shares his experience with PTSD and how his lived experience prepared him to work with returned service-people and those who have experienced complex trauma. There are many pearls hidden in the depths of this episode, though it has a medical focus, Brad shares advice that Caitlin believes everyone should hear.
A/ Prof. Charlie Corke is one of Australia’s leading Intensive Care Specialists and the past President of the College of Intensive Care of Australia and New Zealand. Charlie is passionate about Advanced Care Planning and lectures widely on medical communication and end-of-life decision making.
In this episode, Charlie generously sat down with our Academic Officer, Liss, to discuss some key concepts about patient-centred care, and particularly how to implement this approach to the end of a patient’s life. He shared practical tips on how to actively involve patients, their loved ones and colleagues in conversations surrounding end-of-life decision making, even in a disease-focussed clinical environment.
To find out more on end-of-life care, you can find Charlie’s book, Letting go here!