Specialty Stories
231 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 207 ratingsSpecialty Stories is a podcast to help premed and medical students choose a career. What would you do if you started your career and realized that it wasn't what you expected? Specialty Stories will talk to physicians and residency program directors from every specialty to help you make the most informed decision possible. Check out our others shows at MededMedia.com
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Episodes
31: What Does a Headache Specialist's Job Look Like?
July 12, 2017 14:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBSession 31 Dr. Kristen Sahler is a community-based Neurologist who specializes in headache medicine. She has been practicing for four years outside of her fellowship and she shares with us what drew her to it and her advice if you're interested in it. [01:28] Her Path to Headache Medicine Kristen knew she was going to be a neurologist when she was fourteen years old having been motivated by having a family member with Tourette's syndrome so very early on, she was learning about it and...
30: A Deep Dive Into Ophthalmology Residency Match Data
July 05, 2017 14:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBSession 30 This week, we're doing a deep dive into the 2017 Ophthalmology Match Summary Report which is actually outside the NRMP match. The match is the program you apply to while in your medical school to determine where you're going to do your residency. The people that made the algorithm actually won a Nobel Prize for it and it's used in a lot of different things now other than the match. However, not every specialty participates in the main ERAS match which stands for Electronic R...
29: What is OB/GYN? A Community Doc Shares Her Thoughts
June 28, 2017 21:26 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MBSession 29 Dr. Renée Darko is a community-based OB/GYN. In our podcast, she talked about her path to OB, what you should be thinking about during med school, and some tips as you're going through the process of deciding whether OB/GYN is right for you. If you haven't yet, please listen to Episode 127, I dove into the residency match data for OB/GYN. [01:30] Community Setting Practice Renée practices in a community setting. Although at one point, she considered an academic setting whi...
28: What is Trauma Surgery? Dr. Darko Shares His Story
June 21, 2017 14:00 - 50 minutes - 34.6 MBSession 28 Dr. Nii Darko is a community-based Trauma Surgeon. He's also an Osteopathic physician. Listen to his journey and what you should be thinking about. Dr. Darko has also been on The Premed Years podcast back in Session 196 and he is the host of the podcast called Docs Outside the Box. [01:05] An Early Interest in Trauma Surgery Practicing for almost five years now, Dr. Darko knew he wanted to be in two points of his life. As a seventeen-year-old, Nii had the opportunity to sh...
27: A Deep Dive Into OB/GYN Residency Match Data
June 14, 2017 14:00 - 33 minutes - 22.7 MBSession 27 This week I'm breaking down and reviewing the match data for OB/GYN. There are a handful of surgical specialties thought to be a good mix of medicine and surgery specialties. OB/GYNE is one of them along with ophthalmology, urology, and ENT. If OB/GYN interests you, take a listen to this episode to see what you need to do! [02:30] Match Summary Table 1 of the NRMP Main Match Data 2017 shows the summary of the match and OB/GYN is listed separately from everything else havin...
26: How to Think About Choosing a Residency & Specialty
June 07, 2017 14:00 - 24 minutes - 16.6 MBSession 26 There are many things to think about when you are deciding your future career. In this episode, we discuss how you should start that process. The goal of this podcast is to speak to specialists from every field, both community and academic. But I want to rewind a little bit and talk about the whole process of just thinking about these specialties and the questions you should be asking yourself, and what you should be thinking about as you're going on this journey so that as y...
25: An Academic Urologist Shares His Thoughts on the Field
May 31, 2017 14:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBSession 25 Academic Urology is a mix of medicine and surgery. Listen to Dr. Peter Steinberg discuss what drew him to the specialty, whether you and your personality would suit in this field, and what you can do to be a competitive applicant given that urology is one of the more competitive fields out there. [00:50] Academic Practice Dr. Steinberg chose academic practice over a typical community practice for two reason. First, he wants to have a more sub-specialized focus in his practi...
24: What is Forensic Pathology? Dr. Melinek Shares Her Story
May 24, 2017 14:00 - 49 minutes - 34 MBSession 24 Today's guest is Dr. Judy Melinek, a New York Times bestselling author and a Forensic Pathologist based in California. She documented her journey through her fellowship training in her book, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner. One important thing to note is that Pathology isn't actually a required rotation in medical school, one reason that it's not commonly under the radar of most medical students. Listen to our discussion about the fi...
23: A Deep Dive Into PM&R Residency Match Data
May 17, 2017 14:00 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MBSession 23 Our episode with Dr. Chris Sahler was one of our most popular episodes. I decided to bring you the PM&R residency match data since many of you seem interested! [02:33] NRMP Main Match Data for 2017 - PGY-1 & PGY-2 Positions Table 1 shows the match summary for all the different specialties and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation only has 32 programs under PGY-1 positions. This is also one of those specialties where you can match into a PGY-2 spot and you have to separately ...
22: What is Aerospace Medicine? Dr. Gray is Interviewed
May 10, 2017 14:00 - 48 minutes - 33.5 MBSession 22 Aerospace Medicine is a subspecialty of Preventive Medicine and very unique usually to the military, though there are civilians equivalents. If you are a premed student and you're getting ready to prepare for your medical school interviews, check out The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Interview. Its paperback version will be released on June 06, 2017. Preorder the book at Barnes and Noble now and you will get about $100-worth of free gift including a 1-month ac...
21: Looking at the Match Data for General Surgery
May 03, 2017 14:00 - 28 minutes - 19.2 MBSession 21 General Surgery is gaining in popularity, which shows in its competitiveness for residency. You need to be on the top of your game to match. And similar to Internal Medicine, it is the gateway to a lot of subspecialties. As we're presenting the data here, remember that this is not just for those looking to be general surgeons their whole life but those who are looking into other subspecialties which we will be featuring here on the podcast in the future such as Surgical Oncol...
20: An Academic Neurosurgeon Discusses What His Job is Like
April 26, 2017 14:00 - 55 minutes - 38 MBSession 20 Dr. Stephen Grupke is an attending Neurosurgeon at the University of Kentucky. In our episode today, he discusses the residency path to neurosurgery, what makes you a competitive applicant, his typical day, the types of patients and cases he serves, what he likes best and least about his subspecialty, and more. Stephen and I went to New York Medical College together. Currently, he is a neurosurgeon in an academic facility and a new faculty being an assistant professor at the ...
19: Orthopedic Surgery Match Data Deep Dive
April 19, 2017 14:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBSession 19 Today, I'm going to do a deep dive into some match data for Orthopedic Surgery, which is one of the more competitive specialties out there. Let's look at the data to see if this holds true and find out who you can set yourself up for success early on if this is something you’re interested in. In general, Orthopedic Surgery is a surgical specialty. It's a five-year residency with a lot of subspecialties after that. I had Dr. Muppavurapu to talk about being a hand surgeon back ...
18: A Look at Private-Practice Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
April 12, 2017 14:00 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MBSession 18 If you're a medical student, we are about to launch a new podcast called Board Rounds Podcast, where we focus on the USMLE and COMLEX Step 1 and Level 1. Check us out at MedEdMedia.com. It's going to be a co-branded podcast with MedQuest so stay tuned! Today's guest is Dr. Jacqueline Hubbard, a private-practice Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. Hear her thoughts on the specialty, what you can do to get involved, and see if this is something you might take interest in. [01:...
17: What is Pain Medicine? A Community Doc Shares His Story
April 05, 2017 14:00 - 44 minutes - 30.8 MBSession 17 Dr. Fred Weiss is a Radiologist by training who did a Fellowship in Pain Medicine. However, he's going to share with us today what he likes least about the specialty, part of the reason he's not currently practicing Pain Medicine. Let's jump right in and learn about Pain Medicine! [01:38] Residency and Fellowship Fred is currently an emergency radiologist at Geisinger Health System in Danville although he previously practiced as a Pain Medicine physician in Florida. Finis...
16: A Private-Practice Nephrologist Who Also is in Academics
March 29, 2017 14:00 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MBSession 16 This week's guest is Dr. Joel Topf, a private practice and academic Nephrologist who loves teaching and the small details. Back in Episode 06 of the Specialty Stories Podcast, we first covered Nephrology where I talked with Dr. Jean Robey, a private-practice Nephrologist. As you get to listen to both episodes, you will hear some differences in both of those settings. My goal for this podcast is to not just give you insights into what a certain specialty does, but also, for y...
15: Interventional Radiology: A Community Doc Shares His Story
March 22, 2017 14:00 - 56 minutes - 38.7 MBSession 15 This week, I speak with Dr. Fayyaz Barodawala, a community-based Interventional Radiologist from Atlanta, Georgia, about his career decisions, what an IR physician does on a daily basis, the struggles and triumphs that come along with his practice and specialties opportunities outside IR and other interesting topics like exclusive hospital contracts and artificial intelligence replacing diagnostics. [01:15] Choosing Interventional Radiology Practicing medicine since 2005, F...
14: Looking at Emergency Medicine Match Data and Surveys
March 15, 2017 14:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBSession 14 Today, we break down the match data, compensation surveys, and lifestyle reports for Emergency Medicine. If you’re interested in EM, this is a must listen. I also talked about dove into match data back in session 11 specifically on Anesthesiology and now I'm going to dive into Emergency Medicine. If you follow the NRMP results, Anesthesiology is first in the alphabetical order, followed by Child Neurology and then third, Dermatology. However, these two are relatively smalle...
13: What is Physiatry? (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation)
March 08, 2017 15:00 - 32 minutes - 15 MBDr. Sahler is a community-based Physiatrist. He shares why he chose Physiatry, what he likes about it and gives you advice on how to be competitive.
12: A Private-Practice Facial Plastic Surgeon Shares His Story
March 01, 2017 15:00 - 1 hour - 27.7 MBSession 12 Dr. Chung is a solo private practice Facial Plastic Surgeon. He discusses his path through ENT residency and what he likes and dislikes about his job. Today's guest on Specialty Stories is a solo private practice facial plastic surgeon. It's a great specialty, super sub-specialized specialty of ear, nose, and throat surgeons, or otolaryngology. And Victor, or Dr. Chung, is going to join us and tell us all about it. [02:15] A Personal Choice to Be in Private Practice Dr. C...
11: Looking at Anesthesiology Match Data and Other Surveys
February 22, 2017 15:00 - 44 minutes - 20.6 MBToday we break down the match data, compensation surveys and lifestyle reports for Anesthesiology. If you're interested, this is a must listen.
10: A Private-Practice Family Medicine Doctor Discusses Her Job
February 15, 2017 15:00 - 49 minutes - 22.5 MBDr. Noe is in a solo private practice seeing patients as a Family Medicine physician. She talks about Family Medicine and what you should think about too.
9: What is Pediatric Gastroenterology? We Learn From One Today
February 08, 2017 15:00 - 27 minutes - 22.4 MBDr. Leonard is an academic Pediatric Gastroenterologist at MGH. She discusses her life and the path it took to get there and what she does for her patients.
8: What is Hematology/Oncology? An Academic Doc Discusses
February 01, 2017 15:00 - 46 minutes - 21.3 MBDr. Jain is an academic Hematology/Oncology physician in the Chicago area. She discusses the heme/onc docs role and what she likes so much about it.
7: What is a Hospitalist? An Academic Doc Talks with Us
January 25, 2017 15:00 - 35 minutes - 16.4 MBSession 7 Whether you are a pre-med or medical student, you have answered the calling to becoming a physician. Soon you will have to start deciding what type of medicine you want to practice. This podcast will tell you the specialists from every field, so you can have the information you need to make the most well-informed decision possible when it comes down to choosing your specialty. Today we hear from Shoshana R. Ungerleider, M.D, an internist practicing hospital medicine at Califor...
6: A Private-Practice Nephrologist Talks About Her Job
January 18, 2017 15:00 - 57 minutes - 26.2 MBDr. Robey is a private-practice nephrologist in Arizona. She shares what it takes to be a nephrologist and why she likes it so much.
5: What Does the Life of an Orthopedic Hand Surgeon Look Like?
January 11, 2017 15:00 - 37 minutes - 17.3 MBSession 5 In this week's episode, Ryan talks with an orthopedic hand surgeon in a hybrid setup. He's in a community-based hospital and program but he has residents he interacts with who rotate through the hospital. He has been practicing for almost two years. Here are the highlights of the conversation with Ragu: When he knew he wanted to be an orthopedic hand surgeon: Deciding he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon towards the end of 2nd year medical school He chose hand surgery to...
4: What is Anesthesiologist? A Community Doc Shares His Story
January 04, 2017 15:00 - 48 minutes - 22.1 MBSession 4 In this episode, Ryan talks with Dr. Patrick Pickett, an anesthesiologist who practices in the community hospital in Oklahoma as he shares about his path to anesthesiology, his typical day at work, work-life balance, as well as the things that he like most and least about being an anesthesiologist. Finally, he gives his opinion on the future of anesthesiology specifically merging with CRNAs. Here are the highlights of the conversation with Patrick: Choosing the kind of setti...
3: What is Neurology : A General Neurologist's Story
December 28, 2016 15:00 - 27 minutes - 12.5 MBSession 03 In this episode, Ryan talks with a neurologist, Dr. Allison Gray, as they discuss all things about neurology. Notice that Ryan follows a standard regimen of questions in his episodes so you can compare each of the answers to hopefully help enlighten you in choosing your residency. Allison is working as a neurologist at a large medical group in a community setting in Colorado. Here are the highlights of the conversation with Allison: When Allison knew she wanted to pursue ...
2: What is Emergency Medicine? A Community EM Doc's Story
December 21, 2016 15:00 - 39 minutes - 22.8 MBSession 02 In this episode, Ryan talks with Dr. Freess, a community-based Emergency Medicine physician who shares with us why he likes Emergency Medicine and how you can become a competitive applicant. He also talks about the benefits of being an EM doctor and why he would still have chosen to become an Emergency Medicine doctor if he ever had to do it all again. Here are the highlights of the conversation with Dr. Freess: His path to Emergency Medicine: Initially wanting Pediatrics...
1: What is a Dermatopathologist? Dr. Hure Shares Her Story
December 14, 2016 15:00 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MBSession 01 Welcome to the first episode of the Specialist Stories podcast, sharing with you stories of specialists from every field to give you the information you need to make sure you make the most informed decision possible when it comes to choosing your specialty. This podcast is hosted by Dr. Ryan Gray where he will interview different physicians from various specialties to help medical students and premedical students get different perspectives on what led them to their career pat...